The Magic 8 Ball seems mystical, but its operation is based on simple, clever physics. There's no magic, just some ingenious design.
The inside of the ball is filled with a dark blue, alcohol-based liquid. This dark fluid serves a single, crucial purpose: to hide all the other answers from view, so that only one floats to the top and becomes visible in the window.
Floating inside that liquid is a white, 20-sided plastic die, also known as an icosahedron. Each of the 20 faces has a different answer printed on it in raised letters. Because the die is hollow and contains some trapped air, it has a very low density, allowing it to float to the top of the liquid when the ball is turned upright.
When you shake the ball and turn it over, the die floats to the top, and one of its 20 faces presses flat against the clear window. The dark liquid drains away from the raised letters, making the white text of the answer clearly visible against the dark background.
While the real toy uses liquid and dice, our Golden Magic 8 Ball uses the magic of code to bring you the same experience!