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Cadmium · Heavy Metal

Ok, this is bothering me for a couple of weeks now. I just can't explain it. Maybe one of you knows?

Look at the following picture containing 15 leprechauns. The picture is divided in three parts (upper left, upper right, and the lower half).

When you switch the upper two parts, you get the following picture. This picture contains only 14 leprechauns!

The question: Where did the 15th leprechaun go?

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There are three kinds of people, those who can count and those who cannot.

[This message has been edited by Cadmium (edited 03-30-2002 10:08 AM).]

Chuck · Daedalian Member

This is a very old puzzle. All 15 original leprechauns are gone. Their parts have been reassembled into 14 new leprechauns.

robichelli · MI:6 Agent

In the first picture, the third leprechaun from the right doesn't have any connection to the bottom layer. The bottom layer itself only has 14 leprechaun "parts". But the third leprechaun from the right, still in the first picture, doesn't use the bottom layer to make a leprechaun, which adds an extra. But in the second picture, all of the leprechaun "parts" are used, only making 14 leprechauns. I think this is why there is a difference, but I'm not sure.

Sofis · Beautiful and Decadent

Distributed into the other 14, more or less. If you'll count the number of leprechaun bits in the upper half, you'll get 14. If you count the number of leprechaun bits in the lower half, you'll also get 14. In the upper picture, there are two leprechauns that are found only in one half of the picture. If you look at those, you'll see that one of them is missing his knees and the other is missing the top of his head. While this is not enough to hide a leprechaun in, you might notice that several of the other leprechauns are missing pieces. The leftmost one has only got one leg (plus one foot), the rightmost one doesn't have any eyes. One about one third from the right side is missing a nose.
In the lower picture, it's less noticable, but some of them have actually got too many bits, there's one with the top of a pair of eyes above his ordinary pair of eyes, and another whose head is rather peculiarly shaped due to the top of a head that's on top of the top of his head (parse that if you can

).
So, the answer is that you don't have 15 leprechauns in the upper picture and 14 in the lower, you have 15 leprechauns with missing bits in the upper picture and 14 with extra bits in the lower.

[This message has been edited by Sofis (edited 03-30-2002 10:28 AM).]

Qball · In the Quorner Pocket

sniff sniff

Anybody else smell roasting chestnuts?

Cadmium · Heavy Metal

ralphmerridew · Daedalian Member

Here's a simplification:

code:



A


A   B


A   B   C


A   B   C   D


--------------


    B   C   D   E


        C   D   E


            D   E


                E








A


A   B


A   B   C


A   B   C   D


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B   C   D   E


    C   D   E


        D   E


            E

You will notice that there are five vertical segments in the first block and four in the second. Which one disappeared?

Technically, all five disappeared and four new ones appeared. Alternately, you will notice that the segements in the first block are all four letters high, and those in the second are five letters high. If you compare pictures, you'll see that the leprechauns in the 14 lep arrangement are 15/14 times as large as the 15 lep arrangement.

Puzzle dude · Icarian Member

Pikachu used his demonic rodent pwers to make a leprochuan disaoear

quercitron · Don't trust Robinson

Macros, stop.

Loupguru · Icarian Member

the ist leprechaun from the left in the lower pic

impossibleroot · Hi-Keeba!

Actually, you can get all the leprechauns to disappear! Just hold down the Control key (to get 'control' of the picture), the Alt key (stands for 'A Leprechaun Tableau'), and the Delete key (to 'delete' them from the screen)...

Werebear · Daedalian Member

Thorough, exhaustive searching has located a puzzle similar to this one... it took me SECONDS to find it.

http://www.greylabyrinth.com/Puzzles/puzzle068.htm

*grin* one of my personal favorites from here.

Werebear

Coyote · Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2002 9:59 pm Post subject: 13

Nice work, Werebear--but I think the comparison's a bit of a stretch. A little more digging would have turned up Sam Loyd's classic "Get Off The Earth" puzzle...and even that, evidently, had it's : predecessors.

As far as the leprechaun puzzle goes, this gives a good analysis.

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My inferiority complex is bigger than your inferiority complex.