Tammy stretches the meaning of ‘not tampering’

Tammy is the only contestant singled out for her performance. In the studio, she admits to being impressed by everyone else’s attempts, saying that she doesn’t remember what she’d done, but she knows that it wasn’t just pulling the napkin from underneath the eggs.

In the lab, Tammy re-reads the task, and reasons that repositioning the eggs in a more advantageous manner does not count as ‘tampering’ with them. She begins by positioning all of the eggs at the very edge of the napkin.

She then re-reads the task again, and reasons that it does not forbid her from simply removing the eggs entirely from the napkin and simply picking it up, so she does precisely that.

Surprisingly, Louis accepts Tammy’s interpretation of the rules, and judges that her movement of the eggs does not constitute ‘tampering’ with them.

Tammy therefore keeps all 10 eggs intact, and earns joint first place.

(Written by Jenny R and edited by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)