levitation

[fergie33]

guys i am not a scientist i know very little about science. I am a magicican i build illusions professionally do shows. i need a scintist help. i've heard that theres a way to levitate 3 inches off the ground using scintific means an a expensive gimmick. i f anyone can give me any help i would greatly appreciate it.

[iNow]

Check out the video here (just past the 20 second ad):

 

 

 

http://www.livescience.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=balducci

 

You've seen David Blaine do it. Here's how...Credit: Brandon Knotek

[fergie33]

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=217013&forum=218

 

thnaks for the help but this is a real thing the info on it is given above the guy calims it is all science and no illusion thnaks

-chris

[iNow]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The video shared in the link you provided is not extraordinary. Sorry.

[Pangloss]

Moved to Pseudoscience and Speculations.

[JohnB]

A couple of things.

 

Firstly I don't know where this thread came from but it should probably be in "Engineering" rather than here.

 

Secondly. Fergie, when you use the word "levitate" here it has a different meaning from it's usage in the art. Here it means a sort of psychic hokus pokus, rather than an gimmick. BTW, the word "illusion" has a slightly different meaning here too.

 

The self levi with 360⁰ viewing has been sought for years. Heck, we were looking for it 30 years ago when I was making illusions. So far it has eluded everybody that's hunted it.

 

There are ways of doing it, but as was said in the thread you linked to, the balance problem is a killer. Whoever solves it will have the magic communitys eternal thanks.

[Rev Blair]

I saw a magician on TV (not sure who...might have been that Mindfreak guy) "levitating" several off the ground and wondered how he was doing it. He appeared to be just walking around Las Vegas and performing the illusion for live crowds.

 

I have no doubt that it was a trick and the man billed himself as a magician, not a psychic or anything, but I was wondering where the wires were and how he kept them hidden from the onlookers.

 

Having seen the balducci video, I'd like to see that show again so I could pay more attention to the camera angles. If he fooled the audience with a few inches and the television audience with a few well-chosen camera angles, that would explain it.

[JohnB]

It could have been Chris Angel, he's very talented and has stumped me on many occasions. His close up work is extremely good.

 

The thing to remember is that different illusions that produce similar effects can be combined. Hence you could use one illusion to show levitation from the front, turn around and use a different one to show the levitation from behind.

 

And I guarantee you, there were no wires.