Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/20/cool-magic-trick-the-perpetua.html
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Great, not I’m craving an infinite chocolate bar.
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Not allowed to tell the solution, so I’m left dancing around it. At a few points, it was briefly obvious what was going on. Pay attention to the times he neatens up the layout.
This is actually a fairly well known illusion. Great presentation though.
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Puzzles in this family were really popular in the 19th century, many due to Sam Loyd (whose Cylopedia is still available and a great read for puzzle fans).
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Exactly! Whenever I see a puzzle like this, Sam Loyd is the first thing that comes to mind. Get Off The Earth was the first one I remember seeing/hearing about.
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It is fine to dance around it.
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It is intuitively obvious to the casual observer.
(What mathematicians say when they’re baffled.)
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They forgot to print on pictures of dwarfs that increase in number.
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This seemed familiar for some reason. 
And it still hurts my brain.
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If you know, please don’t reveal the secret
Memo to self: Don’t say he’s a witch.
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I’ve seen other versions of the Freer style puzzle with a grid printed on it, which I thing makes it even more perplexing.
“The rectangle fits snugly in a black plastic frame”
Does it?
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Just checked Martin Gardner’s Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, he traces these kinds of puzzles at least as far back as this one by William Hooper in 1794:
Here’s one of Gardner’s own creations, which is great because you can have young kids cut it out of graph paper for themselves then work out the mystery:
(Gardner calls these “Curry puzzles”, but I’ve heard mathematicians use the term “Fibonacci puzzles” because of how they work.)
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