Step 1: WHAT YOU WILL NEED

FOR THIS INSTRUCTABLE YOU WILL NEED:

- Two tall glasses or cups.

- One smaller glass or cup.

- A thin sheet of plastic (a ruler will work too).

- Several magnets.

- At least two coins (you will have to make sure they attract to magnets).

Step 2: PREPARATION AND SETUP

Firstly you will need to place your two tall glasses side-by-side with a gap big enough between them to fit your smaller glass in. Next position your smaller glass between the two bigger ones then place your sheet of plastic (or ruler) over the the top to form a bridge above the small glass. Now you can go ahead and place half your magnets on top of the plastic and half below so that they magnetise together through the plastic and hold each other firmly in place.

Step 3: THE TRICKY PART

Now you have finished preparing and setting up its time for the tricky part. Stack your two (or more) coins vertically as shown in the photo and stick them onto the magnet still keeping them in an upright position. Next position the rim of the small glass so that it lays directly beneath the centre of the magnets (this may take some time to fine tune and adjust to the perfect position). Now you can go ahead and gently pull the coins off the magnet and lower them down onto the rim of the smaller glass. You will need to be very precise when doing this and make sure to always keep the coins directly in-line with the centre of the magnet as a slight movement to either side can cause the coins to tumble. Once you have lowered the coins down enough so that they rest on the rim of the glass you can slowly begin to release your grip on them. If they start leaning to one side then you will need to gently and slightly move the glass in the direction that they lean. Keep doing this until they stand vertically on their own. If you found that your coins would not rest on the rim of the glass but instead would jump up and stuck back onto the magnets then try removing some of your magnets or placing the two taller glasses on a book to increase distance between the coins and the magnets. If you had a completely opposite problem where the coins couldn't be balanced on the rim of the glass at all but instead kept on just falling over then it is probably because there isn't enough magnetic force to hold them so try adding a few extra magnets.

Step 4: ONE STEP FURTHER

You can just stop there but your friends aren't going to think its anything too amazing unless you take it one step further and remove everything completely leaving just the coins balancing in a gravity defying way on the rim of a glass!

This step took me nearly an hour to complete and after trying everything I finally managed to get the coins standing. I only just had enough time (about 30 seconds) to snap a few pictures before it tumbled. I managed to achieve this by using a stack of small fridge magnets, then one by one I would carefully remove them until their magnetic force on the coins dropped to zero and the coins were freestanding by themselves. The first time I managed to get it I freaked out and accidentally bumped the table, tumbling the coins and ruining all my hard work although I then knew it could be done so I continued and 20 minutes later I finally succeeded and managed to keep it standing for about 30 seconds.