Science as "magic"

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Home : 2001 : October : 13

Science as "magic"
By John Vose

Last year on Halloween I dressed as a wizard and spent classtime doing a series of science demonstrations as if I were performing "magic". Some examples:

Using soap to repell floating pepper on water.
Igniting a cloud of cornstarch to make a fire ball.
Pushing a bamboo skewer through a balloon without popping the balloon.
Inhaling a lungfull of helium from a balloon and talking to make a comical voice.

I explained each demonstration afterward and finished with a quote from Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey):

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

John