FLYING PING-PONG BALL

In this trick you keep a Ping-Pong ball suspended in midair. You will need a hand-held hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner with a hose that can be attached so that it blows air out instead of sucking it in. You will also need one or more Ping-Pong balls.

Turn on the dryer or vacuum cleaner and hold it so that it blows straight up. Drop a Ping-Pong ball into the center of the stream of air. A low-power stream of air will work better than a more powerful stream. The ball will dance around suspended in the air. With a little practice you will be able to move it around the room without having it fall down.

This trick works because the stream of air going over a curved surface produces an area of lower pressure, pulling the object in the direction of the lower pressure. This is part of what is known as Bernoulli's Principle, and is part of the explanation of how airplane wings get their lift. Since the ball is round, not wing shaped, the lower pressure is all around so the ball stands approximately still.

MAGIC PEGBOARD

In this trick you show that a weighted string hanging from a nail always crosses a certain hole in a pegboard which is hanging loosely on the same nail. You also show that the pegboard will spin easily around a nail put through this hole. This works because the hole is in a spot called the center of gravity. The weight of the pegboard is even in all directions from this hole.

You will need an odd-shaped piece of pegboard, a string with a weight attached, a finishing nail, and a drill or awl. To make it more interesting you may want to attach a few weights of some kind to one end of the pegboard —maybe a few nuts and bolts or even a lead fishing weight.

Drive the nail into a beam in the cellar, or into a handy tree, and hang the pegboard on it by any hole. Hang the string on the same nail. Draw a line on the pegboard along the string. Repeat this twice, hanging the pegboard from a different hole each time. The point where the lines cross is the center of gravity. Make a hole at this point. You may be lucky and find that this point is exactly at one of the original holes in the pegboard. You might paint the pegboard to make it more attractive, and accent the center-of-gravity hole.

To do the trick, tell your audience that you have a magic pegboard and have drilled a hole where all the forces of nature meet. Show them that the board is not symmetrical—that is, not even all around. Show them that when you hang the board on a nail, and hang a weighted string on the same nail, the string always crosses the magic hole. Finally, hang it on a nail by the magic hole and show how you can spin the board. Show that it will not spin if it is hung from any other hole.

MAGIC LUNG POWER

You will need a pile of books, a plastic food bag about 11" x 13", some Scotch tape, and a rubber tube two or three feet long. This tube is the kind that comes with a fountain syringe or a douche bag from the drugstore. Or you can use any kind of flexible tubing you have available. Ask your mother or father.

Insert the tube into one corner of the plastic bag; fold the open end of the bag double and seal it tightly with the Scotch tape so that it is closed all the way across.

Keep this arrangement out of sight. Ask your audience if they can blow over the stack of books you have on the table by just blowing hard. When they all fail, bring out your bag-and-tube arrangement. Lay it on the table and pile the books on it. Ask for a volunteer to catch the books so they don't fall and break the bindings. Blow into the tube. The books will all fall over with very little effort on your part.

MAGIC GLASS ROD

In this trick a clear glass rod appears to turn over some words, but not others, when you look through it. You can get a glass rod from a drugstore, chemical supply house, or the bar supply section of a housewares department. Paint one tip of the rod with a dab of nail polish. This is merely to distract your audience.

Your patter can go something like this: "This magic glass rod is made from crystal mined on the continental divide of the South American Andes Mountains. On one side of the divide things flow toward the Pacific Ocean, and on the other side they flow toward the Atlantic Ocean. The molecules of this rod are therefore split so that some seem to flow in one direction and others in the opposite direction. I will demonstrate."

On separate cards carefully print in all capital letters the following sentences:

BOB COOKED CHOICE CHICK—FINISHED IN
THE SOUP

BILL ROASTED DUCK—DECIDED HEIDI COOK
BOB RODE BIKE TO BOOKSTORE

After you tell your story, show the cards and then let someone look through the rod at the first sentence. They will see the first phrase right side up and the second upside down. Then show the second sentence through the rod, but first flip the rod. (This is just another distraction.) In this sentence the first phrase will appear upside down and the second right side up. Your sharp-eyed audience will have noticed that you flipped the rod and will shout that they know the secret. Let them have the rod, but show them only the third sentence. Here every other word will appear upside down—to their total confusion. Don't let them look at the first two sentences again. Take away the rod, telling them that their body magnetism has disarranged the molecules. Go on to another trick.

The secret, of course, is not in the glass, but in the letters. The glass turns them all upside down. But letters like O, K, and H are the same upside down, while letters like R, T, and Y are not. Make a list of all the letters that are reversible, then make as many words as you can from those letters. Then construct phrases and sentences to vary your presentation. A few more reversible words are: DOCK, DECK, HOOD, COOK, BIKE, CODE, ICE. There are many more.

A variation of this trick is done with a clear glass of water. Put a mark like an arrow or the letter R on a sheet of paper. Look at it through an empty clear thin-glass glass. Now fill the glass with water from a jar or pitcher and look through it again, moving the paper a little distance from the glass. As you move it, the mark on the paper will reverse itself.

You might tell your audience that you filled the glass from a magic pitcher. If you start out with only one glassful of water in the pitcher you can then turn the pitcher upside down and say, "Look, I can turn this pitcher upside down, and no water will spill out."

MAGIC COMB

For this trick you will need a hard rubber comb; a black Ace comb from the drugstore is best. You will need a few scraps of paper and access to a water faucet.

With a pair of scissors cut out some paper dolls from a piece of paper. Make them small, ¾″ or less. If you can't cut them out, small scraps of paper will do.

Your patter can go something like this:

"This is a magic comb that was given to me by a traveling Persian magician who was visiting here recently. He acquired it from another magician in India on his way from Iran to China. The magician's name is Ah-Kee. See, he had his name embossed on the comb—'A, C, E'; AHKEE. It is endowed with strange magic properties. Unlike an iron magnet, which attracts only things made of iron, this comb will attract dandruff, paper, and even drinking water. Watch closely."

Lay several of the paper dolls on the table. Rub the comb vigorously against your bare arm for about twenty strokes, then hold it near the pieces of paper. They will jump up, attracted to the comb. With some practice you can even make the dolls dance on the table.

Now take your audience to the kitchen sink, and turn on the faucet so that you have the thinnest steady stream of water flowing. Again rub the comb on your arm, and hold it near the water. The stream will magically bend toward the comb!

This is best done on a dry day. It may not work on a humid summer day. This trick works because the charge of static electricity in the comb is different from the charge in the bits of paper or the running water. Different charges attract each other.

MAGIC BROOMSTICK

Get a broomstick or any smooth stick four to six feet long. Mark the exact center. This will be the point where it will balance on your outstretched finger. Mark this point with a black marker so that everyone will be able to see it. You might even paint designs on the stick, or paint the two halves different colors.

Now tell your audience that it is a magic stick. Tell them that the tree from which it was made grew in a hardwood forest exactly on the Equator, where the Earth is balanced—where the northern hemisphere is balanced by the southern hemisphere. Because of this, the stick wants everything even and balanced.

To show the trick, hold the stick on your two outstretched hands as illustrated, with your hands at different distances from the center. Slowly bring your hands together. They will always meet at the exact center of the stick.

This trick works because of a law of friction. If the surfaces in contact are the same, the heavier object will exert more friction. When the broomstick is unbalanced, the longer portion exerts more friction and so stands still while the other hand moves in to equal the friction. Then the sides alternate in small bits until you reach the center.

MAGIC MIRROR

You will need two flat mirrors of the same size; 9" x 9" or larger. These flat mirrors, which are used as wall tiles, can be bought cheaply at a store or lumberyard that sells home decorating supplies. Mount each on a block of wood so that they will stand up separately and can be moved around. Also prepare a tray or board with guidelines on it so that the two mirrors can be stood so they touch each other and are exactly at right, or square, angles.

The reflection you see in a mirror is scientifically called the image. If you look into a mirror the image is backward. If you raise your right hand, the image's left hand is raised. If you hold some printing up to a mirror, it appears backward. But if you look into the magic mirror when arranged as described, the image will not be backward. If you hold up a sign that says MAGIC, it will be seen correctly.

To do your trick, let people look at the mirrors individually, so they seem to be ordinary mirrors. Then tell your audience that they are really magic mirrors, and you have the power to release their magic property. You might make it more mysterious by covering the two mirrors with a cloth while you arrange them, and mumble some incantation. Try something like, "Mirror, mirror, on the table, tell us now if you're able. Some are dull and some are bright. Are you left or are you right?"

Uncover the mirrors, and let people see the magic image. This trick works because with the double mirror arrangement, viewers see an image that has passed from one mirror to the other and then to their eyes. Thus the image is first reversed, then reversed again so that it becomes normal.

CUTTING GLASS WITH A SCISSORS

In this trick you cut a piece of ordinary glass with a pair of scissors. It is a very simple trick to perform, but you must make it look complicated to impress your audience.

Prepare a pail or pan deep enough so that when it is almost filled with water, you can get both hands under the water. You will also need several narrow strips of window glass or microscope slides, household scissors, some food colorings you disguise by putting them into dropper bottles, a bottle of tincture of iodine or Mercurochrome, some vinegar, and washing soda. Have a box of Band-Aids ready too, just for show.

You must tell your audience that you have found a secret magic formula that will soften glass so that it can be cut with ordinary scissors. To make a real impression, do one or more of the following: As you put a few drops of color into the basin of water say an incantation, like, "Mumbo-jumbo, fiddledy foo, I now put in some magic blue"; or, "This is the potion I really dread, I put in a drop of bloody red"; or, "Glass is hard, we'll make it mellow by putting in a drop of yellow." In a small jar pour a spoonful of washing soda with some vinegar; and as it bubbles up, pour it too into the basin. Then tell your audience that for safety's sake you will add a few drops of iodine, "just in case."

The important thing is to have your audience feel that you are really doing a complicated procedure.

Put several pieces of glass into the basin, and tell them it takes thirty seconds for the glass to soften up. Let them count off the seconds with you. All this hocus-pocus, of course, is just for show. The only important ingredient is the water.

Hold a piece of glass under the water and cut it with the scissors. Don't be afraid to try it—it works!

It might be a good idea to tell your audience the following: "Everyone has noticed that when you cut a thick piece of cardboard with a scissors, the part that is cut off bends away from the scissors. Because glass doesn't bend, the pieces sometimes break off." This will happen, so you must have an excuse ready.

Let some of your audience cut the glass as you did.

CRUMPLED CAN

In this trick a gallon can mysteriously crumples itself.

You will need an empty new or used rectangular can with a screw cap— the kind of can paint thinner or denatured alcohol comes in. You will also need a glass of water, a stove or other source of heat, a dry towel or potholder, and an old newspaper.

Put half a glassful of water into the can and set it on the stove to boil.

While waiting for it to boil tell your story.

Tell your audience that you have a glass of very hard water—so hard, in fact, that when you pour it on the can it will destroy the can. If you have just done the trick of cutting glass under water (page 94), use a glass of that

"magic water."

When the water in the can boils, put the cap on the can loosely, and let it boil for a minute longer. Then hold the can with the towel and tighten the cap, good and tight, being careful not to burn yourself. Remove the can from the heat and lay it on its side on the newspaper. Pour the glass of "magic hard water" on the can. The can will crumple and bend into a weird shape.

This works because the boiling water in the can drives out all of the air. When you seal the can and pour water on it, the steam inside the can condenses, leaving a partial vacuum in the can. The air pressure outside the can, 14 pounds per square inch of area, crushes the can.

MAGIC HARBOR

This is a trick where the surface of a dish of water reacts violently when touched with a toothpick.

You will need a soup dish filled with water, some detergent, a toothpick or small plastic doll, some ground pepper, and aluminum foil or a bit of Styrofoam.

Prepare the doll or toothpick ahead of time by putting a drop of detergent on the tip. Then tell your story as you set things up.

Tell your audience that the dish represents a crowded harbor. Sprinkle pepper over the surface and tell them that the water is polluted. Drop several small balls of aluminum foil or bits of Styrofoam on the water. Call them fishing boats. You can say that the doll or the toothpick is the local Board of Health inspector. He comes to the harbor to inspect things, and touches the water. Immediately the water gets cleared up, and the boats all rush away from him.

To repeat this trick, the dish must be thoroughly rinsed so there is no detergent left in it.

MAGIC JAR # 2

In this trick you will hold a jar of water upside down and the water will not fall out.

You will need a piece of stiff paper and a glass jar like the one you used in the trick described on page 69.

Hold the jar in your hand with your finger closing the hole tightly, and fill it with water. Cover the jar with the piece of paper. Hold the paper in place with your other hand and turn the jar upside down over something big enough to catch the water. Let go with the second hand. The paper will stay in place and the water will remain in the jar. Ask your audience to count out loud with you, "One ... two ... three." At the count of three, without letting your audience notice it, raise your finger slightly from the hole. The water will all drop out of the jar.

This trick works because with the jar upside down the only weight pressing down on the paper is the weight of the jarful of water, less than a half pound. The weight— pressure—pushing up on the paper is the entire weight of the atmosphere over the surface of the paper, about 14 pounds per square inch. When you release your finger, you have the weight of the atmosphere plus the weight of the water pushing down on the paper, so it falls away.

OceanofPDF.com