An old classic this week. Three triangles have been made of out three matches apiece…
Can you move just three matches and create exactly five triangles?
As ever, please do NOT post your solutions, but feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday. Have a good weekend. i shall spend most if it sleeping trying to get back into UK time!
Richard Wiseman 
Solved it in about 10 seconds.
Yep job done, though I’m unable to tell you how long it took, as there was was rift in the space time continuum that was playing havoc with my watch while I was busy moving matchsticks around………
Done in a few seconds, but it was a test of memory.
Took about 18 seconds. I like these kinds of puzzles, but it’d be nice if some of them were harder.
’bout 10 seconds.
You definitely get better at these matchstick ones with practice…
Solved it in about 7 seconds
seconds
solved in a few seconds
Couple of seconds. I know I’m not getting smarter so the puzzles must be getting easier. 🙂
about 30 seconds. although 20 of which were playing around with Win7’s MS Paint which I haven’t used before, trying to figure out how to make the selection transparent so I could test my solution properly.
Yep, done almost instantanteously. Not sure if I’ve seen this exact puzzle before, but all these matchstick ones seem to use the same old tricks.
Misread the puzzle and thought I was supposed to move only two matches; that took forever. As soon as I realized I was allowed to move three matches, i got it instantly. But then I’d probably processed the problem quite a bit.
Why so much difficulty? Is Instantaneous with only two matches moving, too! 🙂
Joao, how do you solve it by moving only two matches?
Got it , in a few minutes.
Well I think so …:)
My daughter (11) just woke up and solved in five seconds
shame on you, had to rely on your daughter… 🙂
(Just kidding… I saw your earlier entry)
Microseconds – immediately obvious if you got the triangle puzzle posted a few weeks ago!
That was an easy one.
Easy peasy!
About 10 seconds!
Very quick, probably because I have some brain training software on my phone including a matchstick exercise.
I have A solution after about a minute, but it doesn’t feel like the answer that is probably expected.
Done before I finished reading the question fully
Easy-peasy – for once 🙂
Ah, an easy one. About 10 seconds.
Very quick answer this morning but I grew up reading about such puzzles
Easy! Few seconds.
Seconds. Certainly faster than it would take to actually move real matches lying there…
too easy
yeah, too easy. Seconds.
Nope. Can’t. I just used two matches.
Less than a second after I saw “five triangles”?
please go for harder puzzles….
About 10 seconds.
Got it in a couple of minutes. Was thinking too hard about it at first but then I let my brain drift out of focus (kind of like with your eyes looking at a magic eye picture) and then got it quickly.
Yep! *smug smile* :-B
Seconds. This one was way too easy.
Too easy.
Three solutions so far. Need to get a life.
About a minute. That’s good for me. I usually need to go away and come back with a fresh eye.
Got this one in about 1min. Quite pleased with myself 😉
Straight away. Might have seen it before.
got it quite quickly, but didn’t realise!
More or less 20 seconds. Nice one 🙂
Wow one I can finally do!
Duh, solved in 0.003s. Duh. I’m great. Duh.
very easy indeed. solved in a couple of seconds.
easy spacial reasoning…~10 seconds
Yes. Yes I can. 5 seconds.
Saw this one immediately, and i guess that says something about what i spent many late nights on in front of the screen in my youth.
Think I’ve done it. Have to wait till Monday to see if I’m right.
Now, moving until 6 matches, how to get exactly 7 equal some-area triangles and no any other planar figure like lozenge et cetera. Should be easy too…
@JPA: I challenge you for the riddle on my page! Mwahaha 😀
easily done too 🙂 akin to ask them, are you going to tell the truth? 🙂 There is only one answer they’ll tell 🙂
I solved it correctly, then dismissed my answer as incorrect. Then wondered about it for a few more minutes before finally realising I was right the first time.
Easy, it took me less than a minute.
About 10 seconds… would have been five, but the first approach didn’t work.
It took me three days and fourteen phone calls.
Seen it before– two seconds.
…and there’s the second, more complicated solution. Another minute.
Seconds for the obvious solution, about a minute for a second solution as I was sure there must be more than one way!
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Well, I solved it in about 6 seconds, but then I spent the next minute trying to convince myself that there was no more complicated way of doing it. =P
2 seconds or so…
This was an easy one 😦
I read the comments and found out there was another solution.
Found that one in 5 seconds 🙂
Wow, I’m usually so bad at this kind of puzzle. Is it practice or was that easy? About 2 seconds.
Hmmmm. About 2 minutes. I got 5 triangles moving two matchsticks, then 6 triangles using 3 matchsticks.
Is 35-40 years BEFORE posting the puzzle a record time? (as it is a negative time) That’s when I learned this – from my Granny!
Couple of seconds. Surprisingly easy, but still entertaining.
Easy but interesting. Solved in about 10 sec. 😛
Restricting myself to equilateral triangles, I’ve found a whole class of solutions that has so many variations, and some of which only need 2 matches to move, that it is becoming difficult deciding what is an essentially different solution. So far I’ve written down about 9, and can’t be bothered searching for more minor variations. I have several more solutions with at least 5 triangles, with up to 8 triangles.
wow! are your sure that your matches are not overlapping or laying on each other?
2 solutions within 10 sec.
But what’s the catch?
It took me over an hour. First, I had to go to the store because I was out of matches. Second….oh, never mind, I’m not supposed to tell how I did it anyway.
seconds, too easy.
Took me 1 second but it was nice to play
Few seconds, easy but a good one.
Oldie but a good one! It took me about 30 seconds.
About a minute.
Something less than 10 seconds. Thanks though. It was a momentary burst of fun.
as soon as I saw it.
It took me about 10 seconds. It seems it took many people a short amout of time. It gets me wondering what the catch is…
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I got it. Took about 10 seconds.
Whats a triangle? This is hard….
1 minute!
Woah that was sooo easy!
The real question is, HOW MANY solutions can you come up with for this problem? Tweet your creative solution using http://twitdraw.com/ and include #wiseman so we can find it.
great puzzle!
it just took me about 1,5hrs and than it was done ;o)
I do have a puzzle for you2. let me know if you want to hear it. it took me some months to get an answer finally…
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20-30 sec
about 10 seconds
Same as “Levi in NY”
please go for harder puzzles.
lol i feel dumb, i dont get it =[
NVM, i get it lol that was pretty easy,
i didnt really pay attention to the question.
Solved it pretty much as soon as I finished reading it.
hmm…
hmm…
oooo…
more than a few seconds…
i knew this puzzle like this before. why i need so much time. 😀
It took me about 10 seconds 🙂 I like your Friday puzzles!
Less than 10 seconds, very easy.
After extensive counseling and deprogramming {as I was taught to never play with matches}…. about 30 sec….. :}
Got it in a few seconds, it’s quite similar to the other triangle puzzles he posted before.
Actually it can be done with two matches, and there’s more than one solution.
it took me about 3 seconds.
-3 sec
For some reason I thought we were only supposed to move 2. Weird.
Moving 3 matches it’s easy to make 9 triangles, and easy to make 5, and then from a slight modification to the latter it’s possible to get it with 2 as well (but then there is a leftover match just lying around). Heh.
I thought it too 😉
Got it in 1-2 minutes. Followed a couple of bad tracks before I got the right idea.
Dead easy this week, took a few seconds.
I found two solutions.
Immediately.
ten seconds or less
I showed this puzzle to my 4th grader just last week! These kinds of puzzles are fun for kids, and I’d love to see more like this—makes me look so cool in my kids’ eyes.
3 seonds 😛 1 second per match move in my brain
AW CRAP. I was mentally puzzling this out for hours, and then I re-read it and saw I could move three toothpicks—I thought it was only two.
After re-reading, I immediately got a solution.
I don’t get this and I’m not liking that i can’t seem to get this.
Old classic one. One sec to remember, 2 sec to check the solution.
kinda easy this one but I do love problems like this
This is below you Richard 😛
Took me about 1 and a half second.
Got it! Didn’t know when I first read the problem but the answer just occured to me out of the blue last night.
Solved it in a few seconds, by thinking of my favorite video game 😛
It took me less than 5 seconds and only 1 attempt!
It’s so easy I tried to elaborate a little more: I can get six equilateral triangles. If you do not restrict yourself to equilaterals, then I got seven.
Seven equilaterals.
Nine equilateral triangles.
~8 seconds.
solved it in about 10 seconds
Man, I hate the snap preview! Anybody else? Wiseman, could you consider removing it? Other than that, I like your blog.
3 seconds.
Yup – just a few seconds, but i think i recall doing the same test in primary school. . . . .
do you post answers for the simple minded?
I could see the solution as soon as I read the directions… I love it when that happens!
solved in about 5 sec
I solved this one in less than 10 seconds. Does it count if I’ve seen it before (albeit not any time recently)? I couldn’t figure it out the first time I saw it, but I was a little kid back then. 🙂
Wow! I so over thought that. I figured it out in like 20 seconds but i didn’t realize it. 😉
couple seconds.
I like your idea! Puzzle was easy, but I’d seen it sometime in my past.
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Solved in 18secondes to be exact….
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under 10 seconds! 😀
Been working on it a couple days, almost got it.
solved …. about 15 seconds.
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5 seconds…if I’m right.
10 secs for me 😀
Yeah, I solved this in a few seconds….
wew,so simple… 8 sec..
It was fetched from memory in about 4 seconds
Solved it in 20 seconds
If I’d say so in real life, I’d say 30 seconds. But, since this is the internet, I would call it 3.
Got it in couple of seconds… maybe because I vaguely remember this from somewhere…
done, 5 seconds. 🙂 quite liked this one though. reminded me of those nostalgoc days 😀
Worked it out in 10-20 seconds
Never saw this one b4…took maybe 15 seconds. I like. Thnx
BTW Jane is correct…there are actually 2 equally correct answers 🙂
way tooooo easy!!! 🙂
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2 minutes. as always.
What’s the answer….I’m still trying to figure it out!!!
Took me a minute.
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