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Ball in a Hole


rookie1ja
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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?

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This old topic is locked since it was answered many times. You can check solution in the Spoiler below.

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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.

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?

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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?

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  • 3 weeks later...
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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.....

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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

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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.

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

lol, Yeah, O.k, and while we are at it, Why not just seek a magical lamp, rub a genie out, and WISH the ball to the top of the pipe. Can't everyone just Take the question at face value and not rip apart every potential flaw. Come on people...lol

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  • 3 weeks later...
Velcro sticks to tennis balls.

It's a table tennis ball, otherwise known as a ping-pong ball. I have yet to see Velcro stick to an unaltered table tennis ball.

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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.

I think benjr's right. This would mean that any sucking/vacuum solutions wouldn't work. Creating a vacuum in the pipe (or area of lower pressure approaching a vacuum) would do no good, because you'd just have a closed system in the vacuum+pipe of essentially uniform pressure, which would not move the ball (which I think is supposed to be a ping-pong ball -- table tennis, right?). Even though you're sucking out of one side of the pipe, the air you remove from the pipe is mostly on the wrong side of the ball, so it probably wouldn't move the ball very much, and if it did move the ball at all, gravity never stopped pulling down on the ball, so it would inevitably undo any motion caused by the flow of a little air in the opposite direction.

Also, trying to use a vacuum is different from filling the pipe with water, because buoyancy is a different thing entirely. You could even fill the pipe with a decently heavy gas and the ball should eventually rise to the top, because the solid part of a ping pong ball isn't very dense and on top of that doesn't take up much of its volume.

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of course that doesnt rule out the double sided tape... also if you were to have a suspended pipe which isnt against the rules =) take a shovel or something and hit the top right where the hole is on the flat side... and the bottom will shoot out

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with swinguru, filling the pipe with water is the best choice if the pipe does not go all the way through. If it does then a vacuum is the best bet.

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Good Lord, are you people serious? Vacuum cleaner? Velcro? Magic lamp??? Have you ever heard the phrase "floats like a cork?" Well, table tennis balls float even better than corks!!

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Good Lord, are you people serious? Vacuum cleaner? Velcro? Magic lamp??? Have you ever heard the phrase "floats like a cork?" Well, table tennis balls float even better than corks!!

I know, I LOVE IT.. People can't just take it at face value. Of coarse there are ways you can Master Mind the ball out, but the puzzle is looking for the most LOGICAL and SIMPLE way. Everyone knows the Pipe-Ball puzzle answer is Water, yet everyone tries and tries and tries to offer the most Extravagant Answer possible..lol

I think I enjoy the answers people come up with MORE than figuring out the answer..LMAO

But then again, 3 out of 4 Doctors agree that I am Coo-Koo, so hey...

I'm gunna go take my meds now.... Remember, Yellow is always within 5... COO-KOO...lol

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Assuming that the pipe is sealed at on end...Pour water into the hole so that the ball will float up.

Assuming the pipe is not sealed in the other end....let me think....

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Assuming that the pipe is sealed at on end...Pour water into the hole so that the ball will float up.

Assuming the pipe is not sealed in the other end....let me think....

Simple,,, Hire my ex wife... That Evil Dark Angel of Death Would suck a Bowling Ball through a McDonalds straw for a Food-Stamp...AND give you 50 cents change.. A Ping Pong Ball in a Pipe,, SHEEEEETT No problem..LMAO

Dude, I'm awesome... At Least that's what the Voices tell me...

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

The pipe is inside the ground. How are you supposed to turn it upside down underground?

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