h a l f b a k e r yResident parking only.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register.
Please log in or create an account.
|
Ball In A Cup Menorah Game has 7 cups and looks very like a Menorah (hence the name). Hanging from each cup is a ball on the end of a string. Each of these hanging appendages differs in size, weight and string length.
The object of the game is to flick all of the balls into the cups at the same time.
It's probably impossible, but who knows. Acheiving this once is a fluke, but twice in a row wins a place in heaven.
It's best to view the notebook scribble.
Ball In A Cup Menorah Illustration
https://sodabred.tu...rah-its-a-halfbaked
[xenzag, Jul 11 2019]
[link]
|
| |
I think you can do this in at least two different ways. |
|
| |
(1) Hold the thing upside-down until all the balls are
hanging below the cups and are still. Then very quickly
bring the menorah down-and-round, without the sideways
movement of the cups exceeding the length of the shortest
string, until it is upright and below its starting point. The
balls will then all drop, vertically, into their respective
cups. |
|
| |
(2) Start as before, with the menorah held upside-down.
Now give a very short, sharp upward jerk, causing all the
balls to fly upward and into the inverted cups. (The best
way to do this might be use your free hand to hit the
underside of the arm holding the menorah.) At that instant,
rotate the menorah about a line running through the bases
of all the cups, and the balls will stay in place. |
|
| |
This will require great concentration, but try not to bite
your lip in frustration, or you'll end up with labia menorah. |
|
| |
A third way, of course, is to hold the menorah upright and
accelerate it downward at >1G, until all the balls are directly
above their cups. Then simply reduce the acceleration below
1G, and they will all fall vertically. |
|
| |
Wouldn't the wine in the cups get spilled using
either of these methods? Did I not mention that
there was wine? This is another added
difficulty..... playing the game and drinking the
wine without spilling any. Experts will do all of this
on a tightrope. |
|
| |
Well obviously on a tightrope. |
|
| |
Method 3 will work, as long as there is no crosswind. The
seven portions of wine will land in the cups after the seven
balls. |
|
| |
Hanukkah Matata!
Seven balls no malaise
Hanukkah Matata.
It deserves no small praise.
It means you'll transend,
before the end of your days!...
It's your get-outta-Gehinnom-free
philosophy...
Hanukkah Matata! |
|
| |
Dancing across a tightrope with a menorah in each
hand, singing this. |
|
| |
You're too kind. It only took ten minutes to do. |
|
| |
Method four: Hold the menorah upside down. Accelerate it downward (upward in
the menorah's frame of reference) at greater than 1 g. Once the balls are in the
cups, continue to accelerate the menorah at greater than 1 g upward in its own
frame, while changing the direction in the laboratory frame, curving the path of
motion, until the menorah is sufficiently upright with respect to local gravity that
the balls won't fall out. |
|
| |
To do this with wine (or any liquid, I guess) in the cups, start with the menorah
upright, and apply a similar technique to get it upside-down with the wine still in
the cups, moving downward toward the balls. This will of course require a great
deal of skill—or a high-end robotic arm—to accelerate the menorah first upward
and then curving around smoothly to downward without reaching the limit of the
balls' strings, and coming back in line above the balls to catch them (probably not
quite vertically) before curving around smoothly again to go upward (probably
toward the other laboratory-frame direction than the first curve). |
|
| |
A simpler variation with wine would be to invert the menorah in place, with no
upward acceleration, and then begin to accelerate it downward as it approaches
the fully upside-down position, quickly before the wine spills, but this might spill
the wine anyway just due to the rotation of the cups without any acceleration to
'hold the wine in its seat'. |
|
| |
Did I mention that there's a severe penalty for all
spillages? Well, there is. I'm not saying what it is,
but it's severe and involves pigeons. (who are
unharmed in the procedure) |
|
| |