Easy Magic Trick for Kids, Boomerangs - Introduction
This is an easy trick for beginners that is often found in beginning magic sets. If you like, you can make your own out of cardboard or heavy paper - I'll discuss how to do this.
Here's how the trick looks:
You show two different "boomerangs." In this case you have a boomerang that is red and a second that is yellow. As shown in the picture, spectators can see that the yellow boomerang is longer than the red boomerang.
Note that this effect is actually more of an optical illusion than a magic trick.
You cast a spell on the red boomerang and suddenly, it's larger than the yellow boomerang. For the secret and to learn how to perform this trick, simply go to the next step where I'll explain everything. While the positions of the boomerangs have changed - they have exchanged places - nothing about the boomerangs themselves have been altered.
Amazing as it seems, the boomerangs are actually the exact same size. In many endings to this trick, the magician casts one more spell to make the boomerangs the identical size and overlays them on top of each other.
The secret is that whichever boomerang is on the bottom looks longer. This is because you are comparing the smaller inner diameter of the top boomerang against the larger outer diameter of the bottom boomerang.
It's an optical situation that fools the judgement capabilities of our eyes and brain.
So by simply holding one boomerang, or laying it down on a table or other surface over the other one, it will appear to be smaller. To make the top boomerang look longer than the bottom boomerang, simply trade their positions. The "shorter" boomerang on the top goes to the lower position and will look longer.
How to Make Your Own
You can easily make your own boomerangs out of cardboard or heavy paper.
If you have skills with illustration programs on a computer, you should be able to easily create two concentric circles on the screen, and then turn them into "arcs" or "boomerangs" and then print them out. It's nice to make the boomerangs different. You can color them on screen and then print them out if you have a color printer. Or you can add different patterns on them and then print in black and white.
You can also make these "arcs" or "boomerangs" from physical objects found around the house. For a pattern, find two dinner plates of different sizes and trace around their edges onto paper or cardboard to make two concentric arcs, one inside the other.
Using the picture as a guide, cut out the two arcs and decorate them so that they're different, either by coloring or painting them, or applying stickers. You'll find that whichever boomerang is on the top will always look smaller. Another theme for this trick is that you are "stretching" the boomerangs, which are made of cardboard and can't change their shapes.
If you'd like to see other interesting optical illusions, you'll find the Zollner illusion here, and an entire collection here.
Some magic tricks rely on optical illusions. There's the magic tube trick where the tube has been altered to make it look empty but the clever gimmicking actually creates a secret compartmenbt (click here to learn how to make and perform the magic tube).
This is an easy trick for beginners that is often found in beginning magic sets. If you like, you can make your own out of cardboard or heavy paper - I'll discuss how to do this.
Here's how the trick looks:
You show two different "boomerangs." In this case you have a boomerang that is red and a second that is yellow. As shown in the picture, spectators can see that the yellow boomerang is longer than the red boomerang.
Note that this effect is actually more of an optical illusion than a magic trick.
You cast a spell on the red boomerang and suddenly, it's larger than the yellow boomerang. For the secret and to learn how to perform this trick, simply go to the next step where I'll explain everything. While the positions of the boomerangs have changed - they have exchanged places - nothing about the boomerangs themselves have been altered.
Amazing as it seems, the boomerangs are actually the exact same size. In many endings to this trick, the magician casts one more spell to make the boomerangs the identical size and overlays them on top of each other.
The secret is that whichever boomerang is on the bottom looks longer. This is because you are comparing the smaller inner diameter of the top boomerang against the larger outer diameter of the bottom boomerang.
It's an optical situation that fools the judgement capabilities of our eyes and brain.
So by simply holding one boomerang, or laying it down on a table or other surface over the other one, it will appear to be smaller. To make the top boomerang look longer than the bottom boomerang, simply trade their positions. The "shorter" boomerang on the top goes to the lower position and will look longer.
How to Make Your Own
You can easily make your own boomerangs out of cardboard or heavy paper.
If you have skills with illustration programs on a computer, you should be able to easily create two concentric circles on the screen, and then turn them into "arcs" or "boomerangs" and then print them out. It's nice to make the boomerangs different. You can color them on screen and then print them out if you have a color printer. Or you can add different patterns on them and then print in black and white.
You can also make these "arcs" or "boomerangs" from physical objects found around the house. For a pattern, find two dinner plates of different sizes and trace around their edges onto paper or cardboard to make two concentric arcs, one inside the other.
Using the picture as a guide, cut out the two arcs and decorate them so that they're different, either by coloring or painting them, or applying stickers. You'll find that whichever boomerang is on the top will always look smaller. Another theme for this trick is that you are "stretching" the boomerangs, which are made of cardboard and can't change their shapes.
If you'd like to see other interesting optical illusions, you'll find the Zollner illusion here, and an entire collection here.
Some magic tricks rely on optical illusions. There's the magic tube trick where the tube has been altered to make it look empty but the clever gimmicking actually creates a secret compartmenbt (click here to learn how to make and perform the magic tube).
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