Top 5 glass bets you always win

Make winning bets!

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • sev­er­al glass­es;
  • bal­loon;
  • can­dle;
  • plas­tic card;
  • coins;
  • thick craft pa­per;
  • sta­pler.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Bet 1 : Pour some wa­ter into a bal­loon and in­flate it. Place a can­dle in a glass, light it, and cov­er the glass with the bal­loon. The can­dle will go out, and soon the bal­loon will be drawn into the glass. Now you can pick up the glass us­ing the bal­loon!

Bet 2: Make a loop with thick pa­per and a sta­pler and place it on a nar­row glass. Set a coin on top of the loop. Sharply pull the loop out from un­der the coin – the coin falls right into the glass!

Bet 3: Put a can­dle be­hind a glass and light it. Try to blow the can­dle out through the glass – it ac­tu­al­ly goes out!

Bet 4: Fill a glass to the brim with wa­ter. Place a plas­tic play­ing card on the sur­face of the wa­ter so that about half of it is sus­pend­ed in the air. Bal­ance a coin on the out­er edge of the card – it re­mains steady!

Bet 5: Place a can­dle in a glass and light it. Thor­ough­ly moist­en a nap­kin with wa­ter and cov­er the glass with it. Press a sec­ond glass on top. The can­dle will go out and the glass­es will cling to each oth­er.

Process de­scrip­tion

Bet 1 : When the glass is cov­ered with the bal­loon, its oxy­gen sup­ply is cut off – the can­dle goes out, the air in­side the glass cools down, and the pres­sure de­creas­es. At­mo­spher­ic pres­sure push­es the bal­loon into the glass and press­es the glass tight­ly against the bal­loon.

Bet 2: If you pull out the in­ner part of the ring, it stretch­es hor­i­zon­tal­ly and shrinks ver­ti­cal­ly. In this case, the coin re­mains un­sup­port­ed, with only grav­i­ty act­ing on it, and falls ver­ti­cal­ly down­ward. If you in­stead strike the out­er part of the ring, it con­tracts hor­i­zon­tal­ly and sharply in­creas­es ver­ti­cal­ly, in­stead cat­a­pult­ing the coin into the air.

Bet 3: Choos­ing the right ob­sta­cle is crit­i­cal for this trick: it must have a stream­lined shape like that of a cylin­dri­cal glass. When it meets the glass in its path, the air flow is di­vid­ed and bends around it. The streams of air re­unite be­hind the glass and ex­tin­guish the can­dle.

Bet 4: Sur­face ten­sion pre­vents the card from lift­ing away from the sur­face of the wa­ter – it can even with­stand a few coins!

Bet 5: When the glass’s oxy­gen sup­ply is re­moved, the can­dle goes out. The air in­side the glass­es be­gins to cool down and the pres­sure de­creas­es: at­mo­spher­ic pres­sure re­li­ably press­es the glass­es against each oth­er. The nap­kin al­lows the pres­sure be­tween the glass­es to equal­ize, but at the same time seals the glass­es by their edges.

Get more im­pres­sive ex­per­i­ments with a MEL Physics sub­scrip­tion!

Try it