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The trick is that “south pole” also refers to the . In magnetism, poles come in pairs: north and south. Every magnet has both. A single magnetic south pole cannot exist without a north pole. Therefore, in the game’s twisted logic, “the South Pole” — as an independent entity — does not exist.
Players spend skips (the game’s limited “get out of jail free” cards) on this question. Forums in the late 2000s — Newgrounds, GameFAQs, Reddit — are littered with threads titled “WTF Question 38?!” and “Is Splapp-me-do stupid? The South Pole is real!”
The answer, of course, is that Splapp-me-do isn’t stupid. He’s a trickster god of browser games. The question exploits a specific kind of intelligence: not factual recall, but context switching . In a quiz that has already asked you to “Click the answer” (where the word “answer” is a clickable button) and “How many holes in a polo?” (the answer is four, because of the letters in the word “polo”), you should know by Question 38 that words are not what they seem. Almost two decades later, “Which place does not exist?” has transcended the game. It’s a pop-culture shorthand for pedantic, technically-correct-but-practically-useless logic. You’ll see it referenced in puzzle design discussions, in memes about trick questions, and even in some lateral thinking exercises. which place does not exist impossible quiz
It also highlights a beautiful tension: the difference between scientific existence and colloquial existence. To a physicist, a lone magnetic south pole is a monopole — a theoretical object that has never been observed. To a schoolchild, the South Pole is where Santa doesn’t live, but penguins do. The quiz aligns with the physicist.
So the next time you’re confidently answering trivia, remember: some places are real on a globe, fake on a magnet, and absolutely, undeniably lethal in a Flash game from 2007. The trick is that “south pole” also refers to the
This is the genius of The Impossible Quiz . Created by Splapp-me-do (Lewis Cross) in 2007 as a Flash-based exercise in cognitive dissonance, the quiz doesn’t test knowledge. It tests expectation . It weaponizes your brain’s natural instinct to process language literally.
The answer? The Trick Within the Trick Let that sink in. The South Pole — arguably one of the most famous real locations on Earth, the site of the Amundsen-Scott research station, the bottom axis of our planet — is labeled as the place that does not exist. A single magnetic south pole cannot exist without
Of course, the Earth’s South Pole does exist. But the quiz doesn’t care about Earth. It cares about the word . Unlike many Impossible Quiz questions that rely on brute force trial-and-error or absurdist humor (like “Can you dig it?” with a shovel that falls off the screen), Question 38 feels fair . It feels like a riddle. That’s what makes its cruelty so memorable.