What are the best sources (books, web sites, etc.) for Science-based Magic Tricks?

Dai Bato

Science Magic, by Martin Gardner, is now O/P but can still be found...it is all what you want...and he has a new one out, I understand. Check ABEBOOKS for used books...there have been a good series of books on this subject, seems to be a new one out every 5 years to so.

Also- google it to see what you come up with.

Flash paper and slush/snow powder are cool science tricks.

I have two books I borrowed from a science teacher that's all about science magic one is called "magic with science" I'm not sure what the other is called. in one it acctually gives you instructions on how to make and use a bed of nails

Search amazon for Science Magic Tricks.

Hi Dai,

Good to see you are still around. I have been doing science based magic for years, after all it is kind of my profession. Lets get that L.A. area magicians meeting going, and we can sit and have an F2F chat about what you need.

Cliff

P.S. I still say you should just announce you'll be at such and such restaurant at such and such a time and who wants to join you. No time will work for everyone, but you might just make something happen.

You'll never know if you don't try.

They all are, unless you go looking in those "other" books. That's the sort of question a muggle would ask. Psychology is a science, as are Chemistry, Physics, Biology and even the computational side of Mathematics.

My concern here is whether you are sure you can protect the methods you use from your audience's awareness. The magic they enjoy vanishes in a puff of disappointment when the background science and mechanics are brought to conscious attention.

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My concern here is whether you are sure you can protect the methods you use from your audience's awareness. The magic they enjoy vanishes in a puff of disappointment when the background science and mechanics are brought to conscious attention.
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Jonathan, I must disagree with you.

As a science teacher for many years (15) one thing I know is that when you do science magic, your goal is to teach your audience something. The momentary misification is the draw, the buy in, or the atttention getter. But science magic is not magic, it is science mystery.

along with that comes the understanding that you are not doing effects that you might usually see in a magic show. You are doing physics or chemistry puzzles. In my show "the magic laboratory" part one is all science. The puzzles are presented, talked about, and then solved. Part two is magic. no solutions are offered, and if I do my job the right way, there will be no exposure.

The sheer inconsistency of your frame of reference in that prose makes me admire your intentions all the more.

However, science has far more mysteries than we conjurers can shake a stick at. Consider angular momentum and inertia as demonstrated by the gyroscope. Or the magnetic ball in the aluminum cylinder called "newton's nightmare". Both are of interest on their own, no "magic" required. Dress up the principles and you can have a "Mighty Cheese" and a fun routine that was described elsewhere on the café using tubes and the principle of that nice toy. There is a great difference between magic and mystery.

To begin, have you given any serious thought to the evident truth that wherever you are, and whatever you hold, were you to release it from your grasp it will move in the same direction and about at the same speed. Merely calling that phenomenon "gravity in action" does nothing to reduce its mystery. This mystery caught the attention of Galileo, Newton and Einstein and stays with us today.

All of our tricks are based upon science. I would prefer you expose none of them to the other muggles.