Nice. I figured it was a forced perspective trick at first.

Anyone any idea what the chemical in the cups is?

Nothing, the cups already have uncoloured water in, you cant see it because of the pattern on the glass, he pours in the coloured water and it looks like its growing.

looks like salt or something that absorbs water and each time it transfers cups the absorbent remains thus releasing more water

The "uncolored water" theory that everyone proposes for this trick is somewhat accurate. However, would it stay completely clear up to the top of the water once he started pouring? The Masked Magician will tell you why... MWAHAHAHAAA!!!


Inside each glass is a proportionally sized HOLLOW cylinder glued to the bottom. These cylinders are meant to "fill" the space of the glasses to make them look full from the same amount of liquid. Every glass has one EXCEPT the last glass!

The last glass has a similar cylinder in it, except it isn't hollow or glued down. It is filled with the clear substance and left to sit, staying unmixed through gravity until the cylinder is agitated/tipped.

Using the same amount of liquid the "magician" pours from one cup to the next and the hollow cylinders do all the work. Once he gets to the last glass he pours in the fluid and after he's done pouring, tips the inside cylinder a bit. (*** if you look VERY closely after he starts pouring into the first glass, you can actually see fluid built up in the inner cylinder***)

He then goes down the line, pouring the fluid into the hollow cylinder cups until he's done. Ta-DA!!!

That was hellishly difficult to understand, but you're spot on.

There's a cylinder within each of the cups which is filled with clear liquid. When he pours from smaller to large, the extra liquid in the cylinder in the centre of the container isn't noticed because it looks like it's filling up from the bottom to the top, but when the level reaches the top of the cylinder, the contents mix and the volume of the cylinder is added to the volume poured into the cup.

Yep - You can see the cylinder of the largest cup when he's pouring back down the line.

Hmm...

I thought the cylinders in the 3 smaller cups were just hollow, helping to take up sapce once he started pouring from the largest cup. Since there's no way the largest cup holds enough liquid on its own to fill all 3 smaller cups...

Nope - the cylinders are full of liquid, which adds to the total volume. The purpose of the cylinder is to add volume but also so that when they pour, the liquid will pour all the way to the bottom of the container and fool people to thinking the recipient container is empty (when it's not).

I think the purpose of the colour and consistency of the liquid is to A) distract people, and B) to hide the cylinders.

way to ruin the magic.

Well, damn... least I was close on my first guess, lol.

You can also see that when he's filling up the last glass, twords the end you can see the liquid spill onto the top of the cylinder.

0.o that's so cool!