Culture: Art: Performance
Scientific Magic Injuries   (+8)  [vote for, against]
Chemistry show goes "wrong"

A magician holds a show of a lesson in chemistry, with all kinds of scientific effects but unbeknownst to the crowd, rather than using actual science s.he shows it with magic.

And that's where strange things can start happening. First, the stained starch can be changed back to white powder, but upon inspection, it is now sugar crystals.

The water turns purple and then green and back to purple even though the lecturer did not start pouring the liquid into the bottle. A fish appears swimming in the bottle of what was supposed to be KMnO4. And all kinds of other weird things happen.

Each phenomenon is explained scientifically but people who actually know science know that this cannot be correct. They are now sitting up attentively.

And that's when things get worse. The lecturer explains the danger of explosion when these two materials meet and that the result of this experiment will be nitroglycerin. Beacons explode. The boy who volunteered on stage drinks the KMnO4 by mistake, but the worst is yet to come.

The acids fall, beacons break, fires are started, and loud explosions exceed the apologies given in advance.

And finally, a contraption that wasn't supposed to be on stage in the first place because it was deemed too dangerous to use, by the hall owners, is found to be on the stage, and causes the magician's body to be punctured with large holes through her.his body from side to side. But s.he continues as usual, not noticing anything unusual. A finger falls off on the table, etc. The lecturer says its just a prop, but we can see his.her condition deteriorating until finally s.he cannot continue, an ambulance team come running up to the stage and all vanish in a big bang.
-- pashute, Jan 02 2024

This could be fun in all kinds of directions. Maybe sortof a Tim Allen Tool Time meets Mr. Wizard where the science demo goes horribly wrong.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 02 2024


I love it. Science needs more skepticism and this is a way to help instill it.
-- Voice, Jan 02 2024


Hear hear.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 02 2024


I’m in. Where do I get the magic?
-- minoradjustments, Jan 02 2024


All this needs to work is some magic (in which case - mfd…) unless it’s a clever illusion, which would of course all be completely explainable by science
-- hippo, Jan 02 2024


Certainly creative. [+]
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 03 2024


// unless it’s a clever illusion, which would of course all be completely explainable by science // Of course, but while it could be explained by science, the scientific principle being explained during the show has a similar effect but is different in a few key aspects.

[+] This could be interesting, but it would be a lot of work to design the show.
-- scad mientist, Jan 03 2024



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