Fun at home and a Vaudeville trick

The Physics Girl, Diana, has a rush challenge of performing 20 at-home physics experiments for bored kids and parents in a 5-minute time limit. Of course, the time limit is optional so take as much fun and try as many as you like. (Some fire is included and grownup supervision is recommended.)

At the very end, I was delighted to see the “Eggs and Glasses” which is just a demonstration of inertia, but used to be part of the stage performances of a Vaudeville magician, Emil Jarrow (1876-1958). A few years ago, I was working on a video archiving project for The Screening Room and came across the master French comedy magician Gaëtan Bloom performing the same stunt on Spanish TV.

It’s a simple thing you can try at home. There’s no secret to it beyond what’s demonstrated in the clip. But if you don’t commit to it, you can have an awful mess to clean up.