40. Fine Dining
class: closer | impressiveness: 4/5 | factors: novel puzzle, surprising answer | requires: fancy restaurant with tablecloths | watch full episode
We do a variety of puzzles on Scam School, but never one with such an unfair setup, or such a surprising solution…
The Setup: In any restaurant with a tablecloth, place a dime between two nickels and then balance an upside-down glass on the two nickels. For the best effect, have a lot of other stuff around: knives, forks, napkins, sugar packets, straws… the more odds and ends, the better.
The Challenge: Get the dime out from its prison without touching the glass or the coins, and without touching anything with another object.
So no pushing the glass with a straw, and (spoiler alert!) you won’t be able to slide a knife under the glass without accidentally touching it. Some people will try to use a straw to blow the coin out, to no avail. Others will shake the table, but once the glass falls off of the nickels, the dime becomes completely trapped.
I like to add an extra red herring by reminding them they can use “anything on the table“ to make it work. That way, they’ll spend more time focusing on random objects and less time thinking outside the box.
The Payoff: Using your fingernail, scratch at the cloth in front of the coin, and the dime will slowly “walk” its way out of the glass.
No, really: I’m serious. And it looks awesome, to boot.
I’ve noticed that this works best when the tablecloth is a bit loose, and it definitely doesn’t work at all if you have no fingernails.
Watch Demonstration (External link)