so i went to dinner tonight with my girlfriend and her family and just for fun had her try and solve something... i wrote down on a paper 9 vertical lines and the objective was to make ten.. (you just write out the word "TEN" and you'll see that you use 9 lines to write it) then her uncle did something and said that if i get it he would give me anything i wanted...

take a rectangular slip of paper and rip it twice so it would divide the slip of paper into 3 equal parts.. but dont rip it all the way, just rip it really close to the end. then with two fingers from each hand hold the 2 outer parts of the paper. without touching the middle part at all, you have one chance to pull and rip it into its 3 parts. do you rip it into the 3 parts? or just one part is off and 2 parts are still connected at that end? possible or impossible?

 

I think its very possible. I'll have to give it a try later tho. Interesting.

 

Sorry, I don't think it's possible...ask her uncle to do it first...

(No way you'd be able to apply equal force on both sides simultaneously.)

 

he can't even do it... just the conclusion that its impossible..

 

Technically, from a physics standpoint, I think it's possible. Realistically, from a human standpoint, it's impossible...

 

it was fun though... throughout dinner we were just trying to get it.. the point that he said "ill give you anything you want" really caught our attention hahaha

what it is is that whichever hand moves first thats the piece thats going to be the one part that rips... even if you try to pull both of your hands apart as hard as you can at the same time.. or something like that i guess haha

 

Pulling your hands hard or soft really doesn't matter -- it's pulling them at the same exact force and even if you could do that, the amount of paper left to tear on each cut would have to be exactly the same...

 

Or matching the force on either side exactly to the amount of paper left. I guess if you are very lucky, you may be able to to it, but it's sheer luck.

Alternatively, you may want to tear the paper across the other cuts...

@Rudy: NOW I like your avatar much better