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Ball In A Cup Menorah Game

get all the balls in twice, and go to heaven
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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.

xenzag, Jul 11 2019

Ball In A Cup Menorah Illustration https://sodabred.tu...rah-its-a-halfbaked
[xenzag, Jul 11 2019]

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       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.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 11 2019
  

       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.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 11 2019
  

       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.
xenzag, Jul 11 2019
  

       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.
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 11 2019
  

       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!
  

       //Hanukkah Matata// [@]
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 12 2019
  

       Dancing across a tightrope with a menorah in each hand, singing this.
xenzag, Jul 12 2019
  

       Love the visual.
blissmiss, Jul 15 2019
  

       You're too kind. It only took ten minutes to do.
xenzag, Jul 15 2019
  

       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'.
notexactly, Jul 22 2019
  

       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)
xenzag, Jul 22 2019
  


 

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