The arrow through the hole is an easy one - I made one of these in grade 8 woodshop. You make your arrow then soak it in water for a while. Then you put it in a vise and compress it slowly ... once it's small enough, you put it through the hole and let it dry .. the wood will expand and voila!

I think my parents even still have it somewhere .. oh, the good times.

The balls inside the cages and the baseball are very easy too.

you just have to cool down the Balls as far as you can. (in these examples it must have been -20°C to -40°C i think)

but do not heat up the wooden cages or the jar (baseball)! The wood of the cages expands at heating up and so the holes are becoming smaller as they are at "normal" temperature. cooling down the wooden cages too makes no sense as well. Cause of the shrinking of the whole cage the holes are becoming smaller too.

the jar is an other problem. a hot jar and a ball of -40°C is a combination as bad as you can imagine. If you are not the luckiest (wo)man alive it will definitely explode because of the high temperature difference.
please do not try this unless you have special glass made for these forces!


ps: sorry for any grammar mistake i made. I never was good in foreign languages in school. :)

The transparent cube is also easy, another 8th grade shop project. Heat and squeeze, drill, let cool.

The plastic cube with the curved holes is easy. Made one in 6th grade shop for a keyring. You heat up the cube of acrylic in the oven until it is soft then squeeze it in a vice. Let it cool and it stays in the smashed form, then you drill your holes. Once done toss it back in the oven and it will return to its original shape with crooked holes.

Item #2 can be done using a commercial boring bit. Basically it consists of a curved tube with a shallow router bit on one end. Power transmission is done via a flexible shaft up the tube.

Debris removal is handled one of two ways; Frequent removal of the tool, or a semicircular tube. (Think of the letter "D", with the flat side to the center of the curve)

Wood rings/arrow. Couldn't you just carve those shapes out of a single block of wood? The pieces were never apart.

I lot of the impossable wood objects are done by putting an object in a hole in a living tree. When the tree grows it grows around the object. Later the object is cut out of the tree and the wood is carved.

It's not particularly ingenious, but trees can grow around foreign objects. As difficult as this would be to execute, it is a possible explanation (although certainly not the best one) for any of the wooden objects.

The transparent one could be created by appropriate manipulation wit a long, abrasive bit by a skilled individual. The holes could have been "cleaned up" later with a flexible bit.

As for the ball in the cube, Split_Screen's explanation seems reasonable, but can a solid metal ball really contract that much just by being cooled down?

"The wood of the cages expands at heating up and so the holes are becoming smaller as they are at "normal" temperature."

actually, holes expand as well when the material they are made of expands. imagine the disc of wood that is removed to make the hole, when that is heated it expands, therefore the hole it left behind expands at the same rate.

I think the cube is actually laser etched crystal. From the angle of the photo, it's not clear if those are actually holes or if they are just curved tubes of dots etched in the crystal.

As for the block at the top with the nail, I'm not convinced that it's not just a notched block of wood with cut-up nail glued in place. A rotary tool can cut a nail like that, and if it were chilled, like the above steel balls, it would even shrink to where you could hide any damage to the ends of the pieces in recesses in the wood.

I made one of the transparent cubes in shop class too. Many years ago. I forget exactly, but the process is something like this: you take an acrylic cube, and heat it up so it's malleable, and then you use a vise to compress it into some distorted shape. You let it cool while in the vise, and then drill the straight holes in the distorted object. After that you heat it up again and let it return to its normal shape.

Are you sure the holes are drilled in that lexan cube? Couldn't it just as easily be laser etched / cut? Many small zaps, and the ability to focus the laser where ever you'd like could explain it.

"actually, holes expand as well when the material they are made of expands."

You're right. The holes aren't just becoming smaller at heating up. If the wood is extremely dry the holes first stay at their "normal" diameter and expand more and more the more you heat up the cage. but the temperatures you need to get a useable diameter are much too high.
But the clammyer the wood the more will the holes become smaller (at first).


"imagine the disc of wood that is removed to make the hole, when that is heated it expands, therefore the hole it left behind expands at the same rate."

clearly, the wood you removed would expand too, if you hadn't removed it. But now there is no counterpoise (is that word right?) for/to/on... (?) the cells around. (previously-)Living materials do not act the same way as metal or stone. In some cases (somthing like this) it acts totaly different from any other material.

Could the nail have been inserted as a rod of soft metal, then the head formed in situ?

wizards did it!!!!

On that transprent cube the probably used a dremel tool with a bending attchment. no tricks there

The final project appears to be photoshopped. Take a look at the "top" edge, amongst other things.

I figured out the second from the last one ,it appears that 3 horizontal peices of wood/plastic connect 2 vertical ones,but really only 2 connect them ,the middle horizontal peice of wood/plastic is only atached to the left vertical one ,for proof look at the shadow in front of it ,it points tward the watch ,a simple matter of camera angle which is why (as complained about in a previous "impossible objects"page) pictures from different angles could not be found

I have actually seen for real one of the pieces of wood with the nail through and the instructions explicitly said the answer was NOT that the object had been left with wood to grow around it. It's always puzzled me though.....I wish one of you had told me how they do it!

Nail thru wood puzzle. First of it isn't a nail it's a screw. And I've been scratching my head trying to figure it out. It really annoys/intrigues me, that I can't figure it out. I think we're all overlooking some simple fact and in the process of figuring it out - making the solution over complicated. There must be a simple solution. I don't think the puzzle maker have the time to wait ten years for the tree to grow around the screw. That wouldn't be profitable. No, he has some simple solution we've overlooked. And I don't think the solution is to cut out different blocks of wood and gluing them to place - then it wouldn't rank as a puzzle.

I'd wish the image was of a better quality - that might give us some more clues. Does anyone know where I can find the original image or just someone who sells the puzzle?

About the ball in the wood box.
I think the easy way to put a metal ball inside of the box is growing it inside. You just need a small ball to start from (one that fits the holes in the wood box) and then usin electrolisis, you add layer and layer of metal to the ball. Sure the ball will have a electric rod atached to it, but is easy to cut and polish the ball.

About the cube with bended holes.
Noboody said you start with a cube. If you just get a ball of acrillic, then make all the holes you want, then melt it just a little, then bend it. And after it cool down, just cut the cube shape out of it. And that way the center hole is straigth. It was in the middle of the original ball.

Screw on wood - who says it's a complete screw and not 3 pieces ?

The nail in the wood is done using a straight grained wood such as bass wood. First you cut the notches in it as shown. While the wood is still green you steam it over water and bend the "head" end down far enough to drill a hole thru the center "blocks of the notches.The trick is to make the hole big enough to let the nail slide back and forth.Then put the nail in and let it bend back straight and dry. It does take a little patience but it does work.

the baseball in the salsa one.. alrihgt well you freeze the baseball then you put the ball on top of the jar put like a heavy book and sit on it. it will eventually go through... but you can't get it out.. yeaaa.

uh, carlos, it says right @ the top of the puzzle that neither of the objects are cut(that means the nail can't be 3 pieces, smart one)

So...what is the real answer to the nail through the
slots. Do you soak the wood, and for how long.

I would like to see if somebody could build one of the nail in wood things out of aluminum or something to prove to me that it is not just soaking the wood to make it squishy.

my grandpa puts together and builds al kinds of crazy things like that i've only been able to figute 1 out

Ok this might have nothing to do with the objects, but i REALLY didnt know that water could shrink things!

...that the 'screw' or 'nail' is actually a NAIL. YEAH, I said it. Its a NAIL. What you are seeing are rings (siding nails/specialty nails have them) not threads. Its an optical illusion IN and optical illusion.

the baseball is easy the piece of foil or what ever it is was on fire for instance take a bottle with a mouth that is slightly smaller in cercumference than an egg and take a piece of paper light it on fire then place the egg on the top and it will get sucked in with out breaking to get it out insert a straw and turn it upside down and blow in to the straw ant the reverse will happen

the salsa one must have been hammerd in there...there is no other explanation...the coin ones are cool...but i have to say one thing...these are singes...sings saying....."THE FARIES ARE COMMING!!!!!!!"
=^.^=

it's easy the baseball one,,,, when you heat the glass it gets bigger......try putting an egg inside a wine bottle

Used to Make the Square Wooden Boxes with the Ball Bearings in High School and sell them. The hole is not that much smaller than the bearing. You have to use wood that is not cured yet and still quite wet. After making the Box and Drill the Holes you put the Box down in Boiling water and let it sit for a few minutes. The ball will push through. Then let the box sit in the sun for a few days in a good hot spot to dry them out quick and then sand them. Used to sell them for $10 to raise money for our football team.

Screw thru wood is curved surface at the end, allowing screw to miss end piece. baseball in jar: heat jar to push ball into opening.

On the transparent cube, some curved pieces of rubber could be inserted by by cutting the cube in half and putting them in. They just LOOK like holes. Then the cube is glued together with some kind of invisible glue and it's finished.

hey i'm in 8th grade and i made one of those plastic cubes with the curved holes in tech ed like a month ago, you do exactly what dustin said, and no it's not ecthed crystal:)

love 'em

Forrest dude, do I know you? (CMS much?) About the thingies, the nail, That wood looks too hard to bend it without breaking it, no matter how boiled it is... and who says that cutting is the only way to do something, mebbe the person thingie BURNED a hole through it... it's possible! And personally, my first though was 'wow, poured a bunch of hot glue into a mold, and then took it out..... special.....' Cool effect though.

the first one is real easy-
look at where the screw enters the hole, the hole is larger than the screw. So it was just soaking the wood in water, drilling a hole through the teeth, and putting the screw in head first through. Preschool work.
Another way would be for the back portion to be either photoshopped or easy to take off, but no visible lines that i noticed. anyone think i'm right?

The only one I looked at so far was the first one. This one is easy...
The hole was drilled from where the bottom of the screw is, wide enough for the head of the screw to fit through. Then the screw was slipped in through the holes, head first, and laid to rest inside the block for the picture to be taken.

I think the third and fourth ones (the two rings and the arrow and ring) were made by carving both of the two objects from one peice of wood.

the cube crystal is very easy to make... it´s by laser engraving!
i work on crystal laser engravings...
;p

Err... about the baseball: I've hard heating the jar to 50 deg C, freezing the ball... how about just: let the air out of the ball, push it in, pump it up?

hehe good point, anonymous. thats what i would do! im 13 n id just like 2 say... ur all making it boring! these tricks are amazing, leave them like that. why do we have to explain everything??? can't you let one little thing go as a mystery??? i am calling myself clam incase anyone wants to reply to my comment.

duh! Fakes. I know how to solve each and every one.Think behind what they would expect you to think. Focus! The clues are to take you some where in space.That handicap code I have to do has the word SEED in it in order. Weird.

hey, about that screw in the wood, the screw can be anything to a nail to a metal rod, i've seen this same puzzle pop up in various places, one version had the screw only go through 3 sections of wood. ya would think shrinking the wood be logical, but i'm pretty sure it is a cleaver technique rather than a method. Think more of the tools used, joiners, wood-workers.But for now we just dun know?

The first one is pretty simple, once you think of it. Carve the notches in the wood, and drill a hole slightly smaller than the head of the nail through the three notches on the right. Soak the wood in boiling water, and the holes will widen and soften enough to insert the nail head first. Let it dry, and your finished!

The one with a nail through it is quite simple. If the block or whatever it is, was BIG, then you could easily hammer a nail, or screw, through it. Then when the guy takes a picture of it, he takes it from a point of view that makes it smaller. Simple.

"Err... about the baseball: I've hard heating the jar to 50 deg C, freezing the ball... how about just: let the air out of the ball, push it in, pump it up?"


... Baseballs aren't inflated. they are a ball of string wrapped in leather, and the leather is sewed together.

About the nail in the wood.

I was visiting Tasmania and just bought one of these in Scottsdale visitors center. A guy from Mole Creek makes them. The instructions say the puzzle is to figure out how he did it. There was no bending or breaking of either wood or nail.

Here's a link to an article about it.
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,20465928-3462,00.html

If the link doesn't work, google "mole creek puzzle"

the ring and the coin:
easy- if there was a gap in the ring that was just larger than the thickness of the coin, it could easily be hidden behind the coin, yet the coin could slip out with no problem.

the last object (triangle thing):
also easy- the right (vertical) segment has a notch cut at the top that is just the right size and angle so that, at this camera angle, you can see the top left pice through the notch. notice that the corner of the right piece where it "meets" the top left piece, is rounded - it is worn or sanded by accident.

you guys and girls are computer geeks the worst kind i cant believe you'd waste yor life commenting on an internet site what a waste of time do you guys have lives?

The real question is... How is it possible to get the nail out of the piece of wood. Now if somone can tell me that, your the real genus!

NAIL IN WOOD

the nail does come out of the wood. the nail is not bent or joint or moulded or cut etc

the wood is not cut or joined or broken or glued etc.

the wood is one piece the nail is one piece, the wood is real wood and the nail is a real nail, the nail doesn't have to be a nail it could be a small wooden pencil!!!

the answer is not rocket science, but it does take a little thinking, not tones however.. i did not take another look at the item for another year and 1/2 after i bought it but one of the things i thought at the first time i got it was right.

i have not actually done it but the way i think is right because i have confirmed with the maker here in tasmania

My dad used to have a woven wooden basket made of interlocking pieces. Looking at it, you'd say it had to have been carved from a single piece of wood. However, one of the pieces was made of a different kind of wood from the rest. My dad knew a lot about wood and recognized the kind of wood odd piece was made of. When soaked in water, that one piece became very soft and pliable, almost like a sponge. It could then be squeezed and bent and released from the other pieces, allowing the bowl to be dismantled.

the nail in the wood are made by A Touch of Craft at Mole creek in Tasmania. He uses either nails, screws, pens or pencils throught the wood and they are all just as impossible to do. I have one and the wood is not joined and the nail is not bent!! Please someone tell me how to do this. Ssys that the wood is not steamed or twisted or bent and the nail is not cut and joined.

someone that was very angry just shoved alot of things into jars and cages, that's how you do it.

;)

the last one is photoshoped.

The cube with the ball is easy. First, the holes are slightly slanted inwards making it easy to go in but tough to get out

i saw something like this before. an arrow was shot at a glass jar and got stuck in the middle, and it diddn't make a crack or anything, and the answer to do it is locked up in a vault.

the last one isnt photoshopped...and it isnt even a triangle either, its hard to explain in words but i'll try.

its a rectangular block with two similar blocks nailed on either end at a 90 degree angle...then its lined up and photographed with some fancy angle work and Viola!

great illusion, not so great as a display-able object in your home.

If your having trouble visualizing what I just said...look up a copy of the children's book "Walter Wick's Optical Tricks" and in the back, it explains this trick

The arrow/ring and coin combo is done the same way the marble/stone lions with the ball in the mouths in front of chinese restaurants are made. It was carved from one piece of wood, and not seperated until the final moments giving the illusion that it was somehow inserted, when it was in fact one piece made to look like two by seperation at the end.

I work at the Forest Eco Centre in Tasmania and we sell the nail through wood puzzle. It can be anything from a pencil, nail, screw even a large spike about 20cm long.PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME HOW IT'S DONE!!!!!