Magic?

Written by: Matt

This article is a chance for me to show of some of my many interesting facts. Each of these works due to the magic of science, but I'm not a physics teacher; if you are a particularly eager student, ask your science teacher if you really want to know what's going on. I still find the pretense of magic exorcises most of your problems anyway.

The Levitating Iceberg

Firstly, create your 'iceberg' by taking a plastic cup and pouring water in to it. Freeze this for a bit, then, by pouring hot water outside your plastic cup, you can pull the iceberg out. Put it onto your water. Now, you should be able to see that your iceberg is now floating halfway down on the water. This isn't the most amazing part, believe me!

This is where you need a friend. If you don't have a friend, a well-meaning carer or babysitter will do, so cut a piece of string. (Ask your parents if they don't trust you with scissors) which is about 6-7 inches long (15-20 cm if you're Mr. Metric). Then, ask your friend to lift the ice from the water using the string without touching the ice. They may try many ways of doing this. They could insert the string into the ice, or put the string underneath and balance it; but without burning the string or developing a super-power to work out the centre of mass of an iceberg instantly, they'll find it just won't work.

The Trick

Get a bit of salt from your pantry and pour it on the top of the ice. This will create a puddle. Moisten the end of the string, and put the string in the puddle. As the puddle re-freezes, the string will become encased in the ice and you can easily pull it up.

The Finger Who Commands Water

Take a tin, and make sure it is empty and cleaned out. It must have a metal plate on the top and the bottom, else the trick will not work. Ask your friend to put four holes on the bottom of the tin. Then, using these holes, fill the tin with water. Get something that can hold falling water, and then give the tin to your friend; asking him to, using only one finger stop the water coming out of the four holes. No matter how he tries to do it, it will not work (unless the little 'helper' created four colinear holes, when he could cover all the holes with an out-stretched finger. You can amend this by saying using only one fingertip.)

The Trick

Take the implement you used to make the four holes, and make an additional one on the top of the tin, as near to the centre as possible. By putting your finger over this hole, the water will stop coming out. Your friend will be amazed.

The Stone Pennies

As you show your friend this trick, he will think that he has seen it all before. Balance a pile of two or three coins on the side of a glass, using this weight to hold a long, thin strip of paper down, creating a tail coming from the top of a glass. Challenge your friend to pull the paper out, leaving the pennies undisturbed.

Thinking it's just a matter of pulling a table cloth from underneath the crockery, your friend will become frustrated. Once he is bothered, offering him a ruler will just infuriate him, but, in essence, it is the secret behind this trick.

The Trick

The idea of pulling the table cloth is using the same principle, but, since the mass of the pennies is less than the mass of the crockery, you must pull the paper at a greater speed to counterbalance it. Hold the paper up taut, nearly vertical, and then, using a ruler hit the paper as hard as you can, about 5 cm (2 inches for Emperor Imperial) from the coins. This speed will be enough to leave the coins where they are.

The World's Strongest...Radish?

Here's a challenge your friends will hate you for. Provide them with a clean radish, a clean saucer, and a clean plate. Using only those three things, challenge them to lift the saucer up without touching it. It'll take them hours to realise that supporting the saucer on the radish will not work, and, four saucers later, they will come to you, tail between their legs begging to be shown how it is done.

The Trick

Using the knife, quickly slice the radish evenly, about halfway down, to create a smooth surface. Using the knife very carefully, scoop out the middle of the bottom of the radish, still making sure to leave a noticeable flat bottom, but making the hole quite large. Press the radish quite hard in the middle of the plate, and, using the radish, you will be able to lift it up.

Disclaimer: Do not blame me for severed digits, broken crockery or lost friends.