We are a group of second-year students at the LS Marinelli and we are following an experimental course in which physics is taught from the first year. We also study two foreign languages, English and either French or German.

We had the idea of making up a series of "experiments for fun" when our teacher told us about a competition called "Play and Create an Experiment to Test your Ideas". The competition was part of the "Play and Think" project organised by the CIRD of the University of Udine and co-ordinated by Professor Marisa Michelini.

Two hours of physics lessons each week are held in the laboratory, where the class works in five groups. Each group has a workbench with a computer interfaced with online sensors, and materials for conducting experiments.

For the competition, each work group made proposals which were discussed in class. We selected the proposal to make a series of experiments based on magic tricks, although our teacher warned us that the idea was incompatible with the competition topic and we were unlikely to win.

We set to work, researching books and the Internet for suitably "magical" experiments. these were selected on the basis of our agreed criteria. The experiments had to be:

• spectacular
• easy to carry out
• easy to understand and explain with the knowledge we have already acquired at school
• safe
• able to be performed with cheap, easy to procure materials
• able to be performed by all the members of the class

After this rigorous selection process, we had two experiments for each member of class. We procured the necessary materials for these, carried out tests and wrote the relevant profiles. The testing stage entailed a further selection, which left us with thirty magic experiments. Each is accompanied by a three-part explanatory profile:

• the materials required
• instructions for preparing and performing the experiment
• a scientific explanation

Finally, we sent the thirty experiments to the competition – with one or two mishaps on the way. At this stage, almost all our work was completed during timetabled hours, with just three afternoon sessions for a total of nine hours.

In May, we were invited to present our project at the La Primavera della Scienza spring science fair, when the winners of the competition were to be announced.

We decided that it would be more entertaining to present our work as a "Physics and Magic" show. We made costumes and began to rehearse at lunchtime and in the early afternoon (so as to miss lunch but not study time!). We had a very demanding director (our teacher) because we had to keep to the time allowed for the performance (twenty minutes), who was worried we might say "something silly" (at least, that was what the teacher meant), an assistant director, presenter and a sound technician (me) we fell ill three days before the performance and wasn’t even able to see it.

In the end, we didn’t actually win anything at the competition but everyone enjoyed the show, including the experts who were there!

Our biggest satisfaction was being invited to give a second performance for you in English. We chose seven magic experiments out of the thirty, each to be performed by two students, playing the parts of magician and assistant. We had to translate the descriptions into English and submit them to our unforgiving English teacher, who enthusiastically pointed out our tiniest mistakes.

We hope you will enjoy the show as much as we have enjoyed preparing it.