You float a metal paperclip on top of a bowl of water, which it has no business doing. Then you touch the water with one soapy finger and the paperclip sinks at once.
🌟 Level 1: Apprentice
⏱ 5 minutes to learn
🧪 Potions
🎒 Ages 6+
Works by itself, or one simple move. It works the first try.
👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.👶 Paperclips are small and swallowable: keep them away from little ones under 4.🚫 A potion is for looking at, not for drinking.
On a big stage, floating uses hidden supports, careful lighting and angles that stop you seeing what's holding the weight. Close up, it's usually a finger or a thumb you can't see from the front. That's why a floating trick works from one direction and gives itself away from the side.
How do magicians do their tricks?
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.
You float a metal paperclip on top of a bowl of water, which it has no business doing. Then you touch the water with one soapy finger and the paperclip sinks at once. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 6 to 11 (grades 1st–5th), takes 5 minutes to learn, and needs 4 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
The surface of water behaves like a thin skin, strong enough to hold a paperclip laid flat. Soap breaks the skin, and down it goes.
What you need
Paperclips
A shallow bowl
Water
A drop of dish soap
How to do it
Fill the bowl with the water and let it go completely still.
Bend one two paperclips into a little cradle to lower the other one with.
Lay the second two paperclips flat on the surface and slide the cradle away.
Dip one finger in the dish soap and touch the edge of the water.
Magic words to say
“Metal sinks. This is not a trick metal paperclip, you can check it, and it is definitely going to sink. Unless I ask the water very politely to help.”
Pro tips
Still water is everything. Set the bowl down and count to twenty before you try.
Do the floating first and the sinking second. A trick that ends with something going wrong on purpose is very satisfying.
Change the water before a second go: once soap is in it, nothing will float again.
If something goes wrong
If the clip sinks, fish it out, dry it on your sleeve and say "that one's too heavy". Try another, more slowly. Dry clips float better than wet ones.
Safety notes
Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.
Paperclips are small and swallowable: keep them away from little ones under 4.
A potion is for looking at, not for drinking.
Sit at a table.
A bit messy.
No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.
The science behind the trick
Water molecules pull on each other, and at the top there is nothing above them to pull back, so the surface pulls itself tight into something like a skin. A paperclip laid flat is light enough to sit in a dent in that skin without breaking through. Soap gets between the molecules, the pulling stops, the skin goes, and so does the paperclip.
What kind of trick is this?
🪽 Levitation. Something floats. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches:The big finish. End on your best one, then stop. Perform it and it counts towards the Kitchen Alchemist badge.
Questions about the floating paperclip
How do magicians make things float?
On a big stage, floating uses hidden supports, careful lighting and angles that stop you seeing what's holding the weight. Close up, it's usually a finger or a thumb you can't see from the front. That's why a floating trick works from one direction and gives itself away from the side.
How do magicians do their tricks?
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.