The Bouncy Ring Game: A Carnival Classic with a Hidden Twist

As I walked through the carnival, I stumbled upon one of my favorite games - the bouncy ring game. The objective was simple: throw a ring onto a bottle, and if you succeeded, you'd win a prize. Or so it seemed. The actual inner diameter of the ring was closer to the outer diameter of the bottle than expected, making any thrown ring that didn't land perfectly on top bounce away without settling in on the bottle.

To avoid wasting money on unnecessary throws, I took the time to observe and learn from others who had played before me. As a seasoned carnival-goer, I realized that the games were more about overestimating one's chances of success than actual skill or luck. The bouncy ring game was no exception. By understanding how the game worked and identifying my own strengths and weaknesses, I was able to maximize my chances of winning.

One thing that struck me about the bouncy ring game was the subtle issue with its design. The ladder used in this game was designed to converge on a single point of support rather than two, making it more challenging to navigate. As someone who had played various carnival games before, I knew that if I could understand how to use the physics of each game to my advantage, I would have a much better chance of winning.

I decided to put my knowledge to the test by calling my friend Matt Winaker, who had recently been drafted to play baseball for the New York Mets. As it turned out, Matt was not only an excellent athlete in his sport but also incredibly skilled at throwing games. However, I knew that basketball was more his game, and so we decided to give the bouncy ring game a try together.

As I observed Matt's technique, I realized that he had a few tricks up his sleeve. He used his wrist snap and momentum to generate power and accuracy, which helped him throw the ring with precision. However, as soon as our center of mass was outside the area of support, we started to rotate and fall off the ladder. It became clear that this game required a level of skill and coordination that went beyond just throwing.

Despite Matt's skills, I knew that we had to adapt our strategy if we wanted to win. We observed how others played the game and looked for ways to adjust our technique accordingly. However, no matter what we did, it seemed like the odds were still against us. The game was designed in a way that made it difficult to succeed, even with expertise.

As I reflected on my experience playing the bouncy ring game, I realized that this was not just about winning or losing - it was also about understanding the mechanics and physics behind each game. By taking the time to learn from others and understand how the games worked, we were able to maximize our chances of success. However, as carnival owners often know, the most lucrative games are those where customers overestimate their chances of success.

One such game that stood out during my visit was the ladder climb. This game was designed with a single point of support rather than two, making it more challenging for players to navigate. As I watched others attempt to play the game, I realized that the subtle issue with its design made it nearly impossible to win. The center of mass had to be precisely above the line of support, and even then, there was no guarantee of success.

The ladder climb game served as a reminder that some games are more about skill than luck or overestimation. While playing carnival games can be fun and entertaining, it's essential to understand the mechanics behind each game to maximize our chances of success. By embracing this knowledge and adapting our strategy accordingly, we can enjoy these games without breaking the bank.

As I walked away from the carnival, I couldn't help but think about the experience I had just had. From throwing bouncy rings onto bottles to navigating a treacherous ladder climb, it was clear that some games were more about skill than luck or chance. By understanding how these games worked and adapting our strategy accordingly, we can enjoy these experiences without losing everything. And who knows? Maybe one day, I'll be able to afford the bear that started this whole adventure.

So why did you call me if you think they're fun, just know the odds are heavily stacked against you? If your motivation is to gain someone's love and admiration through a stuffed animal like this, you don't need carnival games to do that. Amazon works totally just as well. I just bought this for you, my lady.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(lively carnival music)- 11 feet.11 feet.It's no secret that carnivalsexist to make money.And to do that most effectively,they employ a bunch of little tricksto make you overestimateyour chances of winning,in some cases to such an extentthat it's basically a scam.So I spent a couple days comingdown to this amusement parkand observing and collecting dataon all of the carnival games.So today I'm gonna tell you which gamesare the biggest ripoffs andthe scientific reasons why.I even Nancy Drewed how muchthe carnival actually paysfor the prizes that people can win.But there is hope,because I'll also showyou some legitimate trickson how to win the most popular games,along with what happens whenyou show up to the carnivalwith your professionalbaseball playing buddywho happens to play for the New York Mets.(bell chiming)(balls thudding)(upbeat music)Let's get started.(upbeat music)Any kind of legitimateinvestigation needs to startwith solid data as the foundation.So with the promise of unlimited churros,I had some friends secretlyhelp me collect dataon all 24 Carnival games for a full day.Not only did we capture howmany times each game was played,but we also recorded howmany times people actuallywon each game and the prize they won.And so the first observation basedon the data we collected isthat this relatively small parkcollects $20,000 a dayoff their carnival games alone.So to help frame therest of the observations,we'll divide the games into three groups.The first group you've gotthe Random Chance Games,games like these whereno skill is involvedand you're basically just rolling dice.And for the second group, youhave your skill-based gameslike the basketball shotor the milk bottle throwor the basket toss game,where if you bring some kind of skillor strategy to the table,you can increase your chances of winning.And the final category are the gamesthat are pretty much impossible.These ones are borderline scams.There are three games inthis category that lotsof people attempted and nobody won.And if they did win,like in the case of the ladder climb,it was for a very specific reasonwhich I will address later.So let's start by talkingabout the Random Chance games.Calculating your chanceof winning here is pretty straightforward.You just divide the winning outcomesby the total outcomesand you get a percentage.So in this case,there are about 1600 totalcups and 160 winning cups.So that's a 10% chance or willone in 10 throws will win.There are a ton of games similar to thisbut the catch is they alwaysuse balls that are lightweightand have a highcoefficient of restitution,meaning they bouncereally well off things.This makes it much lesslikely the ball will endup where you originally aimed at.To illustrate this point,think how much easier this game would bewith bean bags which are heavierand don't bounce.With a ping pong ball,however, any imperfection in the aimof your original throw is magnifiedwhich essentially randomizes things.If you have no skills,these are the games that you want to play.But don't get too excitedbecause even when you win, you lose.After some investigative work,I uncovered the source wherethey ordered their prizes from.And so even if you got luckyand won on your first throw,it would cost you a $1.50for a prize that cost them 45 cents,but you usually don'tget it on your first try.So treating this as an expectedvalue problem in statistics,it would take you an averageof five times to land itin a yellow cup, which means you pay $7.50for something that costs them 45 cents.In the case of the big prize,by landing it in the superrare gold cup, it's even worse.It would take you an average of 25 tries,which works out to $38 for somethingthat costs them six bucks.And I'll add the numberof people we observed winning matchedup pretty well with thesestatistical predictions.Now let's talk about the second groupwhich are the skill-based games.And one of the most popularin this category is the basketball tosswith 825 plays the day that we observed.Now standard three pointer is 24 feet backon a rim that is 10 feet off the ground.But in this case, the line is 28 feet backon a rim that is 11 feet offthe ground, which is subtle.But if you have a deadlythree-pointer lockedinto your muscle memory,you will tend to miss short,which is exactly what we saw a bunch.The reason they have the big slope tarpin front is so that someonecan't stand directlyunderneath the rim wherethe height differencewould be much more apparent.And here again, even if you go Steph Curryand drain your first $3shot, you still lose,because they only paid 80cents for that basketball.Here's another exampleof getting you tooverestimate your chancesof winning by making subtle changes,because the table is slanted up slightly,which will reduce the horizontal velocityof the ball after the bounce.So even if you dominated thisgame all through college,your previous experiencealmost becomes a handicap.This measure, your pitch speedgame is borderline fraudulentas their radar gunregisters about 15 milesan hour too slow.And I know this becauseI measured the distanceand then recorded in highspeed and counted the frames.This pitch was clockedat 69 miles per hour,but it's much closer to 84.For the milk bottle game,the only catch here isthe bottles are metaland therefore heavier and more stableand harder to knock down thana typical bottle of that size.I've seen some carnivals though,where these are bottom weighted,which would make them more steadyand thus less likely to tip.To figure out which kind youhave, you can ask to hold it.And the point at which it balanceson your finger is the center of mass.The key to winning this gameis hitting them right herewith a hard enough throw to introducesufficient kinetic energy.But don't throw it too hard,because we notice thosewho threw their hardestusually sacrificed on accuracy.About one in 14 people knockthis over on their first try.And then finally, wehave the basket toss gameand the key here is tohave your first bounce hiton this front lip to reducethe kinetic energy enoughthat it won't bounce back out.About one in 10 throws will winon this game accordingto our observations.And now this brings usto the final categoryof the near impossible games,and there are three of them.On this first one, the goal is to shootout this red star completelywith this automatic BB gun.So the best strategy is tobasically shoot a circlearound the star to cut it out.Not only are the gunsnot accurate or precise,but the bigger issue is thatyou start out doing really wellbecause there's enough surrounding paperfor the baby to easilyrip through like this.But Newton's third law tellsus that you can only pushon something as hard asit can resist your push.So at the end you have thesebarely supported piecesof the star that just move outof the way when the BB comeswithout building up enoughstress to rip the paper.Out of 120 plays we sawno win this game all day.The spring bottle game isalso impossibly difficult.Again, it's a lightweightobject that's reallybouncy to encourage randomnessbut the actual inner diameterof the ring is really closeto the outer diameter of the bottle.This means that anythrow besides this prettymuch perfect one will sendthe ring bouncing awaywithout settling in on the bottle.If you really want this bear,I suggest going on Amazonand getting it for $47.I literally can't tell you howmuch money this will save youbecause of the 840 rings we saw thrown,none stayed on a bottle,which brings up sort ofan obvious rule of thumb.If you want the feeling of winning a game,do not stop at any booth thatoffers really big prizes.And for the final near impossible game,let me reiterate that as a carnival owner,the most lucrative gamesare those which the customers overestimatetheir chances of success.No game is a better exampleof that than the ladder climb.There's a subtle issuewith this game that Ithink people realize,but don't internalize the significance.The ladder converges to be supportedon the wall at one point instead of two.If it was attached at two points,it's like crawling across a rope bridge,which is pretty easy.Let's pretend this is you.And if you shrunk all the weightof your body down to the average location,we call that spot the center of masswhich will mark with this dot.And once again, we can doublecheck this is the right spotbecause it balancesperfectly on one finger.If you draw imaginary lines connectingthe different support points,that creates an area.and as long as your centerof mass dot is within that area,it's impossible to fall off.But as soon as your centerof mass dot is even a little bit outsideof the area of supportyou start to rotate and fall off.And this is true no matterwhich way you orient it.If you've ever bent overto pick something up,you actually know this fact,whether you realize it or not.In this case, the region of supportis between the back of yourheels and the tips of your toes.When you reach over,you will naturally move yourbutt back to keep your centerof mass in between those support points.And if you don't believe metry picking something up while standingagainst the wall so youcan't move your butt back.At the very moment your centerof mass gets beyond yourtoes, you start to tip over.In the case of the ladder game,you're only connected at one point.So even though it looks widebecause the ladder rungs,that area of supportreduces down to a line.So if you don't keep yourcenter of mass directlyabove that line, you willstart to rotate and fall off.In other words, to winthis game, you basicallyneed to be able to crawlacross a tight rope.And you might think, well,I can do a slack line,so I can do this.But a slack line is actuallymuch easier for two reasons.You can flail your arms andlegs out to adjust your centerof mass to keep it directlyabove that line of support.And your center of mass is higher,increasing your mass moment of inertia,making you more stable.In the same way it's easierto balance this umbrella whenit's extended versus when it's collapsed.So while there are a fewvideos that say trickslike maintain three points of contact,they're all basicallyuseless because keepingyour center of mass directlyabove a line is just somethingyou have to get a feel for.That takes a lot of practice.But once you've had enoughpractice, this is the one gameat the carnival that's basically all skillso you can win everytime and clean them out.Unfortunately, thecarnival owners know this,which is why it's also the only gamewith this super lame caveat.So now that we we're carnival experts,I called to my buddy Matt Winaker,who was recently justdrafted to play baseballfor the New York Metsto maximize our chancesof winning any skill gamethat had to do with throwing.(upbeat music)So clearly, Matt had a deadlylock on any throwing game,but basketball is more my game.So to finish off the day,I decided I would bringhis ego back into check.But as it turns out,if you are a world-classathlete in one sportyou are a really, reallygood athlete in all sports.So in conclusion, youshould play the gamesif you think they're fun,just know the odds areheavily stacked against you.So if you lose, itsNBD, unlike this guy wholost his entire life savingsplaying carnival games,and if your motivation is togain the love and admirationof someone's special via astuffed animal like this,you don't need carnival games to do that.Amazon works totally just as well.I just bought this for you, my lady.- Why?(upbeat music)\n"