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Take the Thanksgiving Table Trick Challenge

While the turkey is cooking and everyone is standing around waiting for the meal to start, take out a few kitchen items and entertain your guests. Make sure you practice the challenge beforehand so you can amaze and baffle your audience. Don’t forget to reveal your tricks and your science knowledge. Make your big finish the Table Trick Challenge.

The Amazing Egg Drop
The Egg Drop is a classic science demonstration that illustrates Newton’s Laws of Motion, namely inertia. The challenge sounds so simple… just get the egg into the glass of water, but there are a few obstacles. The egg is perched high above the water on a cardboard tube, and a pie plate sits between the tube and the water. Still think it’s easy? Sir Isaac Newton does.

Tablecloth Trick
The classic “whip off” the tablecloth trick is a must for any aspiring science demonstrator who wants to be amazing! This experiment is guaranteed to either bring down the house or to get you into a lot of hot water. The idea is really quite simple – yank the tablecloth out from under a beautiful place setting without destroying the meal (or the place setting). It’s easy if you take a science lesson from Sir Isaac Newton.

Toothpick Star Table Trick
Don’t take your eyes off of these “seemingly normal” toothpicks, they might just have some magic in them! Five bent toothpicks will change positions to make a five-pointed star using nothing but a little water. You’ll have all the people around the dinner table holding their breath as the toothpicks glide into place without being touched.

Straw Through Potato
Sometimes you have to stop and ask yourself, “Who comes up with this stuff?” No one ever uses a straw to eat a potato, but science nerds seem to like to find ways to poke straws through potatoes.

Ultimate Table Trick Challenge
You need to end your Table Trick extravaganza with the ultimate table trick. Should you make a soda geyser, cause eggs to fly or whip off the table cloth? Or… should you do all three in under 60 seconds to amaze your guests? For extra fun, have Uncle Larry take the challenge. Just watch the carpeting. Mom may not enjoy the geysers in the living room.

Can’t get enough table tricks? Need a few more to fill out your pre or post dinner science magic show? Follow the links to the experiments below for additional table trick experiments.

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  1. […] If you need to draw attention away from your crazy Uncle Doug, try whipping the tablecloth out from under the dishes. Learn this and other entertaining — and potentially messy — physics tricks for the Thanksgiving table at the Steve Spangler Science blog. […]

  2. […] Holiday Table Tricks Table tricks aren’t just for Thanksgiving. Entertain your guests before the gifts are opened by performing a few science tricks. […]

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