Take the bottom end of the long rope and place it alongside the three top ends already in your hand. Make sure it stays in front of the other two ropes as you loop it up. (figure 2)

Repeat this step with the medium rope (making sure passes in front of the short rope but stays behind the long rope. Lastly the third, short rope, which as you loop upwards must stay behind the other two ropes.

You should now have the ropes positioned as shown in figure 3.

With your right hand, counting from left to right of the six ends; take hold of ends 3, 5 and 6 (these are indicated by the orange dots in figure 3). Hold the other three ends tight in your left hand and PULL your hands away from each other.

You should now be left with ‘what appears to be’ three ropes of the same length.

As you can see in figure 4, the secret is that the long and short rope have linked, but this join is easily hidden in the right hand fist.

The beauty of this trick is that once completed; the ropes may be thrown down and examined by any of your friends.