Amaze your friends at the next party by putting a fingerlock on the party guests. Try it on one person, and as they struggle to move their hands, try it on yet another non believer, who thinks that they can do it. You might end up with everyone trying to do it at the same time. Watch how many people in front of you are sitting there with their hands bonded together.
Step 1
Ask for a volunteer to bring their two hands together, fingertip against fingertip.
Step 2
Get them to bend the middle fingers of each hand towards the palm.
Step 3
Place a coin between the tips of their ring fingers.
Step 4
Hold their ring fingers (and the coin) with your fingertips. While keeping this position, ask them to successively separate the tips of their thumbs, index fingers, and pinkies. They should manage this fairly easily.
Step 5
Tell them to separate the tips of their ring fingers so that they are able to drop the coin. At this point remove your fingers from their ring fingers. Make sure they keep their middle fingers folded down, and their palms completely together. Voilà, they are now in the fingerlock. Watch them struggle in frustration. They will get the feeling their ring fingers are locked or glued together.
Tips
- This works because the tendons that extend the ring finger are connected to the tendons of the middle finger. The thumb, pointer finger, and little finger all have independent tendons that extend them.
- This trick doesn't usually work with people whose fingers are double jointed because they can sometimes extend the distance between their fingers very far compared to normal.
Warnings
- You might find that this does not work on everyone. The way to stop that is to keep your hands in between theirs, so they are pressing your hands together.
