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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The L shaped piece is overlaping the first 2 egg’s bottom half on card B.
Mirela…I think u r absolutely right about the L shape overlapping the first 2 egg’s…i was thinking that this could be the case, as well…
Easy: the 3rd egg (right to left, figure A) has a tiny part missing; equal to the one on the 1st egg, also, on almost all eggs it goes like this, making it look like an egg “vanished” on the fig B.
Cheers!
Sorry i don’t like I don’t understand the big deal
The eggs in the top panel are all missing a little bit. In the bottom, they are whole. So you go from 8* 7/8ths of an egg to 7* 8/8ths of an egg.
Quite clever, actually.
all you do is swpa the two triangle pieces at the bottom
In both images there are 14 halves. image A has 6 full eggs and 2 half. image B has 7 full eggs.
i dont really get it and im too lazy to try and figure it nout.I like illusions that are easy.just staring kind. thankks
Sue is right, but there is more to it.
The overall rectangle cannot remain a single size, and yet *not have* a hole inside in one tiling, while *having* a hole in the other tiling. Otherwise the areas of the pieces could not be constant!
The answer is that the bottom line of the puzzle is not straight. It is slightly concave when the hole is absent, and slightly convex with the hole. The change in concavity/convexity equals the area of the hole.
Yet these slight deviations from a true rectangle can barely be noticed.
Forgot to say Franx and Maria also have good comments.
what came first, the chicken or 8 eggs?
Your all stupid, counting the eggs and what not. sure thats true, #3 and 6 are missing lil bit but um, the hole, physically impossible to rearrange same picture and get a hole… the stair cut piece is altered, they’ve elongated the second stair (left side) which is what makes the two lil missing pieces significant. the first one (one the 2nd, left stair shaped piece), is moved to where egg six “was”, the two alligned missing pieces with the hole are what get ride of the egg.
Okay, this one’s a little hard to understand unless you really look at it. in the top image, eggs #3 and #7 are partial eggs without a remainder; in the bottom image, all eggs appear to have two parts. The actual “extra egg” is not an egg at all; the cross-sectional area of each egg is merely smaller in the image that features eight eggs. Note how in the seven-egg image, all of the eggs appear a bit misshapen. This is a result of the same phenomenon.
Still, even though some people have been able to provide explanations for the apparent “missing” egg, I don’t understand where a piece of the card has gone… It’s an old illusion that I’ve never really been able to figure out. I like that.
The triangles appear to be the same size in A and B, but are not. This is how you can explain the missing block in B.
The triangles make a litle curve at botton of the figures (base of small triangle move up, and de big triangle move down): concave in the A figure, and convex in B figure. The size of eggs are bigger in figure B, cause by forced conjunction… (explained by Sue)
The large triangle on the right edge of pic A has parts of 3 eggs inside the triangle. When you move that triangle to the left side and replace it with the L piece and the small triangle, the missing egg is lost as the large triangle is overlaying the left most egg of the top section of pic A.
What puzzles me is not so much the eggs, that is a tried and true illusion. Still fun to see though. What puzzles me, is how the surfaces of both cards are different….
There is just a piece missing in the bottom one. Where did it go…
I’ve found it, it was quite obvious, the frames aren’t exactly perpendicular corners or parallel lines… It’s only a very small difference in gradient, but apparently enough to make such a difference appear…
I agree with Maria M. The area devoted to “white space” as eggs has not changed between the two cards. It has been redistributed. On the three cards with egg “bits” on them there are 7 bits on the top card and a total of 7 bits on the bottom cards. Each of the “eggs” in representation B is made up of two pieces or 7 eggs. In representaion A only 6 eggs are made up of two pieces ( or 12 bits) the other two bits stand alone as eggs and add up to 8 as opposed to 7 int the secdond representation. If you were to cut out the “eggs” in each picture ( a and b) then weigh the paper, the paper from A would be equal to that from B indicating the same exact area. threfor the “white” has just been redestribute between the two pictures.
The 2 triangle shapesare switched and the l shaped one is put between them.
What I find interesting is that a lot of people are over looking the fact that in A we have 4 pieces that take up a certain area with in a certain perimeter. In B simply by rearranging the 4 pieces, they fit in the same perimeter but there is less area…..
The hypoteneuse of the large triangle is not straight, it is slightly concave. when it is re-assembled it is slightly convex, just enough to make a 1×1 gap.
Take a look at the following website, it explains it a lot better than I can
http://redcarton.com/view.php?id=illusion
Yes, but what about the hole in the center of the picture? Why do we see it if the picture has the same dimensions?
The eggs are solved, 14 halves only all amtched up perfectly in the second image. But where does the missing peice come from????
Yes, Franx is right about the vanished egg, but that doesn’t explain why there is an empty space in the second image. I think that the diagonal side of the big triangle isn’t completely right, so it leaves a little bit more space to the L-shape.
i dont get it
This is great! I´m more concerned about the square issue than the egg number issue since I believe that there´s no free lunch. 1+1 does end up giving 2 and not 2.1 . I first traced the image in Phoshop in layers, which I then moved. Didn´t bring me much further. I then did the same but in AutoCAD. And indeed. The version below doesn´t make a perfect rectangle. And the area that sticks out is equivalent to the area missing in the middle. Again, good one!
In card A there is 7 upper parts and 7 lower parts. And egg parts are just reassembled.
And I think that little piece missing is made like this: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/03/impossible-triangle-illusion-no2.html
The eggs are bigger in image B than image A, they are just a little bigger so you lose 1 egg
this one is much ore obvious then the leprechauns one because the third egg from the right is missing a bit from the top… it’s very noticeable the piece that it is missing is equal to the piece on the first egg from the left. I bet you anything if those lines (to cut) weren’t there and you knew where to cut, the change would be even more obvious
It is just as Sue said.
Very ingenuitive, keep up the good work!
In the second picture [B], it isn’t a perfect rectangle. The bottom line curves up a bit at the right end! Along with the other facts that have been previously mentioned, it creates that illusion.
What’s the big deal? You’re missing an egg, the dog ate it. :D
I ve just photoshoped(layers) the image and it’s bluffing,
I still don’t get why with the same shapes you get a smaller total space, and there’s NO SUPERPOSITION!… Any mathematics pro to answer?
Each picture has 7 bottoms 7 tops total of 14 halves. In the first one there are 6 full eggs and 2 half eggs{one of the halves has a top half, and the other has a bottom half only} (total of 8 eggs) in the second picture there are 7 full eggs which cancels out the halves in the first picture to make the extra full egg but gets rid of 2 eggs in place…..
I guess the triangle thing is essentially the same as the illusion you link to… Probably have something to do wit h one of the triangles not being exactly straight or something like that…
How come that the original copyright
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/Gallery/new_optical_illusions/pages/101-Magic_eggs_VAN.html
is removed from this picture?
the placement of the triangular pieces is switched in card B
Ya’ll are really making it harder than it looks. To prove to yourself that the pieces DID NOT change and do fit, just print out the above picture, cut the pieces of the top picture into and place onto the bottom picture like filling in a puzzle. It all fits perfectly leaving the little square hole in the middle and losing an egg in the process.
It is VERY cool, however, that once the pieces are rearranged that they actually take up less actual space and nothing is overlapping, etc.
Franx right, it just an ‘optical illusion’. And another thing. Nothing overlapped at all.
As many have observed: The bottom edge of each figur is not “stright”. In each image (A&B) it is made up of the same two triangles but in reverse order. The differenc between each immage is that this edge is bowed up in one and down in the other. this is becaues the individual triangles have different slopes.If you could accuratly superimpose Image A over Image B A slive of Image B at the bottom would still be visiable, shaped like a very long thin oval and it would be equal in area to the “open” are in the middle of image B.
Eric, you are wrong, other people, right! (cpt’ for some ‘other’ ‘erics’)
okay is anybody even bothering to print the page to figure it out it’s that simple it, here I am with a printed copy of it I cut out the pieces along the lines nothing is overlapping at all it’s all just fitting…..I’m curious why though……..seriously guys print it out
The third egg from right to left was deleted.
great site, great illusion, just wish self important lonely eric and ‘i waste my time spoiling peoples fun because i dont have any’ michael types of people could not exist, that would be a great illusion, and now i have become just like them by this very comment! arg! lol, hypocrisy rules!!!
@hootie:
That on itself does nit explain anything, I’m afraid.
You guys are all being ridiculous.
Everyone is talking about how there are 7 eggs in the second picture and no one is talking about the GIGANTIC hole in the center.
I think that the hole is an integral of the illusion and people should start looking at the whole illusion not just a part of it.
I agree with post #9-Scott about the slight convex/concavity. If you look closely at the picture you can see that he is right.