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101 Bets You Will Always Win

Jaw-Dropping Illusions, Remarkable Riddles, Scintillating Science Stunts, and Cunning Conundrums That Will Astound and Amaze Everyone You Know

St. Martin's Press

BODY MAGIC TEN WAYS TO WIN WITH YOUR HANDS AND FEET

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT YOUR BODY

• Each day your heart will beat over 100,000 times.

• About 60 per cent of your body is made up of water.

• Every month your body completely replaces its outer skin.

• A quarter of all the bones in your body are in your feet.

• A matchbox-sized block of your bone can support four times more weight than concrete.

YOU NEED HANDS

For this bet, all you need to do is hold out your two hands and say, 'Counting my thumbs as fingers, how many fingers am I holding up?'

The correct answer is ten. Then say, 'So if this is ten fingers, how many fingers are there on ten hands?' Almost everyone will say 100. In fact, the correct answer is fifty!

BREAK POINT

Ask your friend to hold out their hand. Next, place a matchstick across the top of their middle finger, like this.

Finally, tell them that they have to break the matchstick simply by pushing down on it with their first and third fingers. It sounds simple and so they will accept the challenge. However, they won't be able to break the matchstick and you'll win the bet!

If you push the matchstick further down their middle finger, and have them bend the tops of their first and third fingers, they will easily be able to break the matchstick. Why? Because you are using your friend's fingers as levers. The key to any good lever is the distance between the object that you want to lift (or, in this case, break) and the point on which the lever tips (known as the 'fulcrum'). In this bet, the fulcrum is the knuckles at the base of your friend's fingers. Placing the match close to the fulcrum gives you a greater mechanical advantage, whereas placing it towards the fingertips results in a smaller mechanical advantage and it's almost impossible to break the match.

The famous Ancient Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes described the laws of the lever in his 250 BCE bestseller On the Equilibrium of Planes, and was so certain of the power of his discovery that he famously announced, 'Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.' At the time no one was willing to take Archimedes up on his bold assertion, which is perhaps unfortunate because modern-day mathematicians have figured out that to win the bet, Archimedes would have required a lever with a long arm that was 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times longer than the short arm!

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

Ask your friend to hold their thumb and first finger about an inch apart, like this.

Now place a banknote in the gap between their thumb and finger.

Explain that in a moment you are going to drop the banknote and they can keep the money if they can catch it. Amazingly, they will miss the banknote every time.

You can use the same method to find out whether you have fast reactions.

1) Hold your thumb and first finger about an inch apart.

2) Ask a friend to hold a twelve-inch ruler at the top (the end nearest the twelve-inch mark) and to place the bottom of the ruler between your finger and thumb.

3) Tell your friend to wait a few moments and then suddenly drop the ruler.

4) When you see the ruler move, catch it as quickly as you can.

5) Look at where you caught the ruler and then use this table to find out your reaction time.

Inches Reaction time in seconds
2 0.1
4 0.14
6 0.17
8 0.2
10 0.23
12 0.25

Most people catch the ruler between the six-inch and eight-inch mark, translating into a reaction time of roughly 0.17 to 0.2 seconds. If you reliably catch the ruler around the 4.5-inch mark then you have the reaction time of a professional athlete. Either that, or you cheated.

HEAD START

Place your hand flat on your head and bet your friend that they can't lift your hand off your head. It sounds simple, but it's impossible and so you will win the bet.

Why does it work? When your friend tries to lift your forearm they are also lifting your upper arm. Luckily for you, your upper arm is firmly connected to the rest of your body, and so without realizing it they are actually trying to lift your entire body weight!

MAKE A GOOD FIST OF IT

Ask your friend to place one fist on top of the other. Next, take hold of their top fist with your right hand and their bottom fist with your left hand. Then move your right hand to the right and your left hand to the left and show your friend how easy it is to pull their fists apart.

Now bet your friend that when you place your fists together, they will find it hard to push them apart. To win the bet you need to be a bit sneaky. When you put one fist on top of the other, secretly hold out your lower thumb and wrap your upper hand around it! That way, your friend will struggle to push your fists apart.

INSTANT HYPNOSIS

Bet your friend that you can move their fingers using the power of hypnosis. When they accept the bet, ask them to clasp their hands together and extend their two first fingers like this. Next, ask them to look into your eyes and count to five. Tell your friend that they are now hypnotized and ask them to imagine their two first fingers slowly moving towards one another. Amazingly, their fingers will mysteriously drift together!

This isn't really a demonstration of hypnosis. Instead, it takes considerable effort to keep your first fingers apart, and as your muscles tire your fingers slowly drift together.

Modern-day hypnotism has its roots in work of the charismatic eighteenth-century Austrian physician, Dr Franz Anton Mesmer. During his consultations, Mesmer would sit in front of his patient and look firmly into their eyes. Many patients experienced strange sensations and sudden convulsions, and then reported feeling much better.

In 1784 King Louis XVI of France asked Benjamin Franklin to investigate Mesmer. Franklin sometimes blind-folded the patients so that they didn't know when they were receiving Mesmer's magical treatment, and discovered that the patients only reported positive effects when they thought that they were being treated. As a result, Franklin concluded that Mesmer's 'cures' were all down to self-delusion.

However, Mesmer's legacy lives on because the investigation was one of the first to use 'blind' methods – which are now commonplace in science – and because his work resulted in the verb 'mesmerize', which means to amaze and astound.

Over 200 years later, scientists still can't agree on what's actually happening when people are hypnotized. Some researchers believe that hypnosis is a special state of consciousness, whilst others argue that it is an unusual type of role-playing. Either way, the good news is that the technique can be used to get people to eat an onion, act like a chicken, and shout out their bank account details.

COINING IT IN

Ask your friend to link their hands together, and then raise their first and third fingers like this.

Now place a coin between their third fingers, and bet them that they can't move their fingers apart and release the coin.

It sounds easy but it's almost impossible!

ROUND IN CIRCLES

Ask someone to sit down, cross their right leg over their left leg and rotate their right foot clockwise.

Now tell them that you can reverse the direction of their foot without touching it. To win the bet, simply ask them to draw a number '6' in the air with their right finger.

Almost everyone will automatically reverse the direction of their right foot, and you will win the bet!

The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and it struggles to produce two opposing movements at the same time. Try doing the same bet with your right foot and left hand and you will discover that it's much easier.

THE FLOATING SAUSAGE

Tell your friend that you can magically make a sausage float in front of their eyes. When they accept the bet, ask them to place the tips of their first fingers together, and hold their hands about six inches from their nose. Next, ask them to focus on an object in the distance. After a few moments they'll find that the ends of their fingers appear to look like a small sausage! Not only that, but when they move their fingers a few millimetres apart, the sausage will appear to float in mid-air!

In 1927, University of Chicago psychologist W. L. Sharp first described this illusion in an academic paper entitled 'The Floating-Finger Illusion'. In this little-known paper, Sharp explained how he frequently used the illusion to evoke a sense of curiosity in his students, writing, '... not infrequently have I noted students blinking their eyes and shaking their heads vigorously as if to pull themselves back to reality'.

The illusion works because when you focus on a distant object each of your eyes receives a slightly different view of your fingers.

MAGNETIC FINGERS

Form your hands into fists and then hold out the first fingers of each hand. Keeping your hands close to your body, touch the ends of your first fingers together.

Now challenge your friend to hold your wrists and pull your fingers apart. It sounds simple but they won't be able to do it!

MONEY MATTERS

TEN WAYS TO WIN WITH COINS AND NOTES

THE BANG BANG BOTTLE

Place a banknote on a table and then balance a bottle on top of it like this.

Bet your friend that you can remove the banknote without touching or knocking over the bottle. To win the bet, simply make one of your hands into a fist and hold the end of the banknote with your other hand.

When you knock your fist on the table the bottle will jump, just a little, into the air. At that exact moment, use your other hand to slide the banknote out from under the bottle!

THE PENNY STACK

Place a small coin on a smooth table and then stack several larger coins on top of it.

Next, challenge your friend to remove the small coin, but without touching the larger ones. To win the bet, find another small coin and quickly flick it along the table so that it hits the small coin at the bottom of the stack. The small coin under the stack will shoot out from under the larger coins, and then you can simply pick it up!

The seventeenth-century scientist Sir Isaac Newton spent much of his time watching objects move, and eventually came up with his now-famous laws of motion. The Penny Stack uses Isaac's first law, which states that stationary objects remain where they are unless a force acts on them. Isaac called this 'inertia', and he used it to explain why people struggle to get out of a warm bed on a winter's morning (I made that last bit up). The small coin shoots out of the stack because of the force delivered during the collision. However, the other coins in the stack remain where they are because of their inertia, and simply drop down onto the coin that was flicked along the table.

Although Newton is best known for his scientific achievements, he was also a lifelong alchemist and spent much of his time searching for the philosopher's stone – a legendary substance thought to have the power to transform lead into gold. Unfortunately, this work was literally to be the death of him. Newton's alchemical pursuits involved distilling mercury, and a recent analysis of his hair samples revealed very high levels of this dangerous chemical, suggesting that Newton may have died from mercury poisoning.

A BRIDGING LOAN

Place a banknote on the table and tell your friend that they can have the money if they win the bet. Next, place two large glasses, a smaller glass and some matches on the table. Now challenge your friend to use the objects on the table to support the smaller glass between the larger glasses.

In fact, the matches are just decoys, and to win the bet you have to use the banknote! Simply accordion-pleat the banknote along its length, place it between the larger glasses like a bridge, stand the smaller glass on top of the banknote, and you have won the bet.

The banknote supports the weight of the glass because the pleating increases its strength. The same idea was used in one of the world's greatest inventions – the corrugated cardboard box. This amazing creation dates back to 1856, when English top hat salesman Edward Allen wanted to keep his hats in shape. Inspired by sixteenth-century ruffled lace collars, Allen created pleated paper and placed it inside his hats.

In 1871, New Yorker Albert Jones obtained an American patent for the same idea, and within a few years other inventors had increased the strength of the pleated paper even further by gluing it between two sheets of cardboard. Around the turn of the last century the first corrugated cardboard boxes began to roll off American production lines. The manufacturers quickly realized that they had nothing to pack the boxes in and so started to produce even bigger boxes. Over the years the rapid rise in shipped goods has created a near insatiable need for boxes, with some economists arguing that the global economy simply couldn't thrive without the corrugated cardboard box. And all because a man once wanted to keep his top hats in tip-top condition.

THE COIN SLIDE

Balance two coins on the edge of a glass and challenge your friend to lift the glass. Oh, and they are only allowed to touch the coins!

To win the bet, place your first finger and thumb on the coins, quickly move them down the sides of the glass, and then you can lift up the glass holding just the coins.

LIVING ON THE EDGE

Challenge your friend to balance a small coin on the edge of a banknote. When they give up, first fold the banknote into a 'V' shape and balance the coin on the 'V'.

Next, slowly pull the ends of the banknote. Amazingly, the coin will end up balanced on the edge of the banknote!

This bet is much easier if you use a crisp, fresh note.

When you pull the ends of the note, take your time and don't sneeze.

I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF

Place a playing card on a glass, put a tube of paper on the playing card, and finally balance a coin on top of the tube. Now challenge your friend to move the coin into the glass, but without touching the playing card, the tube or the coin.

When your friend gives up, simply blow upwards under the playing card – the tube and the playing card will fly away and the coin will drop into the glass.

INFLATION

Place five or six pennies on a table and balance another penny on its edge. Ask your friend how many pennies you will need to stack up to reach the height of the upright penny.

They might guess five or six. You will win the bet because the answer is an amazing twelve coins!

IN CREDIT

Pour some water into a glass and then balance a credit card on the edge of the glass like this. Next, challenge your friend to balance some coins on the overhanging end of the credit card.

They will fail because the credit card will fall off the glass. To win the bet, completely fill the glass with water and then place the credit card on top of the glass. The credit card will stick to the surface of the water and you will find that you can place several coins on the overhanging end of the credit card.

Water molecules are attracted to one another. However, the molecules on the surface of the water have air above them and so have fewer molecules to cling to. As a result, they develop especially strong bonds with the other molecules around them, and the resulting cohesion creates surface tension. When the credit card is first placed on the water it rests on top because of this surface tension. Then, when the credit card and water come into contact, the two very different types of molecules are attracted to one another and this adhesion stops the credit card moving away from the water.

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Excerpted from 101 Bets You Will Always Win by Richard Wiseman. Copyright © 2016 Spin Solutions Limited. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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