Book: Mikhail Abramovich Gershenzon “Puzzles of Professor Puzzles. Mikhail Gershenzon Professor's Puzzles Puzzles. A collection of riddles, tricks and entertaining tasks on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War

Exciting and treacherous undertakings logic problems, tricks and homemade products, interesting observations and unusual notes - all this is an integral part of the wonderful books that were prepared and written by Mikhail Abramovich Gershenzon (1900–1942). In the afterword to one of his collections, the author wrote: “This book has different ideas - both easy and difficult, choose what you want. If you can’t handle it yourself, ask your elders to help you. Adults, in truth, also love all sorts of undertakings, but they have forgotten what they did for fun when they were children...”

These words, which were spoken many years ago, are actually relevant today. Solving riddles, unraveling puzzles and quests that develop memory and logic, force you to come up with innovative solutions and expand your horizons is an exciting pastime. How useful and interesting it is sometimes to puzzle over challenging task, and how much joy and delight her correct decision brings!

M.A. Gershenzon was a highly educated man, worked as an editor of children's literature, translated, and was fond of English songs and ballads. In his translation and adaptation, we first became acquainted with “The Tales of Uncle Remus,” which are still loved by young readers. He also wrote the books “The Happy Hour”, “Only How Much”, “Know-It-All Riddles” and others.

During his short life, Mikhail Abramovich managed to do a lot: edit, write, translate - and died, like his beloved hero Robin Hood. During the Great Patriotic War, M.A. Gershenzon was a translator on the front line, a non-military person. But after the death of the battalion commander, he found the strength to lead the soldiers into an attack and died, struck by machine gun fire, having managed to scribble a note saying that he was happy to accept such a worthy death.

Mikhail Abramovich wrote good books, gave us amazing translations, remained on the pages of his works in riddles and scientific experiments. His talented works still excite the minds of readers today and force them to solve fascinating puzzles that are so close to us.

There is such a funny book - “Mixedness”. In this book, the drawings of animals are confused just like the words in the title “Confusion.” Imagine an animal with the head of a crocodile and the legs of a rooster. Or an elephant's head is set on a fish tail. These types of “mixes” are a lot of fun to play.

Take each a strip of paper, fold each strip into three parts.

So I drew the head of a giraffe, folded a third of the strip so that it was not visible whose head I drew, and marked it with two dots on the second third, where the neck ends. Then I pass it on to my neighbor. He draws someone's torso, bends it and passes it on to his neighbor. He draws legs.

So everyone passes on the drawings they have started to each other, and immediately after we unroll the strips, we have the funniest zoo in the world ready.

Do you want to amuse your little brother or sister? Cut three identical strips thick paper. On two stripes, draw whatever you want: for example, a giraffe on one, a girl on the other. Fold both strips in half. Glue the bottom half of the first picture to the top half of the second, and glue the free halves onto the third strip.

You hold the trick card in your hand so that the giraffe is visible. Then with a quick movement you fold back the middle flap - and suddenly the giraffe turns into a girl.

If you get the hang of it, it will be completely unnoticeable how one pattern gives way to another.

Here's a piece of paper with five dots on it. I put them in no order, at random. And you must draw a little man so that two dots are on his hands, two dots are on his legs. And a person’s nose should be where the fifth point is.

There are several clowns drawn in this way. The small cells show how the points were located. It can be seen that points can be used in different ways.

You don't need to be an artist at all to play this game. But artists love to play “five points.”

It's a lot of fun when several people play five dots. One of the players puts several sheets of paper together and pierces the entire packet in five places with a pin. Then the dots will be located equally on all sheets of paper. But the “artists” do not have the right to look at each other, and so the figures have different positions. You can even give bonuses to those who make better use of the location of the points.

This is completely simple game. Everyone sits in a circle. One of the players is in the middle. He points to someone and says.

From the editor

Fascinating undertakings and insidious logical problems, tricks and homemade products, interesting observations and unusual notes - all this is an integral part of the wonderful books prepared and written by Mikhail Abramovich Gershenzon (1900–1942). In the afterword to one of his collections, the author wrote: “This book has different ideas - both easy and difficult, choose what you want. If you can’t handle it yourself, ask your elders to help you. Adults, in truth, also love all sorts of undertakings, but they have forgotten what they did for fun when they were children...”

These words, which were spoken many years ago, are actually relevant today. Solving riddles, unraveling puzzles and quests that develop memory and logic, force you to come up with innovative solutions and expand your horizons is an exciting pastime. How useful and interesting it is sometimes to puzzle over a complex problem, and how much joy and delight its correct solution brings!

M.A. Gershenzon was a highly educated man, worked as an editor of children's literature, translated, and was fond of English songs and ballads. In his translation and adaptation, we first became acquainted with “The Tales of Uncle Remus,” which are still loved by young readers. He also wrote the books “The Happy Hour”, “Only How Much”, “Know-It-All Riddles” and others.

During his short life, Mikhail Abramovich managed to do a lot: edit, write, translate - and died, like his beloved hero Robin Hood. During the Great Patriotic War, M.A. Gershenzon was a translator on the front line, a non-military person. But after the death of the battalion commander, he found the strength to lead the soldiers into an attack and died, struck by machine gun fire, having managed to scribble a note saying that he was happy to accept such a worthy death.

Mikhail Abramovich wrote good books, gave us amazing translations, and remained on the pages of his works in riddles and scientific experiments. His talented works still excite the minds of readers today and force them to solve fascinating puzzles that are so close to us.

Cheerful artist

Artists Game

Artists love to play this game. Everyone takes a pencil and a sheet of paper, lines the sheet into 20 cells. The host of the game makes a list of 20 words in advance. Everyone is ready, pencils in hand. The leader calls out the words, counting to three after each word. While he is counting, all players must have time to draw this word in one of the memory cells using any drawing they like. Let the drawing be incomprehensible to others - as long as the player can then repeat in order all the named objects and concepts. Whoever manages to remember the most wins and leads next game. Sometimes one stroke is enough to remember a word. Here sample list: window, fire, lamp, hare, man, sun, breath, grate, light, book, rain, smoke, rabbit, class, fire, joke, boat, magnet, steam, lightning. This is a difficult list. You can think of something easier.

"Mixedness"

There is such a funny book - “Mixedness”. In this book, the drawings of animals are confused just like the words in the title “Confusion.” Imagine an animal with the head of a crocodile and the legs of a rooster. Or an elephant's head is set on a fish tail. These types of “mixes” are a lot of fun to play.

Take each a strip of paper, fold each strip into three parts.

So I drew the head of a giraffe, folded a third of the strip so that it was not visible whose head I drew, and marked it with two dots on the second third, where the neck ends. Then I pass it on to my neighbor. He draws someone's torso, bends it and passes it on to his neighbor. He draws legs.

So everyone passes on the drawings they have started to each other, and immediately after we unroll the strips, we have the funniest zoo in the world ready.

Miraculous transformations

Do you want to amuse your little brother or sister? Cut three identical strips of thick paper. On two stripes, draw whatever you want: for example, a giraffe on one, a girl on the other. Fold both strips in half. Glue the bottom half of the first picture to the top half of the second, and glue the free halves onto the third strip.

You hold the trick card in your hand so that the giraffe is visible. Then with a quick movement you fold back the middle flap - and suddenly the giraffe turns into a girl.

If you get the hang of it, it will be completely unnoticeable how one pattern gives way to another.

Five points

Here's a piece of paper with five dots on it. I put them in no order, at random. And you must draw a little man so that two dots are on his hands, two dots are on his legs. And a person’s nose should be where the fifth point is.

There are several clowns drawn in this way. The small cells show how the points were located. It can be seen that points can be used in different ways.

You don't need to be an artist at all to play this game. But artists love to play “five points.”

It's a lot of fun when several people play five dots. One of the players puts several sheets of paper together and pierces the entire packet in five places with a pin. Then the dots will be located equally on all sheets of paper. But the “artists” do not have the right to look at each other, and so the figures have different positions. You can even give bonuses to those who make better use of the location of the points.

Another game

This is a very simple game. Everyone sits in a circle. One of the players is in the middle. He points to someone and says:

– Name five objects yellow color!

– Name five blue objects!

So he goes through different colors. Anyone who cannot remember five objects of the named color in one minute leaves the game.

Tangram

Tangram is old game. Cut out three squares from paper of different colors. Glue them onto cardboard and cut each square along a ruler as shown in the picture. Here are a few figurines from the wonderful country of Tangram. Make them up from your colorful pieces. You will probably come up with many new figures that are not in this picture.

C'mon, no mistakes!

I sat and drew all day, but I only had one piece of paper. Do you think you can’t draw enough on one piece of paper? I put twenty different things here. Here, try, find them all, just without any mistakes!

With one stroke

These funny drawings are drawn with one stroke of the pen. Can you draw like that?

One line

Draw each of these shapes with one continuous line, without lifting the pencil from the paper or drawing the lines twice.

Two dogs

There are two sick dogs drawn here. Make four strokes so that the dogs immediately recover and run.

Three rabbits

Here are three earless rabbits and three ears. Draw them on a piece of paper, cut them out and fold them so that each rabbit has two ears.

Three lizards

Three lizards were basking on the sand. I drew them. And then I thought: which distance is greater - from the top nose to the middle nose or from the middle nose to the bottom nose?

First, answer at random, by eye, and then take a ruler and check.

I know in advance: you will think that there is some kind of trick here. But that won't help you. You'll still be wrong.

Optical illusions

You can't do anything here without a ruler. We'll have to measure, measure, measure. Otherwise, how can you check whether your eyes are telling the truth?

To tell you a secret, the eyes lie quite a bit.

Are these lines straight or curved?

Which of the lower lines is a continuation of the upper one?

Is this figure much larger in height than in width?

Which straight line segment is longer, the top or the bottom?

Which figure is larger - the top or the bottom?

Is the right gate obscured by this telegraph pole?

Look at this drawing from a distance - it will seem to you that these are real honeycombs - regular hexagons. But these are the right mugs!

sea ​​lions

It would be more correct to call these animals “sea jugglers” because they can easily be taught to juggle balls. You've probably seen these amazing animals at the circus. They throw balls and catch them on the tip of their noses, and crawl with the ball on their noses from one stand to another.

Rotate this picture in front of your eyes with quick, short movements. The ball will immediately spin quickly on the nose of this sea juggler.

Are they laughing or angry?

These clowns are always fighting. You’ll never understand whether they’re friends or not. All you can hear is:

– I don’t mess with you!

- Let's make it up!

- Well, you’re not fooling around, and there’s no need.

-Will you hang out with me?

- Water flows in the river.

So I drew them like this: if you look at the drawing, they’re all over the place, if you turn them upside down, they quarrel again.

Upside down

When you look at these letters and numbers, it seems that their upper and lower halves are exactly the same.

Come on, turn that line upside down!

Where is the horse?

The horse is not a needle, but will go into the thicket - it is not easy to find it. Come on, try, find her!

Ten or nine?

Draw ten sticks of the same size on a piece of paper, at the same distance from each other - as in the picture. Place a ruler on this drawing and draw a straight line so that it passes through the upper end of the first stick and through the lower end of the last. Cut the sheet along this line and move the halves together as shown in the picture. How many sticks are there now? Where did the tenth go?

There are eleven sticks in the picture, arranged in a circle. Carefully redraw this drawing, cut out a circle and stick a pin into its center. Turn the circle a little bit and instead of eleven sticks there will be ten.

Snakes and mouse

One mouse, but many snakes. How can she get to her hole? She is afraid of getting snakes in her eyes. You have to choose a road so that the snakes don’t notice it. A mouse runs quietly - which way?

Double drawings

Look below and you will see a strange drawing. There is no way to make out what is drawn here. Either a squirrel or a bird.

Cut out of thick paper exactly the same lattice as in the picture. Put the bars on the picture. Move the grate down a little and you will see a squirrel. Move it a little more and you will see a bird.

Using this grid, you yourself can draw such double pictures.

Living shadows

Of course, you have a table lamp. And there is a wall if you are sitting at home. And nothing else is needed to organize a game of living shadows.

If there is dark wallpaper on the wall, pin up a sheet of white paper or a sheet. Sit between the lamp and the wall and show the shadows. The lamp should be low - at the height of your hands.

Choose any animal, any bird. Learn to fold your fingers, as in the picture on the right, and on a white screen you will get the shadow of a bunny, goat, pig, wolf, rooster, man.

Move your fingers and the shadows come to life. The bunny will lower his ears, the dog will open his mouth. The dog swallows a tasty morsel: first he opened his mouth, then slammed it shut. And on the next page the swan is swimming, moving its wings, bending its head towards the water.

If you hold your hand closer to the lamp, the shadow will be larger; if you hold your hand further from the lamp, closer to the screen, the shadow is clearer, blacker and smaller.

This can be used perfectly. Look how the rider gallops. The left hand is further from the screen, its shadow is large. And the right one is closer to the screen, and the rider seems small. A piece of cardboard held between the fingers is a rider's hat. The lace is a bridle.

Here, for example, is a cook who is trying the soup he has just cooked. A chef's hat, a saucepan and a bottle are cut out of cardboard. The right hand is far from the screen - a large head appears in the shadow. The left one is right next to the screen. Things stand on a narrow table or on a board. Cut out a cap about the size of your palm. The cook opens his mouth, you pass the spoon past your right hand, and in the shadow it looks like the cook has tasted his soup. Move the little finger and ring finger of your right hand so that everyone can see that the cook likes the treat.

And now we will show how an angler catches fish.

Cut out the following figures from thick paper: a hat, a pan, a shoe and a fish. Make a fishing rod from wire. Roll the wire into a ring at one end; The ring should be of such a size that it fits snugly on your thumb. Tie a thread with a hook made of a pin to the other end of the fishing rod. Make a boat from a plank or a strip of cardboard. Lean it against a book on the edge of the table.

Fold the fingers of your right hand as in the picture to create a fisherman in the shadow; Hold the hat between your middle and index fingers. Place the rod ring on your thumb. Move this finger so that the fisherman does not sit idle. Your left hand is free. You can use it under the table to put a pan, a shoe, or a fish on a hook.

Well, what did you find there? Fish? The fisherman is happy. You move your fingers a little, and everyone can see how happy he is with a good catch. But how sadly he shakes his head when he sees that there is a shoe on the hook!

Shadow theater

We were already playing shadow theater when the cook was preparing dinner or the fisherman was fishing. But the main actors there were our hands. We only took cardboard and all sorts of small things to help our hands.

But it’s possible for all the actors to be made of cardboard.

Let's stretch the sheet over the door between the two rooms; We will block the lower part of the door with a sheet of plywood. The audience sits in a dark room. The shadow theater operates in the light theater. The lamp is three or four steps from the screen.

The figures can be made movable. We will cut out their parts from cardboard and connect them with rivets from nylon fishing line (read how to do this on p. 105). Let's attach wires or threads to the parts of our actors so that we can control their movements.

Here, for example, are figures of geese that shake their heads: they are pecking at grain. The body of the goose is fixed on a block. The head and neck rotate on a rivet. The wire is attached to the neck; If you pull the wire, the goose will bend its head.

Here are the figures of people: a violinist plays the violin, an old man feeds his dog, a hammerman raises and lowers his hammer. Try putting on a whole shadow play. You need to start with the simplest. It is very easy to stage the fairy tale “Turnip” in a shadow theater.

Shadow portraits

Sit a friend between the lamp and the wall so that a clear, regular shadow falls on the wall. You can find a position so that the dark silhouette on the wall looks exactly like your comrade: the comrade has a snub nose - and the shadow has a snub nose; The comrade has a tuft on his forehead - and a tuft on his shadow. Pin a large piece of paper to the wall and draw this silhouette. Of course, the comrade must sit quietly for two minutes.

If you cut out your drawing and paste it on paper of a different color, you will get a great portrait.

Landscapes of moss and sand

Collect and dry between old newspapers, pressed against books, more moss different types. You can glue very beautiful landscapes onto cardboard from thin branches of moss. Prepare more sand of different colors: run glue over the cardboard, sprinkle it with sand - you’ll get a sandy path between the trees.

“On horseback!”

Redraw these two dejected horses on one piece of paper, and these riders on another. Do not rotate the figures: redraw them exactly as they are located here.

The command is heard: “On horseback!”

Place the riders on horses, so that the horses gallop dashingly.

Bird in a cage

Draw an empty cage on a piece of paper, and a bird a few millimeters from the cage. How to put this bird in a cage?

Take half a postcard and place it between the bird and the cage, perpendicular to the piece of paper. Touch your nose to the edge of the card and look with one eye at the bird, the other at the cage; in one moment it will seem to you that the bird has moved and entered the cage.

However, you don’t need to draw anything. We have both a cage and a bird here. Take a postcard and look. Just stand in front of the light so that the shadow of the postcard does not fall on the drawing.

Cyclist and locomotive

Have you ever seen a cyclist chasing a steam locomotive? Look at the wheels, lightly rotate this page before your eyes - this is how the race will begin, just hold on!

Be careful not to get run over!

Optical illusion

Take three strips of white paper of the same length; one of them should be twice as narrow as the others.

Cross two wide strips in the shape of the letter “X”, and at the intersection of them place a vertical narrow one. It will appear longer than wide stripes.

This experience will be especially effective if white stripes are placed on black paper or fabric.

Now try to arrange the strips in the shape of the letter “I” so that the narrow strip lies obliquely between the two wide ones. This time she will seem shorter to you than her neighbors.

Second optical illusion

Turn a piece of thick white paper into a grid like the one in the picture.

Cut out a narrow strip with strictly straight edges from thin cardboard and secure it with a pin, like on an axis, in one of the corners of the lattice.

If you turn the strip so that it is almost perpendicular to the bars, it will still appear to be bounded by two straight lines. But if we tilt it lower, these lines will break, and it will seem to us that the segments that are visible through the slits are not at all a continuation of each other.

In our drawing, the third, bottom stripe seems so broken that you want to take a ruler and check whether its edges are really straight lines!

Third optical illusion

Look at the strip shown on the next page on the left, placing it in front of you at a distance of at least 3 m. This strip is painted so that the black color gradually turns into white; in shape it is an elongated rectangle. Despite the fact that the edges of this strip are strictly parallel, it will seem to you widened in its white part and narrowed in its black part. Instead of a rectangle, it looks like a trapezoid.

Now let's put this strip on another, wide strip, colored in the same way, but put it so that the white part of the narrow strip lies on the dark part of the wide one. The optical illusion will instantly disappear, and the narrow strip will turn back into a regular rectangle.

Try to prepare such strips of paper in an enlarged size, then the optical illusion will be even more striking.

Compass or eye?

Take a compass and draw several concentric circles. But do not press the pencil to the paper along the entire length of the circles, but only on a small part of each circle, so that these arcs, located on different circles, lie in a “tile”, slightly covering one another.

When you look at such a drawing, it seems that if we continue our arcs, their extensions will intersect at one point

Take a compass, check it, and make sure that your eyes have deceived you.

Put the compass down and again you can’t believe that these arcs are parallel.

Who is right, the compass or the eye?

This optical illusion will be even brighter if you draw our simple drawing larger, on a large sheet of paper.

Live picture

When a picture hangs on the wall, it soon becomes boring: nothing changes in it, it is always the same.

We will make a live picture. If we want, everything in her will change.

Draw several figures with colored pencils, such as here in the picture, and several objects - a hoop, an umbrella, a stick, a ball. Cut out the acrobat jugglers and the things they juggle.

Cover the board with a piece of cloth - it is best to take a piece of paper or cloth for this; Or you can stick it on cardboard and just a strip of sandpaper (sandpaper).

Arrange the cut out figures on the fabric as you please. Cover them with glass on top and tie the board and glass together with two laces. Hang it on the wall.

If you get tired of this picture, arrange the figures differently: the acrobats will show a new act. Every day they will give a new performance.

Spiral? No, not a spiral

Without a compass, you won’t believe that these are perfect circles. It seems to be a spiral, just like the curls on a snail shell. Take a compass and check it - you will see how your eyes deceive you. And here the correct circles are drawn, both here and here.

It is not the artist’s fault that the circles are crumpled, flattened and crooked. It's only your eyes that are to blame - ask the compass, he will tell you.

Don't believe your eyes. These circles were drawn by a good draftsman, but a very cunning one.

Who is taller?

Of the three people pictured on the next page, who is taller? If you believe your eyes - No. 3, right?

Take a ruler, measure all three, and you will see that you are being deceived by a visual illusion. No. 1 is above all. He is 2mm taller than No. 3, who strides ahead.

This picture was drawn in violation of the rules of perspective. Our eyes are accustomed to the fact that objects become smaller as they move away; That's why we decided that No. 3, the furthest from us, should be larger than No. 2 and No. 1, which are in the foreground.

Strange city

A very cunning artist painted this picture. All the buildings and towers were tilted, as if an earthquake had passed. They're about to fall apart.

But if you take a strip of thick paper, cut it out exactly as in the picture, make a pea-sized window in it and put it in the place indicated in the picture, and then look through this window, the walls will straighten out and you will see great view medieval city. You will see that the houses are not flat, as always in the picture, but three-dimensional, as in a stereoscope.

Bend the strip to make a stand. The stand should lie exactly on the place indicated in red.

At the end of the sections of this book you will be able to find answers to some of the most difficult problems. Just don’t rush to give up right away, try to think carefully yourself.

« Math puzzles Professor Stewart" - a collection of amazing stories, puzzles, curiosities, jokes and exciting mathematical facts that arouse curiosity, teach, surprise and delight.
It turns out that tossing a coin is an unfair lot, and the mussels are located on the stones in a strictly defined way. The reader will learn why we think our friends have more friends than we do, why the bubbles in a glass of Guinness move down instead of up, how to play poker by mail, and much, much more.
Sunday Telegraph

What is the book "Professor Stewart's Mathematical Puzzles" about?

Why Professor Stewart's Mathematical Puzzles is Worth Reading

• Ian Stewart introduces the reader to the world of mathematics, fascinatingly talking about puzzles, problems, hypotheses and the authors of the proofs - famous mathematicians.
• The reader can test his strength and solve simple and complex problems. The correct answers are given at the end of the book.
• The book is in the top 100 in the Math Games section on Amazon.

about the author

Professor Ian Stewart — famous popularizer of mathematics, awarded a number of the highest international academic awards. In 2001 he became a member of the Royal Society of London. Honorary Professor at the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Warwick, where he is engaged in both scientific research in the field of nonlinear dynamics and the popularization of mathematics.

From the editor

Fascinating undertakings and insidious logical problems, tricks and homemade products, interesting observations and unusual notes - all this is an integral part of the wonderful books prepared and written by Mikhail Abramovich Gershenzon (1900–1942). In the afterword to one of his collections, the author wrote: “This book has different ideas - both easy and difficult, choose what you want. If you can’t handle it yourself, ask your elders to help you. Adults, in truth, also love all sorts of undertakings, but they have forgotten what they did for fun when they were children...”

These words, which were spoken many years ago, are actually relevant today. Solving riddles, unraveling puzzles and quests that develop memory and logic, force you to come up with innovative solutions and expand your horizons is an exciting pastime. How useful and interesting it is sometimes to puzzle over a complex problem, and how much joy and delight its correct solution brings!

M.A. Gershenzon was a highly educated man, worked as an editor of children's literature, translated, and was fond of English songs and ballads. In his translation and adaptation, we first became acquainted with “The Tales of Uncle Remus,” which are still loved by young readers. He also wrote the books “The Happy Hour”, “Only How Much”, “Know-It-All Riddles” and others.

During his short life, Mikhail Abramovich managed to do a lot: edit, write, translate - and died, like his beloved hero Robin Hood. During the Great Patriotic War, M.A. Gershenzon was a translator on the front line, a non-military person. But after the death of the battalion commander, he found the strength to lead the soldiers into an attack and died, struck by machine gun fire, having managed to scribble a note saying that he was happy to accept such a worthy death.

Mikhail Abramovich wrote good books, gave us amazing translations, and remained on the pages of his works in riddles and scientific experiments. His talented works still excite the minds of readers today and force them to solve fascinating puzzles that are so close to us.

Cheerful artist

Artists Game

Artists love to play this game. Everyone takes a pencil and a sheet of paper, lines the sheet into 20 cells. The host of the game makes a list of 20 words in advance. Everyone is ready, pencils in hand. The leader calls out the words, counting to three after each word. While he is counting, all players must have time to draw this word in one of the memory cells using any drawing they like. Let the drawing be incomprehensible to others - as long as the player can then repeat in order all the named objects and concepts. Whoever manages to remember the most wins and leads the next game. Sometimes one stroke is enough to remember a word. Here is a sample list: window, fire, lamp, hare, man, sun, breath, grate, light, book, rain, smoke, rabbit, class, fire, joke, boat, magnet, steam, lightning. This is a difficult list. You can think of something easier.

"Mixedness"

There is such a funny book - “Mixedness”. In this book, the drawings of animals are confused just like the words in the title “Confusion.” Imagine an animal with the head of a crocodile and the legs of a rooster. Or an elephant's head is set on a fish tail. These types of “mixes” are a lot of fun to play.

Take each a strip of paper, fold each strip into three parts.

So I drew the head of a giraffe, folded a third of the strip so that it was not visible whose head I drew, and marked it with two dots on the second third, where the neck ends. Then I pass it on to my neighbor. He draws someone's torso, bends it and passes it on to his neighbor. He draws legs.

So everyone passes on the drawings they have started to each other, and immediately after we unroll the strips, we have the funniest zoo in the world ready.

Miraculous transformations

Do you want to amuse your little brother or sister? Cut three identical strips of thick paper. On two stripes, draw whatever you want: for example, a giraffe on one, a girl on the other. Fold both strips in half. Glue the bottom half of the first picture to the top half of the second, and glue the free halves onto the third strip.

You hold the trick card in your hand so that the giraffe is visible. Then with a quick movement you fold back the middle flap - and suddenly the giraffe turns into a girl.

If you get the hang of it, it will be completely unnoticeable how one pattern gives way to another.

Five points

Here's a piece of paper with five dots on it. I put them in no order, at random. And you must draw a little man so that two dots are on his hands, two dots are on his legs. And a person’s nose should be where the fifth point is.

There are several clowns drawn in this way. The small cells show how the points were located. It can be seen that points can be used in different ways.

You don't need to be an artist at all to play this game. But artists love to play “five points.”

It's a lot of fun when several people play five dots. One of the players puts several sheets of paper together and pierces the entire packet in five places with a pin. Then the dots will be located equally on all sheets of paper. But the “artists” do not have the right to look at each other, and so the figures have different positions. You can even give bonuses to those who make better use of the location of the points.

Biography

Born in Odessa in the family of a pediatrician and his wife Bella Gershenzon. He graduated from high school in Odessa and studied for three years in the natural sciences department. Having become interested in literature, in 1921 he entered the. Upon graduation in 1925, he was left at the institute for scientific work, conducted a workshop on stanzas there, and prepared for publication the books “Composition of Poetic Material” and “Theory of Literary Translation” (due to the closure of the VLHI, they remained unpublished). Member since 1934. Worked as an editor of children's literature in, then in Detgiz.

Creativity and translations of books by foreign authors

“The name of Mikhail Abramovich Gershenzon can be safely put on the cover of “The Tales of Uncle Remus” next to the name of Joel Harris.<…>It is no longer possible to imagine Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Mother Meadows, Brer Turtle and other fairy tale characters differently than they exist in Gershenzon.”

On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War

Since July 1941 political worker, translator. On August 8, 1942 he was seriously wounded in battle and soon died in hospital.

Gershenzon, who retold the ballads of Robin Hood in prose, was an admirer of Byron and Shelley as individuals. In 1942 he died in the Great Patriotic War, died like Robin Hood. He was a military translator, that is, a completely unmilitary man, and when the battalion commander was killed, he ran forward, raised a revolver or some kind of weapon, said: “Forward, follow me!”, and the people followed him, soldiers. He died as a hero, having managed to write to his wife the words that he was happy that he had accepted a dignified death. A completely Robin Hood romantic situation. (