Science and Technology
Session 1

Introduction

We shall be exploring the fascinating and ever-changing relationship between science and magic. At first sight, the two areas might appear to be diametrically opposed – the conjuror with his attempt…

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Science and Technology
Session 2

Chemistry and magic

Magicians like to find out a lot about science themselves and to use what they know to create illusions to amaze their audience. The science is normally held back from the audience. However, in our Ab…

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Science and Technology
Session 3

Physics and magic

In this session we look at magic tricks that rely on the science of physics (the study of how everything works). As you will see in our Starfish, demonstrations of the laws of physics still serve to …

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Science and Technology
Session 4

Maths and magic

Long ago in the days of Pythagoras (an ancient Greek mathematician), people believed that numbers had magical powers. Nowadays, the beautiful, predictable patterns that appear when particular numbers …

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Science and Technology
Session 5

Psychology and magic

In this session we learn about the intimate connections between psychology (the scientific study of the mind and behaviour) and magic. Long before the serious study of psychology began in Victorian ti…

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Science and Technology
Session 6

Magic and medicine

You might be surprised to find out that supernatural magic and medicine have a history together that goes back thousands of years. In ancient civilisations all over the world, individuals have convinc…

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Science and Technology
Session 7

The ‘Magic’ of nature

In this session, we find out about ‘magical phenomena' in nature – mysteries that are as yet unsolved or have only recently been understood.…

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