I would have just put the cup at the end of the ramp, introducing its edge between the ramp and the book. If that didn’t count as placing it on the floor, even if I had taken a little, unimportant, piece of the edge of the cup and put it separately on the floor, I would have destroyed the cup, made it a hundred little pieces to put them everywhere, so the ball would have landed in some piece at some point in its trajectory or I would have made a barrier with a long piece to stop the ball at some point in its rolling. It that wasn’t valid, I would have kept the cup on the floor facing up, but handling it with my hand to correct the position in real time. If that didn’t count either, I would have put the cup on its side expecting to intercept the trajectory of the ball when it rolls down the floor. If nothing of the previous things were allowed, I would have gone by gut feeling, which is commonly pretty good at predicting physics.
How did I do? Have I killed all of humanity?
PD: I answered without reading the explanation, to force myself to think.
Omitted from the post: to date, my rule for people who try to rules-lawyer like this is “I will allow it if-and-only-if it makes the experiment cooler/less boring”. So, for instance, trying to make the ball roll really slowly or put the cup right at the end of the ramp would not be allowed, because that would make the experiment more boring. Trying to make the ball go really fast would make the experiment cooler, so that’s allowed.
To date, I’ve only had one person really optimize hard via that route. That ended with the ball replaced with a hotwheels car, which went down the ramp and successfully landed in a hat worn by another person who was lying on the floor.
I would have just put the cup at the end of the ramp, introducing its edge between the ramp and the book. If that didn’t count as placing it on the floor, even if I had taken a little, unimportant, piece of the edge of the cup and put it separately on the floor, I would have destroyed the cup, made it a hundred little pieces to put them everywhere, so the ball would have landed in some piece at some point in its trajectory or I would have made a barrier with a long piece to stop the ball at some point in its rolling. It that wasn’t valid, I would have kept the cup on the floor facing up, but handling it with my hand to correct the position in real time. If that didn’t count either, I would have put the cup on its side expecting to intercept the trajectory of the ball when it rolls down the floor. If nothing of the previous things were allowed, I would have gone by gut feeling, which is commonly pretty good at predicting physics.
How did I do? Have I killed all of humanity?
PD: I answered without reading the explanation, to force myself to think.
Omitted from the post: to date, my rule for people who try to rules-lawyer like this is “I will allow it if-and-only-if it makes the experiment cooler/less boring”. So, for instance, trying to make the ball roll really slowly or put the cup right at the end of the ramp would not be allowed, because that would make the experiment more boring. Trying to make the ball go really fast would make the experiment cooler, so that’s allowed.
To date, I’ve only had one person really optimize hard via that route. That ended with the ball replaced with a hotwheels car, which went down the ramp and successfully landed in a hat worn by another person who was lying on the floor.