A New Puzzle
Tugboat Thompson, the illegitimate grandson son of Titanic Thompson, is hustling suckers. Unlike his famous grandfather, who made and lost a fortune playing golf, Tugboat makes his money playing ping pong.
His favourite swindle is to play an average game against his opponent, losing the match. He then offers a large bet on the next game. Not only that, he’ll play left handed instead of right handed.
Little does the mark know, Tugboat is actually a southpaw and plays better with his left hand.
It’s down to the final point when disaster strikes. The ball flies off the table and down a small hole in the concrete floor.
The hole is only 20cm deep but it is only 5cm wide. The ball is plainly visible but there is no way to get it out by hand.
The sucker is just about to call the game off when Tugboat makes an odd claim.
“I reckon I get that ball out.”
“What have you got? A coathanger? BBQ tongs?”
“Nothing. I’m gonna reach down and pick it up.”
“What are you going to use?”
“Nothing. Just what god gave me.”
“And you think you can pick the ball up?”
“Sure can. In fact, I’m willing to make a $100 side bet I can do it.”
“Deal!”
A few minutes later, Tugboat is $100 richer.
How did he do it?
Mister PP - Funniest man with ping pong balls
5 Comments to
Years of water polo taught me the value of friction when picking up a ball, you only have to apply pressure to 2 semi opposing points to enable enough grip for lift, but in the absence of 20cm fingers hmmmmmmmmm so would this me more related to the piece of paper in the neck of the bottle thing?
The fingers would need to be very skinny too! The paper in the bottle won’t help.
Does “Mister “”PP”"” have anything to do with the nasty solution?
thanks for the idea KiKeNiCo, if you poured enough water down the hole (and assuming that the water did not leak through the concrete) the ping pong ball would float out of the hole by itself.
And you know what they say about a man with 20 cm fingers … he has a hard time buying gloves.
There it is. Sammy W wins.
Titanic pees down the hole until the ping pong ball floats to the top.