SubscribeCan you cut a thin paper card in such a way that a person can pass completely through it without the paper tearing?
The size of the card should be about 4 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide.
If I were a teacher, I’d offer my class a morning of free donuts if anyone figured this puzzle out : )
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id cut it into a large spiral and then attach the the ends with a staple or tape. voila, a large hoop.
Well I’m not going to explain the answer as it would take me far too long. Also, because I cheated. You got me so curious about the answer that I simply couldn’t wait til it was revealed so I searched.
What I will say though is that it is extraordinarily impressive, and anyone who came up with the answer on their own is very clever indeed!!
For anyone who wants to see a fantastic video on how it is done, go here: http://krampf.com/experiments/.....ent11.html
If you cut it into thin strips but left the ends intact, creating a very long thin string of paper, it is possible. However, there may be much easier ways.
Assuming the person is standing upright, i’ll take my own height of 174 cm. Then with my width, shoulders apart with arms touching my sides is about 40 cm. Therefore you would require a thin strip of paper about 428cm in length for my to walk right through. (40 + 174) x 2 = 428.
The card measures 10.16 cm lengthwise, therefore 428/10.16 = approximately 43, which means we have to cut the card 43 times lengthwise to achieve a total length of 428 cm. Thus, the width being 6.35 cm wide….6.35/43 = approximately 0.15cm.
Therefore we would have to cut the card 43 times with the width of each sliver about 15 millimeters in width, a possible task with a craft knife.
uh, you can fold the card in half and then cut the person shape out of the folded side, then open it up, and the person should fit through the hole it was cut out of.
start cutting a fraction of an inch below and to the right of the top left corner, cut parallel to and a fraction of an inch below the top edge, continue to a fraction of an inch before the right edge, rotate 90 degrees and repeat, keep cutting in a spiral each time stopping and rotating until the middle is reached.
Now unfurl the spiral and step through, easy!
i have heard this one before. it is very hard. if i knew how to send in a picture I would. fold the index card hamburger style and cut lines going down the card about 1 cm apart but dont cut all the way down. leave some space. then cut up inbetween the lines so you have cuts going two ways but make sure these lines dont touch the edge as well. then cut the part where you folded on every little section and unfold. you should get a huge ring. ( it will be way bigger then you expect!!!)
the pattern when you stretch it looks like this /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ only more horrisontle.
It never said that it has to be a “hole” in the card, so why not cut a long slit and then run it down the side of the person… lol I bet this isn’t the right answer but anyway
Cut the card in half.
I’m going to take a stupid guess and say that the paper is cut so thin that there is no paper to tear…
im not sure i understand the question…..does this mean to cut it into small slivers and tape them together?
Hi Jason- there is a solution which does not require any taping together
can you cut a slit in it large enough to pass a picture of a person through?
cut the paper in half??
I can solve this but I’m not sure I can explain it! You fold the piece of paper in half, and then cut slots 1/4 in apart across and not quite reaching the other side, turn cut the next slot in the same way. You end up with a big, 1/4″ circle of paper. I did it and I know it works, but I doubt if this explanation is much help. Sorry.
Fold the paper lengthwise. On the opposite side of the fold, make as many 1″ long perpendicular cuts so that there’s about a quarter inch left at the end. Leave just enough gap in between the cuts to allow another cut to be made. Then turn the paper around and make similar 1″ parallel cuts in between the previous cuts. You will see sort of an “S” pattern. Before unfolding, cut along the fold, except at the ends. Once unfolded, the paper will turn into a huge hole which will allow a person to go through.
Poke a hole in the center and cut thin concentric squares (roughly–never cutting through a cut edge) outwardly in proportion to the dimensions of the sheet. Stop just before cutting to the edge of the sheet. The sheet can now be expanded enough for a person of reasonable size to fit through….
one solution can be this: cut the card in the form of the phrase “a person”, so “a person” can pass through it without the paper tearing, my assumption is that “a person” can be the phrase, i think it can be an alternative solution.
yes it is very easy actually…
Cut it in half.
The problem doesn’t state that the piece of paper must be in one piece or can’t tear, it says when the person passes through it they can’t tear it. If you cut the paper in half and have the person pass in between the two halves they are passing through what was the original piece of paper without tearing it.
i post like at 10 am today and my answer did not appear (?¿), well my answer was and is that you can cut the phrase ” a person ” and it will be passing through the card, not a real person but the phrase “a person”
but a real person can pass through it??, i am trying to figure it out, but if a real person is a generalization, that means that no matter the size of the person, any person should pass through it without the paper tearing, thinking of a big person maybe like yokozuna(!!), and wow it seems really hard, especially if the cut has to be inside the card, that means that the borders are untouched, so the person can pass through it, like entering a door, but i haven’t seen it yet, is really hard, at least for me to see it.
ahhhh!!! maybe if you cut it like going from the extremes to the center, in very thin lines, going in the same pattern of a rectangle to the center, you can make a huge line of paper you can pass through it, i think thats an option, it was really difficult for me to see that answer, i will try to draw it her with point lines:
|————|
| ——- | |
| ——– |
|————|
its like a snake that is in rectangular form going from the exterior to the interior, its harder to draw it than to imaginate, maybe it can be like an spiral so the only extreme that is straight is the exterior of the card and the rest can be a really thin spiral, so it can be long enough for a person to pass through it with out the paper tearing, still i see it hard for yokozuna to pass it :
I’ve seen this puzzle before, so I won’t say anything.
Here is the answer:
http://krampf.com/experiments/.....ent11.html
He has lots of awesome physics and other science experiments.
Much Thanks to Megan and Bob for posting the video link; it’s pretty cool, try to check it out if you can
Scott K, Jason, & Suineg give the ‘lateral thinking’ version of the answer : )
I think some of the other approaches posted will probably work too…
This is absolutely amazing!
I’m stunned !