Ever wonder how magicians work their magic? This experiment is worthy of the stage with a little bit of practice on your end.
Here’s how this activity is laid out: First, watch the video below. Next, try it on your own. Make sure to send us your photos of your inventions here!
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For this incredibly easy, super-amazing experiment, you’ll need to find:
- a plastic cup
- hard covered book
- toilet paper tube
- a ball that’s a bit smaller then the opening of the cup but larger than the opening of the toilet paper tube (you can also use an egg when you really get good at this trick!)
1. Put the cup on a table.
2. Put the book on top of the cup.
3. This is the tricky part. Put the toilet paper tube upright on the book, exactly over the cup.
4. Now put the ball on top of the toilet paper tube.
5. Check again to make sure the tube and the ball are exactly over the top of the cup.
6. Now, hit the book on the side so that it moves parallel to the table. You want the book to slide quickly between the cup and the tube.
7. If it works right, the book and the tube fly in the direction you hit the book. The ball however falls straight down and into the cup.
8. If it works say TAAA DAAA!
Download Student Worksheet & Exercises
This experiment is all about inertia. The force of your hand got the book moving. The friction between the book and the tube (since the tube is light it has little inertia and moves easily) causes the tube to move. The ball, which has a decent amount of weight, and as such a decent amount of inertia, is not effected much by the moving tube. The ball, thanks to gravity, falls straight down and, hopefully, into the cup. Remember the old magician’s trick of pulling the table cloth and leaving everything on the table? Now you know how it’s done. “Abra Inertia”!
So inertia is how hard it is to get an object to change its motion, and Newton’s First Law basically states that things don’t want to change their motion. Get the connection?
Exercises
- What are two different pairs of forces in this experiment?
- Explain where Newton’s Three Laws of motion are observed in this experiment.
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