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The Long Way Around

A letter appears, tilted or upside down, half the time mirror-reversed. Say if it’s the true letter or its mirror. The further it’s spun, the longer you take, because your mind turns it back, degree by degree. WIZ times the turn.

A single letter will flash up, rotated to some angle. Half the time it is the true letter; half the time it is its mirror image, flipped left-to-right.

Your only job: decide normal or mirror, ignoring how far it’s been spun. Answer as fast as you can while staying right.

Twenty-four quick letters, about two minutes. You’ll feel yourself slow down as they lean further from upright. That slowdown is the point: WIZ measures exactly how many milliseconds each degree of rotation costs you.

🧙wiz, before you start

Nothing takes me longer upside down than upright. I read a letter and its mirror as two lists of the same points, one with its handedness flipped, and I check a single bit: do the corners wind the same way or the opposite way. You are about to do the stranger thing, to answer a question about a still picture by setting it moving and turning it, slowly, through a space only you have.

About two minutes. Actually rotate each letter upright in your mind rather than snap-guessing. Nothing is recorded or leaves this page.

How fast you rotate swings with the shape, with practice, with which way you turn it, and with how hard you’re trying. This is a toy for wonder, not a spatial-reasoning exam. Nothing is recorded, nothing leaves this page.

by Pawel Jozefiak

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