Magic: Tiny Plunger - Penn & Teller's Impressive Card Trick

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Raghav Gupta
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An act from Penn and Teller: Fool us where a plunger does the act of finding a card from deck against so many odds.
This trick is so elegant as the magician is giving the plunger and cards for inspection yet he do wonders.
Anybody having faintest idea of how this is being performed?
 
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jackwhirl said:
My best guess is that it is related to wringing. This would be especially easy with a brand new deck of cards.

See the answer here that refers to gauge blocks: http://physics.stackexchange.com/qu...-similar-smooth-metals-seem-to-stick-together
Okay,if he is able to pick the whole deck of cards by that plunger. But how he is able to cut with a plunger the exact same card that the audience has chosen? Most surprising part is that when he gives to the audience (Teller) and Teller cuts his chosen card by that plunger.
 
The mere act of pulling the card out would add air around that card making it the likely breaking point. If he had talc on his hand he could spread it on the card below and practically guarantee it would separate there.
 
jackwhirl said:
The mere act of pulling the card out would add air around that card making it the likely breaking point. If he had talc on his hand he could spread it on the card below and practically guarantee it would separate there.
That logic is not applicable when he asks the host to speak a number and the plunger takes out exactly that number of cards, because the magician has to know the place where he has to apply talc or separate it.
 
Raghav Gupta said:
That logic is not applicable when he asks the host to speak a number and the plunger takes out exactly that number of cards, because the magician has to know the place where he has to apply talc or separate it.
And who was holding the cards when the number was spoken?
 
jackwhirl said:
And who was holding the cards when the number was spoken?
Magician, but he is not spreading cards while host speaks number.
 
Why not just have pinholes in the cards, wouldn't that be enough to exert some suction on the lower cards. Just make there be one solid card, or however they align, and you can control how many to pick up.

As soon as I saw it pick up 2 cards I thought, ok, they have unaligned holes.
 
Hepth said:
Why not just have pinholes in the cards, wouldn't that be enough to exert some suction on the lower cards.
No, I don't think so. Pressure is force/area and the area of pinholes is very small.
 
Why don't you just make one thread to post all these in, instead of spamming the general forum with magic trick posts.
 
I don't think the size of the hole matters so much actually. What matters is that the plunger can maintain a lack of air between the two cards, thus causing a friction for them to stay together. 2 New cards will actually do this without suction, almost like a casmir effect.