The Cat after Martin Gardner
I was working on this one with my husband. I was looking
at computer screen and counting, he got the print. Our strategies were a little bit
different but both of us miscounted triangles at first : I got 19 he got 21.
He was breaking picture
into 3 main sectors, and count every triangle in sequence within the sector.
I also divided cat into 3 main sectors, but I was
counting bigger triangles and then smaller once. Because our numbers didn't match
we recount.
I took my husband’s printed copy and then I got 20 as well as him. As
I figure out I was missing either #19 or #20 at the end of the tail because I
thought I already counted it when I was counting triangles in the middle part of the tail. Both of our visual
perceptions "close in" on the hidden triangles in the picture of the
cat but until I got paper version and pointed each triangle with a pan I didn't get correct answer. Both of us did mistakes when we
counted triangles on the tail. The funny part was that my husband didn't notice
it was the CAT he just perceived picture as the bunch of triangles divided on 3
sectors.
The Lost Star
by Sam Loyd
This problem would be identify by McKim as a “pattern
seeking”
The purpose of the puzzle is to find a STAR hiding in the
image. I was doing it online and my husband got printed copy.
Before I even started my search for a star I tried to identify
the visual problem and how I can be tricked. I was thinking if I need to find a pattern
than more likely color would be a distractor because according to gestalt
principals our eye groups similar looking object together. We have tendency to
group similar colors together and similarly looking shapes that close to each
other.
Challenge #1 is eliminate a color distraction. I couldn't make image black and white online and I didn't want to do it because it might take
away from the fun of solving it, so I just shifted my focus from the color to a
shape, it helped to change my visual perspective, but I couldn't see a star yet.
Challenge #2 was finding similarity in shape’s pattern;
we all get used to that stars are formed from narrow, similar in shape and size
triangles. Here it was
not the case; most of the triangular patterns were different in shape and size.
So I started specially looking for at least one pointy triangular shape of
a star (as we got accustomed to see it) because it said in a puzzle description
“there is a perfect star in the illustration”. Once I found it, the rest was easy;
what was concealed became reviled.
My husband on the other hand was focusing on shapes and he was looking for narrow pointy shapes. As strange as it may sound he found
3 points of the star (all in the area where star actually is), but couldn't see the star... He found #1, #4
and I think #2 on the right because he kept telling he sees part that looks like it might be a part of the star .
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