Here’s the coin – a marvelous British two-pound monster – and the hole. which is a bit small.

No way that coin’s going through that hole, right?

Well, wrong. Fold the paper in half, right down the middle of the hole…

and the coin still won’t fit through. Obviously.

But bend the paper like this, and…

…the coin drops straight through. Amazing. How’s that work then, Gail?

Oh, OK, yes, you’d better prove to us that the paper hasn’t been torn first. Fair enough. We believed you anyway, but now we have reason to believe you.

What happens is that bending the paper distorts the hole. Imagine this rubber ring is the hole.

Then the orange ‘coin’ won’t fit through.

But if you squish the hole, the coin fits through easily. Bending the paper has the same effect – and that’s how you can fit a large coin through a small hole.