Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects
Purchasing Options
Features
- Includes over 52 self-working magic creations, requiring no sleight of hand skills or understanding of advanced mathematical details
- Presents 40 new mathemagical principles
- Illustrates card handling techniques with step-by-step color photographs
- Rates each effect for ease of performance, whether any setup is needed, how much mathematics is involved, and how well it appeals to a general audience
- Explains card handling conventions and basic mathematical principles in a helpful introductory section
- Covers Gilbreath shuffles and generalizations as well as palindromic card magic
- Addresses the growing area of two-person mathemagic, which uses subtle information theory principles to communicate
- Contains clever applications of algebra, combinatorics, discrete math, and probability
Summary
Mathematical card effects offer both beginning and experienced magicians an opportunity to entertain with a minimum of props. Featuring mostly original creations, Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects presents an entertaining look at new mathematically based card tricks.
Each chapter contains four card effects, generally starting with simple applications of a particular mathematical principle and ending with more complex ones. Practice a handful of the introductory effects and, in no time, you’ll establish your reputation as a "mathemagician." Delve a little deeper into each chapter and the mathematics gets more interesting. The author explains the mathematics as needed in an easy-to-follow way. He also provides additional details, background, and suggestions for further explorations.
Suitable for recreational math buffs and amateur card lovers or as a text in a first-year seminar, this color book offers a diverse collection of new mathemagic principles and effects.
Table of Contents
Low-Down Triple Dealing
Three Scoop Miracle—Done Magic Before?
Any Card (and Any Magician)
Triple Revelation
Ace Combination
For Richer or Poorer
Alphabetical Triple Addition
Subtler Bracelet
From Alpha to Omega
Volunteer Four Hours
Poker Powers
Ditch the Dud
Worst Case Scenario
Full House Blues
Poker with Any Ten Cards
More Additional Certainties
Little Fibs
Consolidating Your Cards
Matching Interest Rates
Any Two Cards (No Fibbing)
Off-Centered COATs
Celebrity Selection
Never Forget a Face
Oddly Enough
My Lucky Number Is Seven
Gilbreath Variations
Easy as Pi
Lucky Number between One and Thirteen
Unadditional Love
Tapped Out
Word Row
The Biggest Names in Magic
Twisting the Knight Away
Easy as Tau (I Prefer Pi)
Intrinsically Disordered
Bligreath and Beyond
Matchmaker Instincts
The Guessing Game
Flushed with Embarrassment
Avoid Monotony
Flipping Miracles
The Mists of Prime
Coprime Twins
Riverdance—The Trick
Royal Flush at the Seven Eleven
Green, Red, Black, Silver, and Gold
Double Location
Top Twenty Hit
What’s Black and Red and Red All Over?
Gold and Silver
Slippery Slopes
Ten Soldiers
Slippery Enough
Erdős Numbers
No Drama Queen
Hamming It Down
A Horse of a Different Color
Multiple Personality
Poker-Faced
And Now for Something Completely Different
The Hidden Value of Cards
Fitch Cheney’s Five Card Twist
Eigen’s Value
Ups and Downs
Fitch Four Glory
Coda
Bibliography
Index
Author Bio(s)
Colm Mulcahy is a professor of mathematics at Spelman College. Over the last decade, he has been at the forefront of publishing new "mathemagical" principles and effects for cards, particularly in his long-running bi-monthly Card Colm for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). He also blogs at the Aperiodical and the Huffington Post. Dr. Mulcahy has been a recipient of the MAA’s Allendoerfer Award for excellence in expository writing. His interests are broad, ranging from algebra and number theory to geometry. He earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in mathematical science from University College Dublin and a PhD from Cornell University for research in the algebraic theory of quadratic forms.
Editorial Reviews
"Colm Mulcahy has produced a stimulating collection of novel card magic tricks that not only form a wonderful introduction to important ideas in combinatorics but also contain some very nifty magic effects as well. By reading this book, the reader will be well rewarded in both disciplines."
—Ronald Graham, co-author of Magical Mathematics
"Mathematical Card Magic is filled with many original ideas that will keep mathematicians and magicians busy for a very long time."
—Arthur Benjamin, Harvey Mudd College, and author of Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks
"This is an amazing volume! Prof. Mulcahy has left one mystery for his readers to solve: Is it a really good math book, using card tricks to explain the math, or is it a really good magic book, using math to explain the magic? Either way, there’s not a wrong answer to this question."
—S. Brent Morris, PhD, author of Magic Tricks, Card Shuffling, and Dynamic Computer Memories
"This is an amazing book! Like a magician’s well-stacked deck of playing cards, the 13 chapters are packed with 52 punchy effects guaranteed to amaze and amuse. Each chapter deals generously with mathematicians and professional magicians alike. Bursting with new effects, the chapters detail the method and Colm’s favoured presentation—each is ‘pick up and use’ perfect—but also provide a springboard for readers’ imagination to create their own presentations. Those with a more mathematical interest won’t be disappointed either; reading further into each chapter is a fascinating exploration of the mathematical questions underlying the effects. This is a magic book that will get you thinking and entertaining in equal amounts, in essence a perfect shuffle."
—Professor Peter W. McOwan, Vice Principal Public Engagement and External Partnerships, Queen Mary, University of London
