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What is magic?
Magic tricks are often amusing, surprising
and make us think. Charms, spells and rituals used during magic
shows are just a cover-up for the science and techniques behind each
trick.
Magic trick is an illusory feat,
considered magical by naive observer.
What do we learn here?
Here you will learn the science behind
magic tricks. Almost all magic tricks use the weaknesses of human brain
and senses (or just lack of knowledge) to demonstrate something that is
not comprehendible and hence it becomes surprising, interesting and
exciting. Almost all branches of science have made some contribution in
creating magic tricks, among those are psychology, ophthalmology,
physics, chemistry.
Psychology and it's use in magic
tricks:
Designers of magic tricks know about
human brain, senses and how they work. They use such knowledge to design
shows that can fool, control, influence or deceive our minds.
Magicians are not the only people who
use their knowledge of human brain to control and manipulate it. Hypnotists,
advertisers, politicians, public speakers and many successful managers
and sales professionals also know how to trick human mind and use it in
their daily activities.
Psychology is the science that studies
human mind and some of the psychology subjects that have been exploited
by magicians are:
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Learning and perception
Many magic tricks are based on human perception. For example when
you see a glass of water in the hands of a magician, you
automatically think of any regular glass of water that you have seen
so far. You don't think that this glass may have two walls and water
may be between the walls not inside the glass.
-
Memory span (See
a sample trick)
Study of memory span will basically show that human brain has a very
limited space as short term (or very short term) memory. For example
you may easily memorize a 5-digit number for a few seconds or enough
to enter that number in another device such as phone or calculator,
but you (Most people) are not able to memorize two five digit
numbers at the same time instantly. This is the foundation for
designing many magic tricks falsely attributed to mind reading or
telepathy.
Lets design one of these tricks now. Get one card and write six
five-digit numbers on one side of the card and five five-digit
numbers on the other side. Place the card on a table and ask someone
to memorize one of the numbers and you will make that number disappear.
Give him 3 seconds to memorize one number then cover the card with
something. Do some jumbo-mambo and somehow turn over the card. When
you uncover the card the person will see only five numbers and none
of them is the number that he/she has selected.
Ophthalmology and it's use in magic
tricks:
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine
that deals with the anatomy, functions, pathology, and treatment of the
eye. By studying about the human eye you will see that when we look at
something, an image of that thing will form on the retina, the light
sensitive portion of the eye. Vision cells also known as cone cells are
actually light sensors that sense the light and transmit resulting
signals to the brain.
Human retina has about 6.8 million cone
cells. Diameter of each cone cell is about 1 to 4 micrometer. Each sell
also has a response time of 10 millisecond. In other words the image
must stay on the cell for at least 10 millisecond to produce a signal
that can be received by the brain.
If the image of an object is much
smaller than the size of each cone cell, we will not be able to see that
object. specially if the object is the same color as the background.
Thin nylon strings used in women's pantyhose have high strength and low
visibility, so magicians use it to show that they can make objects to
suspend in the air. They also use it to display that they can move an
object on the table with the power of their mind. (You should ask them
if you are using the power of your mind, why do you have to move your
hands and body?).
Water is safe
and you can use it for hundreds of magic tricks.
Click here to
see some sample tricks that can be performed using water.
See more tricks
and decide what is the scientific base of each trick.
See card tricks page 1, card
tricks page 2 and other tricks page for
details.
Need Some quick card tricks? Click
here to visit card trick central.
Encyclopedia of card tricks: http://thelearnedpig.com.pa/magos/books/encards/chapter19.html
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http://www.spiderlink.net/users/ralcocer/basement/imc.html#basics
http://www.magictricks.com/
http://www.freetricks.com/
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/black_magic.html
Where to buy Magic Supplies?
Following are some of the places that I
have found on the Internet. If you find any better place please let us
know by sending an email to info@ScienceProject.com
www.gagworks.com
www.areyougame.com
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