Whether you're trying to win over a girl or tease your best buddy, you need to have some skills to impress them.

Looking for a magic trick that's easy to do, uses readily available materials, and won't cause any serious injury? Let scientific tidbits help you impress!

Moses divides pepper water

Materials needed: a large bowl for good presentation, water, pepper, and soap.

Magic trick: Fill a bowl with water, sprinkle with pepper, and then stick your soapy fingers into it.

Science tidbit: When soap dissolves in water, it reduces surface tension, allowing the peppercorns to be carried away by the parts with higher surface tension.

The light that has flowed away

Materials needed: a water bottle with a small hole drilled in it, a laser pointer

Magic trick: Fill a bottle with water by blocking the small hole with your hand, then release your hand to create a water flow. When you shine a laser pointer at this point from the other side, you'll see laser light flowing out.

Science Fact: Refraction of Light

Dancing Clay Figurines

Materials needed: a paste made of cornstarch and water, and a speaker that is covered with plastic wrap and plugged in.

Magic trick: Pour the paste onto a speaker, tune it to about 25 Hz and slightly adjust the volume, and you'll see a crazy little dough figure.

Science tidbit: This paste has a very cool name, oobleck. Substances like this are collectively called non-Newtonian fluids. When there is no pressure, it is like a fluid, but if you apply pressure to it, such as squeezing or patting, it will become thicker and harder.

Flowing ice

Materials needed: pure water (distilled water), clean bottle, refrigerator

Magic trick: Cool pure water to freezing point (you need to watch it closely), slowly take it out, and then quickly tap the bottle or pour it out as shown in the picture. The water will freeze right in front of you.

Science Fact: A necessary condition for water to freeze into ice is the presence of condensation nuclei. These nuclei can be tiny ice crystals, suspended impurities in the water, or even the walls of a container. Therefore, when water is violently shaken or disturbed, supercooled water will freeze rapidly!

Fluid exchange

Materials needed: water, wine, two small cups, a card.

Magic trick: Fill two glasses with water and wine respectively (fill them to the brim and they're about to overflow). Cover the water glass with a card, carefully flip it over and place it on the wine glass. Then, slightly move the card aside. You'll see the water and wine slowly switch positions!

Science Fact: Different liquids have different densities. When liquids are exchanged, the water, which has a relatively higher density, falls to the bottom and "squeezes" the wine to the top, thus completing the exchange.

The magic tricks recommended above are all extremely simple and require only common tools. You can easily do them at home on a whim. Give them a try when you feel like it!