Land the iron on the ironing board

Task stats

Points

15

Disquals

0

• Nikki rummages through the shed for building materials, and pulls out several length of guttering and some gaffer tape. She tells David that she plans on making a “rollercoaster” for the iron to travel down (she acknowledges in the studio that she was actually trying to build a slide, but continues to refer to it as a ‘rollercoaster’). Nikki gaffer-tapes the pieces of guttering together, and places a large cardboard tube on the ironing board, intent on sliding the iron down the track. However, every time Nikki tries to climb David’s referee chair to get the track’s angle right, it falls apart. Nikki finally abandons her iron rollercoaster (though she insists that the fault lies with the gaffer tape), and instead climbs David’s referee chair while holding only one of the pieces of guttering. She is then easily able to slide the iron down the track and into the tube (and thus onto the ironing board). In her remaining time, Nikki tries throwing the iron onto the board from the chair, but continually misses. When her time has finished, David points out that Nikki may have had an easier time by turning the board to make a longer landing strip, rather than trying to land it on its width. Nikki responds that size doesn’t matter, but girth does. She lands the iron on the ironing board from a distance of 1 metre and 89 centimetres, and earns last place.
• Linnéa notes that the task does not forbid throwing the iron, and she informs David that throwing the iron will likely be her best chance at putting distance between her and the ironing board. She throws the iron at the board from a distance, but it bounces off. She then holds on to the iron’s cord and tosses the iron onto the board while standing quite near it, just to have a successful attempt registered. Realising she needs some sort of “brake system”, Linnéa gaffer-tapes a bucket to the centre of the ironing board. However, her next few shots at the bucket miss, and she and David chat briefly as to whether or not the iron’s cord is to blame, as Linnéa’s strategy is to swing the iron by the cord to gain momentum for the throw. Linnéa switches strategy, wrapping the cord around the iron instead and, after several more failed throws, finally manages to land the iron on the board from a further distance. She records a distance of 3 metres and 39 centimetres, and earns third place.
• Henrik begins his time pondering the definition of ‘far away’. After asking to set up a zip-line he can slide down and drop the iron onto the board, and being denied permission, Henrik instead turns his attention to the nearby flagpole. He moves the board next to the flagpole, and attaches the iron to the rope that hoists the flag. He then attaches another rope to it so he can manipulate the iron from further away. After a false start, Henrik is able to get the iron close to the board, but the ropes get tangled, and the iron stops moving. As his time runs out, Henrik runs much closer to the ironing board to untangle the ropes, and gets the iron to land on the board just before David stops the clock. He lands the iron from a distance of 2 metres and 47 centimetres, and earns fourth place.
• Evelyn finds a rope and ties it to the iron, informing David that she intends to make a zip-line for the iron to travel down. She spends most of her time fine-tuning her zip-line and figuring out her best launch area, which she determines to be the balcony of the Bäst i Test house. Evelyn launches the iron but, unfortunately, the weight of it pulls on the ironing board before the iron can reach it, and the board collapses. Evelyn modifies her zip-line, running it across a table with the ironing board behind it, so the weight of the iron cannot pull the ironing board down. Evelyn launches the iron again, and it gets stuck on the edge of the table, tantalisingly close to landing on the board. As her time runs out, Evelyn desperately shakes the rope and, just before David stops the clock, the iron slides onto the board, resting on its edge. She lands the iron from a distance of 9 metres and 74 centimetres, and earns second place.
• Marko stands a few steps away from the ironing board and throws the iron at it, but misses. He informs David that he is thinking while he throws, as at the moment he can think of no other way to complete the task. Marko’s next throw lands on the board, so he walks a little further away from the board and tries again, successfully landing the iron on the board once more. With seven minutes left of his time, Marko realises that he can move the ironing board. He moves the board to the shed, and sets it up in front of a large tree, which acts as a backboard to stop the iron. He also flanks the ironing board with two large tables, to prevent the iron from falling off of the sides of the board. He later adds a mini trampoline to keep the iron from bouncing off of the tree and falling off of the remaining open side of the board. Marko spends the rest of his time successfully throwing the iron from increasing distances, with David lamenting that iron throwing is not an Olympic sport, as Marko would be an excellent asset for Sweden’s team. Marko lands the iron from a distance of 11 metres and 74 centimetres, and earns first place.