1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff Works dot com 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:14,560 Speaker 1: where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question. 3 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:18,080 Speaker 1: Do these power balance wrist bands that you see on 4 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: TV actually work or is this a scam? If you 5 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: watch certain channels on TV, you have been bombarded with 6 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: ads for power balance wrist bands and people have been 7 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: buying them. The band is supposed to immediately improve your strength, flexibility, 8 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: and balance by working with your body's electrical field. There's 9 00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff about the natural resonant frequency of 10 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: your body, and you know the amazing things that happen 11 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 1: when you get your body in tune with nature and 12 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: so on. That's the pitch, and there have been many 13 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:57,200 Speaker 1: celebrity endorsements as well, everything for basketball players to horse 14 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: jockeys have one tournaments or one races using the power 15 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,480 Speaker 1: Balance wristband. If you look at the ads on YouTube, 16 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: you can see the hype. There's all kinds of stuff 17 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,959 Speaker 1: about how great this thing is, as well as some 18 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: really convincing demonstrations. For example, they'll have a person stand 19 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: on one leg with their arm outstretched and press on 20 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: their arm and obviously the person falls over. But then 21 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: they'll have them hold this power balance wristband. Do the 22 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: same thing again, and now when someone presses down on 23 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: their arm, they stand there firmly. There's no loss of balance. 24 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: It looks like a miracle. There's also tests of strength 25 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: that are demonstrated and tests of flexibility. The person is 26 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,760 Speaker 1: asked to rotate their torso as far as they can. 27 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: Then they're given the power balance wristband and they can 28 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: rotate even further. So it appears that this actually works. 29 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: So what's going on. It turns out that this is 30 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: not the first time that this particular picular scam has 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: been perpetrated. This thing has been going on for a 32 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: long time. It's really just a carnival trick, and you 33 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: can find videos on YouTube that will show you what's 34 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 1: going on. Let's take the balance test for example, when 35 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,960 Speaker 1: the person stands on one foot and the salesman comes 36 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: and knocks him off balance simply by pressing on his arm, 37 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: that's obvious. The person really is just pressing on his arm, 38 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,079 Speaker 1: or maybe pressing on the arm with a little outward 39 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: pressure to draw him off balance more quickly. That's what 40 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: you would expect to happen when they have the subject 41 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: hold that wrist band. However, they press down on the 42 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: arm and they apply a little bit of extra force 43 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 1: towards the center of the person's body. Instead, that moves 44 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:51,120 Speaker 1: that forced towards the person's center of gravity, and obviously 45 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: they're not going to fall over anymore. So if you're 46 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: watching the demonstration, you can't see this subtle shift in 47 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:01,280 Speaker 1: the angle that the pressure being applied, and the person 48 00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: who's holding the wristband isn't going to feel it either, 49 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: because there's no easy way to measure it. But that 50 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: subtle shift in the direction of force on the person's 51 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: arm is enough to determine whether they fall over or 52 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: whether they stand firmly with that wrist band in their hand. 53 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: The same kind of thing is happening with the strength test, 54 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,519 Speaker 1: and it's even happening with the flexibility test. And that's 55 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: just a funny thing about your body. If you tell 56 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: your body to rotate the torso as far as it 57 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: can in a certain direction, it's only gonna go so far, obviously. 58 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 1: But the thing about your body is if you just 59 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: hold that position for a couple of seconds and then 60 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: try it again, you'll be able to stretch further. Your 61 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: muscles have gotten you know, stretched out a little bit, 62 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,800 Speaker 1: there's a little more freedom, and you can always add 63 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 1: a couple more degrees to it. If they hand you 64 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: the wristband in that interval of time when the muscles 65 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: are relaxing and so on, they're going to be able 66 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: to show you that you have more flexibility. But you 67 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 1: would have had that flexibility with or without the wrist band. 68 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: It's just a carnival trick. Now. The great thing is 69 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: that regulators finally caught up with the company and the 70 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: company has been forced to admit that this really is 71 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: a scam. If you go to their website, you can 72 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,599 Speaker 1: find this notice. In our advertising, we stated that power 73 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:29,480 Speaker 1: Balance wrist bands improved your strength, balance and flexibility. We 74 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:34,040 Speaker 1: admit that there's no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims, 75 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:38,359 Speaker 1: and therefore we engaged in misleading conduct in breach of 76 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:42,400 Speaker 1: section fifty two of the Trade Practices Act of n four. 77 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: If you feel that you've been misled by our promotions, 78 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:51,120 Speaker 1: we wish to unreservedly apologize and offer a full refund. 79 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: So Power Balance wrist bands don't work. That has been 80 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,840 Speaker 1: proven with videos and lots of demonstrate and now it's 81 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:03,600 Speaker 1: also been admitted by the company, so you don't need 82 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: to spend your money on this. For more on this 83 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:14,839 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com.