Always harboured a secret desire to whip a tablecloth out from under a fully laid table? Us too. We’ve got good news… Anyone can do it!
Surprise your family and delight your friends with this impressive trick. And you don’t need to be Paul Daniels to have a go. Here’s how to do The Tablecloth Magic Trick…
You need a table with straight sides, not curved - that messes with the physics.
Choose the right cloth. It should have as little traction as possible on the table, so smooth, slightly silky material is great. The table should be clean and dry, too. You want that cloth to slide across it easily. Also, your cloth should have no hem.
Place the cloth on the table with most of the ‘overhang’ on the side you’re going to pull from.
Carefully lay your table with crockery and cutlery. You can start with unbreakable crockery if you’re nervous. It actually helps for the items on the table to be heavy, so you can weight glasses down, for example, by filling them with water, which also adds to the effect. Pop a red rose in a glass of water if you’re feeling showy.
When you’re ready, grasp the tablecloth edge firmly with both hands and pull downwards towards your feet, quickly. Hesitate, or pull straight out to the side and you’ll mess it up.
Take a bow.
How does it work?
It’s more a feat of physics than a magic trick. There’s no sleight of hand involved. The tablecloth trick is an illustration of Newton’s theory of inertia in action. If an object is at rest, it stays at rest unless acted on by another force. So the tablecloth, when pulled, leaves the table and the items on it where they are because the force of it moving is not enough to move the items at rest on it.
If you’d like to have a go at this trick and are in the market for a new tablecloth, you might like to read our Looking Back feature on the history of tablecloths in our May issue, which is adapted from The Elements of a Home: Curious Histories Behind Everyday Household Objects From Pillows to Forks by Amy Azzarito (Chronicle Books).
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