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00:00Master magicians from around the world are taking science and fusing it with magic
00:09to break everything you thought you knew about the world around you.
00:14They'll perform street magic, hidden camera tricks, and epic illusions.
00:20After they've tricked you, they'll reveal the science that made the magic work.
00:26This time, Wayne and James reveal the planning and preparation behind their most dangerous stunts.
00:35And Billy and Ben use chemistry to become magical bartenders.
00:39If I went into a bar and Obama could do that, he would not get me out of the place.
00:56For hundreds of years, magicians have used sleight of hand and misdirection to make tricks totally mind-boggling.
01:05But on this show, rather than just use our magical skills, we'll be using science to amaze our unsuspecting onlookers.
01:13We'll try to take what might only seem possible in science fiction and make it a reality.
01:18Let me show you what we mean.
01:25First up, Wayne Houchen relives his most death-defying stunt.
01:38If the pages of two books are interwoven alternately, it takes a tremendous force to actually pull them apart.
01:46Wayne decided to test the principle that friction could hold the books together by performing a 160-foot bungee jump.
01:53Using a rope which has been cut and only held together by two books with their pages interwoven.
02:01When I first found out about what we were planning for the book bungee, I was excited but also terrified.
02:08Thank you very much.
02:10I've done some pretty extreme-type stunts in the past. I've done upside-down straitjacket escapes, so I'm not really a stranger to that type of stunt.
02:19But this is a little different. I've never done a bungee jump before.
02:23And then to be told that we're going to cut the rope in half, it scared the hell out of me.
02:32For the trick to work, Wayne needed some very heavy books with fixings engineered to withstand 20,000 pounds to attach to the ropes.
02:43Attached to the spine of each book is a metal clamp, so we can attach it to the end of my bungee cord.
02:50The other book we can attach to the end of the rope that hooks onto the crane.
02:54And of course if those books come apart, tonight is going to be a lot messier.
02:59Now we're ready to push the pages together.
03:02And I'll do the first few pages and then you guys can take over.
03:05I've heard of this principle before, and it's one thing to hear that if you take two books and weave them together,
03:09that it's incredibly strong and it can hold X amount of weight.
03:14But when you're putting your life on the line, that takes it to a whole other level.
03:20There is no trick. We are actually doing this.
03:23This is officially done and ready to go.
03:29Wish me luck.
03:31Good luck.
03:33In a moment, Wayne's going to make his ascent up to 160 feet.
03:39He's then going to do a bungee jump attached to a bungee cord and two books, which are only held together with their pages.
03:48If it goes wrong, he's going to try and aim for that mat.
03:51That's not going to do him much good because at 160 foot fall, he's going to be landing head first.
03:55He's not going to be walking home after it.
03:57Okay.
03:59How are you feeling, Wayne?
04:00Nervous.
04:02You know, honestly, there was part of me that was kind of hoping that it would be too dangerous and that it would be called off
04:09and then the pressure wouldn't be on me and I wouldn't have to go up there and deal with it.
04:15Let's do it.
04:17There we go. Those are the books.
04:21Just before the audience showed up, we had the chance to test the rig using the books,
04:27and we did it with sandbags that actually weighed a little bit more than me.
04:31We had an issue with those books.
04:34It was a pretty windy evening, and we were really concerned that because of the force of the wind,
04:39it would cause the pages to separate before I even jumped.
04:46Even though the books held, disturbingly for Wayne, they almost fell apart.
04:53So last minute, we had to decide to put just a little bit of tape on there, and that didn't make me feel better at all.
05:01On my way up, I was still wondering whether or not I'd be able to go through with it.
05:12Even though the science makes sense, everything in my body was telling me, do not do this.
05:18And you have to mentally overcome that.
05:21I was shaking. I was actually shaking.
05:25And that's not something I've experienced before.
05:27Are you sure you want to do this, mate?
05:37Yes, I'm sure.
05:42All right.
05:43All right.
05:4710, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
06:04When I jumped, and I remember thinking to myself, what have you done?
06:09I had just made the biggest mistake that I was ever going to make.
06:14Oh.
06:36It was the biggest adrenaline rush that I've ever felt.
06:41Well done, buddy.
06:47The power of friction saved Wayne's life.
06:51In fact, the frictional force between the pages was so great, it took nearly 10 minutes to separate the books.
07:02Because there were over 800 pages in each of Wayne's books, the friction between them created a bond with a breaking point of over 8,000 pounds.
07:12That's almost 47 times Wayne's body weight.
07:18It was absolutely the craziest thing I've ever done.
07:21I can honestly say I'm not sure I would do that again.
07:24Next, in London, Billy Kidd's posing as a bartender to pull off a crafty chemistry stunt, creating instant ice.
07:34Ice for your cola?
07:38You want ice for your juice?
07:39Yeah.
07:42I'm really sorry, I've just run out of ice.
07:46You know what, I have an idea.
07:48If you take a spoon, and a spoon for you, maybe you can take out an ice cube out of your drink, and just pop the ice inside your mouth.
07:58Perfect.
07:59Now don't swallow it.
08:00Can you feel your mouth getting really cold right now?
08:02Yeah.
08:03What I want you to do, is on the count of three, I want you to blow cold air over top of the glass to cool down your drink, sir.
08:11Okay?
08:13We'll try it, here we go.
08:14One, two, three, blow.
08:21Yeah, really cold breath.
08:25You can see that your cold breath is starting to cool down his drink.
08:31Wow!
08:33You might have blown a little too hard.
08:37You could see it just start to freeze.
08:39Yeah, it just went from the middle, and then it went completely solid.
08:43I didn't really believe it, so I tapped the glass, and it was just like, that is actually ice.
08:50Billy's trick may have looked cool, but the water didn't really turn to ice.
08:56Earlier, Billy boiled the water and added sodium acetate.
09:00When it cooled, Billy was left with a clear, super-saturated solution.
09:05As the girls blew across the surface of this unstable solution, Billy dropped in more sodium acetate,
09:12setting off the process of crystallization, which rapidly turned the solution solid,
09:18creating the illusion that it had turned to ice.
09:23That's pretty cool, I didn't think that was going to happen.
09:26It was really impressive, I thought.
09:29Time to look back at another of the most dangerous tricks of the season, the cannonball fall.
09:39The day of the cannonball drop, I get on the location,
09:43and there's this humongous 50-foot tube that I hadn't seen before.
09:49They showed me the first cannonball dropping,
09:53and it demolished the table that was underneath.
09:59There was no need to pretend that I was scared or in danger, because I was.
10:06Far out. That's insane.
10:09The idea is, a 13-pound steel cannonball takes 1.6 seconds to fall through this 50-foot tube,
10:17and destroy whatever is in its path.
10:20For the trick, James planned to shackle his hand underneath the cannonball in front of a live audience,
10:26then pick the lock and escape just in time.
10:30To make it possible, James had to use physics,
10:33switching in a magnetic ball, which actually falls slowly through the aluminum tube,
10:39allowing him four extra vital seconds.
10:42This trick took advantage of a scientific principle based on Lenz's law,
10:47that a magnet falling through a tube made of aluminum would slow down enough
10:52for our magician to make a daring escape from beneath it.
10:59So in order to make it work for TV so that you could actually see what was going on,
11:03we had to cut a big strip on the front of the tube,
11:07so that you could see the ball going down.
11:09With the slit there, the magnets weren't able to catch properly,
11:12so unless it went through the exact right way, it wasn't going to work.
11:18So just before the audience arrives, we're finally set up and we do a test,
11:21and they take the magnetic ball and drop it through the tube.
11:24And of course, it's supposed to slow down, but it didn't.
11:28It fell at full speed, it smashed something that was down beneath it.
11:31It turned out that there was some kind of alignment issue
11:34with the slots in the tube and the magnets in the ball.
11:37The magnets had to be perfectly aligned, otherwise it would go down quickly.
11:42So because of the slit in the front of the tube,
11:44it took a very reliable piece of science that made it not slow down.
11:49It took a very reliable piece of science that made it not slow down.
11:54With the slit in the tube, it took a very reliable piece of science
11:57that made it not so reliable.
12:00Which is a wonderful thing to hear just before you're about to put your hand
12:03underneath a falling cannonball of death.
12:08Every single person there on set that day was nervous.
12:13The audience arrive, and there's no going back.
12:17It's showtime.
12:18With a volunteer picked, James' hand is shackled firmly under the tube.
12:23It took me two seconds to memorize the shape of the serrations on that key
12:28before placing it in the bowl of 100 other keys.
12:32We were trying to do a lot of things in a very short period of time.
12:36One Mississippi, two Mississippi.
12:39And there was a real concern, not just for me, but amongst the rest of the crew,
12:44that James was going to have enough time to actually get out.
12:47Things are about to get very dangerous right here,
12:49so thank you so much for your help. I'm going to ask you to step back down.
12:52I knew that I was never going to get the right key,
12:54but I'd have four seconds to get out.
12:56Load the ball.
12:58As the magnetic ball is loaded for real,
13:00James is counting on his assistants to have aligned it perfectly.
13:04A quarter turn in either direction would mean it falls full speed
13:08and smashes his hand.
13:11The audience don't know the ball is packed with magnets
13:14and that this will slow its descent,
13:16nor that James isn't really relying on finding the right key.
13:20He's actually going to pick the lock.
13:23James.
13:26You ready?
13:27Yeah.
13:29Good luck, buddy.
13:30Can we get one minute on the clock?
13:33All right.
13:39Go.
13:40Start the clock.
13:43We never had a chance to do it with a real cannonball.
13:47You're at 30 seconds, James.
13:4830 already?
13:49The first time that you see me do that
13:51is the first time that I ever did it with my hand underneath.
13:54Focus on the pattern. Don't throw away the wrong key.
13:57It was pretty scary.
13:58James, you're at 50 seconds. You've got to get that key.
14:00I'm going for this.
14:04It's the wrong one.
14:05Stop it. Stop it.
14:06I can't stop it, James. I can't stop it.
14:11It was terrifying. It was loud.
14:15Slow down!
14:19Slow down!
14:30I was beyond relieved.
14:31The science worked. I was out of harm's way.
14:34So, yeah, I was very happy, as was a lot of the nervous crew.
14:42Back in London, Ben's taken his turn as a bartender,
14:46and his cocktails are served with a twist of magic
14:49and plenty of chemistry.
14:53The key to being a good barman
14:55is knowing what people want before they even order it.
14:58For example, you, sir, what's your name?
15:00Mo.
15:01Mo. I think I know what kind of drink you'd want.
15:03I reckon, just by looking at you,
15:05slightly sophisticated kind of guy,
15:07I reckon you'd maybe go for a glass of gin tea.
15:09Are you a gin drinker?
15:11That doesn't help this. OK, all right.
15:13Don't worry, I can use that liquid and get something else.
15:16OK, maybe, judging by the colour of your shirt,
15:19maybe something a bit more colourful, something a bit fruity.
15:23Maybe a pink flamingo.
15:25Is that floating in your...? No.
15:27It matches the shirt, Mo. It's too girly.
15:29How about a nice cold glass of... of milk?
15:36Are we getting closer? Mm-hm.
15:38I'll tell you what, how about a good old-fashioned glass?
15:43Of cider.
15:48Is that better?
15:50I don't drink alcohol.
15:55I can't understand how you've done that.
15:57Either there's something in the cups
15:59or you must have put something in his hand, I don't know.
16:01Yes!
16:03In fact, chemistry was the reason Ben's cocktails created such a stir.
16:08The gin was actually sodium carbonate, an alkali.
16:13And when it combined with a tiny amount of the chemical indicator
16:17in the bottom of the second glass, it turned pink.
16:20The carbonate ions then reacted with the barium,
16:23which was hidden in the third glass,
16:25turning it white, like milk.
16:29Mixing the barium carbonate
16:31with a small amount of clear hydrochloric acid in the final glass
16:35created the fizz that looked like a cool glass of cider.
16:40But no-one would want to drink this cocktail.
16:43It would be deadly.
16:45It definitely hasn't put me off drinking,
16:47but I maybe wouldn't drink in that bar.
16:50Later, James remembers the most painful stunt of the series.
17:01Bit early for the wine, isn't it?
17:03No, I'm not drinking, mate. Here.
17:05What do you think is going to happen to the wine glass when I let go of this?
17:08It's going to smash.
17:10That's pretty cool. Does that happen every time?
17:12Well, I hope so, mate. I'm going to be trusting my life using this method.
17:17Finally, time to go behind the scenes
17:20at the most dangerous stunt of the series,
17:23the danger drop.
17:25It was definitely one of the scariest days of my life.
17:29Yeah, it was dangerous.
17:31For this daring stunt, James decided to supersize
17:35the classic rotational pendulum swing science trick
17:39by being dropped from this scaffold tower
17:42with a rope attached to his back.
17:44If his plan worked,
17:46the rope would wind itself around this metal arm
17:49and break his fall.
17:51If not...
17:55he'd hurtle 50 feet straight down into the stage below.
18:02Oh, my God.
18:08During the day, strong winds ruin James' rehearsal time.
18:13At midday when they're testing it, the stuntman wouldn't go up
18:16because it wasn't safe enough.
18:18We're supposed to be rehearsing this death drop,
18:21but because of the wind, we can't do it.
18:23So we don't know when James is going to be able to rehearse this thing.
18:27I shouldn't be laughing because if he can't rehearse,
18:30then he's going to do it first time this evening,
18:33and who knows what's going to happen.
18:37But the weather's still too treacherous for James to do a rehearsal,
18:41so a stuntman in protective gear,
18:43using an additional safety rope to hold him away from the rig,
18:46tries out the drop to see if it works on a bigger scale.
18:50Three, two, one, go!
18:53Go!
18:59The stuntman's rehearsal worked,
19:02but James is out of time as his live audience has arrived.
19:06He's going to have to do the drop for the first time for real.
19:10I got told that I'm going up at 50 feet.
19:12It looks like I'm a stiff. It looks like a body doubles up there.
19:15That's how scared I was. I'm, like, fully, fully, fully stiff
19:18just because I was. I was scared.
19:20My body just went in full shock mode.
19:24The weather's not behaving, so James can't be dropped as planned.
19:28Sorry, there's a problem. We can't do it.
19:31The wind's too strong. We're going to have to pull it down.
19:34Eventually, the eager audience can't wait any more
19:37and have to be released.
19:39So at about 12.30, the audience had to leave,
19:42and we're set up for the drop.
19:44We'd been there for over 12 hours, getting everything set,
19:47and I wanted to do it. I wanted to give it a go.
19:53OK, you have control.
19:55Here we go.
19:57Three, two, one, go!
20:14Hey, hey, hey, hey, move! Do not move!
20:16See, my back's hurting. Hold there.
20:19The trick has gone painfully wrong and James has hit the stage hard.
20:24It was like 3 o'clock in the morning.
20:26I got a text message that said James had fallen
20:31and he was in the hospital.
20:33I freaked out.
20:35The counterweight did not swing round and stop his fall,
20:38as it should have.
20:39Science wasn't on my side at that point.
20:41I mean, it was an absolute fluke that the slipknot came
20:44and just flicked in where the carabiner was.
20:46It was a dangerous day.
20:48The ratio of James' weight to the counterweight was right.
20:52The effect was working well until the rope snagged round itself
20:56and stopped the turning motion.
20:58This meant that James' fall was slowed,
21:01but he failed to stop completely as planned.
21:04This was a serious fall,
21:06and we're very lucky that James wasn't injured seriously.
21:09Unfortunately, it just didn't go the way it should have,
21:12and, yeah, it was dangerous.
21:14That's why we don't want you trying this at home.
21:17You named it The Danger Drop, didn't you?
21:19Yeah, the clue was in the title.
21:21I thought your bounce was quite lovely, James.
21:23Seriously? Come on, a little sympathy?
21:25You were a very brave man.
21:30This is crazy.
21:32You're jumping into blackness, you're jumping out into nothing.
21:35It was loud.
21:36It puts a little bit of pressure on you
21:38that you're not normally used to having.
21:40Slow down!
21:41I was completely terrified, pretty much.
21:43From the time they said action, I didn't quite know what to expect.
21:46James just watched that, and I can't see him.
21:49I think he got a flight back to Australia.
21:51I think it was the dumbest thing in the world,
21:54and I also think it looked amazing.