Magic Shop
Ooh, a good one. Here's what they'll see.
An egg sinks to the bottom of a glass of water. You order it to rise, stir in a secret ingredient, and it climbs up and hangs halfway, doing as it is told.
Works by itself, or one simple move. It works the first try.
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.
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.
More in Ask the Magician.
An egg sinks to the bottom of a glass of water. You order it to rise, stir in a secret ingredient, and it climbs up and hangs halfway, doing as it is told. 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.
Salt makes water heavier, and heavy enough water holds an egg up. The stirring is the trick; the ordering is the show.
“Eggs are stubborn. This one and I have an arrangement. Rise. ...Rise. Hmm. He's new. Let me have a word with the water instead.”
If it will not rise, keep stirring and say "he's thinking about it". It always rises in the end; it only ever needs more salt.
Whether something floats depends on how heavy it is compared with the water it pushes out of the way. Salt dissolved in water makes every spoonful of that water heavier, and once the water is heavier than the egg, up the egg comes. It is why swimming in the sea is easier than in a swimming pool.
🪽 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: Patter: what you say. A trick is a story, not a thing that happens. Perform it and it counts towards the Kitchen Alchemist badge.
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