# spoon bending at a distance?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 18, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527 "2010-10-18T04:11:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/1 "2010-10-18T04:11:29Z")
Hi, my friend was telling me about seeing an old lady put a spoon on a table and the spoon would bend by itself. Does anyone know how to explain that? Are there magic shops that sell trick spoons or something?
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/2 "2010-10-18T05:27:31Z")
Yes, they sell spoons made of nickel-titanium or other shape-memory alloy. The trick spoons that I’ve seen have a transition temperature above body temperature. The idea is, you give your friend a cup of tea, some sugar, and the trick spoon; he starts stirring the tea; the spoon immediately bends; you either (a) get angry and demand to know why he wrecked your spoon or (b) get amazed and insist he must have psychic powers.
It wouldn’t be too hard to make them with a lower transition temperature, so it would start to bend just by being warmed by your hand, and continue to bend for a while after being put on the table. It would be even easier with a two-way SMA.
But an even a simpler way to do this trick would be to take a severely weakened spoon (bend it back and forth until it’s about to break), attach a very thin thread, and just tug on it.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/3 "2010-10-18T05:37:25Z")
And of course, as with all magic tricks, what your friend told you he saw isn’t necessarily what he actually saw. If the old lady was a skilled enough magician, what actually happened might be as simple as her distracting him for a moment, picking up the spoon, bending it in her hands, putting it back down, and then drawing his attention back to the miraculously-bent spoon.
---
### Author:  [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/4 "2010-10-18T05:51:55Z")
My friend said that there were two other people with her and the lady who watched it bend on the table… it was in a hospital and it was a dessert spoon.
---
### Author:  [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/5 "2010-10-18T09:14:46Z")
> [@JohnClay](#):
>
> My friend said that there were two other people with her and the lady who watched it bend on the table… it was in a hospital and it was a dessert spoon.
Following on what Chronos said, it’s just as easy to misdirect 3 people as 1.
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/6 "2010-10-18T11:56:03Z")
I think it is easier to misdirect three people, as you can get them to help you.
That being said, my first approximation of an answer is that your friend is mistaken in what he saw, or is (possibly unintentionally) exaggerating what he did see to make a better story.
Does he have it on film? Otherwise I want him to explain the Sasquatch which ate my oatmeal this morning.
---
### Author:  [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/7 "2010-10-18T12:08:59Z")
My friend and the others were mental patients and no nurse was present so maybe my friend didn’t recall things properly…
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/8 "2010-10-18T12:33:08Z")
Then the poilte response to your friend would have been “That’s incredible! No, I don’t know how she did it. Strange things happen all the time, don’t they. How 'bout those Mets?”
---
### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/9 "2010-10-18T12:44:14Z")
I can’t tell if **JohnClay** is having us on or not.
Your friend, _the mental patient_, told you he saw something magical happen and you’re looking for an explanation of it? I think there’s a pretty big hint at the explanation in the description of your friend.
---
### Author:  [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/10 "2010-10-18T12:54:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> If the old lady was a skilled enough magician, what actually happened might be as simple as her distracting him for a moment, picking up the spoon, bending it in her hands, putting it back down, and then drawing his attention back to the miraculously-bent spoon.
Or even simpler, the old lady bends the spoon slightly, places it on the table in an orientation where the bend isn’t noticeable, then concentrating and saying a few magic words, then picking up the spoon and pointing out the bend.
IANAM, but I think this is pretty likely, and stuff like this will almost always result in people reporting that they saw it bending in front of them while no one was touching it.
---
### Author:  [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/11 "2010-10-18T13:01:22Z")
> [@JohnClay](#):
>
> My friend and the others were mental patients and no nurse was present so maybe my friend didn’t recall things properly…
Hum…You may be on to something here.
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/12 "2010-10-18T13:42:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> And of course, as with all magic tricks, what your friend told you he saw isn’t necessarily what he actually saw. If the old lady was a skilled enough magician, what actually happened might be as simple as her distracting him for a moment, picking up the spoon, bending it in her hands, putting it back down, and then drawing his attention back to the miraculously-bent spoon.
Well, if the old lady was a skilled enough magician, she might have just bent the spoon with her mind.
😛
---
### Author:  [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/13 "2010-10-18T19:39:55Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#):
>
> Your friend, _the mental patient_, told you he saw something magical happen and you’re looking for an explanation of it?
If you read his first post, it doesn’t read as “Wow, is this proof of real magic?” so much as “That sounds like a fun trick; can I buy a trick spoon like that?” So I don’t think we need to get on his case.
PS, if you want a nitinol spoon, [this site](http://www.grand-illusions.com/acatalog/magic_teaspoon.html) sells them.
---
### Author:  [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/14 "2010-10-18T20:22:19Z")
Did she also guess how much change was in his pocket?
---
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/15 "2010-10-20T19:31:35Z")
I went to a lecture by James Randi last night. He didn’t bend spoons, but demoed a couple of incredible tricks, but he was mainly there to debunk paranormal phenomena.
One thing he pointed out, even emphasized. Don’t impugn the intelligence (or sanity) of believers in the paranormal. That’s why he did those tricks: to demonstrate that even an audience of intelligent skeptics could be easily misled by indirection.
---
### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2010, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/16 "2010-10-21T14:45:04Z")
I have seen Randi bend a spoon from a close distance. I kept my eye on his hands the whole time, but I still didn’t see when it happened.
---
### Author:  [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/17 "2010-10-21T18:19:30Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Well, if the old lady was a skilled enough magician, she might have just bent the spoon with her mind.
>
> 😛
And if she was skilled enough with mental powers (not magic), there was no spoon. :p:p
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/18 "2010-10-21T18:44:59Z")
[The Tick]
SPOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!!!
[/The Tick]
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spoon-bending-at-a-distance/557527/19 "2010-10-22T17:18:47Z")
One of Uri Geller’s tricks went like this. He’d hand someone a key. They would verify that it was straight. They would put it on top of their head and he would bend the key with his mind. The witness would swear that Geller _never touched the key_. But what they hadn’t noticed that at one point Geller would go over to them take the key off the top of their head, look at it (without the witness seeing it) and say: “Not bent yet.” and put it back.
The witness assumed that the key was still unbent and forget to mention this key (sorry) event. Clearly Geller could have bent the key at that moment and was just lying.
What witnesses to such thing report to have happened and what actually happened are two different things.
Without an exact description of the events of the OP, we have no way of knowing how the trick was done (if it was done at all).