wu :: forums - Print Page


    
      
        wu :: forums
        (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi)
      

        riddles >> hard >> Save the TSA!  Solve this puzzle!
        
(Message started by: ecoist on Oct 2^nd, 2007, 9:06pm)

Title: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by ecoist on Oct 2^nd, 2007, 9:06pm

According to the TSA, Carol Anne Gotbaum somehow stangled herself to death while handcuffed behind her back! http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers72.html

Solve the following puzzle. Take a strip of paper 12 inches long and hold its ends in front of you with both hands. Now, without releasing either of your hands from the strip, and without stepping through your arms, get your hands and the strip behind your back.

This is not a play on words; no dirty tricks involved. A fat person from India showed me how to do it with a 6 inch strip of paper many years ago. Now at age 75, I can no longer do it with a strip only 12 inches long. Preteens can do it almost with their fingers touching and no strip of paper!

(Edit: Sorry. I forgot the important restriction from stepping through your arms. You have to find a way to get your arms over your head and then behind you. Too bad, solving this puzzle will not save the TSA!)

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by srn347 on Oct 2^nd, 2007, 9:19pm

move it above the head or under the feet. Paper doesn't work though, since it'll tear.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by Noke Lieu on Oct 2^nd, 2007, 10:01pm

on 10/02/07 at 21:06:48, ecoist wrote:

Huh.
Not sure there's much puzzle in this, as it is written.
I can link my fingers together, and rotate my hands from the back of my head round the front of my body to all the way past my lower back. And it's been a while since I was a pre-teen.

Either way, I doubt it really belongs in Hard....

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by srn347 on Oct 2^nd, 2007, 10:13pm

general problem solving.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by ecoist on Oct 20^th, 2007, 8:47pm

With all due respect, Noke Lieu, I don't believe you!

Hint: [hide]in the solution I know, only one arm goes over the head.[/hide]

Although I've lost some flexibility in my wrists and hands, I can still perform the trick with one of my socks, about 15 inches from toe to top.

If I am not misstaken, this puzzle is an example of rubber sheet geometry, an offshoot of topology.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by Ghost Sniper on Oct 23^rd, 2007, 4:59am

How far down do you have to go? If you only have to go down to the neck, then this riddle is very simple. Otherwise, I can't do it, and I should be able to. :P

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by ecoist on Oct 23^rd, 2007, 10:25am

Right, Ghost Sniper! That's why I posted in Hard! Everyone I've given the puzzle to said, "I can't do it"! When someone posts a solution, you "should be able to"! Begin with the paper in front of you, like you are reading the message from a fortune cookie. End with the paper behind you, ready to sit on it.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by towr on Oct 23^rd, 2007, 10:43am

Well, I managed it with a piece of string tied to my fingers (some 30 cm)
It's harder with a strip of paper, of course, but I'd assume it's the same principle..

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by Pheasant on Nov 16^th, 2007, 4:52pm

Nice one! Took me a while, but once you figured out the right movements it works quick and nicely.

To find out how to do it, I found that it helped a lot to start with your arms behind your back and doing it the other way round.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by ecoist on Nov 16^th, 2007, 8:16pm

Right, Pheasant! I gave the problem to a librarian who had no idea what to do, but when I suggested trying to do it back to front, she solved it immediately! Still couldn't do it front to back, though. Just needs a little more time, I guess.

Title: Re: Save the TSA! Solve this puzzle!
Post by tiber13 on Nov 20^th, 2007, 4:04am

the best part of this riddle is watching people squirm trying to figure it out.

Oh, i did it with an unsharpened pencil, 20 centimeters (8 inches)