Mathemagical understanding

[andrewducker]

I'm wondering about the level of mathematical understanding on my friends list.

Go here and check out both the magical puzzle and my explanation.

Then come back here and tell me if my explanation made sense to you.

[Poll #943968]

Comments

[thishardenedarm.livejournal.com]

the trick in the puzzle is less to do with the math than it is to do with our perceptual bias, we are innately "blind" to the the symbols changing designation

there are a lot of puzzles based on this, all based on the same mechanism: if you present a scene/symbol/picture/array etc, then blank it out (screen image), then re-present it, we are perceptually wired to percieve it as unchanged even when major parts of it have changed...its uncanny

"change blindness" is what the psychologists call it, try googling it, or go to this for an online demo:

http://www.usd.edu/psyc301/ChangeBlindness.htm

[andrewducker]

I was mostly interested if people could follow the maths. It seemed trivial to me, but I know that a lot of people find even simple algebra impossible.