FAMILY FUN

New Zealand Tablet, 28 January 1915, Page 62

FAMILY FUN

TRICKS, ILLUSIONS, AND INDOOR AMUSEMENTS.

(Special to the N.Z. Tablet by Mahatma.) A Pretty Experiment.—Hold half a dozen darningneedles in a bunch by the point ends, and draw die nor pole of a permanent magnet along them from the points towards the eyes, taking care to bring the magnet back to the points through the air. The magnet must not be rubbed backwards and forwards but move in contact toward the eyes only. The needles are pushed through the centres of discs 3-16’s of an inch in thickness. These discs may be made from wine bottle corks. Treat an equal number of needles in the same way with the south end of the magnet, and thrust them through colored discs of cork (red ink is a convenient dye) for distinction. > All the needles and discs may now be waterproofed by heating and dipping in varnish, ill a basin with water and, when the surface is quite still, drop in all the discs, holding the north pole needles eyes upward. They will repel one another, and separate until the distances between them are all approximately equal. Now put in -the red disc needles, also eyes upward. They will at once seek partners with the north pole needles, and arrange themselves in clusters. This is a pietty proof of the fact that like poles repel and unlike poles attract one another. '*

eight-Guessing.—Get a number of small bags and tie up in them shot or other small articles to make the weights of 4,4 J, 41, 4|, 5, s£, 51, sf, and 6 ounces respectively. Shuffle them up, and ask your friends to place them in a row in the order of their weight. The weights should be written on the bottom of the bags. The test is rather an exacting one, requiring considerable delicacy of judgment. An amusing experiment is to hand an object of known weight about among the company, asking each person to write down his guess on a piece of paper. The estimates will be found to vary widely.

•kgS and Card Trick.—Half fill a wineglass with water, lay a visiting card over it, and on this a wedding or other plain ring, by means of which you balance an egg, small end up, upon the card. A sharp flick of the finger will remove the card, ring and egg falling into the wine-glass.

The Clock Dial.—Draw circles on a number of cards, and distribute these among the company with a request that each person fill in the Roman figures exactly as they appear on the face of the clock. Common mistakes are to put IV. instead of 1111. and to make VI. and the subsequent figures point to the outside.

The Magnetic Match.—Take two safety matches and arrange them crosswise at right angles to each other, about their mid points, the upper being balanced .on the lower. A third match is then taken and, after having been subjected to some ‘ mystic passes ’ by which the demonstrator pretends that the match will acquire magnetic properties, one end is held about half an inch away from one end of the upper or balanced match. After one or two unsuccessful attempts the balanced match is seen to begin turning round and follow the match held in the fingers, very much as a compass needle follows a bar magnet. The solution is that whilst you are pretending to draw one match with the other, you are reality very quietly blowing against the other end oj^ the balanced match.