Puzzles
Cut this card into three strips so both riders sit correctly on their mules
Sam Loyd's 1858 puzzle card shows two mules with two riders, but the picture is cut into three strips that can be rearranged. Slide them into the wrong arrangement and the riders appear to float above the mules or sit on backwards animals. Only one arrangement seats both riders properly — can you work out how the strips need to overlap?
Reveal the answer
The trick is that each mule's body is split so the rear half of one animal completes the front half of the other once the strips are staggered rather than lined up edge to edge — each rider was drawn to fit seamlessly onto either mule's back in that offset position. Loyd sold the design to P.T. Barnum's circus as a promotional card; it went on to sell in the millions under the name 'Famous Trick Donkeys.'