[rookie1ja]

A Ping-Pong Ball in a Hole - Back to the Logic Puzzles
Your last good ping-pong ball fell down into a narrow metal pipe imbedded in concrete one foot deep.
How can you get it out undamaged, if all the tools you have are your tennis paddle, your shoe-laces, and your plastic water bottle, which does not fit into the pipe?

 ball-solution.jpg (3.28K)
Number of downloads: 246296


This topic is locked since it was answered hundreds of times - pls visit section for New Puzzles to see always fresh brain teasers.

Spoiler for Solution

Ball in a Hole - solution
All you have to do is pour some water into the pipe so that the ball swims up on the surface.

Edit:
oysterboy22's wording solution: none of those random things are going to help you, but the whole point is the person thinks they have to use the tools, while what they really have to do is urinate in the hole.

Spoiler for old wording

A table tennis ball (= ping pong ball) fell into a tight deep pipe (amendment: eg. 30 cm long, buried in concrete pavement - having firm metal bottom, only 1 cm of the pipe is above the ground - so it can not be moved). The pipe was only a bit wider than the ball, so you can not use your hand. How would you take it out, with no damage?
 ball-solution.jpg (3.28K)
Number of downloads: 246296

Edit:
There is another more straight forward wording (as posted by oysterboy22)
You are stuck in a room with no windows and no doors.
There is a hole in the floor about a foot deep (ok, half a meter for you non-americans) and just wider than the diameter of a table tennis ball. There is a table tennis ball at the bottom of the hole.
You have a fork, a wrench, and a long, thin plastic wire.
How do you get the ball out of the hole?

[Professor Suckbottom]

Why can't you just suck the ball out?

[rookie1ja]

"Professor Suckbottom":3f627 said:

Why can't you just suck the ball out?

Sure, if you have lungs to suck it out of let's say 0.5 metre deep pipe

[Skumbag]

If the pipe was slightly wider than the ball (as stated in the puzzle) it would continue right through the pipe, so all you would have to do is go down to the bottom and get it from there.

NB: If the pipe had a closed end, it would not be a pipe, but a cylinder.....

[ryan__]

ok ya if you know anyhting about water pipes then you know they all curve so the ball would stop the you could just go down and open the pipe to get it its abvious

[Aidsy]

Easy. Turn the pipe upside down, the ball will roll out ... it's called gravity

[Annychang]

I was thinking about using a vacuum to suck it out...

[benjr]

Although it was never specified, I believe it to be implied in the original challenge for the pipe to have a sealed bottom and was unable to turned upside down.

[planeterry]

If the ball has not reached any elbow or bend in the pipe, and that this is a standard fuzzy tennis ball, then you can simply place a piece of Hook & Loop fastner to a stick and simply 'velcro' it out of the pipe.

[fosley]

I don't think it's a fuzzy tennis ball--he said "table tennis", which is also called ping-pong.

My immediate response was to use a long vacuum cleaner attachment and suck the ball out. My second response was to buy a new ball. You could also use a stick with double-sided tape or glue, then wipe the ball off before the glue/tape hardened on there. If you want to be tricky, put a stick with a rubber seal down the hole until it touches the ball, then pull it up very rapidly, sucking the ball with it--but you have to pull very rapidly, because you're only pulling with the small amount of air underneath the ball. A final option I can readily think of is to use long, thin, mechanical fingers to pull it out.