Comments on: ...her maidenhead plane's now a torus.

...her maidenhead plane's now a torus.

Wolfdog — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:42:58 -0800

Can you cut a hole in a 3x5 card that's large enough to crawl through? Topological trickery and some other classic science experiments.

By: oddman

oddman — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:49:29 -0800

WOW! That is awesome.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:49:43 -0800

I can. Mr. Wizard showed me how.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:52:14 -0800

I can cut holes in small sections time/space to crawl through.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:56:38 -0800

This counts as an "experiment" these days? 50 years ago they were teaching kids how to make Nitrous Oxide. Kids today are pussies.

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:56:48 -0800

ha! I was going to mention Mr. Wizard too...... R.I.P., Don Herbert.

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:59:25 -0800

That is nothing. You should see how many angels I can fit on the head of a pin.

By: amyms

amyms — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:59:29 -0800

I love stuff like this, thanks!

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:02:21 -0800

As a kid I loved these type of things. I'm too young for classic Mr Wizard, but I grew up watching a host of tv shows inspired by him. This was one of my favorite tricks growing up until I discovered the world of bar tricks and puzzles.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:14:59 -0800

Wonderful as that was, at the end of the video some sick part of me was really hoping he would just not fit through the hole.

By: empath

empath — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:24:33 -0800

I totally remember that from Mr Wizard.

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:25:45 -0800

I just use a 3' by 5' card.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:31:31 -0800

I just had one of those experiences where I was watching the whole series of videos and said to myself "Turtles! That's really cool. You should post that on MetaFilter." Very cool post, thanks Wolfdog! Last week I was explaining the cooling system of an automobile to my daughter, and just this morning I was explaining the concept of potential energy to her after she asked why the little 5-popsicle stick fanlike construction I made exploded when it hit the ground. She was very impressed when she saw Prof. Krampf explain the same things with the water balloon/candle and wet paper towel demos.

By: peeedro

peeedro — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:34:10 -0800

I like his sign-off line, "Have a wonder-filled week."

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:34:21 -0800

My ten-year-old niece is staying with us at the moment. I'm gonna get her to do this and BLOW HER MIND! Thanks, Wolfdog.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:37:09 -0800

This one, and the "how to take off a vest without taking off your jacket" were my childhood favorites. Our public library had a book called "Fun With Electrons" that showed how to make an X-ray fluoroscope so you could watch the bones in your toes wiggle.

By: yeti

yeti — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:41:05 -0800

Turtles?

By: yeti

yeti — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:42:06 -0800

Opps sorry, that was in response to "Turtles! That's really cool."

By: DU

DU — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:43:46 -0800

Mr Wizard: Yes Science tricks: Yes The put yourself through a sheet of paper trick: So very, very, very old. Seriously, I don't think my attention-starved 6 year old would stay awake for this one.

By: lastobelus

lastobelus — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:01:27 -0800

so THAT'S how the virgin birth worked.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:04:18 -0800

StickyCarpet - I was going to mention "how to take off a vest without taking off your jacket" in my post above as another childhood fave, but opted not to! I guess we read the same book in the library. I loved that trick, even though I NEVER wore a vest, so I was never able to actually use it. But the book I saw it in had a great set of drawings of an early 70's hipster doing the trick.

By: humblepigeon

humblepigeon — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:04:39 -0800

I guessed how to do it before I clicked the link. Does that confirm that I'm a genius? Or merely suggest the possibility?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:11:53 -0800

Kids today are pussies. Yeah, but have you seen the paper cuts those index cards can leave?

By: mediareport

mediareport — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:19:59 -0800

I like how he had extra cards on the table. A good scientist is always prepared for failure.

By: jlowen

jlowen — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:36:48 -0800

But the real question is, "can you cut a hole in an index card that I could fit through?" That dude is a small guy. Put me through an index card and I will be impressed.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:57:00 -0800

i didn't see him crawl, did you?

By: orgvol

orgvol — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:04:39 -0800

I could not keep my eyes off the collection of various dead stuff in the background. Just like in science classes all that dead stuff. what is with those types?

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:14:05 -0800

You actually need to make two cuts to make this accordion-like thingy, neither of which is a "hole" until the card is expanded / unfolded, so I call foul.

By: samw

samw — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:18:19 -0800

I hate to be the one to say this, but, topologically speaking, any hole in a piece of paper is big enough to crawl through. Cutting a large hole in a small piece of paper is only interesting if you don't change the surface area of the paper, but surface area isn't a topological notion. It's a geometric one.

By: Uther Bentrazor

Uther Bentrazor — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:26:43 -0800

That's a neat trick, but it's still not going to get him into heaven.

By: agent

agent — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:43:27 -0800

But the real question is, "can you cut a hole in an index card that I could fit through?" That dude is a small guy. Put me through an index card and I will be impressed. As you place the cuts closer and closer together the circumference of the resulting ring grows arbitrarily large . So long as you don't extend infinitely in too many directions we can make this thing work. That's a neat trick, but it's still not going to get him into heaven. Dude knows mathematics. It's not a question of doing something that gets him into heaven, it's a question of defining heaven in such a way that he's already there.

By: Termite

Termite — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:44:37 -0800

Nice. Now let's see him do the same thing with a carrot.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:48:20 -0800

Nah. You slice up the carrot, and after you eat it, it crawls through you.

By: RokkitNite

RokkitNite — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:56:26 -0800

Dude knows mathematics. It's not a question of doing something that gets him into heaven, it's a question of defining heaven in such a way that he's already there. HA HA HA HA HA! Way to make the theologians spit their coffee. I can just imagine the pulpit bombshells next Sunday: 'Well, we've rechecked the Bible, and it turns out the Kingdom of God is just some old guy cutting holes in card.' [UNCOMFORTABLE SHUFFLING] 'But the good news is, Hell is only that experiment with a match, a boiled egg and a wine bottle that never works. I guess what you lose on the swings you make up on the roundabouts.'

By: furtive

furtive — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:58:41 -0800

But could God cut a hole in the universe so big that even Jesus could fit through it?

By: buriednexttoyou

buriednexttoyou — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:05:00 -0800

I have been showing this stuff to my coworkers all day. The Mobius strip trick blew their minds. It is a slow day at work.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:12:03 -0800

OK, those of you who read this book as youths, how do you take off a vest without taking off your jacket? Google does not seem to know.

By: eamondaly

eamondaly — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:46:47 -0800

I don't know if there's a fancier way, but I've often taken off long underwear without removing my shirt: 1) Pull your right arm out of the sleeves of both the shirt and underwear 2) Snake your hand down along your body and back up again between the shirt and underwear 3) Put your hand through the sleeve of the shirt 4) Repeat on the left side 5) Reach through the neckhole of the shirt and pull the underwear out 6) Profit!!~!

By: wierdo

wierdo — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:28:39 -0800

I knew how to do it as soon as I read the question. Thank you Mr. Wizard! I knew that getting up at 6AM for all those years to watch you would pay off some day. Little did I know all it would get me was this post on Metafilter. Oh well, you win some and lose some.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:15:25 -0800

eamondaly: that's cheating of course, to take your arm out of the sleeve. To take the vest off from under the jacket, first of all the vest has to have really big arm holes, we used to use a zip-out coat liner as the vest. Take your left hand, reach inside the jacket, and put that hand through the arm hole of the vest. With some wiggling you will end up with the left arm hole of the vest having the back of the jacket bunched up and going through it. The left side of the vest is worked around to the being on the out side on the right. Then something something the right hand goes through that left hole of the vest, anyway the vest ends up on the inside with both sides on the right arm. Then you slide it down and out the sleeve.

By: jb

jb — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:44:54 -0800

It isn't an experiment - it's a demonstration. I failed on my one and only science fair project when I was 11 because shows like this got me confused about the difference between an experiment and a demonstration.