TRICKY TURNOVER
Perform this stunt for friends after dining, either in a restaurant or at home. You need three empty glasses; water glasses are ideal. If three empty ones aren’t available, you can usually pour any excess water into a fourth glass.
Place the glasses in a row, the two outside glasses mouth down and the middle glass mouth up.
“Let’s see how observant you are. Watch carefully: three moves, two glasses each time.”
Here are the three moves:
(1) Rim over the glass on your left and the middle glass.
(2) Cross your arms and turn over the glasses on the ends. There’s no special reason for crossing your arms; it’s just traditional.
(3) Again, turn over the glass on your left and the middle glass.
“There you are. All three glasses are now mouth up. Anybody want to try it?”
Those who attempt it will probably fail. After a bit, you should demonstrate the moves again. But others, unless they’re extremely observant, will fail once more.
After further demonstrations, some may eventually figure out what a sneak you are. You always start with the outside glasses mouth down, and the middle glass mouth up. But you make sure that participants are faced with the exact opposite: the outside glasses are mouth up and the middle glass is mouth down. In this position, there is no way the feat can be accomplished.
THREE COINS ON A TABLE
Place three coins in a row on a table so that they touch each other. Starting at your right, number the coins, “Here are coins 1, 2, and 3. Question: Can you move coin 1 to the middle position? Of course, there are a few restrictions. The coin in the middle can be touched, but not moved. And coin number 3 can be moved but not touched any more than it is already.”
Spectators will have an extremely tough time with this one. But you, being a natural-born trickster, can do it easily. Hold down the middle coin firmly with the second finger of your left hand. Move coin number 1 several inches to the right. Swiftly slide it back, smacking it against the middle coin. The middle coin won’t move, but the energy of the collision will be transferred to coin 3, which moves to your left. Place coin 1 between the two others.
If you want to be tricky with this stunt, make a show of hitting the side of the ring. Then quickly do it the correct way shown via the above link.
TIE A KNOT WITHOUT LETTING GO
Here is a physical puzzle that kids and adults will have fun trying to figure out. Start with two people. Tie each person’s hands together with a long string as shown, and have the strings cross each other, so that the two people are linked together. Tie the string around the wrists somewhat loosely. The puzzle is for the two players to figure out how to unlink themselves, without breaking the strings or removing them from their wrists.
See link for solution.
