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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.
00:15They'll perform street magic, hidden camera tricks, and epic illusions.
00:21It'll all look like magic, but it's really science.
00:26This time, Ben's got a license to thrill in a secret agent trick.
00:32It was ridiculous. I did not see that coming.
00:36Billy makes men go weak at the knees.
00:39Come on, there's women watching.
00:41Wayne displays the power of mind over matter.
00:44Seeing something like that's changed my life.
00:46And James shows off his superhero skills.
00:55Our job as magicians is to astonish people and make them question reality.
01:10We'll use science and put a magic twist on it.
01:15Instead of demonstrating science experiments, we'll use scientific principles to perform magic.
01:22Our next trick does just that.
01:31Ben's on the streets of London where he's going to perform a trick James Bond would be proud of.
01:40The reason we are here is because we are outside two iconic red phone boxes.
01:46Now, back in the Cold War, rumours have it that spies used to use these phone boxes to call each other and communicate code words or messages.
01:55They obviously don't do that nowadays because they're worried about the wire getting tapped.
01:59Now, those spies would send very short messages, usually just one code word.
02:05And I want you guys to come up with a code word to do with the weather.
02:09Has everyone got one? Good. You hold onto that for me, my friend.
02:13What was your word?
02:15Drought.
02:17And yours, my friend?
02:19Thunder.
02:21Hot.
02:23Hot.
02:25Sunny.
02:27Sunny. Thank you. Good.
02:30We have our code words. Thank you.
02:33Can you help me out, my friend? Can you come forward for me? Come just here for me. Excellent. What was your name?
02:38Mark.
02:39Mark. Thank you. You're going to be one of the spies.
02:41And you, my friend. Yeah, yeah. Can you come here for me? Nice to meet you.
02:47Can you stand just there for me? You're also going to be one of the spies.
02:50So here's what's going to happen.
02:52Do me a favour. Reach in, grab a code word for me and keep hold of it. Don't open it just yet.
02:56Now, in a moment, you're going to go into that phone box and call that phone box.
03:00Then you're going to answer the phone when it rings and you're going to say just that code word.
03:05Is that cool?
03:07That is your mission. Should you choose to accept it?
03:09Accept.
03:10Good.
03:11Okay, I accept.
03:12A hesitant accept, but I'll take that. Guys, get cracking. Go, go.
03:18Alright, now's the tense bit.
03:26He's nodding.
03:30That was good nodding from you.
03:32You proper serious spy nod.
03:34Okay, you said a code word and you heard that code word.
03:39I did.
03:40Now, I can't tap wires or phones or anything like that, but I can do something pretty cool.
03:45Just here, look. I'm going to have to go in there for a second, but look.
04:04Look, the wire from the phone.
04:07Now, your code word travelled through the phone and travelled down this wire.
04:15So, in theory, this wire knows your code word.
04:20Alright, here, watch.
04:23Can I grab your coffee? Is that alright?
04:27You said a code word that you heard.
04:29For the first time, what was the code word? Say it.
04:33Hot.
04:34Hot?
04:35That was what you heard.
04:36Hot.
04:38You said hot.
04:39You said hot.
04:40Hot.
04:41What was the code word that you heard?
04:43Hot.
04:44Hot.
04:45Hot.
04:46What was the code word that you heard?
04:48Hot.
04:49Hot.
04:50Hot. That was what you heard, hot.
04:52Watch.
05:01Look, look, look what's happening, look.
05:08Look, it's starting to move and change in shape.
05:13Oh!
05:14LAUGHTER
05:16APPLAUSE
05:20That's hot!
05:26I don't know why it did that.
05:28I don't know why it spelt that word.
05:30It was ridiculous. I did not see that coming.
05:32The thing is, I'm an engineer, so I look at things logically.
05:35I can't work out how that is logical.
05:37That is not logical.
05:39Time to blow Ben's cover.
05:41No matter which word the crowd shouted out,
05:45Ben kept writing down the same one.
05:47Hot.
05:49Ben hid a length of nitinol, also known as memory wire,
05:53inside the phone booth before the trick.
05:58The wire is an alloy of nickel and titanium,
06:01and its atoms assume two different crystal structures
06:04depending on temperature.
06:07When manufactured, Ben's wire was heated to 932 degrees Fahrenheit
06:13and forged into the word hot.
06:16When cooled, it can be bent into any position,
06:19but once heat is reapplied,
06:21in this case, anything above 113 degrees,
06:25it quickly reassumes its former shape.
06:30Because of this useful shape memory,
06:32nitinol is used in everyday products,
06:35such as in flexible eyeglasses
06:37and as the underwiring in women's bras and lingerie.
06:41Now that I know that there's science behind all that,
06:44it's pretty cool.
06:45I did not see that coming.
06:46It's impressive. Very good.
06:49Of course, it makes sense.
06:50That's logical now. OK.
06:55Billy's out and about in Warsaw, Poland.
07:00One thing about being a female magician
07:02is I can use magic and science to show up tough guys.
07:06In a classic con, Billy will bet these guys
07:09they won't be able to lift her up by the elbows twice in a row.
07:15Could you guys help me out with something? Sure.
07:17It's really, really hot.
07:19I'm really thirsty and I can't seem to open my bottle.
07:22Sure, I'll help you. Can you do it for me? Yeah, sure.
07:27There you go.
07:29Thanks. You're welcome.
07:30You seem like you're a very manly guy.
07:32Yeah, I got some guns.
07:35I tell you what, if we did a test of strength,
07:37it's just for fun, but whoever loses has to buy the drinks.
07:41What if my buddy pays instead of me, though?
07:43Either way. OK.
07:44Do you reckon that you can lift me up off the ground?
07:47So just pick you up off the ground with elbows? Yeah.
07:49Let's see if I can lift you up off the ground.
07:52All right, all right, that's pretty good.
07:53But can he do it a second time?
07:56One more time? Yeah.
07:58Oh!
08:01Holy, what happened?
08:03Whoa, not very strong again.
08:06I don't know if she had, like, some special magnetic shoes
08:08over here or something, I don't know.
08:11All right, all right.
08:13So the first time I lifted her up, it was really easy.
08:15Come on, come on, come on.
08:18Oh!
08:19But the second time, she just weighed a tonne.
08:24I don't have a clue how she did it.
08:30All right. All to my elbows.
08:32That's very good. All right, showing off now.
08:34Put me down, put me down.
08:36Very good. Let's try it again, OK? OK.
08:38Ready? I'm ready. OK, here we go.
08:43Come on, there's women watching. Nah.
08:45It was really easy the first time, indeed.
08:47That's very good, all right.
08:48And the second time, she was really heavy for a long way.
08:51I don't know how, but she was.
08:55You owe me a drink. I owe you a drink.
08:56All right.
08:58So why couldn't Billy's muscle man lift her a second time?
09:02On their first attempt,
09:03Billy's elbows were pointed directly at the ground.
09:07So it was easy for the men to lift her
09:09because the upward force they applied
09:11was working directly against gravity.
09:14But the second time around,
09:16Billy slyly inched her elbows forward,
09:19shifting her centre of gravity backwards
09:21and making it much more difficult to raise her
09:24using the same method.
09:26I thought I had, like, my, you know, Superman suit on
09:29and all of a sudden I was Clark Kenton again
09:30and it was... I just couldn't lift her.
09:32Nice try. You owe me a drink as well.
09:35Science is the truth, magic is the mystery.
09:39Over in London, Wayne's been working on ways
09:42to combine the physical with the spiritual.
09:46Nice to meet you. Hi, guys.
09:47I'd like to show you something strange with a bottle here.
09:50Check it out.
09:51This is going to be a little interesting
09:53and, in fact, I'm going to just take a step back.
09:57Watch.
10:06Interesting, yeah?
10:08This is obviously about focusing a certain amount of energy
10:12in a specific place.
10:14For years, I've heard stories of a group of Tibetan monks,
10:17you may have heard this,
10:18that do experiments with channelling their energy.
10:21They go out in the cold, in the freezing cold,
10:23and they sit in the snow, naked.
10:25And the whole idea is they channel their energy
10:27in such a way that they can actually raise
10:28their body temperature.
10:30Now, it's a little too warm for snow in London right now.
10:34But I'd like to try something else.
10:36But I'd like to try something similar.
10:39Come on this way. Come on over here.
10:41Let's try it with the newspaper.
10:43Hang on to this.
10:46I'm going to use this piece.
10:52We're going to try to heat this up.
10:54Come close.
10:57Watch.
11:02This is very difficult. Sometimes it doesn't go,
11:04but we'll try.
11:06Let's try.
11:28Step back, step back, step back.
11:29It didn't really do that.
11:33What do you think?
11:36It just held his hand back just like that smoke started to come out of it
11:41It just burned from the inside out
11:46Thank you very much
11:49Absolutely fantastic. I've only come along here for a little walk and seeing something like that's changed my life. You know, it was absolutely superb
11:55I can't see how he actually got a flame from it at all. Obviously he's cast some mystic powers onto the paper and set fire to it
12:03I think all I'm gonna do for the whole of my day is wonder how that trick was done really
12:08No need to wonder because here are the hard facts behind Wayne's mystic powers
12:15First up it wasn't magic that broke the bottle. It was a phenomenon called cavitation
12:22The bottle moved so quickly that the water inside
12:26Couldn't keep up and a momentary vacuum was created
12:30This then sucked the water down with such force that it smashed the bottle
12:38The newspaper relied on chemistry hidden between the pages in a specially designed bag were two chemicals
12:46When Wayne turned the bag over the chemicals mixed and started a combustion reaction
12:53engulfing the paper in flames
12:57And there it is, thank you very much you're all afraid to touch
13:01Magic science and fire three of my favorite things
13:08Back at the abandoned factory
13:10James has been masterminding ways to overcome the fundamental forces of nature
13:15Okay, so we've been playing with some really cool science effects this week and I'm trying to work out how we're gonna turn that into
13:20Magic I've decided on a superhero theme because every good superhero movie has an explosive finale
13:25The only problem is that our finale may be a little bit too explosive
13:28That's why I brought you here to this disused factory because we don't really know what's gonna happen. Let's go check it out
13:38These guys from a local sports team are here to witness James work his magic and set free his inner superhero
13:50Hold on to that for me just for a tick
13:53As a magician sometimes just sometimes people think that I
13:58Actually have magic powers and I know it sounds stupid, but would there be any of you that think that I had any special powers?
14:05No, very well
14:06Why because I'm human but I used to love watching superhero movies as a kid if I could be a superhero
14:11I'd want to have special powers like light float in the air. I'd fly like Superman Marco Marco
14:16What do you do is just hold the ball like this for me and just go down like so now me mortals like we are
14:20This is how things work for us. And I've always thought that'd be great if the laws of physics didn't actually apply to me
14:44All right, we're all good
14:46The
14:48Boards floated in the air as if by magic
14:52I've never seen anything like that. I had a little guy myself, but it didn't work
14:56After the break James and the guys team up to channel an explosive new superpower
15:03one two three
15:09You scared the hell out of the birds
15:16At
15:21Abandoned warehouse on the edge of London James has shown off his superpowers by suspending a ball in midair
15:35Now with help from a local sports team
15:38James is going to reveal another superhero trick that involves channeling the destructive power of his voice
15:46every
15:49Good superhero has what?
15:52Yeah, every superhero has got a great villain now. No one hates me enough for there to be a villain
15:56So what we're gonna do is create our own massive villain here using the drum
16:00So what I'm gonna do is to help me out. We're gonna lift up these drums and kind of build a wall
16:04Can you all help me out Clive? Don't be lazy mate. Yeah. Yeah, stick it up higher. Why not?
16:09What let's
16:13So what we're gonna do together is create the world's first superhero with the ability of
16:21super strength through
16:23shouting
16:25Come and stand over here for me
16:29We're gonna check out Clive's
16:32Superpower and see if you Clive can harness the energy to shout and knock over the middle barrel
16:40Now what would you like to call yourself as a superhero Clive Saint Saint Saint Clive Saint Clive
16:46I'm gonna count you in one two, three. Let's see if you can knock it over
16:50One two three
16:53I
16:58Saw a piece of grass move. It was pretty impressive. We're gonna try someone else. Yeah, you can laugh at him
17:03It's your turn. Say Clive was not so great. What's your name?
17:06Okay, come over here. Cameron and Sam are gonna together be a duo sometimes superheroes come in pairs
17:11I want you to name your superhero pair
17:15Did you say tin tin is how he said?
17:16Okay, you can be tin and you can be tin so tin and tin are gonna give it a go
17:21Ready one two three
17:28You were better than yeah, that's better make I want you to come over here
17:32We're gonna get you to name yourself like the others have done. What would you like to call yourself right digger?
17:36The superhero the grave digger. All right, here we go on the count of three
17:41We're gonna try to get you to knock over the top one. Here we go. Ready?
17:46One two three
17:51I
17:54Was an extended bit at the end there I tell you well, let's try everyone in
18:02On the count of three this
18:05motley crew of superheroes
18:08Are together gonna knock over the whole lot. Are you ready? Here we go
18:13one two
18:16three
18:21You
18:24Scared the hell out of the birds. That's exactly what happened
18:27I tell you what the reason why I think you haven't knocked it down is because you haven't had as much practice as I have
18:32Now I've been practicing this for a couple of years and I'm going to show you how I could knock over these whole bunch of
18:36Barrels just with my shout now
18:38It has been known to get pretty loud. So I need you to come over here for me and pick up a
18:43pair of these ear defenders
18:45Okay
18:48Okay, so if you all got your headphones on what I need you to do now is watch very closely because this isn't about
18:55How loud I can be it's about how I can harness my energy
19:16Oh
19:33Stood there and I thought nothing was gonna
19:37Shook me up. I couldn't believe it
19:41It's amazing I've never seen nothing like that all my life
19:45I'm astonished. It's also a superhuman power there somewhere
19:51So, what was the science behind James's magic floating tennis ball
19:56To be a convincing superhero James had a little help from the laws of fluid motion and the Bernoulli principle
20:05Although gravity was pulling the tennis ball down
20:08It was counteracted by a stream of compressed air coming from a concealed source
20:13Pushing it back up as the fast-moving air flowed upwards around the curved surface of the ball
20:20It exerted less pressure than the surrounding stationary air
20:24Trapping the ball in a pocket of low pressure and keeping it in place
20:33Hidden behind James was a vortex cannon
20:36It's a metal cone connected to an explosion chamber where acetylene gas and oxygen
20:43Are ignited to shoot out a powerful circle of air called a vortex ring
20:49like this
20:51It's a burst of swirling air that moves at speeds of around
20:56185 miles per hour and can travel up to a mile in distance
21:01farmers sometimes fire vortex cannons into approaching storms in an attempt to disrupt the production of hail and so
21:09protect tender crops
21:11Good shot
21:17I can't believe it's actually happening. Wow. I don't know how he did it. I didn't tell me
21:26Definitely did not think that it could be a science for a magic trick. That's crazy
21:31We know the science behind the trick. It's really cool
21:34The loudest thing I've ever heard. Seeing is believing. You've got to be here to see it to believe it