Logic

### Cold Open

Jason Silva: "Every day, you use your problem solving skills to get things done. From dressing for the weather, choosing the best route to work, or deciding what to eat for dinner. Regardless of the choices you make, you spend a good chunk of your life figuring out if something makes sense, or not. Your brain uses a very specific reasoning process to make sense of the world. It's called logic. Whether you realize it or not, logic underlies more of your world than you might think."

### Questions

Just how logical are you?

Is there any instance where logic works against you?

## Games

### Game #1: Illogical?

Can Eric Leclerc make a cup with water move without touching it?

Result: No, but he did seem to trick you when he crumpled up the bag with the cup of water in it.

How: So when he moves the cup the first time, he's really just moving a bottomless insert cup meant to be the setup for crumpling the bag later. The cup with water stays in the first bag all the time. Our volunteers kept thinking there was only one cup, but there was really two. So, when he does the teleportation magic, it looks like he moved the cup of water back somehow.

So: Often times the scientific community is challenged by people staking claims of things that defy logic like UFO's, water flowing uphill, or random combustion. However, nothing is really illogical. Logic is rooted in basic cause and effect, even with we can't see each step of that process.

### Game #2: Box

What can you put in a box to make it lighter.

Result: Maybe you got this one, maybe you didn't. The answer is holes.

So: Playing simple logic games like this one can help increase your thinking.

### Game #3: Missing Square

Why is there a missing square when two triangles in a larger triangle are swapped?

Result: Your logic may have failed you, but the yellow triangle is slightly steeper than the blue one. It may seem insignificant, but when the two triangles are swapped, the uneven slopes create a dip or bump, which if you fold it up, gives you the missing square.

So: Your brain loves to find solutions to logical puzzles like this one and you're rewarded with a hit of dopamine.

### Game #4: Simple Logic

Say 50 words in 20 seconds, and play along with volunteers.

Result: You probably failed, but you may have managed to get 10+ words.

Why: Your brain relies on past experience to solve logic puzzles, so unless you've played a similar game before, chances are you didn't do too well and your brain failed to find the logical strategy.

Clue: 50 words. 50 words.

Result: By saying the word form of numbers, it was an easy logic puzzle to do.

So: Using your logic was the only way to solve the puzzle.

### Game #5: Music to My Ears

Is the music always rising in tone?

Result: No, it isn't. It's actually 12 tones repeated.

How: This tone is called the Shepard tone. Each tone you hear is composed of the same key being played multiple times at different volumes. This illusion overwhelms your perceptual system. So your brain chooses the simplest interpretation based on past experience with music and assumes the notes will keep rising even if they don't. Illusionists like Eric Leclerc rely on these incorrect assumptions.

### Game #6: What's in the Bottle?

How do get a pear, deck of cards and scissors inside a bottle? Can you figure out these logic puzzles?

Result: For the pear, it grew inside the bottle. As for the other two, we can't reveal all the secrets.

So: Problem-solving is done by your anterior cingulate cortex(ACC), it's the control center of logic. It takes all of the information you know and tries to come up with a creative solution to puzzles like this one.

### Game #7: Farming Food Fight

Time for the hardest logic test yet. Can you get 3 animals across a river without letting a chicken alone with a fox, or a chicken alone with grain? You can go back and forth as many times as you want.

#### Brain Booster:

On average, how many tasks can your brain focus on at once?

1. A. 2
2. B. 5
3. C. 1

The answer is C. The abilty to multitask is a myth, so automakers have made computer systems that multitask for you.

Result: It seems impossible, as you can't leave the chicken alone with the fox or grain, but if you bring the chicken back and bring the other item over, then you can win this game.

So: Two heads are really better than one. Working together exposes you to more ideas.

### Game #8: Got Your Goat

Move one matchstick to make a goat face a different direction.

Hint: Sometimes you need to look at a problem from another angle.

Result: You may or may not have figured it out.

## List of Experts

* Jim Coan
* Eric Leclerc(Illusionist)