TEN WAYS TO WIN BY ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE
AMAZING FACTS ABOUT SUPERHEROES
• In the 1940s there was a comic book superhero called the Green Lama who was a practising Buddhist and could reincarnate at will.
• Marvel’s ‘Wolverine’ was going to be called ‘Badger’.
• The Incredible Hulk was originally grey. It was difficult to print the same shade of grey consistently, however, and so he was soon rebranded as green.
• Batman’s real name, Bruce Wayne, was inspired by two historical figures: the Scottish king Robert the Bruce and American Revolutionary war general Anthony Wayne.
• William Marston invented the lie-detecting polygraph and also created Wonder Woman, thus explaining why her Golden Lasso forces people to tell the truth.
HOW TO CLIMB THROUGH A POSTCARD
Bet your friend that you can climb through a postcard. When they accept the bet, fold the card in half and cut along these vertical lines, making sure that you cut both sides of the fold.
Then unfold the postcard and cut along the dotted line, being careful not to cut through the ends of the card.
Now, when you carefully pull on the ends it will open out to form a ring that you can climb through.
The world’s first postcard was created and sent by Englishman Theodore Hook in 1840. Hook addressed the card to himself, and it was meant as a practical joke on the postal service because it depicts postal workers as mindless scribes. In 2002, Hook’s groundbreaking postcard sold for an amazing £31,750.
Theodore Hook also created one of the most amazing bets of the entire nineteenth century. In 1810, Hook bet a friend that within a week he could transform any London house into the most talked-about address in the city. His friend accepted the bet and chose a small house in London’s Berners Street as their target.
Hook sent out hundreds of letters requesting deliveries to the house, and within days the house was receiving an endless stream of tradespeople, including sweeps, cake makers, lawyers, priests, fishmongers, shoemakers, and piano tuners. In his next wave of letters Hook invited various dignitaries to tea at the house, resulting in visitations from the Governor of the Bank of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Mayor of London. This mass of activity created complete chaos, and the police were eventually called to prevent people from visiting the house. Hook monitored the whole affair from the house opposite, delighted that he had won his outrageous bet.
X MARKS THE SPOT
Take a piece of cardboard and place an ‘X’ on each side.
Tell your friend that you are going to drop the cardboard on a table, and they will win if it lands ‘X’ side up. Before you drop the cardboard, fold it into an L-shape, and then it will always land on its edge and you will win the bet.
TRAPPED
Put a rubber band over your first and middle fingers, and then use another band to link your fingers together like this.
Now tell your friend that you can move the first band to your third and fourth fingers but without removing the other band. To win the bet, just stretch the band out like this …
… then place your four fingers inside and when you open your hand the band will have jumped across.
In 1923, American William Spencer was annoyed because his local newspaper tended to fall apart and the pages would blow down the street. Spencer sliced some rubber inner tubes into circular strips, and persuaded local printers to wrap the bands around their newspapers. The scheme worked well and Spencer started to sell his newfangled ‘rubber bands’ across the region. Today, Spencer’s company – Alliance Rubber – manufactures more than 6 million kilograms of rubber bands each year.
KNOT IMPOSSIBLE
Give your friend a piece of rope or string, and challenge them to hold the ends and tie a knot in the string without letting go. When they give up, place the string on the table, cross your arms, then grip the ends of the string and tie a knot by uncrossing your arms.
When you fold your arms you are actually tying them in a knot. Then, when you grasp the ends of the rope it becomes an extension of your arms, and when you unfold your arms you transfer the knot from your arms to the rope.
BLOWN APART
Place one plastic cup inside another and challenge your friend to separate the cups without touching them.
To win the bet, just blow into the area between the two cups and they will fly apart.
THE BIG HOP
Place two chairs in the middle of the floor and tell your friend that you are going to take off your shoes and hop over them.
When your friend accepts the bet, take off your shoes and hop over your shoes!
MONKEYING AROUND
Bet your friend that you can show them something that no human has ever seen before, nor will ever see again. When they accept the bet, take a monkey nut out of your pocket and open it. No human has ever seen that particular nut before. Next, pop it into your mouth and eat it. Now no human will ever see it again!
Peanuts are not nuts but rather a type of legume – that is, a plant with seeds that grow inside pods (think peas or beans). Whereas nuts grow on trees, peanuts grow underground.
THE PEN THAT WRITES ANY COLOUR
Bet your friend that you have a pen that can write any colour.
When they accept the bet, ask them to name a colour. If, for example, they say ‘red’, then simply write the word ‘RED’! Your pen can write any colour and so you win the bet.
LINKED AT BIRTH
This bet involves a banknote and two paper clips.
Fold the note into a zigzag and place the paper clips on it like this.
Now tell your friend that you are going to flick the paper clips off the note and when the paper clips land they will be touching one another. You will win the bet, because when you pull the sides of the banknote the two paper clips will fly off and land linked together!
TEA TOWEL TO CHICKEN
Ask your friend if it’s possible to transform a tea towel into a chicken. When they say no, lay out a tea towel, roll up each of the shorter sides of the towel until they meet in the centre …
… and then fold it in half. Pull out each of the four corners …
… and then grasp two of the corners in one hand and the other two in the other hand. Pull hard and suddenly you have a chicken!
If your friend struggles to see the chicken, explain that highly imaginative people also tend to be very intelligent.