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00:00Master magicians from around the world are taking science and fusing it with magic
00:07to break everything you thought you knew about the world around you.
00:14They'll perform street magic,
00:16Darning gold.
00:18hidden camera tricks,
00:19Wow, that's fire, that is fire.
00:20and epic illusions.
00:23And after they've tricked you, they'll reveal the science that made the magic work.
00:31This time, Wayne appears to magically read minds.
00:35What?
00:36I have no idea how he did it.
00:38Ben gets a free lunch in Poland with the help of some invincible balloons.
00:43It was a split second.
00:44Oh my God.
00:46Billy makes ice burst into flames.
00:49I was completely stunned, I didn't really understand what was going on.
00:51And James freaks out his audience with a display of voodoo magic with explosive results.
01:01The magic of magic.
01:12As magicians, we're always looking at new ways to amaze people.
01:16Our challenge in this show is taking amazing science and turning that into incredible magic.
01:22And combining them to create something you've never seen before.
01:26So stick around, I think you'll like what we have planned.
01:29First up, Wayne's in central London ready to play some mind games.
01:34He's going to claim that he can read the contents of a sealed envelope using psychic powers.
01:41For years I've been fascinated by people who claim to be psychic.
01:44I don't know if this ability exists or if it doesn't,
01:46but I'm about to try to use an interesting bit of science to create the illusion that I can read someone's mind.
01:52When I was a kid, my parents took me to a circus.
01:54And the first thing I saw, I can remember this, I was about six years old.
01:58There was a line of kids standing in line to watch a clown.
02:01And he was making balloon animals.
02:03Have you seen a clown before?
02:05So I got in line, and then I looked up at the clown.
02:08He was very tall, and he looked right at me.
02:11And he said, hi Wayne.
02:14So I said, how did you know my name?
02:17And he pointed at my shirt and he said, it's written on your name tag.
02:20So I had a little sticker that said, hello, my name is Wayne.
02:23So I felt like an idiot, but for a minute I was convinced that I had just seen a psychic clown.
02:30And ever since then I've been fascinated by people who claim to have real psychic abilities.
02:36And so I'd like to try something.
02:38And what did you say your name was?
02:40Toby.
02:41Toby. And are you guys together?
02:42Yeah.
02:43How long have you been together for?
02:44A couple of months.
02:45A couple of months. Congratulations.
02:47Are you guys married?
02:48Yes.
02:49Yes? How long have you been married for?
02:51A while.
02:5219.
02:53Wow. Get it right, she says. Get it right.
02:56Don't tell me, but do you remember the name of your first girlfriend?
03:00Ooh.
03:02Can you remember?
03:03Yes.
03:04Yeah, you do. Okay.
03:05Does she happen to know? Just out of curiosity.
03:07No.
03:08No, she doesn't even know. Okay, good.
03:09So I have something. I have an envelope.
03:11Open it up. Go ahead.
03:13Inside is an index card, a piece of paper.
03:16Go ahead and pull it out.
03:17And look in the envelope. There's nothing else in that envelope.
03:20So we're being fair. It's good?
03:21Yeah, it's good.
03:22Don't tell me, but I want you to write that name right here.
03:25Okay.
03:26And I don't want you to let anyone else see.
03:27Don't even let the camera see.
03:28You don't even have to take this out.
03:29Just write it in and then put it in.
03:32And then I want you to lick it and seal it.
03:34I'll turn my back.
03:35Yeah.
03:43Okay.
03:44Sealed. Sealed.
03:45I don't want you to think that I'm going to steal this
03:48and maybe switch the envelope.
03:50So take the pen and I want you to put your name right across the front.
03:53Yeah, your name, just so you know I'm not going to steal it.
03:55Okay.
03:56Just go ahead.
04:01So you hang on to this. I'll take the pen.
04:04I want you to think about this person.
04:05You're thinking of your very first girlfriend.
04:07Just in your mind, say the name to yourself.
04:10Just imagine that you give her a hug and you say hi.
04:17There's several parts.
04:18I can tell this is definitely not a short name.
04:21I'm getting the sense that there's maybe two syllables.
04:23Does that make sense, two syllables?
04:29Elizabeth. Elizabeth.
04:33Who is Elizabeth?
04:35Take it out and show the camera.
04:37And there it is.
04:38Is he reading my mind or what?
04:41How can he do that?
04:45Anna.
04:46Jess.
04:47Yeah?
04:48Yeah.
04:49Jeff.
04:50How you doing?
04:53Take a look. Look at the envelope.
04:56Show the camera.
05:02Is it Becky?
05:03Yeah.
05:05What?
05:07I have no idea how he did it.
05:09Literally no idea.
05:12Thank you very much. Thank you.
05:13Go ahead. Open it up. Rip it open. Show the cameras.
05:16The audience are baffled.
05:18But Wayne's psychic secret was pure chemistry.
05:21What I did is, as I was holding the envelope,
05:24I took a cotton ball that had been soaked in something called hexane
05:28and I rubbed it on the back.
05:30You can't see through paper because light trying to pass through
05:33gets scattered amongst the fibers and air pockets.
05:36When hexane is applied, it replaces the air in the paper
05:40and light is scattered less, so the paper becomes transparent.
05:46Hexane is a colorless solvent that quickly evaporates,
05:49covering Wayne's tracks.
05:52It's commonly used in cleaning agents and in liquid thermometers.
05:58Well, I never heard about hexane before,
06:00so it's magic for me.
06:04INVINCIBLE BALLOON
06:08Over in Central Europe, Ben's on the streets of Warsaw, Poland,
06:12where he's about to scam his way to a free lunch.
06:17Balloons aren't just for kids.
06:19They can also be used to make sure that you never have to buy a meal again.
06:22Today, I'm going to hit a cafe and do a little con I like to call
06:25Invincible Balloon.
06:27Ben's con is simple.
06:29He's going to use sleight of hand and the laws of thermodynamics
06:32to make an ordinary balloon appear indestructible.
06:38Hello, guys. Nice to meet you. I'm Ben.
06:40Michael.
06:41Michael. Nice to meet you, Michael.
06:43Jan.
06:44Jan. I've got a few balloons.
06:46Both of you grab a balloon, whichever one you want.
06:50Blow them up for me. Blow them up. Yeah, yeah.
06:58Perfect, perfect. Excellent. All right, I'm tying them up.
07:00In a second, I'm going to light that candle,
07:03and we're each going to take a turn placing the balloon into the flame.
07:08If either of you can make that balloon last in the flame longer than I can,
07:12I'll buy you whatever you want off the menu and another round of drinks.
07:17But if you can't, you've got to buy me a meal.
07:20Is that fair?
07:21That sounds fair.
07:22Yes, Michael, I'm going to take that answer. Good.
07:26So, Michael, we'll start with you.
07:28Place it into the flame. I'll time you.
07:30Ready? When you go.
07:32Go.
07:33Right in.
07:35That was about two seconds.
07:37It cost me a meal.
07:38Not bad. Well, we'll see. We'll see.
07:39Now, Jan, you get a chance as well, all right?
07:43Okay, Jan.
07:48That was terrible.
07:50I didn't even have a chance to look at my watch.
07:52No.
07:53All right.
07:55So, for the meal and a drink.
08:13I think I've clearly won that, guys.
08:16Yeah, but how did you do it?
08:18How can he do that? Because we blew the same balloon and we had to choose.
08:21My balloon was over in, I think, a half a second.
08:26It was a split second.
08:28Gone.
08:31All right, we'll start with you.
08:32Light that.
08:34How close?
08:35Right in. It has to be in the flame. It has to touch the flame.
08:37Ready? Right in.
08:38No.
08:39Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go on, all right? Ready?
08:41Right in, right in.
08:43Yeah, all the way, all the way, all the way.
08:44Go.
08:48That was about two seconds, I think.
08:50Not bad.
08:51Right in.
08:52Three, two, one, go.
08:53Right in, right in, right in.
08:54So, it touches it, touches it.
08:57That was a bit longer.
08:58That was about three seconds.
08:59So, not bad.
09:01If I can beat three seconds, I win and I get the meal.
09:05Is that fair?
09:06Very fair for us.
09:08Yes, I'm glad you're smiling.
09:10Three seconds.
09:21Go.
09:25You know what?
09:26That was definitely longer than three seconds.
09:29Yes.
09:30And Ben's lunchtime swindle works every time.
09:34In the flame.
09:35Go.
09:36I was shocked that my balloon popped so quickly.
09:39Right in the flame.
09:44So, what was the secret to Ben's balloon?
09:47Ben took a sly swig of water before blowing it up.
09:51The heat from the candle passed through the balloon and into the water.
09:55Water has a high specific heat, meaning it takes a lot of energy to raise its temperature.
10:01As air has a much lower heat capacity, the flame burns through the rubber and the balloon bursts.
10:07Only after the water is heated up to boiling point will the flame start to burn the rubber of the balloon,
10:12meaning he can keep it there for much longer.
10:16Everyday products such as car radiators and air conditioning units
10:19exploit this principle by using water to help remove heat.
10:24I'll have the menu, please.
10:25Yes.
10:26It's a thicker meal.
10:29Do they do steak in here?
10:32Billy's going undercover as a coffee shop waitress.
10:36Her new trick?
10:37Making ice burn.
10:40Hidden cameras have been rigged all around this cafe
10:43and Billy's ready to turn up the heat.
10:47Here you are.
10:50And enjoy.
10:52Now these guys look like they need a bit of magic in their lives.
10:57Is everything okay with your drinks?
10:59Yeah.
11:00You haven't noticed anything odd about the ice, have you?
11:03No, it seems fine.
11:04Okay, because customers have been complaining about a potential hazard with the ice, so just...
11:10Are you serious?
11:11Yeah, just for your safety, I'm going to have to check the ice just to make sure if that's okay
11:17because I don't want anything to happen.
11:23Have you ever seen ice do this before?
11:26No.
11:27Stand back.
11:29I do apologize.
11:34That's amazing.
11:36I was quite surprised by what happened.
11:38I've never seen water or ice catch fire.
11:42I was just completely stunned, I didn't really understand what was going on.
11:45She took the ice out of the cup, it started steaming up and it was really weird.
11:50You know what, if you could do me a favor, if you could check your ice and I'll come back.
12:00It's not working.
12:04Because it's not ice.
12:07You're probably thinking that wasn't real ice, but it was.
12:14So do you have any idea how that trick was done?
12:16No idea.
12:18The secret to Billie's flaming ice cubes involved a sprinkling of calcium carbide in the bowl,
12:23which reacted with water to release a highly flammable gas called acetylene.
12:32Acetylene is commonly used for welding.
12:36Does this mean we're not going to die?
12:38You're not going to die, no.
12:47It's midnight, and on top of this sealed off parking garage in South London,
12:52James has gathered a crowd to help him explore the magic of voodoo.
12:57G'day guys, how you doing? Just come a little closer for me, come in here.
13:00That's awesome. Okay, very good.
13:02Hands up if you've heard of voodoo.
13:05Quite a feel here. Okay, this is very good.
13:08Does anyone here actually believe in voodoo?
13:13What's your name?
13:14Santa.
13:15Santa, would you mind helping me out for a little experiment?
13:18I made my very own voodoo doll.
13:21The idea is that if I was to place some pins inside the voodoo doll,
13:25someone would feel the pain if they had a curse placed on them.
13:29Tell me, is there someone in your life in the last five years that you'd like to,
13:32you know, that might have treated you poorly, that you'd like to get your own back?
13:36Yeah.
13:37There is? Okay, you don't have to tell me who they are from this point on, okay?
13:39But there is one person.
13:41What I'd like to do, because if I was to place the pins in this
13:44and that person got hurt, that wouldn't be too cool.
13:46So what we're going to do is make a target.
13:49Can we pass this over? Thanks.
13:52Fantastic.
13:55What I want you to do is make it exactly the same as this.
13:59I'll help you out. Okay.
14:04So this is the voodoo doll.
14:06And this is the target doll.
14:08At the moment, they're exactly the same,
14:10because no curse has been placed on the target doll.
14:13What I want you to do, inside your mind,
14:15is place a curse on the target doll for me now.
14:23Have you done that?
14:24Yeah.
14:25Have you done that?
14:26Yeah.
14:27The curse has been placed on the target doll.
14:31I'm just going to place it over here, like here.
14:33Thanks, mate.
14:34We're going to be very careful holding it,
14:36because over here we have a pot of boiling water.
14:39It's a cauldron of boiling water.
14:41And over there, an identical bowl of cold water.
14:45If your curse has worked,
14:47when I place my voodoo doll into the boiling water,
14:51the target doll should feel the reactions.
14:55Keep saying the curse over and over in your mind.
14:58James and his assistant are placing the dolls
15:01into identical bowls.
15:03The principle behind voodoo suggests the doll in the cold water
15:07should feel all the heat,
15:09while the other stays unharmed.
15:15Nothing is happening to the doll in the water
15:17on top of the cooker.
15:19In the other bowl, the water appears to boil
15:22and utterly destroy the doll,
15:24even though no heat is being applied.
15:27All of a sudden, the dough that she made started to melt.
15:30I was completely astounded. I couldn't believe it.
15:32You can see that nothing is happening to the voodoo doll right here,
15:35but everything is happening to the target doll.
15:39Well, basically, they put it into cold water,
15:41and the voodoo doll just disintegrated into nothing.
15:43It was ridiculous.
15:45I was scared. I'm scared now.
15:47Like, I'm still shivering a bit.
15:49But James isn't done showing off how voodoo can work.
15:52I'm going to take the voodoo one step further.
15:55Earlier in the day, James came up with an ambitious and explosive plan
15:59for the big illusion he'll perform tonight
16:02in front of a live crowd.
16:05Later, I'm going to do more damage than that.
16:08But I'm still a nice guy.
16:11Don't worry.
16:13It's all part of his plan to scale up his performance
16:16and make the audience believe voodoo can actually destroy
16:21an entire car.
16:32James has brought his audience to a closed-off parking garage
16:36in South London to try to make them believe
16:39that he's an expert in the dangerous art of voodoo.
16:43Does anyone here actually believe in voodoo?
16:47The essence of voodoo is the ability to apply stimulus to one object
16:52and make it be felt by a different one altogether.
16:56What I want you to do is place a curse on the target doll.
17:01Earlier, James managed to unnerve the crowd
17:04by seemingly melting an apparently cursed aluminum voodoo doll
17:08in ice-cold water.
17:11Next, he's going to take things further
17:14by claiming to destroy a car with the help of a voodoo curse.
17:18In reality, James will be using a very precise scientific method
17:22without any explosives or remote-controlled devices
17:25rigged to the vehicle.
17:27Instead, he'll get help from a powerful and invisible industrial laser.
17:33Time to lure the audience further into his voodoo hoax.
17:37This is my car, by the way. It's my rental.
17:39Can you see it?
17:41I got a ding in it.
17:43I don't know if you can see, the left indicator's got a ding on it.
17:46And I was reading through my policy,
17:49and whether you have a ding or the car has a complete write-off,
17:53you have to pay the same amount.
17:55And I thought, well, I might as well have some fun with it.
17:58LAUGHTER
18:00So I got myself a voodoo car.
18:04And a laser.
18:06As you and I both know, lasers can get pretty hot.
18:09Watch.
18:11The toy car is representing James' car.
18:14But for the voodoo effect to work
18:16when the laser beam shines onto the toy,
18:19the real damage should show up on the real car,
18:23with the help of an invisible laser.
18:27Whoa!
18:34Let's see what we can do with the engine.
18:36Whoa!
18:38Whoa!
18:42Whoa!
18:44Whoa!
18:46Whoa!
18:48Whoa!
18:50Whoa!
18:52Whoa!
18:54Whoa!
19:00It does look bad, but it's still not a complete write-off.
19:03LAUGHTER
19:13He took the laser and he put it onto the bottom of the car,
19:16and the car caught fire.
19:18It was just an explosion. It was crazy.
19:20I've heard myths of voodoo, and I've seen films,
19:23but I've never really believed it up until today.
19:26It wasn't curses at work tonight, but physics and chemistry.
19:30First off, this may look like cold water,
19:33but it's actually a concentrated solution of sodium hydroxide,
19:37also known as lye.
19:39Even when cold, this is extremely corrosive to some metals.
19:43In this case, it reacts with the aluminium doll
19:46to produce a flammable hydrogen gas.
19:49And it was this reaction that destroyed the doll.
19:55To total the car,
19:57the laser was aimed at a secret charge of thermite
20:00hidden in the grille,
20:02a pyrotechnic substance made of aluminium powder and iron oxide
20:06that needs temperatures of over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to ignite.
20:13A fuse made of magnesium was used,
20:15which the powerful laser needed only seconds to light,
20:18beginning a self-sustaining exothermic reaction
20:21which can be almost impossible to extinguish.
20:25The thermite's so hot, it's hotter than molten lava,
20:28that you can see it literally fell through the hood of the car.
20:32It's pretty awesome.
20:34The laser that James was holding was in fact a foil
20:38for the hidden carbon dioxide laser.
20:41Unlike familiar ruby lasers,
20:43the beam from the carbon dioxide laser
20:45is totally invisible to the human eye,
20:47which is why the car seemed to ignite spontaneously.
20:51Despite looking like an old photocopier,
20:53this laser can be deadly.
20:58Lower-powered CO2 lasers are actually in great demand for medical uses,
21:02such as laser surgery and skin resurfacing.
21:07Is it Becky? Yeah.
21:12It was absolutely impossible that that could happen
21:14because obviously ice is not going to catch on fire.
21:20I'm convinced that there's powers in our town.
21:22Definitely convinced.
21:28I'm going to go for it.
21:30I'm going to go for it.
21:32I'm going to go for it.
21:34Yeah!