This video shows a “magic” trick. There are several attempts to explain it but I notice that there seems to be some splashing in the biggest glass which would preclude there being liquid in it. Maybe I’m being naive. Is there a better explanation? The glasses are not on the same plane… a clue?
I have a feeling this has to do with the distance the glasses are from the viewer. Farther away looking smaller, but actually being bigger, and so on. But I can’t figure out how it’s done in reverse!
Would love to see some other doper’s suggestions.
Forced perspective wouldn’t explain how the liquid is redistributed to fill all of the glasses at the end. Besides, I really don’t think they’re using forced perspective here - the illusion would break down when the glasses were brought alongside each other to do the pouring.
You’re right…I believe there are smaller tumblers glued inside each glass. You know, water displacement devices. You can see them if you look closely. It explains everything!
There’s another liquid in the glasses. Find point 0.12 of the video with your mouse on the bar, so you can click on it and it goes straight there. Replay it a couple of times that way. You can clearly see there’s a clear liquid being pushed out of the way as the coloured stuff comes in.
Edit: Having had another look, i’m not entirely sure that the added liquid alone is enough. Possibly the liquid has some kind of “just-add-water” milkshake powder or similar in it that’s reacting to being stirred with more water… but i’m not sure.
I concur with both. Look at the liquid when it is in the first glass. It’s quite thick and opaque. As time goes on, the liquid becomes more translucent. The design on the sides of the glasses hides the water inside the four glasses that are “empty” at the start. Also, look at the first glass when he pours it out. There’s a very thick liquid that doesn’t all drain out. It’s most likely some kind of sediment from a lot of powder.
Neat trick, tho.
This is definitely the case. He’s VERY careful about moving the glasses he’s filling, and they have the distorted sides to help obscure the view of the water (?) already in it.
Of course, the most damning evidence is how the color of the liquid changes from the beginning of the illusion to the end. It’s very bright white when it’s in the smaller glass, but it gets dingier. Especially as you look at the last glass being filled, when the first bit of the white liquid gets poored in, it’s a greyish color and gets more white as more is poured in.
FWIW, it’s a neat illusion if you are just looking at it.
Because i’m a huge geek, have an enlarged view of the beginning of the trick. Red line marks the bottom of the glass, i.e. the point at which liquid should meet glass at the bottom. Blue line shows the top of the hidden, clear liquid - it’s most obvious near the middle of the glass. If you watch that line, rather than the bottom of the glass, on each pouring, you can clearly see that there’s a seperate clear substance in there. Looking back on it, I think it’s a combination of the added water, some dehyrated powder, and the gradual slimming of the glasses that provides the effect.
I haven’t put a blue line on the final glass, though, because I couldn’t see any liquid in there. I suspect that given the size, the markings of that glass are less able to hide the substance within, so he may have done something different there. I’m also saying it’s a liquid rather than a solid other glass because it just looks liquid based on the movement; it could be it’s actually something else. But it’s clearly there.
Thanks. I was basing my guess for not using liquid on that last glass. But you are right, the freeze frame makes it pretty clear.
Also look at the change in viscosity of the liquid as it moves along-- it’s syrupy in the first glass but is very thin by the end.
In each glass except the smallest there is another glass inside the glass, and that glass is filled with water.
three freezeframes: http://pics.livejournal.com/opalcat/pic/0008w59p
All of these are much easier to see in the moving video, but this will at least show where/what to watch for:
Top pic: you can see where he missed in pouring the liquid down the side, and the liquid is cascading over the interior glass
Middle pic: you can see the different liquid levels in the outside and inside glasses
Bottom pic: the liquid in the interior glass sloshes around very visibly
What trick? That’s exactly what I would expect, given the setup. You can even see the tumblers within the tumblers.
First, he pours on the side until near the end, even spilling because he is trying to stay so close to the side. Each time the liquid becomes more translucent, showing it is being diluted. One the second round, he doesn’t pour as high, avoiding filling the hollow interior part.
Not a very impressive trick.
The trick could be improved by putting white powder in the exterior glass in each glass… a small enough amount that you couldn’t see it (and perhaps keep it on the far side of the interior tumbler from the audience) but it would sort of counter the obvious visible dilution of the liquid by adding more white each time.
He also needs to improve his technique. You can see when he is pouring that he pours super careful down the side, until he gets to the top of the interior glass, and then he moves his pour to the middle and all over. It makes it look strange that he is being so careful at the beginning if he is going to be so blasé at the end of each pour. It is especially awkward since he doesn’t mind pouring into the middle of the glass by the end of the pour, why he is so close to the edge at the beginning on the last glass that he spills it all over the table. On the trip back down the line he is super careful each time to only pour into the outer glass until he gets to the smallest one and then he is just like “dump”. He needs to keep a consistent style or the audience wonders why he is sometimes careful and sometimes not.
But like many tricks, the typical audience only sees it once, and doesn’t have the benefit of replaying it, so such observations are not as likely to be made and such questions not likely to be asked.
I’m assuming this person is just someone with a trick, so I’d cut them slack. A professional magician, on the other hand, should be polished and should pay attention to that type of detail.
Actually, in the last (biggest) glass, the additional liquid is very visible (that’s where i saw it). Look at it when he moves it, you can see water moving inside.