You are trapped in a room with a window and a door. The window is of indestructible glass, and the door has no knobs or locks. There is a hole in the floor with a ping-pong ball in it. If you can get the ball out, the door will open. The hole is only wide enough for the ball, which rules out just sticking your hand in to pull it out. There is also a vent in the wall that is made out of some weird superstrength alien metal that won't break and a lightbulb is hanging from the ceiling as well. You have a few objects with you that might help. They are:

2 weak refrigerator magnets

1 paperclip

1 pair of kindergarden safety scissors

1 pair of curtains off of the window

1 needle

your clothes

And your most important ally, your brain. (Not that it's neccesarily a very good one, of course!)

(In reply to The Way Out by Hope)

I did not expect that my solution would turn out to be the "real' answer. I knew it would work (based on the stated conditions, and I knew that this was a "think outside the box" type of problem, but I expected that the "real solution would involve at least some of the objects mentioned.

Posted by TomM on 2002-08-19 13:49:07