In a mock seance, you and your buds sit around a “dead” friend. One of you whispers a tragic, scary tale about the dearly departed. Then you all slip your fingers under “the body” and, on the count of three, lift. Your friend seems to rise effortlessly as if levitating.
The key word is “seems.”
Clive Halliwell, a physics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, suggests you ask yourself, “Is this happening or do I only feel it happening?”
And be honest.
Either way, Halliwell brings us down to earth by pointing out that gravity makes levitation impossible. Earth-bound human beings can’t float, period.
“I’m not closed-minded,” Halliwell says in defense of his spoilsport role. “But until someone measures levitation, photographs it, repeats it, as a scientist I can’t believe in it.”
Halliwell says there are plenty of real how-do-they-do-that wonders to marvel at. Take walking barefoot across hot coals without getting burned.
Halliwell says that’s an awe-inspiring feat that can be explained by the laws of physics. The secret, he says, is to work up a layer of sweat on the bottom of the feet.
Just don’t try it at home. Unlike levitation, it’s for real.
