Sliding Puzzles

The sliding puzzles you see here make stuff appear or disappear, only by moving pieces. There are two kinds : the ones that make things disappear like a Chinese warrior or a leprechaun, and the ones that change the size of a surface (the vanishing area). How can that be ? For starters, have a look at The Vanishing Leprechaun elsewhere on this page. Incredible, don't you think ? It works on the principle of the following image.

Increeeeeedible ! First there are four block ... then there are three ! Okay, this is an extreme example, but this is how it works. Every leprechaun, or Chinese warrior, get a little piece extra ... so one can disappear. Just like the blocks, but not as obvious.

Now look at the disappearing area puzzles on this page. Do you understand how it's possible ? They're really the same pieces, you can print them and cut out the pieces if you don't believe it. The trick is : not all sides of the area are perfectly straight. This is the first image of the vanishing area.

The blue line is perfectly straight ... in other words, the figure is curving inwards a little. If the pieces are rearranged as in the second figure, the curving will be just the opposite (outwards), making enought room for an empty square.