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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?
04:28You said a code word that you heard.
04:30Yeah.
04:31For the first time, what was the code word? Say it.
04:34Hot.
04:35Hot?
04:36Yeah.
04:37That was what you heard?
04:38Yep.
04:39Hot.
04:41You were the first one to say that, so you're going to say it.
04:43You're going to say it.
04:44Hot.
04:45Hot.
04:47And you're going to say it.
04:48Hot.
04:49Say it.
04:49Hot.
04:50Hot?
04:51Yep.
04:52That was what you heard, hot.
04:53Watch.
05:02Look, look.
05:03Look what's happening, look.
05:07Look.
05:09Look, it's starting to move and change in shape.
05:14Whoa.
05:27I 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.
05:33The thing is, I'm an engineer,
05:33so 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, hot.
05:49Ben hit a length of nitinol, also known as memory wire,
05:54inside 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
06:09to 932 degrees Fahrenheit and forged into the word hot.
06:17When cooled, it can be bent into any position,
06:19but once heat is reapplied,
06:21in this case anything above 113 degrees,
06:26it quickly reassumes its former shape.
06:31Because of this useful shape memory,
06:33nitinol is used in everyday products,
06:37such as in flexible eyeglasses,
06:38and as the underwiring in women's bras and lingerie.
06:42Yeah, now that I know that there's science
06:44behind all that, it's pretty cool.
06:45I did not see that coming.
06:47That's, it's impressive.
06:49Very good.
06:50Of course it makes sense.
06:51That's logical now.
06:52Okay.
06:56Billie's out and about in Warsaw, Poland.
07:01One thing about being a female magician
07:03is I can use magic and science to show up to tough guys.
07:07In a classic con, Billie will bet these guys
07:10they won't be able to lift her up by the elbows
07:13twice in a row.
07:15Could you guys help me out with something?
07:17Sure.
07:18It's really, really hot.
07:19I'm really thirsty and I can't seem to open my bottle.
07:21All right.
07:22Sure, I'll help you.
07:23Can you do it for me?
07:24Yeah, sure.
07:27There you go.
07:29Thanks.
07:30You're welcome.
07:31You seem like you're a very manly guy.
07:32I got some guns.
07:35I'll 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, what if my buddy pays instead of me though?
07:43Either way.
07:44Okay.
07:45Do you reckon that you can lift me up off the ground?
07:47So just pick you up off the ground with the elbows?
07:48Yeah, yeah.
07:49All right.
07:50Let's see if I can lift you up off the ground.
07:51All right, all right, that's pretty good.
07:53But can he do it a second time?
07:56One more time?
07:57Yeah.
07:58Oh.
08:00Holy, 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.
08:09I don't know.
08:11All right, all right.
08:12The first time I lifted her up, it was really easy.
08:19But the second time she just weighed a ton.
08:25I don't have a clue how she did it.
08:30All right.
08:31Onto my elbows.
08:33That's very good.
08:33All right, showing off now.
08:34Put me down.
08:35Put me down.
08:36Very good.
08:37Let's try it again, okay?
08:38Okay.
08:39Ready?
08:40I'm ready.
08:41Okay, here we go.
08:43Come on, there's women watching.
08:45Nah.
08:45That 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.
08:56I owe you a drink.
08:57All right.
08:58So why couldn't Billy's muscle men 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 center of gravity backwards
09:21and making it much more difficult
09:23to raise her using 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.
09:33You owe me a drink as well.
09:35Science is the truth.
09:36Magic is the mystery.
09:40Over in London, Wayne's been working on ways
09:43to combine the physical with the spiritual.
09:46Nice to meet you, hi guys.
09:48I'd like to show you something strange with a bottle here.
09:51Check it out.
09:52This is gonna be a little interesting
09:53and in fact, I'm going to just take a step back.
09:58Watch.
10:07Interesting, yeah?
10:08Quality.
10:10This is obviously about focusing a certain amount of energy
10:14in a specific place.
10:16Now for years, I've heard stories
10:17of a group of Tibetan monks,
10:19you may have heard this,
10:20that do experiments with channeling their energy.
10:23They go out in the cold, in the freezing cold
10:25and they sit in the snow naked
10:26and the whole idea is they channel their energy
10:29in such a way that they can actually
10:30raise their body temperature.
10:32Now it's a little too warm for snow in London right now
10:36but I'd like to try something similar.
10:39Come on this way, come on over here.
10:42Let's try it with the newspaper.
10:44Hang on to this.
10:46I'm going to use this piece.
10:48We're gonna try to heat this up, come close.
10:52Watch.
10:57This is very difficult, sometimes it doesn't go
10:59but we'll try.
11:17It's not coming off.
11:20It's not coming off.
11:28Step back, step back, step back.
11:30Did it really do that?
11:33What do you think?
11:36It just held his hand back, just like that.
11:39Smoke started to come out of it.
11:42It just burned from the inside out.
11:46Thank you very much.
11:49Absolutely fantastic.
11:50I've only come along here for a little walk
11:51and seeing something like that's changed my life.
11:54You know, it was absolutely superb.
11:56I can't see how he actually got a flame from it at all.
11:59Obviously he's cast some mystic powers
12:01onto the paper and set fire to it.
12:03I think all I'm gonna do for the whole of my day
12:05is wonder how that trick was done really.
12:08No need to wonder because here are the hard facts
12:11behind Wayne's mystic powers.
12:15First up, it wasn't magic that broke the bottle.
12:18It was a phenomenon called cavitation.
12:23The 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
12:34that it smashed the bottle.
12:38The newspaper relied on chemistry.
12:41Hidden between the pages in a specially designed bag
12:44were two chemicals.
12:46When Wayne turned the bag over,
12:48the chemicals mixed and started a combustion reaction,
12:53engulfing the paper in flames.
12:57And there it is.
12:58Thank you very much.
12:59You're all afraid to touch the handle.
13:01Magic, science, and fire, three of my favorite things.
13:08Back at the abandoned factory,
13:10James has been masterminding ways
13:12to overcome the fundamental forces of nature.
13:16Okay, so we've been playing
13:17with some really cool science effects this week
13:18and I'm trying to work out
13:19how we're gonna turn that into magic.
13:21I've decided on a superhero theme
13:22because every good superhero movie has an explosive finale.
13:25The only problem is that our finale
13:27may be a little bit too explosive.
13:28That's why I brought you here to this disused factory
13:30because we don't really know what's gonna happen.
13:33Let's go check it out.
13:38These guys from a local sports team
13:40are here to witness James work his magic
13:43and set free his inner superhero.
13:51Hold on to that for me just for a tick.
13:54As a magician, sometimes, just sometimes,
13:56people think that I actually have magic powers.
14:00And I know it sounds stupid,
14:01but would there be any of you
14:02that think that I had any special powers?
14:05No, very well.
14:06Why? Because I'm human.
14:07But I used to love watching superhero movies as a kid.
14:10If I could be a superhero, I'd wanna have special powers
14:12like I'd float in the air, I'd fly like Superman.
14:15Marco, Marco, what I want you to do
14:16is just hold the ball like this for me
14:18and just go down like so.
14:19Now, me mortals like we are,
14:20this is how things work for us.
14:22And I've always thought that it'd be great
14:23if the laws of physics didn't actually apply to me.
14:38All right, we're all good.
14:42The ball just floated in the air, as if by magic.
14:45I've never seen anything like that.
14:46I had a little go myself, but it didn't work.
14:50After the break, James and the guys team up
14:53to channel an explosive new superpower.
14:57One, two, three.
14:59Rawr!
15:00Rawr!
15:01Rawr!
15:01Rawr!
15:02Rawr!
15:03Rawr!
15:04Rawr!
15:05Rawr!
15:06Rawr!
15:06Rawr!
15:08You scared the hell out of the birds.
15:21At an abandoned warehouse on the edge of London,
15:24James has shown off his superpowers
15:26by suspending a ball in midair.
15:29Rawr!
15:30Rawr!
15:30Rawr!
15:31Rawr!
15:32Rawr!
15:35Now, with help from a local sports team,
15:38James is going to reveal another superhero trick
15:42that involves channeling the destructive power of his voice.
15:49Every good superhero has what?
15:52A villain.
15:53Yeah, every superhero's got a great villain.
15:54Now, no one hates me enough for there to be a villain,
15:56So what we're going to do is create our own massive villain here using the drums.
16:01So what I'm going to get you to do is to help me out, we're going to lift up these drums
16:03and kind of build a wall.
16:04Can you all help me out?
16:05Clive, don't be lazy, mate.
16:06Yeah, yeah, stick it up higher, why not?
16:09Good work, lads.
16:14So what we're going to do together is create the world's first superhero with the ability
16:21of super strength through shouting.
16:25Come and stand over here for me.
16:28We're going to check out Clive's superpower and see if you, Clive, can harness the energy
16:36to shout and knock over the middle barrel.
16:40Now what would you like to call yourself as a superhero, Clive?
16:43Saint.
16:44Saint.
16:45Saint Clive.
16:46Saint Clive, I'm going to count you in one, two, three, let's see if you can knock it
16:49over.
16:50One, two, three.
16:51I saw a piece of grass move, it was pretty impressive, we're going to try someone else.
17:02Yeah, you can laugh at him, it's your turn.
17:04Saint Clive was not so great, what's your name?
17:06Cameron.
17:07Cameron, come over here.
17:08Cameron and Sam are going to together be a duo.
17:10Sometimes superheroes come in pairs, I want you to name your superhero pair.
17:14Tin Tin.
17:15Did you say Tin Tin?
17:16Is that what he said?
17:17Okay, you can be Tin and you can be Tin.
17:18So Tin and Tin are going to give it a go.
17:22Ready, one, two, three.
17:26I was better than that.
17:29You were better than that.
17:30Yeah, much better.
17:31Mick, I want you to come over here.
17:32We're going to get you to name yourself like the others have done, what would you like
17:35to call yourself?
17:36Grave Digger.
17:37The superhero, the Grave Digger, alright, here we go.
17:40On the count of three, we're going to try to get you to knock over the top one.
17:43Here we go, ready?
17:47One, two, three.
17:54That was an extended bit at the end there.
17:56I tell you what, let's try everyone in.
18:03On the count of three, this motley crew of superheroes are together going to knock over
18:10the whole lot.
18:11Are you ready?
18:12Here we go.
18:14One, two, three.
18:24You scared the hell out of the birds.
18:26That'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
18:30had 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 can
18:35knock over these whole bunch of barrels just with my shout.
18:38Now, it has been known to get pretty loud, so I need you to come over here for me and
18:42pick up a pair of these ear defenders.
18:49Okay, so if you all got your headphones on, what I need you to do now is watch very closely
18:53because this isn't about how loud I can be, it's about how I can harness my energy.
19:12I'm a superhero.
19:33Stood there and I thought nothing was going to happen.
19:37It shook me up.
19:38I couldn't believe it.
19:42It was amazing.
19:43I've never seen nothing like that in all my life.
19:44I don't know how he done it.
19:46I'm astonished.
19:47There's obviously a superhuman power there somewhere.
19:51So, what was the science behind James' magic floating tennis ball?
19:57To be a convincing superhero, James had a little help from the laws of fluid motion
20:02and the Bernoulli Principle.
20:05Although gravity was pulling the tennis ball down, it was counteracted by a stream of compressed
20:11air coming from a concealed source, pushing it back up.
20:15As the fast-moving air flowed upwards around the curved surface of the ball, it exerted
20:21less pressure than the surrounding stationary air, trapping the ball in a pocket of low
20:26pressure 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 are
20:42ignited 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 185 miles per hour and can
20:57travel up to a mile in distance.
21:01Farmers sometimes fire vortex cannons into approaching storms in an attempt to disrupt
21:07the production of hail and so protect tender crops.
21:12Good shot!
21:18I can't believe this is actually happening.
21:20Wow, I don't know how he did it.
21:22I mean, would he tell me?
21:24I definitely did not think that it could be a science or magic trick.
21:29That's crazy.
21:31We know the science behind the trick.
21:34It's really cool.
21:38Loudest thing I've ever heard.
21:39Seeing is believing.
21:40You've got to be here to see it to believe it.