Free Butterfly Magic Trick

The Balancing Butterfly

The "balancing butterfly" is a simple science trick that creates the illusion of magic by manipulating an object's center of gravity. By secretly adding weight to a butterfly cutout's wings, you can make it balance on a small point, like your fingertip or a pencil.

The scientific secret

The Balancing Butterfly, which appears magical, is an exercise in physics.

• Center of gravity: The magic of the balancing butterfly is that you alter its center of gravity—the point where its mass is evenly distributed. An object will balance perfectly on a single point directly underneath its center of gravity.
• Creating balance: An ordinary paper butterfly won't balance on its nose. By taping small, heavy weights, like pennies to the outer tips of its wings, you lower the overall center of gravity to a point well below the butterfly's body.
• The magic illusion: From the right angle, the weights are invisible to your audience. The butterfly appears to defy gravity by balancing on an improbable spot, such as the tip of its head, creating a magical effect.

How to make your own balancing butterfly

1. If you have a Parlor Show Door Hanger with a butterfly printed on the back, simply cut out the butterfly carefully.If you don't have a door hanger
   • Print this PDF. It looks best to print in color, but that isn't necessary. If you print in black-and-white you can color your butterfly with crayons.
   • It is good to print on card stock instead of paper, but if you can't, you can print it out on paper and then glue it to some light weight cardboard (cut from a cereal box, for example) before cutting it out.
2. Fold the butterfly in half as shown below, and then open it back up.
3. Now that you have the butterfly, we need to add the magic secret. You want to use tape to fasten two pennies to the BACK of the butterfly wings in the location shown below. You may need to experiment to find the best balance point. Flip the butterfly over and place the top of its head on the tip of your finger. The butterfly should balance perfectly. If it doesn't, you can adjust the position of the pennies until you find the perfect center of gravity.

Perform the trick. Hold the butterfly below your audience's eye level so they can't see the weights. Balance it on your finger, a pencil, or even your nose, and watch their amazement.

The Balancing Butterfly is cool, but if you want to be a magician you need to learn more than just how to do some tricks. You need to figure out what you can say when you perform the trick to make it interesting and amazing.  Here are some ideas of how you could present the Balancing Butterfly as a magician. Use these ideas to help you get started thinking of your own ideas to make it fit who you are as a magician.

• You have learned how to cast a spell so that a paper butterfly becomes real and can perch on your finger.
• You made this butterfly out of Fly Paper and discovered that it really can fly.
• You can use a flower as a magic wand (butterflies like flowers). When you wave the flower the butterfly comes to life and will balance on your finger.

If you like magic, think about coming to the next magic show at the Plymouth Community Arts Council. Adults can learn more here.

A note to adults

We are a non-profit Magic Club founded in Ann Arbor in 1972. Because of member demographics, we moved East and have been in the Plymouth area for over 10 years. We retain the name The Ann Arbor Magic Club out of respect for the many famous magicians that founded the club and gave it such a rich history.

We are a charter organization of both the International Brotherhood of Magicians (Ring 210) and the Society of American Magicians (Assembly 88).

We are proud of our diverse membership; professionals and amateurs, young and old, men and women, clowns, magicians, balloon twisters, jugglers and acrobats.

We promote the joy of magic in a number of ways. Every summer, members partner with the Plymouth Community Arts Council for a Magic Summer Camp. Youth spend a week learning magic and stage craft culminating in putting on a show for parents. We visit regional libraries and provide walk-up magic for patrons to promote our club and shows. Younger members receive mentoring and coaching on the art in a way that would not be possible without the club.

You can help by attending our Parlor Show  and/or adding your name to our email list to receive communications about upcoming shows. If you sign up, we do not share your email and you can expect to receive around 6 emails a year. We won't flood your inbox.

Thank you for your support.