July 28, 2008

Prank #3: The Flagpole

Another prank that Leon accomplished was back when he was in high school. I like this one because not only is it pretty funny, but it also involves a teacher from my high school before he moved to my high school years later (at least I’m pretty sure).

So back when Leon was in high school, there was one particular football coach that picked on Leon and his other buddies all the time. This resulted in the coach being a regular target of Leon’s pranks.

Now, Leon as well as some of his buddies were Boy Scouts. So Leon had all manner of skills in things like tying knots, rock climbing, camping, archery, etc. Additionally Leon had picked up quite a bit of civics knowledge including the etiquette and ceremonial procedures of handling the United States Flag.

After school, Leon and his buddies would often find themselves roaming around on their school campus with nothing to do. One evening, they made it over to the football stadium when no one was there and bummed around. Conversations drifted towards how much they disliked the football coach. At some point, one of the Boy Scouts of the group looked over at the flagpole where the United States Flag is raised before football games. He pointed to a grungy trashcan sitting right next to the flagpole. He said, “Hey, there’s not supposed to be a trashcan within fifty feet of a flagpole where the American Flag is raised!” Leon agreed. It is in fact against United States flag handling etiquette to have a refuse container in close proximity to the flag on display (though I’ve probably gotten the exact distance wrong).

Leon and his friends decided they must do something about this. They could do the simple thing and just move the trashcan an appropriate distance away. However, they felt the blame rested with the annoying coach and therefore a prank was in order. Leon wanted to send a message to the coach as well as stop the flag from being raised under such unpatriotic conditions.

The solution they decided upon was to put the trashcan on top of the flag pole! This would definitely stop the flag from being raised, and if the coach ever managed to remove the can he would most likely not put it anywhere near the flagpole again for fear of a repeat prank. The prank would be all the sweeter because a home football game was scheduled for the next day.

Now recently Leon and the other Boy Scouts had learned about rope climbing and rappelling, including during emergency or survival situations where proper equipment is not available. Leon could tie climbing harnesses out of rope as well as the variety of knots that are necessary for safe climbing and lifting of equipment.

It just so happened that Leon and his buddies were aware of a nearby construction site that had a few useful supplies lying around including some heavy duty rope. So they borrowed the rope and brought it back to the football field. The smallest, skinniest guy was voted (against his will) into being the guy that had to go to the top. Leon then fashioned the makeshift climbing harness as well as a variety of loops and knots for the ascent. A loop in the rope was hoisted up the flagpole by the smaller, flag-raising rope. This facilitated some sort of pulley-like system that would allow guys on the ground to pull their buddy up to the top while he held onto the trashcan. (I’ve unfortunately never exactly understood how this worked, or how it was safe. I think the climber was raised at an angle rather than straight up.)

The harness turned out to be quite uncomfortable (especially for the family jewels), yet the climber endured, made it to the top and put the trashcan into position. Leon and his buddies then carefully lowered their friend and returned the rope. They were successful in placing the can and briefly admired their handiwork. Now they just had to wait until the next morning to see how well the prank worked. Would the football coaches immediately figure out how to get the can down, or would it stay up until the evening football game?

Sure enough, the next morning the football coaching staff became aware of the trashcan almost immediately and began their attempts to get it down. They were trying everything. Between class periods and when class windows were appropriately aligned, Leon would observe the various strategies the coaches were using. At one point they leaned a tall painter’s ladder against the flagpole only to abandon that approach due to the instability. Another attempt involved attaching extensions to a long pole, but was unfortunately for them not strong enough. Finally, as a last ditch effort the school must have called in a truck with a cherry picker. Unfortunately the truck that arrived wasn’t tall enough either, and apparently no one else was available on a late Friday afternoon.

Leon was successful. The trashcan stayed up the entire day and the coach had to abandon raising the flag at the game. I’m not sure if the school sang the National Anthem or not but perhaps someone in the school’s marching band held up a flag for that. In any case, it had to be an incredible embarrassment for the coach.

It turns out the can stayed on top of the flagpole for quite a number of days after that, perhaps because the impetus of the pending home game had already passed. Yet attempts by the coaching staff to remove the can continued with comical failure. Finally, at some point the coaches exhausted their playbook and perhaps didn’t have the funds to hire another cherry picker truck.

At this point, they decided to enlist the help of a smart young physics teacher named Mr. Wimpey. In short order, Mr. Wimpey came up with a rather simple and elegant solution. He attached a small pole to the flag rope at two points (i.e. the clasps for attaching the flag) and left some excess pole sticking up beyond those two attachment points. He then raised the pole while keeping the rope taut. The excess length of pole reached under the trashcan’s cylindrical wall to what would normally be the can’s bottom, but at that time was the ceiling of the upside-down can. This allowed the small pole to lift the can up and over the flagpole. At this point the weight of the trashcan and the instability of the smaller pole allowed the can to flip and fall off to the side and down to the ground.

What I find particularly cool about the solution is that I’m nearly certain that the Mr. Wimpey in this story is none other than Coach Kim Wimpey that taught me physics and coached me in soccer some number of years later at my high school! One of my favorite teachers and it’s cool to think he was the one to solve this physics puzzle. :)

Additionally, I think that Mr. Wimpey’s solution for getting the trashcan down could in fact be used to put a can ON TOP of a flagpole. However, I think some extra supports would be necessary. Also, if the trashcan is very heavy then one would risk the trashcan falling down on themselves. Finally, don’t bother attempting the prank at North Gwinnett HS where Mr. Wimpey teaches. :)

Here is a diagram that demonstrates some ideas (click for larger image):