How To Perform Some Matchstick Puzzle Tricks

How To Perform Some Matchstick Puzzle Tricks

Peter Jest explains some matchstick puzzles to get your friends thinking and possibly very annoyed. Good fun for a social occasion.

You Will Need

• 1 BOX MATCHES

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Step 1:

Meet Peter Jest:

Hi, Peter Jest here. I'm going to show you some fun magic puzzles that have not seen the light of day for quite a while. Some of you novice magicians out there might like to learn these. These are not tricks. These are something you can use just in social situations, when you're sitting around with your mates and the conversation is starting to flag, well, you can get the old grey matter going by showing them some match puzzles for them to puzzle over.

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Step 2:

The cherry:

Here's the first one. Represents a cocktail glass with a cherry in it. The puzzle is, simply, to move two matches to leave the cherry outside the glass. I repeat that you move two matches, not remove, but just move, alter their position, just two matches and you leave the cherry outside the glass, but the glass shape must remain intact.

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Step 3:

The solution:

This will get people scratching their heads a little bit. Some may get it quickly; some may not. But of course, you need to know the answer. Just in case no one does get it. And this is all you do. Remember, you're moving two matches. You move this one, and you move that one. Now the puzzle is solved. The cherry is now outside of the glass but the glass shape is still intact. Hope you liked that one.

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Step 4:

Three complete squares:

Here's the next one. This puzzle is where you have to move, not remove, but move four matches, but only end up with three complete squares. Moving four matches, and ending up with just three complete squares. This can be a bit of a puzzler as well. And just in case none of your friends get this one either, this is how the puzzle is solved. You take two from here, and two from there, and make a square out of those four you've just moved. Now you have acheived what you said. You now just have three complete squares.

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Step 5:

Two complete squares:

Now here's a slightly easier one to figure out using the same shape. In this case, it's simply a matter of removing two matches to leave two squares. Some people get this one quite quickly, but some don't. You just remove two matches to leave two complete squares. Once again, I'll demonstrate how you can solve this, if no one else can. It's very easy. You just remove these two matches. Now you have, there's one square, and there's the other one there. Honest, it's okay. You'll get away with it. Really.

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Step 6:

Four equal squares:

And now, finally, I'm going to show you the last one, which I consider to be the real puzzler. When I've shown this to other people, this is the one that usually stumps them. In this one, you simply move, not remove, but move just two matches, to end up with four equal squares. That's right, you're only moving two matches to a different position to have four equal, genuine equal squares. And it doesn't involve breaking matches or anything like that. This is quite a puzzle.

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Step 7:

The solution:

But of course, I will show you how to solve the puzzle, since it's doubtful any of your mates will be able to, especially after they've had four pints of lager.

So when they've had enough of staring at this and they're about to pour a pint of beer over your head, this is how you tell them to achieve this, getting four equal squares by just moving two matches. This one goes there and this one goes there. One, two, three, four. It's a cracker!