- I'm a magician, for those of you who don't know me.
I do magic professionally
and part of what I do is problem solving.
Part of what magicians do on a daily basis
is think outside the box
and come up with ways of creating effects
that you can't recreate,
that you can't possibly reconstruct
in your mind or reverse engineer
and that's the whole point.
So the idea is to come up with methods
that are so off the wall,
out of the box.
Things that people wouldn't think of.
So basically, we're like engineers
but, you know, with fedoras, unfortunately.
So the idea here, today,
I'm going to use that sort of magician's ingenuity and
my sort of personal intuition
to try and solve this particular lock puzzle.
Now let me take you back a couple months.
I hung out with my friends Dan and Dave in San Diego.
They own a shop called Art of Play.
Art of Play sells playing cards
but they also sell puzzles.
So I started playing around with these puzzles
in a video I did recently and became fascinated by them.
One, in particular, which was sitting on their desk,
sort of lying there,
and all it was was this lock with a key within the latch.
I didn't know what to make of it
and I asked them, what's this?
And he says, oh, that's a puzzle we just received.
I didn't really pay attention to it
but I went back home and the image
of this being a puzzle?
This is just a lock,
it's just a normal lock and key.
How is this a puzzle?
That just, it stuck with me
and I had to know how it worked
and I sent him a message.
I was like, hey, man, that lock puzzle
thing that you guys have,
do you guys have that on your site?
They said, no; I said, where can I get one?
He's like, I'm not sure you can.
You can email this guy,
he lives in Israel,
he handmakes them and maybe sometimes
he'll make one for you.
So I said, cool,
so I hit up this dude in Israel,
and I was like, so dude, I want a lock puzzle.
Can you hook me up?
He says, yeah; two months later
this thing arrives and, today,
it arrives on my desk
and, so, I don't know what to expect with this.
I don't know how long this'll take me to solve
and I don't even know if I'll be able to solve it
but there's only one way to find out so
let's crack it open.
All right, so first things first,
in this box you receive a little piece of paper that says,
there are two challenges in this puzzle:
one, to open the lock and to release the locked key.
Two, to put all the pieces back together
in their original position; sounds simple enough.
Two keys are provided.
Unfortunately, one key is locked and the other is broken.
Can you find the key to the solution?
Words; note that no external tools are allowed.
Just the lock and the two keys provided with it.
Not even the small metal ring
that holds the two broken parts of the key,
neither the bag that comes with the lock.
The puzzle is solved when all the pieces
are back to their original position.
Got the key out,
put the key back in.
How hard could it possibly be?
This is one of the most famous lock puzzles out there.
This is supposed to be one of the hardest to do.
Now, as I mentioned, there are two parts:
one, getting this piece off
and two, is putting everything back together.
There is a twist here somewhere
and we're gonna figure that out.
So, first and foremost,
remove the key ring.
One piece, piece number two.
We have this little piece,
then we have this little piece,
which is a part of that, obviously.
Okay, I'm afraid here.
I'm afraid that if I use this little piece
and put it in here that I'll never see it again
and I've ruined my lock forever.
I don't know if that's the case.
There's only one way to find out.
Let's try it out.
I'm trying to shimmy and jig it around, maybe that'll help.
Oh, no, oh, no, ah (chuckles)
what have I done?
I've lost the key in there.
Maybe I can use this.
Is this shimmy all in.
Oh, God, that doesn't look like it's coming out at all.
See, I don't wanna break anything.
(clicking lock)
What if I (clicking lock), ah, man.
Okay, well that's definitely stuck in there.
Is this the worst thing I've ever done?
Maybe I, maybe it has something to do with gravity.
You gotta do it, oh,
it does have to do with gravity.
See, it wouldn't work here
but as soon as I flipped it upside down,
bam, okay, all right, all right.
So part one figured out
but part two, so we gotta get the key out somehow
that, that's stuck in there.
I have to get this back in here
but that won't lock
so long as, what if I,
there's gotta be something.
Okay, so I put it back.
So the thing is this key needs
to go back in there before I lock it
but I can't lock it without using this key.
Okay, so that now I can put back down.
Again, if I leave this in here,
that little key is still stuck in there.
How am I supposed to get that key out of there?
I feel like this bottom part should come out completely.
Okay, hold on, is that
supposed to be in there that deep?
I think I lucked out on the first part to be honest.
Second part, that's the thing,
that piece is still in there.
I need to get that piece out, right?
Okay, so that's there.
What if I do this?
No, no that makes no sense.
I need to unlock it.
Is it locked now or unlocked?
And now it's locked in there.
Ah, no (grumbles), oh, this is
one of those puzzles where you need to like think
for a week and come back to it
'cause that would make this video extra long.
Be good for the AdSense though,
if you're still tuning in to this.
Why is it so hard (grumbles)?
That rotates that little thing inside.
Just do the same thing as before here.
(yanks lock)
This way; obviously that comes back out.
What if this one?
Shimmy, shim shim, maybe this long piece.
No, it's locked in there now; what the hell?
Oh, gosh, okay, these puzzles, you know what?
The thing is you always have
to look at like everything.
Aside from this, this is,
they say, don't use that.
But this, there's, or this, what about this here?
Feels like a little notch here
and there's a big keyhole.
Maybe this has something to do with it.
Now, it's just essentially locked.
There's something I have to be missing here.
These puzzles are usually, you know,
there's like a hidden, maybe there's something
in the box I missed.
Under the label maybe.
There's something, somewhere that I'm missing.
I've no idea what's happening.
One of those things that you just like,
you'll just get when you understand it, I guess.
How does that, how do I get that piece out?
Like I have to push something somewhere
and he says no external tools should be used
for this either, so I'm clearly getting frustrated.
I see this slit, firmly believe
that this end for some weird (sighs).
So I know that there's a secret hiding in plain sight.
You know, I noticed this little etch here,
I noticed there's like a little,
another little etch here and that's probably just,
I don't see any seams
and sometimes, you know, you can hide
the seams in these brass lines.
I've seen a magic trick that uses that principle.
But I don't see any seams.
This thing doesn't seem to come apart.
So there's notches here on these keys, as well.
Or that could just be the make of the key.
Which leaves me with this.
This is the final piece,
I think, oh, would you look at that?
(gasps) Oh my God, ladies and gentlemen,
I think we may have found the solution.
Do you see this?
This is incredible (gasps) oh my God,
look at this, look at this.
We have another tool; so sneaky,
so even turning this thing,
is that you gotta turn it the opposite way.
He machined it so that you gotta turn it the opposite way
to screw it in and the opposite
way to unscrew it.
But how do we use this extra tool?
That is the question.
Okay, this is exciting.
Unlock this (springs); oh,
so there are little notches in there
and you poke this through
which pushes that key out, boom,
and there you have it
solved within 48 minutes.
Now we gotta put this stuff back together, so let's go.
Should be pretty basic.
No, but I need.
Wait a second, no, this doesn't work
'cause that key needs to go back in there.
But now, no, this has to be in there.
God, I can't, oh,
so that this goes in.
I think I broke it.
Well now this won't open anymore.
(yanks lock)
Here we go, okay,
now that that's unlocked,
this has to go back in there
but I can't put that back in there.
I can't put that in there without this.
This needs to be attached to that.
I don't understand how I would lock this thing
after key is; this doesn't make any sense.
This part's bugging me like crazy.
Logically, we're here, right?
Let's keep everything really logical.
We've gotten the key out,
then, no, the key doesn't come out.
The key only comes out
after I've locked it.
And I can only lock it
when this thing's back in.
(fiddles with lock)
Come on (knocks lock on table); need to get the key
out while it's unlocked or is it?
What if this part?
No, I don't understand, I don't understand.
I need one of these keys to lock
this lock but if the big key locks this lock,
it's not in here
and if the small key locks this lock, it's stuck inside.
So, how do I lock the lock
without locking in the keys?
I don't know why I'm trying to screw this, it doesn't
clearly screw in there.
Six and a half hours later.
I've literally, I've tried
absolutely everything with this lock.
Let's look at the keys then.
Okay, I just noticed something.
One thing that you guys,
I don't know if you guys
are gonna be able to see this.
As you can see, these two keys are different.
These keys are, indeed, different
and take a look at the notches.
So these notches here,
these notches right here
are on this side, are on this side, right?
The notches they're not,
they're on this side
but if I take the key
with the same orientation,
those notches appear to be on the other side.
So all that tells me
is that this key, here, is backwards.
This key is made backwards
or this key is backwards.
One of these keys in the opposite
so what if I, okay, gravity thing.
You see that, that would've been too good.
See, this one has more notches on it,
though, than this one does.
See, this one only has like
one, two, three, four notches.
This one's got one, two,
three, four, five notches.
And because this one has four notches
and it still opens it
and this one has five,
maybe one of these notches is useless.
What if I don't push it in all the way?
What if I just shimmy it?
(shimmies lock)
Oh, I did it.
Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Think I got it ladies and gentlemen.
All right, hold on; put this back together (sighs).
This way, this goes back in here.
Okay, this goes back down.
I use this (yanks lock) done.
That is the hardest lock puzzle in the world solved.
(blows out breath)
All right, guys, that is it.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
It was a lot of fun to make.
I'm, I was super stressed
because honestly I didn't know
if I was going to be able to actually solve this.
The time that you're watching this is actually
a lot later than I started filming it.
I thought it'd probably take like half
an hour, tops, but it did take me,
you know, a couple hours to do this.
I was super stoked when I finally got it.
I generally was really stoked.
Didn't know if this video was gonna make it up in time.
By the time you're watching this
I'll be in Toronto actually performing at a gig.
This is super tight, so
I didn't expect this to be this difficult
to be quite frank but I'm really happy it was
and I'm glad I was able to solve it.
Hope you guys enjoyed watching that
and I hope that you guys take a little bit
of appreciation from these puzzles.
The one thing I like about these
is that they're never what they seem.
Like you never can guess the method just flat out.
It's always hidden in plain sight,
which is kinda like a magic trick,
which is why I think I'm starting to like
these puzzles more and more.
So, anyways, guys, if you
did enjoy this video, go ahead
and hit the like button below
and subscribe if you're not already.
And let me know in the comments what you
thought about these puzzles
and, by the way, if you're looking
for some puzzles, yourself,
I'll leave a link below to the
Art of Play shop.
They're selling a whole bunch of puzzles
you can check out there.
They just got some new ones in stock.
Lot of fun to do, lot of fun to play with.
I don't know, might not be for everybody
but definitely a cool conversation piece
you can leave on the coffee table
when someone comes by and just,
they can have at it
and if they don't solve it, you know what?
You can just give 'em the method.
It doesn't really matter.
It's not a magic trick so
I kinda like that about this.
So, anyways, guys, thanks for watching
and we'll see you on the next video.
Don't forget first playing cards link below.
Help fund these cards.
They're already funded but if you wanna
cop some before the pre-sale is done,
link below and we'll see you
on the next video; peace (mumbles).