Discuss “How Things Work: The Claw Game”

The claw game ? you know, that game where you thought you?d grabbed a stuffed bear but now you?re mad because that worthless claw dropped it ? has ruthlessly taken 50 cents at a time from children for years. The game is fairly simple: it?s a big box packed with stuffed animals, a claw, an xy-plotter, and a spool. All you need to do is use controllers to direct the claw above a stuffed animal, and press a red button. Sounds easy...

But Mike Muszynski, a mechanical engineering student who built his own claw game at Northwestern University, says that commercial claw games are constructed to be difficult to win. ?The hardest part for most people is probably figuring out how to drop the claw when they want it,? he says. ?It?s very easy to look at...