Magical Illusion session
11:00am - 12:30pm
Supplies needed for each magic kit:
newspaper
scotch tape
scissors
paper shopping bag
slips of paper
pencil
clear bowl
a vegetable
ashes
small bowl for ashes
rope (1 meter long)
coat hanger
large styrofoam or paper cup
small cup of water
jacket (or small, opaque sheet or blanket)
1 bulldog clip
11:00 / Perform 6 tricks for scholars (below)11:13 / Magician’s code
11:15 / Trick 1: The Perplexing Paper Bands
Production, Transposition, Penetration
Science concepts: Moebius strips, geometry
11:25 / Trick 2: What’s for Lunch?
Mental
Science concepts: biology, nutrition, the human brain
11:35 / Trick 3: Penetrating Ashes Trick
Penetration, Production
Science concepts: carbon based life, combustion, osmosis
11:45 / Trick 4: Jumping Coat Hanger
Transposition, Vanish
Science concepts: quantum physics, decision-making
11:55 / Trick 5: Cup Levitation
Levitation
Science concepts: gravity
if time / Bonus Trick: Making Yourself Float
Levitation
Science concepts: gravity
12:05 / Using magic to teach science, hands-on example using these tricks
12:25 / How to find out more, magic at the library and magic shop
SESAME Handbook of
Magical Illusion
Dr. Tom Way
June 21, 2005
SESAME Handbook of Magical Illusion
This handbook contains magic tricks and the science ideas behind them, to help in the creation of magical science experiences.
The Magician’s Code
- Never reveal how a trick is done.
- Never repeat a trick for the same audience.
- Practice, practice, practice.
The Magician’s Code is a code of ethics that magician’s have followed for thousands of years. All three parts of the code reinforce each other. Their purpose is to preserve the magical feeling people get when seeing a magician perform, because when you know the secret the trick is much less enjoyable.
Magical Concepts
These are the real secrets of magic, the techniques and psychology of deception.
- Misdirection - Controlling the audience’s attention, making them look where you want them to look.
- Concealment - Hiding an object or performing a clever move, all in plain sight, and without the audience knowing anything was hidden from them.
- Switching - Secretly replacing one object for another object.
- Forcing - Making the audience pick something that you want them to pick, even though they feel like they had a free choice.
- Patter - The story you tell when performing a trick. Make sure you never tell the audience what is going to happen BEFORE it happens.
Types of Tricks
All magic tricks fall into one or more of these categories of tricks.
- Production - making something appear out of thin air.
- Vanish - making something disappear into thin air.
- Transposition - making one thing turn into something else or go to a different place.
- Penetration - making one thing go through another thing.
- Levitation - making a thing float in the air.
- Mental - appearing to read somebody’s mind or predict the future.
- Escape - escaping from restraints.
Trick #1: The Perplexing Paper Bands
Effect:A loop of paper is cut in half lengthwise, producing two loops. One of the loops is cut in half again, but instead of two more loops, it becomestwo loops that are linked together! You try again with the second loop, but this time you wind up with one really long loop!
Type of trick: Production, transposition and penetration
Materials:A strip of newspaper, about 10 cm wide by 1 meter long.
Tape or glue
Scissors
This trick uses the “magic” of the Moebius Strip. A Moebius strips is a mathematical oddity that can be used in magic to produce unbelievable results. It is a loop with a half twist in it, so it only one side and one edge. This is magical in itself... test it out by making a Moebius strip and running your finger or a pencil on just one side. You will trace all the way around and wind up right back where you started!
Secret method:
/ To prepare the trick: Take your strip of paper, and at one end cut a slit about 8 cm long down the middle of the band. At the other end cut another slit along the middle about 3 cm long (Figure 1)./ Bring the ends of the cloth or paper together to make a loop. But, before you connect the ends with glue or tape, give one of the 8 cm slits a half twist (Figure 2), and the other 8cm slit a full twist (Figure 3). Then, glue or tape the ends together as in Figure 3. /
To perform the trick: Take the prepared loop and cut it (or tear it carefully) down the middle into two loops (Figure 4). You will now have one loop with a half twist in it, and one loop with a full twist. /
/ Now, for the really weird part. When you take the loop with the full twist in it and cut or tear it down the middle, everyone expects you to get another two complete loops, and you DO -- TWO LINKED LOOPS as in Figure 5!
When you take the loop with the half twist and tear that loop down the middle, instead of two separate loops or two connected loops, YOU JUST GET ONE BIG LOOP! (Figure 6) /
Try it and see!
NOTE: It is important when you cut or tear the bands they you stay in the center all throughout the cut. Start the tear at one end, or place the scissors in, and then carefully cut in a straight line, staying in the center of the band and working your way around the center of the entire band until you reach the point where you began.
Trick #2: What’s for Lunch?
Effect:The magician holds up a paper shopping bag which is sealed by a simple fold at the top, explaining that the bag contains a vegetable which is going to be used in a mind reading experiment. The magician asks members of the audience to call out names of various vegetables. As each vegetable is named, it is written on a slip of paper which is folded and put into a glass or bowl. After eight or ten slips of paper have been written, the magician invites an audience member to reach into it and remove one of the slips. The audience member unfolds the paper and reads aloud the name of the randomly chosen vegetable, such as “Tomato.” The audience member then opens the bag to discover, much to her surprise, that it contains a tomato, a perfect match!
Type of trick: Mental
Materials:Paper shopping bag
Slips of paper
Pencil
Glass, bowl or other container
A vegetable
Secret method:
Place the vegetable in the bag, seal it with a fold, and you're ready to perform.
Hold up the bag and explain that it contains a vegetable that will be used as a prediction. Ask several audience members to call out the name of a vegetable. As each vegetable is called, you apparently write its name on a slip of paper.
What you really do is write the word “tomato” (or whatever the vegetable in the bag is) on EVERY slip of paper. Needless to say, it is important that you do not let anyone see what you actually write.
Since the audience has no reason to think that you're writing the same thing on each slip, they will assume you're writing the name of each vegetable as it is called out. The slips are dropped into your container and mixed-up.
Offer the container to an audience member, saying, "Reach inside, choose one of the slips of paper and, when you've done that, open it and read it aloud.” After he names the vegetable, have him open the bag and remove the tomato to confirm that you have correctly predicted exactly what vegetable would be chosen.
Trick #3: Penetrating Ashes Trick
Effect:The magician takes some ashes from a small bowl of “magical ashes” and rubs then into the back of a spectator’s clenched fist until they disappear. He then says some magic words and asks the spectator to open their fist to reveal that the ash has penetrated onto their palm!
Type of trick: Vanish, penetration
Materials:Ashes in a small bowl
Secret method:
Before the trick begins, prepare by putting some ash on your middle finger. Keep the bowl of ashes out of site for the time being.
Tell the spectator to stand in front of you and hold their hands out towards you, palms down.
Tell them to come a little closer and physically grab their hands to gently pull the person closer. At the same time touch their palm lightly with the ash on your middle finger.
Ask them to close their fists. Get the bowl of ashes and drop a pinch of ash on the back of their closed fists. Rub the ash until it disappears.
You can then say some magic words and ask them to open their hands to see that the ash seems to have penetrated their fists!
This trick can get a really good reaction but should only be performed once or the spectators will get wise.
With adult supervision, you can burn a small slip of paper in a bowl to make the ashes in front of the audience. Of course, you would still need to have your secret supply of ashes ahead of time.
Trick #4: The Jumping Coat Hanger
Effect:The magician holds a rope between his hands. There are three knots tied on it, and on the center knot is tied to a wire coat hanger. The magician says a magic word and FLASH, right before everyone's eyes, the hanger jumps from the center knot to the right knot!
Type of trick: Transposition, vanish
Materials:Rope, about 1 meter long
Coat hanger
Secret method:
Use a piece of rope, about 1 meter long and about 0.5cm (¼") thick. Take a look at the drawing below. It shows 4 knots on the rope. Knots B, C and D are regular knots. The hanger is tied to knot C. But knot A isn't a regular knot, it is a "slip knot." It looks pretty much like the others, but when pulled by the ends of the rope, comes undone.
Begin the trick with knot D covered by your right hand. Hold the rope so that knots A, B, and C are showing. Say, "Here we have three knots. Notice that a hanger is tied onto the end knot. But watch… Abracadabra!" As you say that, very quickly do two things:
First: Pull the rope very tight between your hands. This will cause the slipknot (A) to come undone. It seems to disappear.
Second: As you pull the rope tight, allow knot D to slip out of your right hand, but still hold onto the rope with both hands. When you do this quickly, it looks to the audience as if the hanger has jumped from the end knot to the center knot.
Practice, practice, practice… try it in front of a mirror, then when you can do it fast and smoothly, try it in front of your friends and family. It’s a great trick!
Trick #5: Cup Levitation
Effect:The magician holds a cup, and pours some levitation liquid into it. Then the magician lets go of the cup and it floats in mid air!
Type of trick: Levitation
Materials:Large paper or styrofoam cup
Some water in another cup
Secret method:
Take an empty large paper or styrofoam cup. Carefully makea hole in one side of the empty cup, big enough for your thumb to stick through. If the empty cup is made of styrofoam, you could even use your thumb to make the hole.
Hold the empty cup with one hand, making sure the audience cannot see the hole. With the other hand pour a small amount of “levitation liquid” into the cup. Then, hold the cup with both hands and secretly push one thumb through the hole, while you tell the audience to concentrate along with you. Then, as you appear to be concentrating your mind on the cup, gradually open up both hands at the sametime and the cup will appear to be floating. While doing this, push your hands slightly forward as if you are following the floating cup and eventually grab the cup with both hands. Now, discreetly slip your thumb out from the back of the cup.
This is a simple illusion but it looks great when done at the right angle. Practice in front of a mirror to make sure that you get the angles and the timing right.
Magician’s view:Spectator’s view:
Thumb through cupThumb not visible
Bonus Trick: Making Yourself Float
Effect:The magician takes off his jacket and lays it down by his feet. As he pulls the jacket up, his two feet rise with it, both visibly off of the ground!
Type of trick: Levitation
Materials:Jacket or small blanket or sheet
1 bulldog clip
Secret method:
Get a jacket (or small blanket or sheet) and a strong bulldog clip. The best kind of shoes to wear for this trick are shoes that you can easily slip on and off. Clip the bulldog clip to the inner side of one of your shoes. One shoe should be loosely tied so that you can easily slip in and out of it.
Take off your jacket (or take out the blanket or sheet) and drop it to the floor on your shoes. As you bend over, pretend to be straightening out the jacket, but secretly clip your two shoes together and step out of the loose shoe. Place your shoeless foot a little behind your two shoes.
Hold onto two ends of the jacket, and lift the two shoes together, tilting your body slightly backwards. Have the front of both shoes poking out from under the jacket a little. It will look just like you are floating! Be sure not to reveal the secret by lifting the jacket too high.
When you are done floating, lower your shoes, “crashing” back to the ground and quickly slip your foot back into the empty shoe. Bend down and remove the clip and you smooth out the jacket. Then stand up and take a bow!
Using magic to teach science
There are two basic approaches to using magic to teach science. Either you can start with a magic trick and use it to explain something about science in a fun and unusual way, or you can start with a science idea and present it in a magical way.
Starting with a magic trick
- Learn how to perform the magic trick.
- Think about a science idea that you want to teach that is related in some way to the magic trick you learned how to perform.
- Plan what you will say about the science concept as you perform the trick.
- Perform your scientific magical illusion!
Starting with a science idea
- Select a science idea that you want to teach.
- Find a magic trick that relates in some way to the science concept you will teach, and learn how to perform the magic trick.
- Plan how you will perform the magic trick to best illustrated the science idea.
- Perform your new magical scientific illusion!
Finding magic at the library
The best place to find books about magic is at the public library. If your library categorizes books using the Dewey Decimal System, you can go directly to the non-fiction section in both the children’s and grown-up’s sections and look in the area of 793.8. There are many books on magic tricks, including those using science principles!
Go where the “real” magicians go
A really fun place to visit and shop for “real” magic is a magic store. This is where professional and amateur magicians go to learn new magic, buy new tricks, and explore the art (and science) of magical illusion. The yellow pages are a great way to find a magic shop near you. The most famous magic shop in Philly is:
Hocus Pocus Magic Shop
523 S Fourth St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 629-8300
1