My cousin sent me our newest exhibit. We had some egg illusions in the past, but have to admit they were pretty lame. Well, I hope our newest one brings a change to this lousy tradition. In its core, this optical illusion is very similar to the famous Missing Part test. Additionally, it may remind you of those missing China men, extra Leprechauns, Mad Scientist soccer team… you know what I mean. To make you understand what is going on around here, let me explain first. In the first card (A) we have one chicken and 8 eggs. Cut this card in 4 pieces (like outlined below), and then again assemble it in a different matter (card B), resulting with proper rectangular image. You will get our original chicken, but the number of eggs this time is different. Additionally, there is a missing piece in this newly assembled card. Why is that? If the surface of both puzzle cards is equal, how can one be missing a piece? Hint: are the surfaces really equal? You tell me! Remember, there is more than one optical illusion present here.
Yesterday I’ve implemented Akismet spam protection. Since then, it already prevented more than 700 spam comments! Was this precise timing, or what :) Also, our RSS subscriber number is currently exceeding 87,000. If this isn’t a sign of quality service we bring, then I don’t know what is!
Update: seems that the original creator of this illusion is Archimedes Lab. At least their version has the copyright hard coded within the picture. Thnks Michael.
By Permutting the triangular pieces an egg disappears. How does it happen?
(13 votes)
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John’s got it right. The triangle parts do not have the same angles, so when you rearrange them you get the “missing” piece.
the L piece is simply a card that was moved
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it’s not overlaping, the 2 triangle pieces have switched places and the other pieces have shifted slightly to fill in spaces/
Forget all the theories…I printed this out, and physically cut the pieces out. I can’t find any coverup of pieces or not straight lines. Try it..it is a great illusion, and my kids and I still haven’t figured out why it works….were DOES that hole come from?
Oh…I did figure out how to get from 8 to 7 eggs. ..as the pieces are re-aligned, the 7 eggs are all slightly larger than the original 8 eggs, and no bits are missing on the 7 – as you move one piece from it’s original position to the other, compare the size of egg piece it is replacing. But that still doesn’t explain the hole.
I know EXACTLY how that one egg disappear. First of all, I agree with Bob. The size of each egg are slightly larger on picture B.
Now, to make the egg disappear: you can clearly see that on picture A, two eggs are incomplete. Egg #3 (we’re counting from the left here) is missing a tiny chunk on the lower cut of the card, and egg #6 (which happens to be number 3 from the right) is missing a tiny chunk on the upper cut of the card. These missing chunks are so tiny that you don’t notice it at a glance.
When the cards are rearranged, different upper parts of eggs are meeting different lower parts (hence making the eggs larger in size.) The missing upper chunk is meeting the missing lower chunk resulting in: VOILA, disappearing egg!
To make it simple, when you cut a picture of 8 eggs horizontally into two cards, you should have 16 halves of eggs. Eight upper halves and eight lower halves. Count the halves in this picture. There are only 14 halves, which, in turn, would make 7 whole eggs when you rearrange them.
Another thing I agree with Bob is: can’t figure out where the hole came from.
Forgot to say… d’oh! Great one, Vurdlak! Great illusions as usual and great site! Keep it up and keep ‘em coming!
I’ve always been amazed at this type of illusion.
If you notice, the bottom edge of the first is slightly concave. Where the triangles meet in the middle are slightly higher than a straight line drawn between the bottom two corners.
If the second picutre, the bottom edge is slightly convex. The point where the triangles meet is slightly below a straight line drawn between the bottom two corners.
This slight change adds area to the overall rectanglur looking shape. But it doesn’t add more material, therefore there’s a hole.
INGENIOUS!
CRRRRRAB! You’re right, BowlingTracker! So they’re not exactly perfect rectangles! The upper side is probably a perfect straight line, but the bottom side is definitely NOT! On both pictures! YOU’RE a genius!
Hi, is very nice illusion, I dont ant to said how work(some peoble explained) but the big idea is thera are 2 illusions at the same time!! one is the egg disapear and the other is a hole appear!!!! one is visual and the otrer is physical!!!!! think in it …how many double illusions exist???
Again… GREAT DOUBLE ILLUSION!!!!!
Yeah, I agree with Spider, the “8″ eggs in the first picture are incomplete. However, that is where I disagree. Not only are three of the eggs incomplete, all the other ones are too. Each egg is missing a slice, and when you rearrange the pieces, the missing slices come together to make a missing egg.
Also, it’s similar for the hole. Where I think it came from is that the whole picture is slightly shorter in the first picture, and in the second, it’s slightly longer. The extra length comes together to form a hole. I used a ruler, and the second arrangement is around 1mm longer.
There were only 7 eggs to begin with. It was then cut into the shapes. Just look at the edges of the 8 eggs.