Spoon bending, how's it done?

[DevilsAdvocate]

Re: Big Deal...

Now if I could see him bend a quarter with his bare hands, I'll be VERY impressed!

This trick has been done. I've seen a couple versions on TV: one where it is bent then returned straight, another where the bent coin is handed back (I assume no "Hollywood Magic" was involved. It doesn't really seem necessary for this trick).

A Google search should bring up some examples. Everything from "trick coins" to really silly tricks involving moving your hands and arms in such a way that the coin appears to bend. I assume sleight of hand is the favored method for the best effect.

 

[T'ai Chi]

There are also many tools you can buy that are palmable and provide enough leverage to easily bend a regular coin.

 

[Explorer]

I saw that original show with Geller. The spoon bending was impressive, but since then so many "magicians" have repeated the effect, that today it ceases to have any more impact.

What was more impressive in that first show, was his seeming ability to bend a watch hand under the glass. A member of the audience gave him a watch simply to stop. After holding the watch he held it up close to the camera. Not only had the watch stopped, but the long hand was bent by about ninety degrees.

This could have been explained by palming another watch, and perhaps the member of the audience was a planted stooge.

To bend metal in a sealed container is quite different from from handling spoons and concealing the "work hardening" actions by sleight of hand.

A twelve year old schoolboy in the UK apparently under good lab conditions could bend a strip of metal in a sealed glass tube. Fitted strain gauges also demonstrated that something unusual was going on. Can't remember the when and where, but it followed the Geller TV programme by a few years.

 

[epepke]

Re: Re: Re: Big Deal...

I always preferred brass or steel to aluminum keys. I found out the hard way that with a little too much pressure aluminum keys will break, (it was the lady's only car key!)

They also wear out and become rounded pretty fast in normal use. However, I still have a 25-year-old key that works on my mother's house. All of the anodized coating has long since worn off. I think it used to be bright pink.

The best key bender is another key with a hole wide enough to stick the end of another key in.

Maybe one of those with a flattish hole in it would be pretty good.

 

[richardm]

A twelve year old schoolboy in the UK apparently under good lab conditions could bend a strip of metal in a sealed glass tube. Fitted strain gauges also demonstrated that something unusual was going on. Can't remember the when and where, but it followed the Geller TV programme by a few years.

Even then there's room for chicanery. For example:

“ Taylor showed Randi some “cheat-proof” apparatus consisting of a test tube containing a metal strip sealed with wax. Randi, in Taylor’s presence and without detection, was able to open the tube, take out the metal strip, bend the metal out of shape, photograph it, and reseal the tube. Even though his manifest and proven inability to notice trickery was pointed out to Taylor by Randi and others, he continued his involvement into the physics of metal bending for several years.”

 

[Dr Adequate]

A twelve year old schoolboy in the UK apparently under good lab conditions could bend a strip of metal in a sealed glass tube.

If you're thinking of the Superminds debacle, there were several children, but it wasn't done "under good lab conditions". They were allowed to take the tubes home with them. (See Gardner, Science Good Bad And Bogus). They could also bend spoons, but an experiment with a one-way mirror and a video camera showed that they were doing it the normal way.

 

[CFLarsen]

They could also bend spoons, but an experiment with a one-way mirror and a video camera showed that they were doing it the normal way.

A.k.a. "The Uri Geller Way"....

 

[TheBoyPaj]

Re: Re: Re: Big Deal...

I always preferred brass or steel to aluminum keys. I found out the hard way that with a little too much pressure aluminum keys will break, (it was the lady's only car key!)

My wife's car key broke off in the lock on the day when we were moving house. All our possesions, including the spare car key, were packed tightly into the moving lorry. And the lorry was stuck behind the immobile car.

Surely we would have to unpack the whole lorry to find the spare?

No, in an astounding bit of luck, the spare car key was in a box at the very top of the pile. We just opened the lorry doors and there it was.

Coincidence? Surely not!

 

[Explorer]

Even then there's room for chicanery. For example:

From memory, the tube was sealed by glass not wax. I mean, if the metal can be removed easily by handling, then this would not be lab conditions, and be a pretty pointless exercise.

The strain gauge was showing metal deformation apparently during the experiment, and obviously was the definitive part of the test, as opposed to visual examination before and after.

 

[imagineNoReligion]

I don't know how anyone else does it. But I tried improvising this trick to a friend tonight. I am by no means a magician, but I was able to "amaze" my friend.

I started off rubbing the spoon, while revealing the natural bend of the spoon very slowly. (I started off covering the natural bend of the spoon with my rubbing hand)

I kept re-enforcing the message that the spoon was bending, by repeating that it was bending and asking my friend if he could notice any change. At first he wasn't sure but after about 20 second he confirmed he could see a slight bend. "How are you doing that?" Note, at this stage the spoon had not bent one bit, it was purely a psychological effect.

I followed this up by causing a diversion, by turning around briefly to my son in his walker, and asked him if he was hungry. While doing so I quickly bent the spoon forcibly with both hands but not noticeable to my friend.

When I turned around to face him again, I again had the curve covered by my rubbing hand and revealed it slowly as I rubbed, making it appear that the bend was bending noticeably under my powers.

The result, one amazed friend. And I'm not even a magician. I can only imagine how seamless a skilled magician could make this appear.

I'm surprised he never saw through it. I think that most people would have. I suspect it was a combination of the psychological effect and the natural diversion of talking to my son that made the trick work.

 

[Mercutio]

Re: Big Deal...

Now if I could see him bend a quarter with his bare hands, I'll be VERY impressed!

At TAM2, I saw Quinn bend a quarter I gave him (and had signed with a sharpie) with just his mind! (yeah, yeah, with one finger, in the palm of his other hand...and yeah, yeah, I know he did it some other way, but with 3 other skeptics at the table, none of us saw it...)....and yes, I was very impressed.

 

[Jeff Corey]

Bend it while they're not looking?
Isn't that cheating?
It's fun to do with cheap cutlery at a lunch with a bunch of skeptics.

 

[The Mighty Thor]

From memory, the tube was sealed by glass not wax. I mean, if the metal can be removed easily by handling, then this would not be lab conditions, and be a pretty pointless exercise.

The strain gauge was showing metal deformation apparently during the experiment, and obviously was the definitive part of the test, as opposed to visual examination before and after.

Memory is notoriously unreliable.

Have you more details of this test?

Do you think the 'bender' was genuine -- i.e. using superpowers?

 

[Steve Knight]

Even then there's room for chicanery. For example:

Kurtz's comments on Randi's meeting with John Taylor should be read in conjunction with: www.zem.demon.co.uk/ashp.htm

A number of people have questioned John Taylor's credulity based on this encounter with Randi - in truth it didn't really demonstrate what the sceptics claimed though Taylor himself demonstrated his lack of observation in his own writings:

www.zem.demon.co.uk/smnote.htm

 

[Loki]

In Randi's NOVA video, "Secrets of the Psychics", he does the same--the spoon appears to bend, then break and fall in two pieces. And to my eye, it was exactly as you describe in your second paragraph

Randi was on morning TV here in Australia about 3 years ago. Did exactly the same thing - showed a perfectly normal looking spoon to the camera, started rubbing it gently, and within seconds had a broken spoon. Sure looked a lot like Uri's Super Sekrit Power.

 

[Explorer]

"Do you think the 'bender' was genuine -- i.e. using superpowers?"

Dunno Mighty Thor. I was simply reporting a story I had read in the hope someone else may recall the full details.

Quantum theory is a bit wierd, and many people, principally scientists, believe in it, but do not attribute it to "super" anything.

 

[JollyRoger]

Has any one considered the metallurgy involved in spoon bending? I was talking to a Welding teacher about this several years ago, and he told me about a silver colored metal, Bismuth alloy. I looked it up on the net and found out that there are several of them with a melting point any where from 117 degrees to 281 degrees Fahrenheit, depending what else is in the alloy.

I don't think that all of the different alloys are of food quality, but it would make a cool party favor. if you could imagine mixing a cup of tea or coffee with one of the bismuth tea spoons and after pulling the spoon out OMG thats strong stuff

 

[Ryokan]

Your powers of necromancy are strong!

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

There was a guy who took an audience member and let her hide a spike face up under one of four styrofoam cups. He then "read" her mind and smashed the other 3 cups with his hand. Yawn

First off, the odds are 25% just be chance alone. Pretty good. I believe the trick is simple. The host helped the woman set up the blade. The mentalist (still blindfolded) asked the host, "Ready"? The host then said, "The spike has been placed." I'm almost sure that the host was in on the bit and just spoke in code. For example, "Yes, she's ready" would mean cup one, "The spike has been placed" for cup two" etc. Super lame.

I saw this trick on a TV programme once. It was one of those "when magic goes wrong"-type deals. It wasn't a spike, it was a sharp hunting-knife and the magician wasn't using just his hand, he had the volunteer's hand underneath his. She's very lucky that she wasn't up for it and was instead trying to get out of his grip and resisting him pushing her hand down, because what was quite nasty could have been really nasty had she been co-operating.

IIRC, the programme said she sued successfully. Quite right, too.

 

[Rasmus]

Saw a guy on TV here in Germany doing the same trick with a nail hidden under a paper cup. I'm sure the hand healed ...