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00:00Master magicians from around the world are taking science and fusing it with magic to break everything you thought you knew about the world around you.
00:13They'll perform street magic, hidden camera tricks, and epic illusions.
00:20And after they've surprised you, they'll reveal the science that made the magic work.
00:27This time, Wayne's the man with the golden touch.
00:31Billy gets inside a stranger's head.
00:34Paris.
00:35Ben turns summer sun into winter snow.
00:38It's snow!
00:39And James is the fall guy taking a dangerous drop.
00:58Magic is an exciting performance art and we're always looking for new ways to impress our audience.
01:04So when the four of us were given the task of taking science and turning that into magic, we jumped at it.
01:11So we've created a series of tricks that would even make Einstein scratch his head.
01:19Take a look at this and see how we made it happen.
01:23First up, we're in New York City.
01:25Wayne's on the streets of Queens where he hopes to make some dreams come true by turning ordinary objects into pure gold.
01:35For thousands of years, alchemists tried to take base metals and turn them into silver or gold.
01:39And they failed.
01:40I think I found an interesting way to create the illusion that I'm doing just that.
01:44Something that would even impress King Midas.
01:49We're going to try something a little interesting.
01:50I see that you have some jewelry there.
01:52A necklace, yeah?
01:53That's a nice necklace.
01:54I've got a trick for you.
01:56Here, take a look.
01:57I've got a little silver bracelet.
01:59Okay.
02:00That's okay.
02:01What do you think, yeah?
02:02Yeah, nice.
02:03If I were to turn this into gold, that'd be interesting.
02:06That'd be amazing.
02:09Check this out.
02:10In order to do this, I need some heat.
02:12Who has a lighter?
02:13I need some heat.
02:14I got a lighter.
02:15You got one?
02:16Come close.
02:17We're going to try this with a lighter.
02:23Doesn't that hurt?
02:25It's hurting me watching it out.
02:27I'm going to try to absorb some of the heat.
02:33Okay.
02:34Watch.
02:36You turn this to gold, you higher.
02:43You see right here?
02:44Yeah.
02:45Watch.
02:49Look, look, look, look.
02:50You see it starting to go.
02:51I see it.
02:52I see it.
02:53Oh, wow.
02:54Look, look, look.
02:55Right here.
02:56Right here, too.
02:57How are you doing this?
02:58No!
02:59Oh, my gosh.
03:00He absorbed the heat from a lighter and turned it into gold.
03:04It was magic.
03:06You can see it going.
03:07You can see it going.
03:08It is turning gold.
03:10It went gold in front of my eyes, you know?
03:12It's crazy.
03:13We'll see if we can get it to go a little bit more.
03:15Oh, my gosh.
03:16Out of this world, it turned to gold.
03:19Wow.
03:20That's incredible.
03:21Sometimes, because of the heat transfer, it gets a little warm.
03:27Do you see it?
03:29Yeah, that's crazy.
03:31Look at this.
03:32Look at that.
03:33Good job.
03:34That's crazy.
03:35You see it, yeah?
03:36I've never witnessed anything like that in my life.
03:40Can I see this?
03:41Take a look.
03:42This had to be some trick stuff.
03:44No, you saw him live.
03:46Hand movements.
03:48This is crazy.
03:50Let's see if it rubbed off.
03:51Let's see if it rubbed off.
03:52No, this is crazy.
03:55What did you think of that?
03:56That was cool.
03:57That's the bomb right there.
03:58Got the Midas touch.
03:59My gift to you.
04:00Oh, thank you.
04:01Appreciate it.
04:02The Midas touch, yeah?
04:03Wayne looks like he's worked magic,
04:05but here's the reality behind the illusion.
04:09I wish that I had the power to take silver and really turn it into gold,
04:13but unfortunately, I can't do that.
04:15Our bracelet is actually copper, and we've coated it with zinc,
04:18so it looks silver.
04:19With that in play, we let science do the rest.
04:22When enough heat is applied to zinc-coated copper,
04:25the two metals combine to form a new alloy, brass.
04:29When brand new, brass is shiny and gold-colored,
04:32just like the real thing.
04:34So how did Wayne manage to apply so much heat out on the street?
04:38Forget the lighter.
04:39That was just a distraction.
04:41The secret was inside the oil drum.
04:44A hidden hot plate heated the surface of the drum
04:46to temperatures of around 400 degrees,
04:49enough to create the reaction that formed the shiny brass coating.
04:53Now I know the science, but that is still crazy to see.
04:56It's crazy.
04:57Across the pond in London,
04:59Billy's about to prey on every man's suspicion
05:02that women secretly know exactly what they're thinking.
05:06Mind readers have been fooling people for centuries
05:08by using a whole host of cunning techniques and devices.
05:11Today, I'm going to follow in that tradition
05:13by using a little bit of magic and a piece of clever science
05:16to convince people that I have the power to read minds.
05:21Hi, guys. What's your name?
05:23I'm Mark. I'm Matthew.
05:25Matthew and... Nigel.
05:26Nigel, nice to meet you. I'm Billy.
05:28We're going to try something today, if that's all right.
05:30I'm going to attempt a bit of mind reading.
05:32But first off, I need to know, are you guys sceptics?
05:34A little bit, yeah. A little bit, I think so.
05:36On that note, do me a favour.
05:38I want you gentlemen to check out my ears
05:40and just make sure that I have no hidden earpieces.
05:42Go on, take a good look, dig deep.
05:44Nothing? Nothing.
05:46Mark, I'm going to give you this clipboard and this pen.
05:49That's for you.
05:50I'm going to stand a fair distance away from you
05:52so I can't see the clipboard.
05:54And I'm just going to ask you a few questions.
05:56I want you to write down the answers.
05:58So, first off, I want you to think of a capital city.
06:00You just write down the name of the city on your paper.
06:03Next up, I want you to think of an animal, any animal.
06:06First animal that comes to mind.
06:08Write down the name of that animal.
06:13Interesting.
06:14And finally, I want you to write down...
06:17I know, your mother's first name.
06:20Right.
06:21You do remember her, yes?
06:23Sort of.
06:24She's the best friend you'll ever have, Mark.
06:26She certainly is.
06:27OK. OK.
06:28Now, you've written those three items down.
06:30Uh-huh.
06:31And I believe the first thing you wrote...
06:33It was a city, wasn't it? It was, yeah.
06:35That's the first thing you wrote? Capital city.
06:37You got it in your mind? Yeah.
06:39Just look me in the eyes.
06:42London.
06:43Was it London? It was, yeah.
06:45OK, no, no, wait, wait.
06:46The second thing I asked you to think of an animal.
06:49It's a dog, isn't it?
06:51Yeah.
06:52OK, last but not least, we've never met before.
06:54This is a very personal one.
06:56I asked you your mother's first name.
06:58That's right, yeah.
06:59OK.
07:01Uh-huh.
07:02For the first time, what was your mother's name?
07:04Dorothy.
07:05Dorothy.
07:08That's what I got as well, Dorothy.
07:10That's incredible.
07:11Don't know the lottery results, do you?
07:17I've never experienced anything like that before.
07:19I don't know how she did it.
07:20It's just...
07:21She literally read my mind.
07:23My mother's name, how she got that from,
07:25cos it's a bit of an old name you don't hear many people
07:28call Dorothy these days, and that just blew me away.
07:30Let's try this. I want you to think of an animal.
07:33OK, any animal.
07:34OK. You got one in mind?
07:36Keep it to yourself, don't say it.
07:38Write it down on your piece of paper.
07:41OK.
07:43Interesting.
07:45Perfect.
07:46I can see your weight's to one side.
07:49Try not to give it away, but just keep thinking of it.
07:52Think of the sound of the animal, the smell.
07:57Great, yeah.
07:58There's a kind of a rhythm to your body,
08:00I can tell.
08:01It might be this.
08:03Show me what you wrote.
08:04Tiger.
08:06I also got tiger.
08:08So, I want to make this really challenging.
08:10Let's try your mother's first name.
08:12You remember your mother?
08:13Yeah.
08:14You know who she is?
08:15Yeah.
08:16Write down her first name for me.
08:20OK.
08:21And think of your mother.
08:23Yeah.
08:24Think of a good memory you've had from your mother.
08:26Try not to give it away.
08:27I know you're trying not to make eye contact with me, but...
08:33All right, I think I got it.
08:35I think I got it.
08:37A few vowels in this.
08:40OK, for the first time, I want you to show me who your mother is.
08:45Hazel.
08:48Hazel is what I got as well.
08:52I've just created the illusion of mind reading,
08:54but I don't have any special powers.
08:56So, how did I get that information?
08:59Billy wasn't working alone.
09:01An assistant was secretly reading the answers
09:04and then texting the information to her.
09:06But without an earpiece, how was she receiving them?
09:09Take a look at the LCD screen in the store window.
09:13It looks off, but actually it's on.
09:16Typical LCD screens create images
09:18by projecting light through two layers of polarized film.
09:22But this screen had one layer removed,
09:24so it looked like it was off.
09:27The missing polarized layer was hidden in Billy's special clipboard.
09:30All she had to do was hold it up to the screen
09:32to see which words had been secretly texted.
09:35This clever technique ensured Billy got the answer right every single time.
09:40Parrots.
09:42I grew up performing magic on the street,
09:44you know, when people weren't really expecting to see a show.
09:46See, that's cool, because when you do magic out on the street,
09:49it feels more organic.
09:50Yeah, like this. Cookie time.
09:54That's not magic.
09:59That's awesome.
10:00The cool thing about that, too,
10:01is you can do that kind of magic anywhere, anytime.
10:03Right.
10:10And everyone gets cookies.
10:13It's summer on the streets of London,
10:15but Ben's about to turn the weather on its head
10:18and magic up a bit of winter.
10:21You're from Russia?
10:22Yeah.
10:23What is the Russian for snow?
10:25Now, I would say that Russia gets quite a bit of snow.
10:28For real snow, you need ice-cold temperatures
10:32and you need water.
10:35Let's try something.
10:39Can you take the lid off of the water for me?
10:45Let's try this.
10:52Look.
10:55What?
10:57It's snow.
11:03Hold your hands out. Hold your hands out.
11:04Look, it's cold.
11:10Snow!
11:11Snow! Snow takes it home!
11:14Thank you, guys.
11:17Summer in England.
11:18We get to see snow.
11:19Very nice. Well done.
11:21It's cold.
11:23To water into snow is incredible.
11:25Okay, so that might be fake snow,
11:27but the trick relies on some cool chemistry that's very real.
11:31The cup contained a super-absorbent substance
11:34called sodium polyacrylate,
11:36which can quickly absorb up to 300 times its own mass in water.
11:40The resulting powder resembles snow because it's largely water,
11:44which is why it feels cool to the touch.
11:47Sodium polyacrylate is found in diapers
11:49and is even used by NASA in its spacesuits.
11:52For when astronauts need a zero-gravity restroom break.
12:00Bit early for the wine, isn't it?
12:01No, I'm not drinking, mate. Here.
12:03What do you think's going to happen to the wine glass when I let go of this?
12:06It's going to smash.
12:08That's pretty cool.
12:09Yep.
12:10Does that happen every time?
12:11Well, I hope so, mate.
12:12I'm going to be trusting my life using this method.
12:14It's a classic physics demonstration
12:16performed in classrooms around the world.
12:18But can the guys scale it up and turn it into magic?
12:22On the waterfront in London,
12:23James plans to replace the wine glass with his own body
12:27and jump from this 50-foot tower in front of a live audience.
12:31But just like the wine glass,
12:32he'll be relying on only a small weight
12:34and some basic physics to catch his fall.
12:37James is no dummy,
12:38so he's testing the theory with a mannequin first.
12:41OK, let's throw him off.
12:48Oh.
12:49James, I think you have to seriously rethink this trick.
12:53In theory, the weight of James falling
12:55will whip the weighted end of the rope around this pole
12:58and stop him hitting the ground.
13:00It works with a wine glass,
13:02but the trouble is no-one has tried it from 50 feet up
13:05with a human being.
13:11I think James is starting to get a little bit worried.
13:15We're supposed to be rehearsing this death drop,
13:18but because of the wind, we can't do it.
13:20So we don't know when James is going to be able
13:23to rehearse this thing.
13:24I shouldn't be laughing because he can't rehearse.
13:27Then he's going to do it first time this evening,
13:30and who knows what's going to happen?
13:33To see if it can take James' weight,
13:35he's testing the strength of the effect again,
13:38but this time with a piano.
13:43It does feel amazing that I will be where that piano is,
13:47putting my life on the line
13:49to hopefully make people excited at home.
13:52I'm an absolute idiot. That is insane.
13:57Here it goes.
14:02Stand by.
14:03Whenever you're ready.
14:04Here it comes, James.
14:18Whoo-hoo!
14:24That's the last tune this piano will ever play.
14:27When using the wine glass,
14:28the ratio between the glass and the counterweight
14:31is around 13 to 1.
14:32But when scaled up, critical factors such as
14:35the tower's height, diameter of the pole,
14:37length of rope, and crucially, the strength of the wind
14:40all add up to a complicated formula
14:42which will need a lot more testing.
14:45I'm glad I'm not in his shoes.
14:47This is going to be the last trick I ever do.
14:49Let's hope it's worth it.
14:51James has only got a couple of hours
14:53to work out how much weight to put on the end of the rope.
14:56Time is running out.
14:57So far, there have been no successful drops.
15:00With James having never tried the stunt,
15:02putting this theory into practice is looking tough.
15:12It's a cold, windy night in London,
15:14and James is taking on a potentially risky stunt.
15:18He's going to try and replicate
15:20the classic falling wine glass trick
15:22by being dropped from this scaffold tower
15:25attached to just a rope
15:27with a small weight at the end of it.
15:29If everything goes to plan,
15:30the rope will wind itself around this metal arm
15:33and break his fall.
15:34If it doesn't, nothing will stop him hurtling
15:3750 feet straight onto the deck below.
15:41With time and weather against them,
15:43today's practice drops haven't helped James' nerves.
15:47If he falls, the science might not work.
15:49He might end up falling into the scaffolding.
15:52He might miss the floor.
15:53I don't know.
15:54The weather is still too treacherous
15:56for James to do a rehearsal,
15:58so a stuntman in protective gear
16:00and with a second safety rope
16:01tries the drop to see if it works on a bigger scale.
16:053, 2, 1, go!
16:08Ah!
16:12The stuntman's rehearsal worked,
16:14but James is out of time as his live audience has arrived.
16:18He's going to have to do the drop for the first time for real.
16:22But to add some magic to the stunt,
16:24James and Ben are going to trick the audience
16:27into believing that they can influence what happens.
16:31They say it takes two seconds to judge a person's character.
16:34Tonight, I'm going to be taking that to the extreme.
16:37I trust my instincts so much that what I'm going to do
16:40is put my life in the hands of one of you.
16:43The way that I'm going to do that is by asking a series of questions
16:46and narrow it down to one person.
16:48Lady over here, can you just tell me, apples or oranges?
16:52Oranges.
16:54The gentleman in the front with the purple hat, 24 or 89?
16:5789.
16:58You answered that instinctively.
17:00And the gentleman over here with the beard, jacket or jeans?
17:03Jeans.
17:06Ben, I think I've got the person I want to use.
17:08Really? Yeah.
17:09The gentleman with the beard over here, what's your name?
17:12Lee. Lee, is that right? Yeah.
17:14I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Ben.
17:17Good luck.
17:19Lee, come this way.
17:21Can I be the first to say your beard is fantastic?
17:24Hello, Lee. Hello, hello.
17:26Now, Lee, if you have a look at James,
17:30he's going to be attached to that rope that gets put over that pole
17:34that is then attached to the crane.
17:36And the only thing that releases that rope is this mechanism.
17:41That is where you come in, Lee.
17:45Now, in a moment, I'm going to ask you five questions.
17:48And they're going to have two answers, either A or B.
17:52Oh, wow.
17:54If he answers correctly, James will stay just there.
17:58But if he answers any of those five questions incorrectly,
18:02James will fall.
18:04What the audience don't know is that Ben will ask a question
18:07which has no right answer, guaranteeing that James will drop.
18:11After the stuntman's attempt, the science is one for one.
18:15He's praying after his attempt, it's two for two.
18:18Now that James is in position, let's start with question one.
18:24In particle physics...
18:26What?!
18:27..do neutrons weigh more than protons?
18:31What kind of question is that?
18:33It's a very legitimate question, is what it is.
18:36Is it A, yes, or is it B, no?
18:42You can have a few seconds to think about it if you need it.
18:47What's he saying?
18:49He's not saying anything, James.
18:51You can say something to James if you like.
18:54Sorry!
18:57Remember, if you get this wrong, James will fall.
19:02OK, I am actually going to have to press you for an answer.
19:05Yes, I've got one. You've got an answer? I've got an answer.
19:08You can say it out loud, what is your answer?
19:10I'm going to go for B, no.
19:12B.
19:15OK, on the count of three, press the switch.
19:20Three, two, one.
19:29Hold on, sorry. Sorry, I'm getting some...
19:32Sorry, there's a problem. We can't do it.
19:35The wind's too strong, we're going to have to pull him down.
19:38The weather is not behaving, so James can't drop as planned.
19:42Eventually, even the eager audience can't wait any more
19:45and have to be released.
19:47But James is determined to take the drop
19:49and finally does at 2.30am.
19:52Here we go.
19:54Three, two, one, go!
20:16Don't move! Do not move!
20:18See, my back's hurting. Hold there.
20:20The trick has gone painfully wrong and James has hit the deck hard.
20:25The counterweight did not swing round and stop his fall,
20:28as it should have.
20:30It didn't do what it was supposed to do.
20:32It certainly didn't happen like the wine glass did, that's for sure.
20:35I didn't know what I was going to feel anyway,
20:37so I felt it went right until I bounced off the floor.
20:41I was certain it was going to work,
20:43cos we were practising all day with the wine glass,
20:46so the science works,
20:48except when you multiply that by about 1,000 times
20:51and put it in the sky and add darkness, windiness and rain,
20:55it changes things.
20:57The ratio of James' weight to the counterweight was right.
21:00The effect was working well until the rope snagged around itself
21:04and stopped the turning motion.
21:06This meant that James' fall was slowed,
21:08but he failed to stop completely as planned.
21:11When the stuntman did it, the science worked perfectly.
21:14Unfortunately for me, it didn't work out that way.
21:17James put everything on the line to make magic out of science,
21:20but perhaps his greatest trick was in walking away essentially unharmed.
21:27You named it the danger drop, didn't you?
21:29Yeah, the clue was in the tile.
21:31I thought your bounce was quite lovely, James.
21:33Seriously? Come on, a little sympathy?
21:35You were a very brave man.
21:39As it changed slowly, my emotions got higher and higher.
21:43Ah!
21:45I loved it.
21:47Yeah, massively impressed by that.
21:49Still really don't know how she done it,
21:51but, yeah, well impressed, well impressed.
21:53I was really surprised to see all that snow come out of the cup.
21:56It was really unexpected.
21:58I would like to see it again, actually.
22:00Would I try that trick again?
22:02There's two answers to that, no and absolutely not.
22:07No.