Math Magic

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Math and Magic

Course Guidebook
Arthur T. Benjamin
Harvey Mudd College
Published by
THE GREAT COURSES
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Arthur T. Benjamin, PhD
Smallwood Family Professor
of Mathematics
Harvey Mudd College
A rthur T. Benjamin is the Smallwood Family Professor of

Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, where he has also served
as the chair of the Department of Mathematics. He earned his BS in
Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and his PhD in
Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University.
From the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), Professor
Benjamin has received the Southern California-Nevada Section Award
for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics and
the national Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award. He was also
named the George Pólya Lecturer by the MAA from 2006 to 2008.
Professor Benjamin was chosen by The Princeton Review as one of its
Best 300 Professors. He was also selected as an inaugural Fellow of the
American Mathematical Society. Reader’s Digest named him “America’s
Best Math Whiz.”
Professor Benjamin’s research interests include combinatorics and number
theory, with a special fondness for Fibonacci numbers. Many of these
ideas appear in his book (coauthored with Jennifer Quinn) Proofs That
Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof, which received the MAA’s
Beckenbach Book Prize. From 2004 to 2008, Professors Benjamin and
Quinn served as the coeditors of Math Horizons magazine. Professor
Benjamin’s mental calculation techniques are explained in his book Secrets
Professor Biography i
of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and
Amazing Math Tricks. Prolific math and science writer Martin Gardner
called the book “the clearest, simplest, most entertaining, and best book
yet on the art of calculating in your head.” Professor Benjamin’s most
recent book, The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why, was a
New York Times Best Seller.
In addition to his academic career, Professor Benjamin is also a
professional magician who performs his mixture of math and magic to
audiences all over the world, including at the Magic Castle in Hollywood,
California. He has appeared on dozens of television and radio programs,
including the TODAY show and The Colbert Report as well as CNN and
National Public Radio. He has been featured in Scientific American, Omni,
Discover, People, Esquire, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and
Reader’s Digest. Professor Benjamin has given numerous wide-reaching
TED Talks that have been viewed more than 20 million times.
Professor Benjamin’s other Great Courses are The Joy of Mathematics,
Discrete Mathematics, The Secrets of Mental Math, and The Mathematics of
Games and Puzzles: From Cards to Sudoku. ¨
ii Math and Magic

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
P utting this course together was a true labor of love, and there are so
many people I wish to thank that made this course possible.
Professor Victoria Noquez was my primary research assistant on this
project, and her mathematical knowledge and magical expertise proved
invaluable. Thanks also to my department chair, Lisette de Pillis, and
John Sundeman for providing funds to support Dr. Noquez and for books,
props, materials, and travel that were essential to this project.
Naturally, there are many mathematicians and magicians to thank, many
of whose ideas and suggestions made their way into this course.
I am especially grateful to the following mathematicians: Barry Balof,
Steve Butler, Jay Cordes, Joyati Debnath, Doug Ensley, Allison Henrich,
John Harris, Jon Jacobsen, Jason Lee, Mario Micheli, Brent Morris, Colm
Mulcahy, Sam Nelson, Mohamed Omar, Michael Orrison, Matt Parker,
Lizard Reiland, Sarah Rundell, Ricardo Teixeira, Tadashi Tokieda,
Robert Vallin, and Glen Whitney.
For their magical assistance and advice, I am delighted to thank Paul
Gertner, Howard Hamburg, Jonathan Levitt, Max Maven, Brent Morris,
Diamond Jim Tyler, Phil Van Tee, and Magic Castle librarians Lisa
Cousins and Bill Goodwin. The following magicians, past and present,
were also a great source of inspiration: John Bannon, Alex Elmsley,
Norman Gilbreath, Bob Hummer, Nick Trost, and especially Martin
Gardner, who was the greatest mathemagician of all time and the most
prolific author in the field.
Special thanks to John Harris for creating the beautiful number logs, Bill
Ritchie of ThinkFun for the use of the Cheshire Cat geometrical vanish,
and especially Mario Micheli for his magic square templates, 3-D–printed
interlocking bagels, and other marvelously manufactured Möbius miracles.
For displaying their special talents on camera, I am grateful for the poker
prowess of Lizard Reiland, the perfect shuffling of Brent Morris, and
the beguiling bagel carving of Michelle Pellatt (with a shout-out to Glen
Whitney for providing us with expert instruction). Special thanks to whiz
Acknowledgments iii
kids Lucy Ingram, Nikita Lugovoy, and Stephan Lugovoy for showing
off their calculating cleverness and to the many staff members from
The Great Courses who helped out as unsuspecting volunteers for my
magic tricks: Randy Kraemer, Tammy Cornelious, Kevin Barnhill, Art
Jaruphaiboon, Michelle Pellatt, Torrance Hill, Amy Derr, Mark Ginesi,
Leslie Meade, Andrew Volpe, Ines Perez Thompson, Kenya Hughes,
Courtney Westphal, Josh Rodriguez, James Nidel, Peter Dwyer, and Erin
O’Riley. Thanks also to the studio crew for this course: Roberto de Moraes
(director), Justin Thomas (camera), Kelly Tagliaferri (camera), and Sherri
Macdonald-Hagelen (production assistant). It is always a pleasure to work
with the staff of The Great Courses, both on camera and off. I especially
want to thank Maureen Faley and Michelle Pellatt for their tireless
devotion to this project.
Last but not least (indeed, most!), I thank my wife, Deena, and daughters
Laurel and Ariel, who supported me and assisted me throughout this
project. Thank you for bringing so much magic to my life! ¨
iv Math and Magic

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
GUIDES
1 Mathematical Card Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 What’s Your Deal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 Look like a Card Shark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4 The Deck Is Stacked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5 Perfect Shuffles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6 Riffle Shuffles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7 Magic with Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8 Look like a Genius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
9 The Magic of Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
10 Look like a Psychic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
11 Geometric and Topological Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
12 Magic Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Exercise Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Table of Contents v
vi Math and Magic
MATH AND MAGIC
O n the surface, mathematics and magic seem to be very different,
yet they have an awful lot in common. In both subjects, you have a
problem to solve: What is the value of x? How did the magician find my
card? Both seem mysterious at first, but with a little bit of practice (okay,
sometimes a lot of practice), you can become quite good at both. And once
mastered, both subjects are a great deal of fun. Most people enjoy magic
tricks, especially if they are performed well, and one of the goals of this
course is that by the end of it you’ll enjoy math more, too—or at least see
how it can be applied in magical ways.
By the time you finish this course, you’ll learn to dazzle your friends and
family with some impressive feats designed to make you look like a card
shark, a psychic, a genius, or just a very talented magician.
None of the magic will involve any difficult sleight of hand. If there is any
physical dexterity required, it’ll be so easy to learn that you should be able
learn it in just a few minutes.
All the magic tricks in this course use ordinary, everyday objects, such as
cards, coins, and paper. Some of the tricks use numbers visibly, but with
some of them, the math is pretty well hidden.
The first 6 lessons focus on mathematical card tricks. In lesson 1,
the presence of mathematics is noticeably present, as cards are being
counted, added, or spelled out. In lesson 2, the mathematics is much
more concealed, as cards are being mixed and dealt, culminating in the
appearance of 4 aces and a royal flush. You’ll also learn how to create the
illusion of being able to memorize a well-mixed deck of cards. In lesson 3,
you’ll learn how to handle cards like a professional gambler—whether
that involves cutting to the 4 aces, always winning at high-card poker, or
determining the facedown card in a game of stud poker.
Imagine being given any number of cards from a deck and being able to
determine the exact number of cards by seemingly weighing the cards
in your hand. One way of doing this is shown in lesson 4, where you’ll
learn how to perform miracles with a stacked deck. In lesson 5, you’ll
Course Scope 1
learn the mathematical properties of various kinds of shuffles, including
the perfect shuffle, in which the cards are interleaved so precisely that,
despite outward appearances, the location of the cards is still known to
the magician. In lesson 6—the final card lesson—you’ll discover that even
when the cards are mixed imperfectly after being cut and given a riffle
shuffle, there are still many astonishing miracles that can be performed
using the Gilbreath principle, a surprisingly beautiful application
of mathematics.
In the second half of the course, you’ll turn your attention away from cards
and explore magical topics designed to make you look like a psychic or a
genius—or a mathemagician. In lesson 7, you’ll discover magic tricks based
solely on numbers, including the Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio.
You’ll also briefly explore the underlying algebra that makes the magic
happen. Imagine being able to add, divide, and multiply numbers faster
than a calculator; in lesson 8, you’ll learn the tricks of the trade that are
so easy even children can do them with just a small amount of practice. In
lesson 9, special attention will be given to the number 9, which has a magic
all its own, including a way to determine someone’s age by performing a
few simple calculations.
In lesson 10, you’ll use everyday objects—such as coins, dice, and
calculators—to give you the appearance of possessing psychic powers.
You’ll have fun with geometrical and topological magic in lesson 11,
where you’ll learn how to make a (paper) rabbit disappear by the power of
mathematics and explore the marvelously magical properties of Möbius
strips. You’ll even learn how to carve a bagel into 2 identical halves that
are completely linked together. Finally, in lesson 12, you’ll explore a topic
that has been the object of fascination of mathematicians and magicians
alike: magic squares. You’ll even learn the instructor’s own method for
creating a magic square based on anyone’s birthday.
Now go get yourself a deck of cards, prepare to be amazed, and soon you’ll
be amazing others! ¨
2 Math and Magic

LESSON 1
MATHEMATICAL
1
CARD TRICKS
This book includes explanations for the tricks performed in the video by
mathemagician Arthur T. Benjamin.
T his first lesson will focus on card tricks in

which there is clearly some mathematics being
used but the secret is not so easy to figure out. To
get started, all you need is a complete deck of 52
cards (no jokers).
EXPLANATIONS
SPELLER
tt In this trick, you mix up 9 cards and then look at the third card from
the top.
tt When you spell your card’s value, it will have at least 3 letters.
A-C-E F-O-U-R S-E-V-E-N T-E-N K-I-N-G

T-W-O F-I-V-E E-I-G-H-T J-A-C-K
T-H-R-E-E S-I-X N-I-N-E Q-U-E-E-N
Lesson 1 ♠ Mathematical Card Tricks 3

tt When this trick was performed for you, the third card was the 10 of
clubs. But no matter what it is, after you spell it, it will be third from
the bottom. After spelling the word “of,” the card is now fifth from the
bottom (which is also fifth from the top). And after spelling any suit—
spades, hearts, diamonds, or clubs—because they all have at least 5
letters, your card will still be fifth from the top.
tt Finally, because the word “magic” has 5 letters, you are guaranteed to
end on the chosen card.
MATHEMATICAL DECK
tt The final trick that was performed in the video lesson has a more
complicated secret. The advantage of doing this one after the spelling
trick is that you already have 9 cards in use. If you don’t do the spelling
trick, then just have the cards shuffled and deal out 9 cards. Then, have
a volunteer pick one of them and put it on top of the pile.
tt After placing the deck on top, where is the person’s card now? It is ninth
from the bottom, which means there are 43 cards above it. Thus, the
card is in position 44.
Magicians are not supposed to reveal their secrets. But by taking this
course, you are considered a serious student of magic, so sharing this
information is allowed. Also, nearly all of the tricks in this course are
based on mathematics, and math should be open to everyone.
However, if you perform these tricks for your family or friends, you’ll find
that they will be much more amazed if you keep the secrets to yourself.
4 Math and Magic

©mizar_21984/iStock/Thinkstock.
tt Now for the sneaky part: You lose the card by giving the deck a few
cuts. But unless they pay very close attention, most people won’t notice
that the cards are still in the exact same order. If you didn’t notice the
first time, watch this portion of the video again. This is called a false
cut, and it’s extremely deceptive.
tt So, the person’s card is still in position 44. Believe it or not, no matter
what cards appear, you will always arrive at the 44th card. Why is that?
tt Each of the 4 piles will contribute 11 to the final total.
♣♣ Example: Suppose that you start counting backwards from 10 and get
a match at 7. So far, you have dealt 4 cards, but when you use the 7
later as part of the total, you will deal 7 more cards, for a total of 11.
♣♣ If your next card is a face card, then you have dealt 1 card and will
later deal 10 more cards, for a contribution of 11.

♣♣ If you go 10 cards without a match, then you kill the pile with 1 more
card—so that pile has 11 cards, and it will not contribute any more to
the total.
♣♣ And when you do your fourth pile, you get 6, so you have dealt 5
cards and your total will tell you to contribute 6 more.
tt Because each of the 4 piles contributes 11 cards being dealt, you are
guaranteed to reach the 44th card.
4-CARD TRICK
tt Finally, the secret of the first trick from the lesson, which uses 4 cards of
different suits, is based on a subtle idea that was originally attributed to
magician Bob Hummer. When you start the trick, the cards are in the
alternating color order, and then the spade card is turned upside down.
tt So, the spade is the odd card at the moment. Notice that the club card is
2 away from the spade suit, so the club is 2 away from the odd card, no
matter how the cards were originally ordered.
tt Now here’s the neat observation: No matter where the club card is, it
will never be the odd card, and it will always be 2 away from the odd
card, no matter what you do.
tt Notice that as you transfer cards from the top to the bottom, the club
will stay 2 away from the odd card. Even if you turn the deck upside
down, the club is still 2 away from the odd card. This is also true when
you turn the top 2 cards over as 1. What about when you turn the top 2
cards over as 1?
tt Let’s assume that the club is facedown and the odd card is faceup, but
the logic still works if the situation is reversed. In all 4 possible places
where the club can be, if the club is 2 away from the odd card, it will
still be 2 away from the odd card after you turn the top 2 cards over
as 1.
6 Math and Magic

tt This is called the invariant principle , which means that even though the
order of the cards is changing, there is some quality that stays the same.
In this case, the invariant is that the club will always be 2 away from
the odd card.
tt Finally, you will go through your final flipping procedure at the end of
the trick, flipping 1 card, then 2, then 3, and then 4. Let’s look at all 4
situations where the club could be and see what happens after you do
your final flipping procedure. You will start with the club faceup, but
the same logic applies when you start with the club facedown.
♣♣ Suppose the club is faceup in the first position, so the odd card is
facedown in the third position. When you go through your final
flipping procedure, the club is the only faceup card, so it’s the
odd card.
BEFORE FINAL FLIP AFTER FINAL FLIP
♣♣ If the club is faceup in position 2, then the odd card will be facedown
in position 4, and after the final flipping, the club will be the only
facedown card.

♣♣ If the club is in position 3, then after flipping 1, 2, 3, and 4, it’s the
only faceup card.
♣♣ Finally, if the club is in position 4, then after flipping 1, 2, 3, and 4,

it’s the only facedown card.
tt Thus, no matter where the club begins, it will be the odd card in
the end.
REFERENCES
Diaconis and Graham, Magical Mathematics.
Gardner, Mathematics, Magic and Mystery.
Mulcahy, Mathematical Card Magic.
8 Math and Magic

E XERCISES
1 One of the first mathematical card tricks that people learn is known
as the 21-card trick or the princess card trick. It is an easy trick to
do, and the magician never has to look at the cards at any point in
the trick. The magician begins by showing 21 cards, displayed in 3
columns of cards, each with 7 cards. The volunteer is asked to think of
a card and to indicate which column it is in. The cards are gathered,
one column at a time, with the selected pile sandwiched between the
other 2 columns. The 21 cards are redealt into 3 columns, one card at
a time, with the first card going to column 1, the second card going to
column 2, and so on, and the spectator is again asked which column
the card is in. Again, the columns are gathered with the selected
column between the other 2. This process is repeated one more time—
after which the magician deals all the cards into a single pile, and after
a bunch of cards are dealt, he or she claims that the next card that is
turned over will be the selected card. Although the volunteer is often
skeptical, the magician turns over the selected card. What’s the secret?
2 Explain the “tearable” card trick at the end of the video lesson.
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 126.
CLICK the buttons to navigate.

To go back to the page you came from,
PRESS Alt + ← on a PC or ⌘ + ← on a Mac.
On a tablet, use the bookmarks panel.
Before moving on to the next lesson, practice what you’ve learned in

this one. Show off the tricks to your friends and family and then come
back for more.

LESSON 2
WHAT’S YOUR
2
DEAL?
I n this lesson, you will explore some magic tricks

where the cards are shuffled, dealt, and turned
around in interesting ways, leading to some very
surprising outcomes.
EXPLANATIONS
4-ACE SURPRISE
tt For this trick, imagine that the cards are dealt onto a 4-by-4
checkerboard with red and white squares.
tt To do this trick, you begin with the 4 aces on top of your deck and you
deal them facedown on the white diagonal. You say, “The cards can go
anywhere, and they can come from any part of the deck—the top, the
bottom, the middle. It doesn’t matter.” But of course it does matter, and
you’ve just dealt the 4 aces on the white diagonal. Then, you turn the 4
cards on the other white squares faceup.
tt Next, you do your folding process until you have one big pile on top of a
single square. Let’s say that you end up at square B2.
tt Now consider the ace in square C2. How many flips will it take to get
to the dark square? It could happen in 1 flip. Or it might take 3 flips.
It could even take 5 flips. Whatever the number of flips, it has to be an
odd number. Why?
10 Math and Magic

tt Because on each flip, the color of the square changes from light to
dark or from dark to light. And because your ace starts on a light
square, then if you end up on a dark square, then it had to make an odd
number of flips. And because your ace starts facedown, then after an
odd number of flips, it will have to be faceup. The same is true for all
of the other aces: They start facedown on light squares, so after an odd
number of flips, they will all be faceup.
tt What about the other cards that started on light squares? They also
make an odd number of flips, but because they started faceup, when
they get to the dark square, they will all be facedown.
Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 11

tt As for the cards that started on dark squares, they will all make an even
number of flips, and because they all started facedown, then by the
time they get to the destination square, they will all be facedown, no
matter how you fold your cards.
tt So, in the end, all the aces will be faceup and all of the non-aces will be
facedown. On the other hand, if all of your cards end up on a pile on
top of a light square, then all of your aces will be facedown and your
non-aces will all be faceup. Either way, you have a surprise ending.
HEART’S CONTENT
tt Let your volunteer shuffle the cards to his or her heart’s content. Then,
as you go through the cards, 2 at a time, you will either put the cards
face to face, back to back, or facing the same direction, depending on
the number of hearts you have.
tt All you have to remember is that you are a “heart lover.” As you go
through the cards, 2 at a time, notice how many hearts there are.
Arrange the cards so that the only suit you can see is hearts.
♣♣ If you have no hearts, turn the cards face to face. This way, because
there are no hearts, there’s nothing to see, no matter how the cards
are flipped.
♣♣ If both cards are hearts, turn the cards back to back. This way, you
get to see a heart no matter how the cards are flipped.
♣♣ If just 1 card is a heart, then arrange the cards so that the heart
is faceup. For example, if you see 2 cards with a heart on top of a
non-heart, then just leave them in that order and ask your volunteer:
“Keep or Flip?” But if the cards show up with the non-heart on top,
then do a very slight amount of sleight of hand: Turn to another
person and ask, “How about these 2 cards? Keep or flip?” It’s a very
subtle move, and nobody notices it.
tt If you can remember these rules, you can perform the trick. It works by
itself. To understand why this works, look at the first 2 cards.
12 Math and Magic

tt All 3 rules produce the same situation: Where will the hearts be? Either
they are faceup on top or facedown on the bottom. This will be true
even if the cards are flipped.
tt The same is true with the next pair of cards—3 and 4.
tt After you’re done going through the cards, where will the hearts be?
tt If you number the card positions from 1 to 20, then the hearts will be
faceup in an odd position or facedown in an even position. (And the
non-hearts are the opposite.)
tt Now deal the deck into 4 rows, with 5 cards in each row. It’s helpful
to imagine dealing the cards on a checkerboard with light and
dark squares.
tt The first 5 cards are dealt left to right, starting with a light square. The
next 5 cards will start with a dark square whether you start from the left
or from the right.
tt So, after you deal the cards, the cards in the odd positions will be on
light squares and the cards in even positions will be on dark squares.
So, where are the hearts? They are either faceup on a light square or
facedown on a dark square. And the non-hearts are just the opposite.
tt So, if the cards all end up at B2, then what will happen to the hearts?
Now it becomes like the 4-Ace Surprise. A faceup heart is on a light
square, so it will take an odd number of flips and be facedown. A
facedown heart starts on a dark square, so it will take an even number
of flips and still be facedown.

tt For the non-hearts, it’s just the opposite: If it’s faceup, then it must
start on a dark square and make an even number of flips, so it will end
faceup. If it’s facedown, then it must start on a light square and make an
odd number of flips and end faceup. Thus, when you’ve consolidated to
a single pile, all your hearts will be facedown and the rest will be faceup.
tt By the same reasoning, if all the cards ended up on a light square, then
you would have all of your hearts faceup and the rest facedown. Either
way, the trick ends in dramatic fashion.
This idea has been explored and exploited by many magicians, including
Martin Gardner, Lennart Green, Steve Freeman, and John Bannon, but
the credit is often given to Bob Hummer, and tricks of this nature are
said to use the Hummer principle.
14 Math and Magic

CARD MEMORY
tt Believe it or not, despite all of the shuffling, cutting, flipping, and
transferring of cards in this trick, the magician knew exactly where
all the cards would end up. This is sort of like the 4-Ace Surprise on
steroids! As you’ll see, the cards that Tammy and Randy end up with
are exactly the same cards that they started with.
tt The magician placed the jokers in the very middle of the deck. When
he removed the jokers, he gave the cards below the jokers to Randy and
the top cards to Tammy.
tt The top cards are the ones that the magician “memorized.” He chose
these cards to make them easy to remember. And once you know the
pattern, you’ll never forget them!
tt Let’s start with the spades, which might be the trickiest. The magician
wanted the pointing back and forth to look pretty random, especially at
the beginning when he takes things slowly.
MEMORIZED SPADES
tt What makes this easy to remember is that it’s physical. Just remember
1-2-3-2-1. The first person drops 1 card (the ace), the next person drops
2 cards (the 2 and 3 of spades). The next person drops 3 cards (the 4,
5, and 6 of spades), and then you go back to 2 cards (the 7 and 8), then
1 card (the 9), and then you alternate back and forth for the 10, jack,
queen, and king. It looks very random and dramatic.

tt For the hearts, the magician loves numbers that are perfect squares and
perfect cubes, so he chose to memorize the ace (1), 4, 8, 9, and also the
supposedly “loveliest” of cards, the queen of hearts.
MEMORIZED HEARTS
tt Next, the diamonds are the “prime ones” (which almost rhymes!), so
these are the numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13. Just remember that the
number 1 is technically not a prime number. (You could put it on the
list, but then the same person would have all 4 aces, and it’s preferable
to avoid that.)
MEMORIZED DIAMONDS
tt For the clubs, do you recognize the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13? These
are the Fibonacci numbers. (1 + 2 = 3; 2 + 3 = 5; 3 + 5 = 8; 5 + 8 = 13).
Think of the Fibonacci Association, which studies the amazing properties
of these numbers, as a “club” so that the clubs become easy to recall.
MEMORIZED CLUBS
16 Math and Magic

tt Feel free to modify the list of memorized cards however you like;
whatever will make it easiest for you to remember is what you should use.
tt Now that you’ve memorized all the suits, how do you know they will all
end back together? Initially, all the memorized cards are facedown on
your right (and the other cards are facedown on your left). Remember
that every time you move a pile from one side to the other, you turn it
over. That’s important.
tt The ace of spades starts facedown on your right, and if it stays there,
then it will stay facedown. But if you move it, then it becomes faceup on
your left, where it will stay unless it gets moved back, in which case it
will be facedown on your right.
tt In other words, no matter how much transferring of cards you do, the
ace of spades will either be facedown on your right or faceup on your
left. So, when the process finishes, the ace of spades—and all the cards
that you have memorized—will be facedown on your right or facedown
on your left.
tt Next comes the sneaky part, when you perform a secret move: Before
you give the final riffle shuffle, you turn the right pile over. And look
what happens. Your situation goes from this …
LEFT PILE RIGHT PILE

memorized memorized
(up) (down)
unmemorized unmemorized
(down) (up)
… to this!
RIGHT PILE
LEFT PILE RIGHT PILE
memorized memorized
(down)
(up) (up)
memorized
unmemorized unmemorized
(up)
(down) (down)
unmemorized

tt Now all of your memorized cards are faceup on the right or faceup on
the left. In other words, the memorized cards are faceup everywhere.
And by the same logic, the unmemorized cards are facedown
everywhere. So, when you separate the faceup and facedown cards,
everyone gets the cards they started with. The rest is just acting!
REFERENCES
E XERCISES
1 Consider the following “magic
joke.” Take a half sheet of paper
and write the letters A through O,
as shown at right.
Then, erase the letters J-O-K-E.
Next, fold the paper like a map

until it’s all folded into one giant
square. Then, using scissors, cut
the edges of the paper until you
have 15 separate squares. Some
letters will be faceup and some
will be facedown. Do the faceup or
facedown letters form a word?
©sidmay/iStock/Thinkstock.
18 Math and Magic

2 This time, let’s use number cards. Deal the following 15 number cards
(inspired by the digits of pi) on a table.
Next, fold the cards in any order you wish, folding the left, right, top,
and bottom edges until you are left with a single pile of cards, some of
which are faceup and some of which are facedown. What will be the
sum of the faceup cards?
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 127.

LESSON 3
LOOK LIKE A
3
CARD SHARK
P eople assume that magicians must be skillful

card players, yet we all have the ability to
perform card miracles—if we allow our inner
magic to flow. In this lesson, you will learn some
magic tricks that are designed to make you look
like a professional gambler or card shark.
EXPLANATIONS
SPECTATOR CUTS TO THE ACES
tt This is a fun and easy trick to perform. You start with the aces on the
top of the deck. If you want, you can even give the deck a riffle shuffle
that keeps the 4 aces on the top.
tt After your spectator has cut into 4 piles, make sure you remember
which pile has the 4 aces on top. For example, have the person first cut
the cards to your right and then cut each pile toward you. This way,
the pile of aces is always the pile closest to you on the right. (You’ll turn
those aces faceup so that you can watch what happens to them.)
tt With the first pile on your left, you deal 3 cards down and then 3 across
the tops of the other piles. This adds 1 card to the pile with the aces.
tt Then, you let the spectator do the same with the other 3 piles, ending with
the pile on your right. Now, when your spectator gets to the last pile, he or
she deals 3 cards down and then 3 cards across and end up with an ace on
each pile! It’s a very easy trick to do, but it always gets a big reaction.
20 Math and Magic

ALWAYS WIN AT POKER
tt The secret to learning how to never lose in poker is really quite clever.
In the video, the magician only played with the 9s through aces, but
what he didn’t tell you was that only 3 of each of these cards were
used—9s, 10s, jacks, queens, kings, and aces—for a total of 18 cards.
tt Originally, the packet that the magician shuffled had 9 cards,

consisting of all of the 10s, queens, and aces. Let’s call that group A, as
in “aces.”
tt The 9 cards that the volunteer shuffled—let’s call it group B—consisted

of the 9s, jacks, and kings.
tt Now here is what makes it all work. Magicians call it the

Jonah principle . Suppose you play with 10 cards, consisting of all 9
cards from group B and one extra card from group A—for example, the
ace of diamonds. The ace of diamonds would be the Jonah card—the
odd card, the stranger card, the card that doesn’t belong. The Jonah
principle says that when these 10 cards are dealt into two 5-card poker
hands, whoever gets the Jonah card is guaranteed to lose.
tt If you try every possibility, you will discover that
♣♣ if your volunteer has 1 pair, then you have 2 pairs;
Lesson 3 ♠ Look like a Card Shark 21

♣♣ if your volunteer has 2 pairs, then
you have 3 of a kind; and Straights and flushes
and 4 of a kinds are
♣♣ if your volunteer has 3 of a kind, impossible in this game.
then you have a full house.
tt The upshot is that if your volunteer ends up with the Jonah card, then
he or she is guaranteed to lose the hand. The challenge for you, as a
magician, is to give your volunteer the Jonah card without him or her
realizing it. Here’s how to do it. It’s pretty sneaky.
tt You begin by shuffling the 9 cards of group A while your volunteer

shuffles the 9 cards of group B. Then, you let him or her shuffle the
cards of group A, and you place one pile on top of the other.
tt It doesn’t matter which pile goes on top, so let’s say that pile B is on the
top. You now give your volunteer the cards and ask him or her to deal
10 cards. As is the custom when dealing, he or she deals the cards one at
a time, back and forth, starting with you.
tt This means that you will get cards 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 and your volunteer
will get cards 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. But the first 9 cards are all from
group B, so the volunteer will get card 10, which is the lone card from
group A, and that will be the Jonah card, so you are guaranteed to win
the hand.
22 Math and Magic

tt Conveniently, when you flip over your volunteer’s cards, the Jonah card
will be at the bottom of his or her pile. You place your cards faceup
on top of your volunteer’s, and when you turn that pile facedown, the
Jonah card will be on top.
tt So, these cards have a card from group A on top, followed by 9 cards
from group B. When your volunteer shuffles the remaining 8 cards,
which are all from group A, and then places them on top, then the first
9 cards will be from group A and the 10th card will be from group B, so
when your volunteer deals the cards back and forth, you will win again.
tt Once again, you place your cards faceup on top of your volunteer’s and
turn the pile over, so the top card is from group B and the rest are from
group A. When he or she shuffles the remaining 8 cards and puts them
on top, you are back to the setup with 9 cards from group B and then 9
cards from group A.
tt In the last phase of the trick, you tell At no point in the trick do
your volunteer that you will deal the you tell the audience that
cards. Then, ask him or her, “Do you you have exactly 18 cards.
want us to use the top 10 cards or the Many people will assume
bottom 10 cards?” If your volunteer that you are using 20 or
wants the bottom half, then you 24 cards, which is fine.
quickly remove the top 8 cards and That will make it much
you will have 10 cards left over, with harder to figure out later.
the Jonah card on top.
tt If instead your volunteer asks for the top 10 cards, then you deal the
cards 1 at a time on the table, counting 1 through 10, putting the other
cards aside, and again the Jonah card will be on top.
tt Either way, the Jonah card is on top. So, when you deal the 2 cards
facedown, starting with your volunteer, he or she is guaranteed to get
the Jonah card, so you are guaranteed to win the hand, no matter what
choices your volunteer makes afterward.

5-CARD STUD
This trick was invented by mathematician Fitch Cheney and then published
in a booklet for magicians called Math Miracles by Wallace Lee.
tt This trick, known as Cheney’s 5-card trick, is a perfect blend of

mathematics and magic. It involves teaching your assistant a special
code so that when he or she looks at 4 faceup cards, he or she can figure
out the facedown card.
tt Keep in mind that when your volunteer gives you the cards, you choose
which card goes facedown and how to arrange the 4 other cards. No
matter what 5 cards he or she gives you, there will always be a way to
arrange them that will tell your assistant exactly what the facedown
card is.
tt Before you learn how to do this trick, remember that there are 13 card
values, from ace to king. Let’s consider the ace to be the lowest card,
with a value of 1, and the king to be the highest card, with a value of 13.
There is also an ordering to the suits, which you don’t usually need, but
here it is: § ¨ ♥ ª
tt This is the ordering

for playing bridge, but
it also happens to be
alphabetical order. This
would make the lowest
card the ace of clubs,
followed by the ace of
diamonds, and so on—
all the way up to the
king of spades.
24 Math and Magic

tt Because your volunteer gives you 5 cards and there are just 4 suits in the
deck, then at least one of the suits has to be repeated. For example, let’s
say your volunteer gives you these 5 cards:
3♥ Qª 5§ 8¨ Kª
tt You have 2 spades, so you will turn one of the spade cards facedown.
But which one goes facedown? If the card values are within 6 of each
other, then the higher card goes facedown. Otherwise, the lower card
goes facedown.
tt In this case, because the queen of spades and the king of spades are just
1 apart, then the higher card—the king of spades—will go facedown,
and the queen of spades will go next to it as the fourth card in your
arrangement. But if instead of a king of spades you had a 2 of spades,
then because the queen of spades and the 2 of spades are 10 apart, the
2 of spades would go facedown and the queen of spades would go next
to it. The card that goes next to the facedown card—in this case, the
queen of spades—is called the anchor card.
tt Next, you arrange the other 3 cards in such a way that will tell your
assistant how much to add to the anchor card to get the facedown card.
tt Here are the details. Let’s call the other 3 cards L , M, and H, where L
denotes the lowest-valued card, M is the middle-valued card, and H is
the high card.
tt With these 3 cards—the 3 of hearts, the 5 of clubs, and the 8 of

diamonds—the low card is the 3 of hearts, the middle card is the 5 of
clubs, and the high card is the 8 of diamonds.

tt How many ways can these 3 cards be arranged?
3♥ 5§ 8¨
tt They can be arranged in exactly 6 ways:
LMH MLH HLM

LHM MHL HML
tt And each arrangement tells us what to add to the anchor card:
LMH = ADD 1 MLH = ADD 3 HLM = ADD 5

LHM = ADD 2 MHL = ADD 4 HML = ADD 6
tt The way to remember this is if the first card is low, add a low number, 1
or 2; if the first card is middle, add a medium number, 3 or 4; and if the
first card is high, add a high number, 5 or 6. To determine which of the
2 numbers to add, you look at the next 2 cards and compare them.
tt One is bigger and the other is smaller. If the card in position 2 is smaller
than the card in position 3, then you add the smaller number; if the
card in position 2 is bigger than the card in position 3, then you add the
bigger number.
tt For example, suppose you want to arrange these 3 cards—3 of hearts,

5 of clubs, and 8 of diamonds—to send the signal to add the number 5?
How would you do that?
tt Because 5 is a high number, you start with the high card—namely, the
8 of diamonds. That says that you are adding either 5 or 6. Because you
want to add 5, which is smaller than 6, you follow it up with the smaller
card—namely, the 3 of hearts.
tt How would you arrange the cards to add 4? That’s a middle number, so
you start with the middle card, which is the 5 of clubs. That signals that
you are adding 3 or 4. Because you want 4, your next card is the bigger
one—namely, the 8 of diamonds.
26 Math and Magic

tt Let’s do a full example with your original 5 cards:
tt You have 2 spades—the queen and king of spades—which are 1 apart,

so you turn the king facedown and put the queen next to it:
tt How do you arrange the other 3 cards? Because you want to add 1 to
the queen of spades, you arrange the cards in LMH order:
tt So, your assistant would look at the 358, see LMH, and then add 1 to the
queen of spades to get the king of spades!

tt But now suppose instead of having the king of spades, you have the 2 of
spades. Because the 2 and queen are 10 apart, you put the lower card
facedown, which is the 2, and put the queen next to it.
tt How do you arrange the other 3 cards? What do you need to add to the
queen to get 2? (king, ace, 2!) You need to add 3, so you need to arrange
the cards in the order of MLH.
tt So, when your assistant sees these 4 cards, he or she knows that the suit
is a spade. From the first 3 cards (MLH), she knows to add 3, making the
facedown card the 2 of spades!
tt If you just perform this trick once or twice, nobody will see the pattern
of the cards, and they might even suspect that you are sending a signal
to your assistant through words or physical gestures. But you can
perform this trick silently or over the phone if you’d like.
tt If you do this trick more than a few times, people might start to see that
the last 2 cards always have the same suit. You can mix it up a little bit,
such as changing the location of the anchor card. For example, you can
tell your assistant that on the third and final time, the anchor card will
be first instead of last.
28 Math and Magic

tt If you plan to do this trick many times, then maybe the first time the
anchor card could be in the fourth position. The next time, it could be
in the third position; then, it could be in the second position, and so
on. If you do it this way, you can keep your audience puzzled for a very
long time.
WEIGHING THE CARDS

tt This trick involves using what magicians call a key card, which is
marked with a light pencil dot in the upper-right and lower-left corners.
For the setup, the key card is the 26th card from the top. To make
it easier for you to see in the video, the magician uses a card with a
different-colored back.
tt You might be wondering how marking If you don’t want to

a card should matter to you if you don’t mark one of your cards
even look at the cards. For this trick, on the front or back,
you can replace one
you also put some clear tape on the
of your cards with a
front of the key card so that you can feel marked joker and make
that card when you get to it. that your key card.
tt Suppose you cut off less than half of the
cards. You don’t know how many cards
are in the pile—yet. You’ll hold this smaller pile of cards in your right
hand and then thumb off cards from the larger pile with your left hand,
mentally counting the cards that you drop until you drop the key card.
tt How many cards are in your left hand? There were 26 cards below the
key card, which means that the number of cards in your right hand plus
the dropped cards is also 26. And because you have dropped x cards
onto the table, you know that the pile in your right hand has exactly
26 − x cards in it.
tt You could say the number now, but to make the trick more convincing
(and to keep the key card from showing), you count another x cards onto
the pile. Because your left hand also has 26 cards, then when you count
x more cards, it will also have 26 − x cards. Now you can count the piles
together and they will have the same number of cards.

tt In general, when you take the larger pile, if the key card is the nth card
that you drop, then the smaller pile has 26 − n cards in it. If you drop n
more cards on top of the key card, then both piles will match.
tt When you are done with this trick, the key card has n cards on top of
it, so it is in position n + 1. If you take the top of these cards and scoop
all of the cards below it, the key card will be in position n, so when you
put it underneath either of the counted piles, it will be back in the 26th
position and you’re ready to perform the trick again.
REFERENCES
Fulves, Self-Working Card Tricks.
Scarne, Scarne on Card Tricks.
E XERCISES
1 Consider the following card arrangements in Cheney’s 5-card trick. In
each example, the anchor card will be the fourth card. Determine the
facedown card.
a) 5♥ 9ª 10ª 6¨
b) 8♥ J¨ 3ª 8ª
c) K¨ 4♥ Aª J¨
d) 6¨ 9ª 9♥ 4§
2 Naturally, if the anchor card is always the fourth card, then people will
discover part of the secret pretty quickly. To make it harder to figure
out, it’s a good idea to rotate the anchor card. One particularly subtle
way to do so is to let the location of the anchor card be determined by
the sum of the 4 faceup values. Specifically, let’s let picture cards count
30 Math and Magic

as 0 and the number cards (A through 10) count as 1 through 10. If the
total is a multiple of 4, then the anchor card goes in the fourth position,
as normal. If the sum is 1, 2, or 3 larger than a multiple of 4, then the
anchor card is in the first, second, or third position, respectively.
For example, with cards 2§, 3§, 5¨, 8ª, and K♥, you know that the
facedown card will be 3§. Adding the other values, you get 2 + 5 + 8 +
0 = 15, which is 3 bigger than a multiple of 4. Hence, the anchor card
will go in the third position, and you would order the cards as follows:
5¨ 8ª 2§ K♥
Your assistant would add the values (5 + 8 + 2 + 0 = 15) and determine

that the anchor card is 2§. The other 3 cards are in LMH order, which
signals to add 1 to 2§, for 3§.
Use the above system to determine the facedown card for the
following arrangements:
a) 2ª 7♥ A§ 8ª
b) Kª Q♥ 9§ 4ª
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 128.

LESSON 4
THE DECK IS
4
STACKED
I n the previous lesson, you learned a way to

determine the number of cards in a deck by
using a key card. In this lesson, you will learn
another way to accomplish the same effect using
an entirely different method that you might
find superior. You will learn a very useful and
mathematically interesting way to stack a deck of
cards as well as a way to give a deck a false cut
and a false shuffle.
EXPLANATIONS
SI STEBBINS STACK
¸¸ The secret to the “pick a card” trick performed in the lesson lies in
how the cards are arranged beforehand; magicians say that a deck like
this is stacked. The name of this stack is called Si Stebbins, named
after a magician who popularized it in the early 20th century, yet it was
written about in the 16 th century in one of the first books on magic
ever published.
¸¸ In the video, the magician briefly showed you the cards as he looked for
jokers. That was his way of showing the cards to you so that you saw that
they were different and in no apparent order, without drawing too much
attention to the cards.
32 Math and Magic

¸¸ But if you look closely at the cards, you will see that there is a pattern to
them. First, the colors alternate from black to red.
¸¸ In addition, the suits are arranged in a very specific order: clubs, hearts,
spades, diamonds. We say that the suits are in CHaSeD (clubs, hearts,
spades, diamonds) order.
¸¸ Next, the values of the cards start at 3, 6, 9, and 12, where 12 is

represented by the queen, and they continue to grow by 3 as you go. If
you add 3 to queen, you get 2 (going past king and then ace), so the next
card is 2, followed by 5, 8, 11 (jack), 14 (ace), 4, 7, 10, and 13 (king)—and
the pattern repeats.
PICK A CARD
tt Let’s use the Si Stebbins pattern to figure out this trick, where the
magician had a volunteer pick a card and then seemingly read her
thoughts. The volunteer pointed to a card and then looked at it, showed
it to others, and put it back in its original location.
tt If somehow the magician could see the card above the chosen card,
then he could figure out the chosen card using the pattern. In this case,
the card above the chosen card is 9§, so what would the chosen card,
the one that follows, have to be? The suit would have to be hearts and
the value would have to be 12; therefore, the chosen card would be Q♥.
tt How does the magician spot the bottom card? After the volunteer takes
her card, while she shows her card to others, the magician squares
up the cards above and below her card. Then, the magician tells the
volunteer to put the card back in the deck and points to the cards below
her selection. In that brief moment, as he points downward in a very
natural gesture, the card above her card is staring the magician in
the face.
Lesson 4 ♠ The Deck Is Stacked 33

tt Once the magician see that the card is the 9§, he simply adds 3 to the
value and shifts the suit, and he knows your card. Then, he can reveal
the card in any dramatic fashion that he chooses.
OTHER SI STEBBINS PATTERNS
¸¸ Here’s another useful Si Stebbins pattern. Notice that the card values
repeat every 13 cards. And those repeated values are in CHaSeD order,
too. For example, if you start with the 3 of clubs, then 13 cards later, you
have the 3 of hearts, then the 3 of spades, and then the 3 of diamonds.
¸¸ An even simpler pattern is that the black 3s are 26 apart, the red 6s are
26 apart, and so on. For every card in the deck, you can find its mate
(same color and value) 26 cards later.
¸¸ Here’s another pattern. You know that every 4 cards, the suit stays the
same. But what’s also true is that every 4 cards, the value goes down by 1.
34 Math and Magic

¸¸ For example, if you take any card—for example, a 6—then 4 cards later
you have a 5, and then 4 cards later you have a 4, and so on. The reason
for this is because every 4 cards is like adding 12. Think of it this way: If
you look at the clock on your wall and it says 7, then 12 hours from now
it will still say 7. Thus, if you add 11 hours to it, it will say 6. But if you
think of your card values on a clock with 13 hours, then adding 12 is the
same as going back 1. So, for example, adding 12 to the 3 of clubs, you
would get the 2 of clubs.
NO WEIGH
tt The magician exploited Si Stebbins patterns when he pretended to
weigh the deck of cards in the beginning of the lesson. A volunteer holds
the cards faceup in her hand. It’s easiest when the faceup card is a king,
so let’s do that example first. Then, the volunteer cuts any number of
cards from the magician’s pile.
tt How many cards are left? Look at the value of the card that was cut
to. Suppose you see a value of v. Based on the earlier pattern, you can
exploit the following handy formula:
n = (13 − v) × 4
tt In this case, the value of the card that was cut to is v = 2. When you plug
this into the formula, you get
n = (13 − 2) × 4 = 11 × 4 = 44.
tt This tells you that there is a card with value of 2 in the 44th position. But
does the magician have 44 cards in his hand? Definitely not. But you
know that the card values repeat every 13 cards, so you can subtract 13
from 44 to get 31. Does he have 31 cards now? No, he definitely has less
than half of the deck. So, how about 31 − 13 = 18? That feels more like
it. If you subtract 13 again, you’d get 5, and the magician definitely has
more than 5 cards in his hand. So, you can say with certainty that the 2
of hearts is the 18th card.

tt You can verify this by counting 18 cards, starting with the 3 of clubs.
Hold the deck facedown and flip each card faceup while counting, and
put either pile on top. This way, the cards are still in Si Stebbins order
and the trick can be done again.
tt Let’s do the trick again with a card that is not a king on the bottom—
with a value of b (as in “bottom”).
tt When you look at the faceup

It’s okay if you need some
card, you subtract it from the time to do the calculation.
bottom card and then multiply You have plenty of time to do
it by 4. In other words, you it while you are pretending to
calculate weigh the cards.
n = (b − v) × 4,
where b is the bottom card and v is the card that is cut to.
tt That tells you the number of cards remaining in your hand, plus or
minus a multiple of 13. So, in this case, because the magician has a 9 on
the bottom and, after cutting off a large number of cards, has v = 3 on
top, when you subtract 3 from 9 and multiply by 4, you get 24.
tt What if v has a value that is larger than the bottom card?
tt Let’s say the deck is cut to the jack of diamonds.

(b − v) = 9 − 11 = −2
tt Before you multiply by 4, you add 13 to it to get 11.
tt Then, you multiply by 4 to get 44. So, there is a jack in position 44, and
that seems to be what the magician has. (He certainly has more than 31
cards). You can check this by seeing that there are 8 cards on the table,
so there must be 44 cards remaining.
tt When v is bigger than b, the general formula is:

n = (13 + b − v) × 4.
36 Math and Magic

ARRANGING CARDS INTO SI STEBBINS ORDER
¸¸ Separate your cards into 4 piles, one for each suit.
¸¸ Arrange each pile from ace to king, with a king at the top of the pile.
¸¸ Put the piles in CHaSeD (clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds) order.
¸¸ Cut the piles so that the club pile starts with the 3 of clubs, the hearts pile
starts with the 6 of hearts, the spades pile starts with the 9 of spades, and
the diamonds pile starts with the queen of diamonds.
¸¸ Now you simply deal the cards one at a time faceup into a pile.
¸¸ Notice that every 4 cards, your suit is repeated and that the value of
each suit goes down by 1. When you’re done, the cards will be in Si
Stebbins order.
THE NAME OF YOUR CARD IS…

tt For this trick, although it may appear that the magician has 52 different
cards, he actually has the same 26 cards repeated twice. The first set of
26 cards can be in any order. The second set of 26 cards then matches
the first set of 26 exactly. The key point here is that for every card, its
twin is located exactly 26 cards later.
tt Let’s suppose that the deck initially had this order, where A denotes the
top pile and C denotes the bottom pile.

tt The volunteer’s first cut leaves less than half of the deck in pile C. After
the second cut, the remaining cards are divided into piles B and A, with
with pile A containing less than half the remaining cards. The deck will
look something like this:
tt After the cards are cut into 3 piles, you take the card that is on top of
B. Where is B’s twin located? It’s 26 cards below B, so it is somewhere
in pile B or C. As long as pile A doesn’t have 26 or more cards, the twin
must be in pile B or C.
tt You put the selected card on top of pile A and shuffle it, but it doesn’t
matter, because that’s not the card you’re going to find!
38 Math and Magic

tt You now put C on top of A and then B on top of C, resulting in an order
of BCA. Now all you have to do is count 26 cards and your card’s twin is
guaranteed to be there.
FALSE SHUFFLE
¸¸ You can do a Charlier false shuffle to make it look like your cards are
really being mixed, but in fact, it’s just an elaborate way to cut the cards
in such a way that it looks like a shuffle.
¹¹ Hold the cards in your left hand and thumb a few cards into your
right hand.
¹¹ Push off a few cards from the bottom of the left pile onto the top of
the right pile.
¹¹ Thumb a few cards from the top of the left onto the bottom of the
right pile.
¹¹ Repeat this process.
¸¸ Notice that the cards are still in the same relative order as they started.
¸¸ If you practice this move, you can eventually do it without even looking
at your hands, which makes this false shuffle very convincing.

FALSE CUT
¸¸ With a swivel cut, you hold the cards in your right hand. Then, with
your left index finger, you push the top half of the cards against your
right fingers and push slightly up so that the cards swivel around your
right fingers and you catch the cards in your left hand. Then, place the
remaining cards in your right hand on top of those cards.
¸¸ With a false swivel cut, instead of the cards in your right hand going on
top of the cards on your left hand, you put them on the table and then
take the cards from your left hand and put them on top.
¸¸ What makes a false swivel cut so deceptive is that it’s the combination
of 2 legitimate cuts: the swivel cut and the normal cut. But when you
combine these 2 true cuts, you get a false cut.
REFERENCES
Simon, Mathematical Magic.
Trost, The Card Magic of Nick Trost.
E XERCISES
1 Suppose a deck in Si Stebbins order is cut with Jª on the bottom of
the deck. What is the 20th card in the deck? What is the 23rd card in
the deck?
2 Explain the following magic trick. The magician invites you to cut the
deck and complete the cut. You then remove the top card and put it
in your pocket. The magician then asks the deck for the color of the
selected card by spelling C-O-L-O-R and looking at the next card,
40 Math and Magic

which happens to be red and thus concludes that the chosen card is
red. The magician then asks the deck for the number of the selected
card by spelling N-U-M-B-E-R and looking at the next card, which
happens to be a black queen and thus concludes that the chosen card is
also a queen. But which red queen? The magician then spells M-A-T-
C-H-I-N-G C-A-R-D, and the next card is the queen of diamonds and
therefore concludes that the selected card is the queen of hearts, which
proves to be correct. How did the trick work?
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 128.

LESSON 5
PERFECT
5
SHUFFLES
I n this lesson, you will discover various ways to

mix up the cards in a deck that are not the same
as cutting the cards. But the mixing isn’t quite
as random as you may think. The focus of the
lesson is on the perfect shuffle and some of its
mathemagical properties.
PERFECT SHUFFLES
¸¸ When you do a riffle shuffle , you are cutting the cards approximately
in half and then merging those halves together so that the cards interlace
together in approximately alternating fashion.
¸¸ In what mathematicians call a perfect shuffle , the cards are cut exactly
in half—a deck of 52 cards is cut into 2 piles of 26—and then the cards
are interlaced perfectly. Magicians call this the faro shuffle , named
after an old casino game, faro,
where the cards were mixed in a
not-so-random way.
¸¸ Let’s use this diagram to describe

perfect shuffles mathematically.
¸¸ First, the cards are cut into

exactly 2 halves. Then, the cards
are interweaved perfectly. So, in
the new order, card 1 is followed
by card 27, then card 2, then
card 28, and so on.
42 Math and Magic

¸¸ After one perfect shuffle, that top card stays on top. In other words,
card 1 is still in position 1, but card 2 is now in position 3, card 3 is in
position 5, card 4 is in position 7, and so on down to card 26, which is in
position 51.
¸¸ The rule is that for the first 26 cards, card n is sent to position 2n − 1.
¸¸ For the next 26 cards, we see that card 27 is in position 2, card 28 is in

position 4, card 29 is in position 6, and so own down to card 52 which is
still on the bottom in position 52.
¸¸ The general formula for these cards is that card n ends up in position
2n − 52.
¸¸ We can keep track of what happens to every card with something called
cycle notation . For the perfect shuffle, your cycles look like this:
(1) (52) (18 35)

(2 3 5 9 17 33 14 27)
(4 7 13 25 49 46 40 28)
(6 11 21 41 30 8 15 29)
(10 19 37 22 43 34 16 31)
(12 23 45 38 24 47 42 32)
¸¸ This table says that card 1 stays in position 1 and card 52 stays in
position 52. Next, it says that cards 18 and 35 swap positions. You can
check that:
¹¹ Card 18 goes to (2 × 18 − 1) = 35.
¹¹ Card 35 goes to (2 × 35 − 52) = 18.
¸¸ The next cycle says that card 2 goes to position 3, card 3 goes to
position 5, 5 goes to 9, 9 goes to 17, 17 goes to 33, 33 goes to 14, 14 goes
to 27, and finally card 27 goes to position 2.
¸¸ The other cycles can be read in the same way. Using this table, you can see
where every card goes after a perfect shuffle. In fact, you can also see where
every card goes after 2 shuffles, just by moving 2 numbers to the right.
Lesson 5 ♠ Perfect Shuffles 43

¸¸ For example, after 2 shuffles, the card in position 17 will be in position
14. The card in position 29 will be in position 11. Where will the card in
position 42 be after 3 shuffles? Just go 3 spaces to the right and it will be
in position 23.
¸¸ Now here’s a surprise: Where will each card be after 8 shuffles? Notice
that because all of your cycles have length 1, 2, or 8, every card will be
back in its original position after 8 perfect shuffles.
¸¸ There are actually 2 different kinds of perfect shuffles. Notice that

in the shuffle that was just described, after cutting the cards exactly
in half, the cards are then interweaved perfectly, with the top card
staying on top and the bottom card staying on the bottom. Because the
outermost cards—1 and 52—stay on the outside, this is called a perfect
out-shuffle. But if instead you let the 27th card go on top, now cards 1 and
52 head into the deck, so this is called an in-shuffle. When you do an
in-shuffle, the cards get rearranged
as shown here.
¸¸ With an in-shuffle, cards 1 through

26 end up in positions 2, 4, 6, 8, …
52. In other words, card n ends up
in position 2n. Cards 27 through 52
end up in the odd positions (1, 3, 5,
…), with the formula that card n is
sent to position 2n − 53.
¸¸ The cycle notation for the in-shuffle

is not as nice as the out-shuffle. The
in-shuffle has just one giant cycle
that contains all 52 numbers:
(1 2 4 8 16 32 11 22 44 35 17 34 15
30 7 14 28 3 6 12 24 48 43 33 13 16
52 51 49 45 37 21 42 31 9 18 36 19 38
23 46 39 25 50 47 41 29 5 10 20 40 27)
¸¸ When you combine in-shuffles with out-shuffles, they create a magic all
their own.
44 Math and Magic

¸¸ Suppose you want to bring the top card to a certain position of the
deck—for example, position 40. What is the fastest way to do it using
perfect shuffles?
¸¸ The answer is pretty amazing. First, you subtract 1 from the position:
40 − 1 = 39.
¸¸ Then, you write that number as a sum of powers of 2. In this case, 39 is

expressed as the sum of powers of 2. The relevant powers of 2 are these:
32 16 8 4 2 1
¸¸ Notice that
39 = 32 + 4 + 2 + 1.
¸¸ Now you use that to write the number in binary notation , where you
have a 1 for every power of 2 that is used and a 0 for every power of 2
that is not used. In this case, 39 has this binary representation:
100111
¸¸ Each 1 represents an “1”n-shuffle and each You can find the

0 represents an “0”ut-shuffle. This tells us reason why this
that to bring the top card to position 40, you method works
perform the following: in S. Brent
Morris’s book or
1 0 0 1 1 1 from the Great
Course Discrete
n u u n n n Mathematics.
t t
¸¸ Let’s check to see that this will work. Remember that for cards in the top
half of the deck, in-shuffles double the position, so card n goes to position
2n; out-shuffles send card n to position 2n − 1.
¸¸ After the first in-shuffle, card 1 goes to position 2. After an out-shuffle,

card 2 goes to position 3; the next out-shuffle sends it to position 5. And
the next 3 in-shuffles each doubles the location, so it goes to position 10,
then 20, and then 40—as promised!

EXPLANATIONS
LEFT OR RIGHT?
tt It takes a lot of practice to be able to perform a perfect shuffle. There
are tricks that use other kinds of shuffles that require no skill to perform
but, like the perfect shuffle, don’t mix the cards as much as they appear.
tt In this trick, when dealing the cards into 2

piles, the magician is doing a different sort
of shuffle, and depending on which pile goes
on top, it is called either a left shuffle or a
right shuffle.
tt Suppose that the cards are initially in the

order shown at right.
tt Notice that the top and bottom numbers add

to 13 (1 + 12) and so do the next cards in (2 +
11), and the next in (3 + 10), and so on. This
order is said to have mirror symmetry.
tt Now look what happens when the cards are dealt into 2 piles.
46 Math and Magic

tt Notice that cards 1 and 2 are now on the
bottom of their piles. If the magician places
the left pile on top, it is a left shuffle, and the
new ordering looks like the image at right.
tt Notice that the new order still has mirror

symmetry. The top and bottom cards still add
to 13 (11 + 2), as do all the other pairs: 9 + 4, 7
+ 6, and so on.
tt There is also mirror symmetry with a right

shuffle. The top and bottom pairs, 12 and 1,
still add to 13, as do the other pairs: 10 + 3, 8
+ 5, and so on.
tt The moral is that if the cards begin with mirror symmetry, then every
time you do a left or right shuffle, they will still have mirror symmetry.
Magicians call this the stay-stack principle .
tt How does this explain the magic trick? At the beginning, you can have
the cards in order—ace, 2, 3, through queen of hearts—but you can
also give the cards a few left shuffles beforehand so that the order of the
cards looks more random.
tt After you’ve given the cards a few left (or right) shuffles, have a
volunteer look at the top card and show it to others. When you pick up
the cards and ask the volunteer to place his or her card in the middle
of the pack, you look at the bottom card. And once you see the bottom
card, you know what the volunteer’s card—the top card—must have
been, because their total is 13.
tt For example, if you glance at the bottom card and see a 9 of hearts,
then you know that the volunteer’s card must have been the 4 of hearts.
The rest is just acting.
The mirror symmetry property does not depend on having 12 cards;

it could be any even number of cards. And this property is also
satisfied when perfect shuffles are done with an even number of cards,
regardless of whether they’re out-shuffles or in-shuffles.

MATHEMATICIANS VS. MAGICIANS
tt To do this trick, you ask a volunteer to think of a number between 1
and 8. To make things easier to understand, let’s use the ace through 8
of hearts, in that order, although you can use any 8 cards.
tt Once the volunteer has thought of his

or her number, and the corresponding This trick was invented
card, you show the volunteer half the by Alex Elmsley, who
cards—specifically, the cards that are was a mathematician,
in positions 1, 3, 5, and 7. You then magician, and pioneering
ask the volunteer if he or she sees his computer scientist.
or her card among these cards.
tt If the volunteer says yes, then you put these cards on the top, which
means that his or her card is now in position 1, 2, 3, or 4. If the
volunteer says no, then you put these cards on the bottom, which also
means that his or her card must now be in position 1, 2, 3, or 4. After
3 rounds of questions, the volunteer’s card is guaranteed to be on top.
That explains the first half of the trick.
tt What about the second half of the trick? How do you know what card
the volunteer is thinking of the second time around? Suppose that your
volunteer thought of the number 7. The card that is now in the seventh
position is the ace of hearts, which was the original top card of the deck.
It turns out that this is not a coincidence.
tt After going through the 3-question procedure, not only will the
volunteer’s original card be at the top of the pack, but his or her card
will have traded places with the original top card of the deck.
tt In general, when the volunteer thinks of a number between 1 and 8,

then the top card will always end up in the corresponding position.
So, when you perform this trick, give the volunteer 8 cards to shuffle
and then when you show everyone that the cards are well mixed, just
remember the top card and the trick works by itself.
48 Math and Magic

tt Naturally, the trick will work with any 8 cards, but perhaps the hardest
part of the trick is remembering the top card for the entire trick. But
if you perform this trick after the last one and just use 8 hearts, then
you know what the suit will be, so you only need to remember the
card’s value.
This trick will also work with 16 cards; you just have to ask 4 questions
instead of 3. But using 8 cards makes the trick goes much faster, and
there’s less of a chance for you or the volunteer to make a mistake.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

tt This trick always gets a great reaction, and it’s entirely self-working. You
set up the deck so that the first, second, fourth, and eighth cards are
aces, and your prediction card—for example, the 3 of clubs—is the 16th
card. If you want extra security, you can put a joker in the 32nd position.
Give the deck a false cut and then ask a volunteer to cut approximately
half of the cards.
tt You would think that the final card would depend on where the cards
were cut, but it essentially doesn’t matter as long as the volunteer cuts at
least 16 cards. Once he or she has cut the cards, put the bottom half of
the cards aside and then out-jog every other card.
tt For example, if the volunteer cuts 25 cards, then you are removing
cards 1, 3, 5, 7, … , 25, so the first ace will be on top of this discard
pile. The remaining cards are the cards originally in positions 2, 4, 6,
8, … , 24, so now when you out-jog every other card, you are removing
cards 2, 6, 10, 14, … , so card 2 (another ace) is on top.
tt The remaining cards are the cards originally in positions 4, 8, 12, 16,
… . After out-jogging again, you remove cards 4, 12, 20, … , giving you
the third ace and leaving cards that were in positions 8, 16, and possibly
24 or 32.

tt Now if the volunteer cuts 31 cards or fewer (which will usually be the
case because you asked him or her to cut about half of the cards), the
last pile will have the eighth card on top, another ace, and the only card
remaining will be the 16th card, which was the card you predicted.
tt But what if the volunteer actually cuts 32 cards or more? Then you say,
“That’s strange! There was only supposed to be one card left over, the
3 of clubs,” which you reveal. Then you say, “Oh, you know what went
wrong? It was that darned joker. He’s always messing me up!”
tt This trick is guaranteed to work as long as the volunteer cuts between

16 and 47 cards, which is practically guaranteed. The main thing to be
careful about is that during your first deal, you carefully out-jog every
other card, and be sure to grab all of the out-jogged cards, or else you
might not get the 16th card at the end. With just a little practice, you’ll
get it right all the time.
REFERENCES
Craven and Gordon, The Second 16th Card Book.
Kaufman, Paul Gertner’s Steel and Silver.
Minch, The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley.
Morris, Magic Tricks, Card Shuffling and Dynamic Computer Memories.
E XERCISES
1 Give a sequence of perfect shuffles (in-shuffles and out-shuffles) that
will bring the top card to position 29. How about position 42?
2 After a deck is given 2 in-shuffles followed by 4 out-shuffles, where

does the top card go? Where does the 17th card go?
SOLUTIONS CAN BE FOUND ON PAGE 129.
50 Math and Magic

LESSON 6
RIFFLE
6
SHUFFLES
I n the previous lesson, you learned that there

are ways of mixing cards, such as with perfect
shuffles, that are not quite as random as they
appear. This lesson will explore what happens
when you do an ordinary riffle shuffle, where
the cards are cut approximately in half (but not
necessarily exactly in half) and the cards interlace
approximately (but don’t have to interlace
perfectly).
EXPLANATIONS
SUIT SENSING
tt The secret to this trick, and many others presented in this lesson, is
known as the Gilbreath principle , discovered by amateur magician and
professional engineer Norman Gilbreath in the 1960s.
tt Gilbreath’s original application was in a trick called Magnetic Colors,

where a deck was cut and then riffle shuffled, yet the magician
could pull out cards 2 at a time in such a way that they always had
opposite colors.
tt To begin, the cards are set up so that the colors alternate perfectly—red-
black-red-black-red-black all the way through. Once your deck is set up
like this, notice that you can cut the cards as often as you’d like and the
colors would still alternate.
Lesson 6 ♠ Riffle Shuffles 51

tt Now cut about half the cards and pick up both piles. Before you or your
assistant does a riffle shuffle, check to make sure that the bottom cards
of the 2 piles have different colors. If they don’t, then just move the
bottom card from the right pile to the top of the left pile and say, “Here,
let’s make the piles a little more even.”
tt Now give the cards a riffle shuffle (or let your volunteer do it) and watch
what happens. No matter how good or bad the riffle shuffle is, it will
always be the case that—starting from the top or the bottom—every
2 cards will contain a red card and a black card. Even when one pile
runs out of cards, the other pile will still continue to put cards down in
alternating colors.
tt When you cut the cards, if both bottoms have the same color, you can
still do a riffle shuffle. Then, if you just move the bottom card to the
top or the top card to the bottom, or cut the cards any place where 2
matching colors are next to each other, the trick will still work.
tt This principle, which has been in the magic literature for about
60 years, has been extended in many interesting ways. In fact, it is
often called Gilbreath’s first principle . The general principle is even
more amazing.
tt For the trick where you find one card of each suit—just like for the
color-matching trick—you begin with the deck set up in a special
way. But instead of just having the colors alternate, you have the suits
alternate in a regular pattern—clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds—all
the way through the deck. Notice that you can cut the cards as often as
you’d like and the suits will still have a cyclic pattern.
tt Before you do the riffle shuffle, you need to reverse the cards in one of
the piles. Ask your volunteer for a number between 15 and 30, although
truly any number will work. (It’s just easier to do a riffle shuffle when
the piles are close to the same size.) After dealing any number of cards
down, the first pile is reversed and the cards can be riffle shuffled.
tt Even though the cards are no longer in cyclic order, it is still the case
that every group of 4, starting from the top and going all the way to
the bottom, still has one card of each suit (in some order). So, as you go
52 Math and Magic

through the deck, you just deal 4 cards at a time into piles. Sometimes
you can bring 4 cards to the bottom of the pile, or put 4 cards in a pile
on the side, but that’s just to make the trick look harder.
tt In general, the Gilbreath principle says this: Suppose your cards start
with any repeated cyclic pattern—whether it be red and black; club,
heart, spade, diamond; or even ace to king throughout. Deal any
number of cards into a pile and then riffle shuffle the 2 piles together.
The Gilbreath principle says that if your original pattern had n cards
in cyclic order, then after the riffle shuffle, it will still be the case that,
starting from the top, every group of n cards will contain one card of
each type.
tt So, for example, if you start with cards ace through king and deal into 1
pile with any number of cards and then give the 2 piles a riffle shuffle,
then starting from the top or bottom, every 13 cards will have 1 card of
each value—no matter how the cards fall.
7-CARD STUD
tt The cards in this trick are set up to exploit the Gilbreath principle.
You could start with the Si Stebbins stack (lesson 4), in which the suits
appear in cyclic fashion every 4 cards (CHSD, CHSD, ... ) and the
values also appear in cyclic fashion every 13 cards.
tt Any arrangement of the 13 values

is acceptable. In fact, this stack— In games like 7-card stud
called the 8-kings stack—has the and Texas Hold’em, there
are 2 facedown cards
advantage that the cards do not form a
and 5 faceup cards.
mathematical pattern:
8 K 3 10 2 7 9 5 Q 4 A 6 J
tt It can be memorized by this rhyming mnemonic: 8 Kings ThreaTen To

Save 95 Ladies For One Sick Knave!

tt In the 8-kings stack, the 52 cards would be arranged like this:
tt The cards can be cut as often as you’d like.
tt After the cards have been cut, then dealt, and then riffle shuffled, you
deal 14 cards, 7 cards each, where the first 4 cards are facedown. You
know that the first 4 cards will contain one of each suit, so as soon as
you glance at your facedown cards, you know exactly what the other 2
suits are.
tt In the video, the magician’s down cards were the ace of spades and the
queen of clubs, so he knew that the other facedown cards had to have
hearts and diamonds as their suits.
tt But you don’t jump out and name the suits immediately. First say the
colors, as if you’re getting a vague impression and it’s coming into
sharper focus. This also gives you time to look at the other faceup cards
to figure out the values of your volunteer’s cards.
tt How do you determine that? Because of the Gilbreath principle, you

know that all of the card values will be represented among the first 13
cards. Conveniently, with 7-card stud, 14 cards are dealt and you can
safely ignore the 14th card (the last faceup card in your hand).
tt Because the facedown cards in the video are the ace of spades and the
queen of clubs, the magician just has to look at the other 9 faceup cards
to figure out which 2 values are missing. He can see every card value
except for 4 and 6, so he knows that these have to be the person’s values.
tt And he still knows that the person’s 2 suits are hears and diamonds. The
only thing he can’t be sure of is whether the person has the 4 of hearts
and the 6 of diamonds, or the 4 of diamonds and the 6 of hearts.
54 Math and Magic

tt At this point, you can cover yourself by saying something like this: “I
see that one of your values is lower than the other. Is that the heart
suit?” You have at least a 50% chance of being right, and it won’t matter
if you’re wrong, because it doesn’t seem like your volunteer has given
you much information, and then you name the 2 cards exactly.
Remember when you perform this to ignore the 14th card, which is the
last card faceup. The good news is that this card is guaranteed to have
the same value as one of the other 13 cards, so there is at least one pair
on the table, and it provides good camouflage for the secret.
2 PREDICTIONS
tt This trick uses 2 predictions—a double application of the Gilbreath
principle. The cards are set up with 16 red cards (4 of which are picture
cards) and 8 black cards (2 of which are picture cards) so that every
third card is black and every fourth card is a picture card.
tt As usual, the cards retain their cyclic

structure even after being cut. Then, This trick was inspired
you can use the smoosh shuffle, which by a card trick called
involves dealing about half the cards and the Schizoid Rosary and
smooshing them together. The smoosh was invented by Max
shuffle is really just a riffle shuffle in Maven, one of the world’s
disguise, even though they don’t look the greatest mentalists and a
same. Or you can use what is sometimes leading authority on the
called the rosary shuffle, made popular Gilbreath principle.
by Swedish magician Lennart Green.
tt After any of these shuffles, the Gilbreath principle guarantees that,

starting from the top, every 3 cards will contain 1 black and 2 red
cards. Thus, the top 12 cards and the bottom 12 cards are each
guaranteed to contain 4 black cards and 8 red cards, as predicted. Also,
starting from the top, every 4 cards will have one picture card, so the
top 12 cards and bottom 12 cards will have 3 picture cards. Thus, your
prediction will be accurate, no matter which pile they take.

REFERENCES
E XERCISES
1 Suppose that you are performing the 7-card stud trick using the
8-kings stack. After dealing 14 cards to you and your volunteer, your
volunteer has these cards, from left to right: Jª K§ A♥ Q¨ 10ª ?? ??.
Your cards are 6♥ 8¨ 6ª 4§ 3♥ ?? ??.
Your facedown cards are 2¨ and 9♥.
What are the volunteer’s facedown cards?
2 Consider the following psychic challenge. You display a deck of cards

that looks randomly mixed and ask the spectator to cut the cards. (This
person can give the deck as many complete cuts as he or she wishes.)
Then have the volunteer give the cards a riffle shuffle. You deal a few
cards faceup from the top to show that there is no pattern to the cards
and ask him or her to guess the color of the next card. Then, you’ll do
the same with the following card, and you keep doing so for the first 10
cards or so. The volunteer guesses right about half the time, but your
guess is right every time. How do you do it?
This completes the portion of the course that addresses mathematical

card magic, but there is still plenty of magic remaining, most of which
has nothing to do with cards.
56 Math and Magic

LESSON 7
MAGIC WITH
7
NUMBERS
P erhaps the most natural mathemagical objects

are numbers themselves, and they are the
topic of this lesson. Even though the tricks in
this lesson are all based on very simple algebra,
they will still fool and impress most people. A
few of the tricks involve are so-called nature’s
numbers, which show up everywhere—in nature,
mathematics, art, and even magic.
EXPLANATIONS
2n + 10 TRICK
tt In this trick, you start by asking participants to think of any number
between 1 and 10. (In fact, your participants can think of any number—
small or large—and it could even be negative or a fraction.)
tt You don’t know the number they are

thinking of, so let’s call it n, as in “number.”
The notion of letting
Then, you ask them to double their original an unknown quantity
number. Now they are thinking of the be represented by
number a letter—called a
variable —is probably
2n. the most important
idea in algebra.
tt Next, you ask the participants to add 10:
2n + 10.
Lesson 7 ♠ Magic with Numbers 57

tt Then, you tell them to divide by 2, and when both terms are cut in half,
this is the result:
n + 5.
tt Finally, you ask your participants to subtract the number they started
with—which was n! When n is subtracted,
n + 5 − n,
which is 5, as predicted.
tt Naturally, you can modify this trick to get any number you want. For
example, if you wanted to reach 100, you can go through the same
steps to reach 5, but don’t end the trick there. You could have your
participants double the number, which you know to be 10, and then
multiply that number by itself, which is 100.
tt Instead, if you want to reach a number other than 5, you can just
have your participants add a different number at the second step. For
example, if they add the number 8 instead of 10, then you have the
number 2n + 8, which—when cut in half and the original number
subtracted—is 4.
BLACK AND RED TRICK

tt For this trick, you begin by dealing any 30 cards on the table. Let’s call
the number of black cards in the pile B.
tt If there are B black cards in that pile, that means there are 30 − B red
cards in that same pile.
tt Now consider the other pile of cards. How many red cards will it
contain? There is a total of 26 red cards between both piles, and the
first pile has 30 − B of them, so the second pile must have B − 4:
26 − (30 − B) = B − 4.
58 Math and Magic

tt So, even though you don’t how many black cards or red cards that you
have in either pile, you do know that when you take the number of black
cards in pile 1 and subtract the number of red cards in pile 2, you are
guaranteed to get
B − (B − 4),
which equals 4.
tt Let’s hear it for algebra!
3 HEAPS
Instead of cards, you can use any objects—such as coins or paperclips—

for this trick.
tt This trick begins with every pile having the same number of cards.
How many cards does each pile have? n.
tt Then, you take 3 cards from the left pile and 3 cards from the right pile
and place them in the middle pile. Your situation now looks like this,
where the left and right pile each have n − 3 cards and the middle pile
has n + 6 cards.

tt Next, you count the cards on the left pile and then remove that many
cards from the middle pile and place those cards on the right pile.
When you remove the n − 3 cards from the middle pile and place them
on top of the n − 3 cards on the right pile, then the number of cards in
the right pile becomes 2n − 6.
tt That’s fine. But here’s the surprising part: How many cards are now in
the middle pile?
tt Finally, when you add 1 more card to the middle pile from either pile, it
is guaranteed to have exactly 10 cards, as predicted.
1089 TRICK
tt The algebra behind this trick is just a little more complicated than the
previous tricks, but you can do it.
tt Originally, you choose a 3-digit number, abc, where a is the largest digit
and c is the smallest digit. Notice that a represents the hundreds digit, b
represents the tens digit, and c is the ones digit. Therefore, the number
abc really represents 100a + 10b + c.
tt Next, you reverse the number to get cba, which represents 100c + 10b + a.
tt When you subtract this from the first number, you get this:
(100a + 10b + c) − (100c + 10b + a).
tt Notice that the 10b numbers cancel and you are left with this:
99a − 99c = 99(a − c).
60 Math and Magic

tt In other words, after you do the first subtraction, the answer has to be
one of these multiples of 99:
99 × 2 = 198 99 × 6 = 594
99 × 3 = 297 99 × 7 = 693
99 × 4 = 396 99 × 8 = 792
99 × 5 = 495 99 × 9 = 891
tt When you add any of these numbers to its reversal, you always get
1089. You can verify this with algebra, but it’s easier just to verify the 4
possible situations:
198 297 396 495

+ 891 + 792 + 693 + 594
1089 1089 1089 1089
tt Thus, no matter what number you have at this step, when you add its
reversal, you are guaranteed to end up with 1089.
EASY AS PHI
tt One of the most interesting numbers in mathematics is phi. This trick
uses the first 16 digits of phi: 1.618033988749894…
tt You need 4 volunteers; let’s call them a, b, c, and d. You give the last 4
digits (9894) to d; the 3 digits before those last 4 digits, along with the
number 6, to c (6874); the middle digits (8033) to a; and the remaining
digits (1198) to b.
tt Notice that when you create the four 4-digit numbers, a always gives
the first digit, b gives the second digit, and so on.

tt So, your final 4 numbers will have to look like this, where the first
column contains the digits 8 0 3 3 in some order, the second column has
1 1 9 8 in some order, and so on.
tt The last column of numbers—no matter what the order of numbers

is—will always add to 30, so the total will end in 0. Putting down the 0
and carrying the 3, the next column must add to 28. Writing the 8 and
carrying the 2, the next column will add to 21. Putting down the 1 and
carrying the 2, the first column will add to 16, producing the predicted
total of 16,180. And when you throw in the decimal points, you are
guaranteed to get 1.6180, which are the first 5 digits of phi.
2 2 3
8 1 6 9
0 1 8 8
3 9 7 9
+ 3 8 4 4
16 1 8 0
tt As it turns out, there is nothing particularly special about the number

phi here. Once you give your 4 volunteers any group of numbers, you
know what their final total will be, regardless of how each individual
arranges his or her cards.
PHI AND FIBONACCI
¸¸ Often referred to as the golden ratio, phi

has been deliberately used by artists,
architects, and advertisers to produce
appealing designs.
¸¸ The number of petals on a flower or

the number of spirals on a pinecone
or pineapple often turns out to be a
Fibonacci number.
©Imo/iStock/Thinkstock.
62 Math and Magic

¸¸ Phi is intimately connected with the Fibonacci numbers—1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, … ,—which start with 1 and 1, and then every
number is the sum of the 2 numbers before it. For example, 3 + 5 = 8, 5 +
8 = 13, and so on.
¸¸ The ratios of consecutive Fibonacci numbers get closer and closer to

1.618—closer and closer to phi.
1
⁄1 1
2
⁄1 2
3
⁄2 1.5
5
⁄3 1.666...
8
⁄5 1.6
13
⁄8 1.625
21
⁄13 1.6153846153862
34
⁄21 1.61904761904762
55
⁄34 1.61764705882353
89
⁄55 1.61818181818182
φ 1.618033988749894...
FIBONACCI SUM AND QUOTIENT

tt The numbers in this trick are created like the Fibonacci numbers.
tt Let’s call the numbers you start with x and y. Thus, the number in row 3
will be x + y.
tt Row 4 is the sum of rows 2 and 3, so when you add y to x + y, you get
x + 2y.

tt Continuing in this way, the rest of the rows will
appear as shown at right. (It’s no coincidence 1 x
that all of these coefficients are Fibonacci 2 y
numbers.) 3 x+y
4 x + 2y
tt If you add all 10 of these numbers together,
you get a grand total of 55x + 88y 5 2x + 3y
6 3x + 5y
tt What makes that number special is that 7 5x + 8y
55x + 88y 8 8x + 13y
= 11 × (5x + 8y) 9 13x + 21y
= 11 × row 7. 10 21x + 34y
tt Thus, to add all the numbers, as soon as you
see the number in row 7, you just multiply it
by 11. For example, if the number in row 7 is 81, then the grand total is
guaranteed to be 891.
tt How can you guarantee that the final ratio of row 10 divided by row 9
would start with 1.61? The secret has to do with a surprising property
of fractions that isn’t taught in school. When you first learned about
fractions, you were probably taught that to add 2 fractions, such as
1
⁄2 + 1 ⁄3, you add them by putting them over a common denominator.
Here you have
3
⁄6 + 2 ⁄6 = 5⁄6 .
tt But what happens if you take 2 fractions and add the numerators
together and add the denominators together? This has a special name
called the mediant. For example, the mediant of 1 ⁄2 and 1 ⁄3 is
1+ 1 = 2 .
2+ 3 5
You will learn a quick way to multiply by 11

in the next lesson.
64 Math and Magic

tt The mediant has the interesting property that it always lies in between
the original 2 fractions. For example, with the fractions 1 ⁄3 and 1 ⁄2, their
median, 2 ⁄5, lies between them:
1
⁄3 < 2 ⁄5 < 1 ⁄2 ,
which you can verify, because 1 ⁄3 is about 0.333, 2 ⁄5 is 0.4, and 1 ⁄2 is 0.5.
tt In general, for any positive numbers a, b, c, and d, if
a<c,
b d
then the mediant (a + b) ⁄(c + d) will always lie between them:
a < a+c < c .

b b+d d
tt Let’s see how this applies to the magic trick. When you divide row 10 by
row 9, you are looking at the quotient
21 x + 34 y
,
13 x + 21 y
but that’s the mediant of the fractions 21x ⁄13x and 34y ⁄21y, so it must lie in
between them:
21 x < 21 x + 34 y < 34 y .
13 x 13 x + 21 y 21 y
tt And because 21 ⁄13 begins with 1.615 and 34 ⁄21 begins with 1.619, then the
ratio (21x + 34y) ⁄(13x + 21y) must lie between 1.615 and 1.619:
21 x + 34 y 34 y 34
1.615 = 21 = 21 x < < = = 1.619,
13 13 x 13 x + 21 y 21 y 21
so the first 3 digits of the quotient must begin with 1.61.
tt If you continue the process of creating more and more numbers in

leapfrog Fibonacci fashion, the ratio will get closer and closer to the
golden ratio, phi: 1.618….

PINPIN
tt The secret behind this trick is pretty simple, yet it usually gets a very big
reaction. It’s based on the fact that if you take any 4-digit number—let’s
say your bank account PIN is 2358—and write it twice so that it appears
as an 8-digit number, such as 23582358, that’s the same as the 4-digit
PIN multiplied by 10,001.
2358 × 10001 = 23582358
tt Thus, when you divide this 8-digit number by the 4-digit PIN, you are
guaranteed to get back to 10,001. And if you divide this number by 9
and then 9 again, your answer begins with 123.469.
tt What makes this trick so deceptive is that you divide the 8-digit number
in the opposite order. First, you divide by 9, then 9 again, and then by
the 4-digit PIN. But either way, you are guaranteed to get 123.469.
tt This trick gets such a good reaction that you might be asked to do it a
second time. If so, then have your audience take their 4-digit PIN, enter
it twice, then divide by 7, and then divide by 7 again, and then divide
by the original PIN. They’ll get 10,001 divided by 49, which begins
204.102….
tt You can either memorize this number or bring out a calculator as

if it will help you figure out the audience’s random answer. Just
calculate 10,001 divided by 49 and their answer, 204.102, will be
staring you in the face.
tt It turns out that 10,001 = 73 × 137, so if you ask someone to take the
8-digit number, divide it by 73, and then divide that by his or her PIN,
you are guaranteed to get exactly 137—which is easier to remember
but seems suspicious. After all, if you take a large random number and
divide it by a bunch of numbers, you expect to see an answer with a
bunch of digits after the decimal point.
66 Math and Magic

REFERENCES
Benjamin, The Magic of Math.
Benjamin and Shermer, Secrets of Mental Math.
Gardner, Mental Magic.
E XERCISES
1 Take any 3-digit PIN and enter it twice so that it reads as a 6-digit
number. (For example, the PIN 123 would be entered as 123123.) Using
a calculator, divide that number by 13, then divide by 11, and then
divide by the original PIN. You should now be looking at the number
7. Why does that work? What would you get if you first divided by 23,
then by 16, and then by the PIN?
2 Start with any 3 different positive numbers from 1 to

9 and create all possible 2-digit numbers that you can
35
from them, listing them in a column. (There should be 6
numbers.) For example, if you started with 358, you would 38
create the numbers as shown at right. 53
58
Next, divide this total by the sum of the original 3
83
numbers. Here, 3 + 5 + 8 = 16, and when you divide 352
by this you get 352 ÷ 16 = 22. Explain why you will always + 85
get an answer of 22. 352
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 130.

LESSON 8
LOOK LIKE
8
A GENIUS
I n this lesson, you will learn skills that will make

you look like a mathematical genius. Some
of these take some practice, but some can be
learned immediately. You will learn methods that
are easy to do, and you will get the answers so
fast that it will seem like magic.
For more methods that will make you look like a mathematical genius,
check out the Great Course Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur T. Benjamin.
EXPLANATIONS
MULTIPLYING BY 11S
tt Let’s start with a small 2-digit number: 23. Multiplying 23 by 11 is as
easy as 2 + 3, which is 5. And there’s your answer: 2 5 3.
23 × 11 = 253
tt Let’s do a bigger problem: 63 × 11. The sum of 6 and 3 is 9, so the

answer is 6 9 3:
63 × 11 = 693.
tt But suppose the numbers add up to a number that is higher than 9. For
example, what is 86 × 11? The sum of 8 and 6 is 14, but the answer is
not 8 14 6. The 1 makes the 8 carry, and the answer is 9 4 6.
68 Math and Magic

WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ If you were doing a problem like 23 × 11 on paper, the calculation would

look like what is shown at right.
¸¸ The answer begins with 2, ends in 3, and in between is 2 + 3 (which is 5).
¸¸ This method even works for larger numbers. Take, for 2 3

example, the first 3 digits of pi and multiply that by 11:
× 1 1
3 1 4 × 11. 2 3
2 3 0
¸¸ The answer begins with a 3 and ends with a 4. But in
between is 3 + 1 (which is 4) and 1 + 4 (which is 5), so 2 5 3
here’s the answer:
3 4 5 4.
DIVIDING BY 91
tt Once you’ve learned how to multiply by 11s, it is practically as easy to
divide numbers by 91. Take any number less than 91—for example, 34.
34 ÷ 91
tt STEP 1 | Multiply your number by 11:

34 × 11 = 374.
tt STEP 2 | Subtract 1:
374 − 1 = 373.
tt STEP 3 | These are the first 3 digits of your answer after the decimal
point. In this case, 34 ÷ 91 begins like this:
0.373.
tt STEP 4 | For the next 3 digits of the answer, subtract the first 3 digits
from 999:
999 − 373 = 626.
Lesson 8 ♠ Look like a Genius 69

tt Hence, 34 ÷ 91 begins like this:
0.373626….
tt In fact, the exact answer is a repeating decimal with those 6 digits

repeating indefinitely:
34 ÷ 91 = 0.373626 373626 373626….
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ This method is based on the fact that 91 × 11 = 1001. So, the fraction
34 ,
91
when you multiply the top and bottom by 11, is equal to
34 = 34 × 11 = 374 .
91 91 11 1001
¸¸ As it happens,
1
⁄1001 = 0.000999 000999 000999…,
so when each group of 6 gets multiplied by 374, then each group of 6

becomes
374 × 999 = 374 × (1000 − 1),
which equals 374,000 − 374, which is 373,626. 3 74000

− 3 74
3 736 26
70 Math and Magic

MULTIPLYING NEAR 100
tt Let’s now look at how to multiply numbers that are close to 100. Let’s
begin with 2 numbers that are a little bit above 100. For example:
1 06
×1 1 1
tt First note how far each number is above 100; let’s call these
distance numbers.
tt In this case, 106 is 6 above 100 and 111 is 11 above 100, which you will
denote as follows.
1 06 (6)
× 1 1 1 (1 1)
tt Next, add 106 + 11 or 111 + 6; either way, you’ll get 117, which you can
write down.
1 06 (6) 111 + 6 = 117 1 06 (6) 111 + 6 = 117

× 1 1 1 (1 1) 106 + 11 = 117 × 1 1 1 (1 1) 106 + 11 = 117
1 17 1 17
tt Finally, multiply your distance numbers together; in this case,

6 × 11 = 66, which you write down as follows.
1 06 (6)
6 × 11 = 66
× 1 1 1 (1 1)
1 1 7 6 6
tt And that’s the answer!

106 × 111 = 11,766

tt The same method works when multiplying numbers below 100, except
the distance numbers are negative. For example, to do 96 × 93, your
distance numbers are −4 and −7, giving you what follows.
96 (−4)
×93 (−7)
tt Next, you subtract either 96 − 7 or 93 − 4. Either way, you get 89.
96 (−4)
×93 (−7)
89
tt Then, you multiply (−4)(−7) = 28 to get the answer.
96 (−4)
×93 (−7)
89 2 8
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ Here’s the algebra behind this method:
(z + a)(z + b)
= z2 + za + zb + ab
= z(z + a + b) + ab
¸¸ This says that if you take the number (z + a) times the number (z + b), then
after 2 lines of algebra, you get z times the quantity (z + a + b) plus ab.
¸¸ The variables z, a, and b can be any numbers, but typically z is some

number with lots of zeros in it. When z = 100,
(100 + a)(100 + b) = 100(100 + a + b) + ab.
¸¸ The numbers a and b are the distance numbers.
72 Math and Magic

tt But suppose you had larger numbers, such as 109 × 112. Your distance
numbers are 9 and 12.
1 09 (9)
×1 12 (1 2)
tt Adding 109 + 12 (or 112 + 9), you get 121, but that really represents
121 × 100, which is 12,100.
1 09 (9)
× 1 12 (1 2)
121
× 1 00
1 2 1 00
tt Now when you multiply your distance numbers,
1 09 (9)
× 1 12 (1 2)
121 1 0 8
× 1 00
1 2 1 00
you add that to 12,100, resulting in what follows.
1 09 (9)
× 1 12 (1 2)
121 1 0 8
× 1 00
1 2 1 00
+ 1 08
1 2 2 08
tt Note that the answer is not 121 108.

tt You can even use this idea to multiply numbers where one is above 100
and the other is below 100.
tt Let’s try 116 × 97. You start by doing 116 − 3 (or 97 + 16) to get 113,
which you multiply by 100 to get 11,300.
1 16 (1 6)
× 97 (−3)
1 13
× 1 00
1 1 3 00
tt Next, because 16 × (− 3) = −48, you subtract 48.
1 16 (1 6)
× 97 (−3)
1 13 −48
× 1 00
1 1 3 00
− 48
1 1 252
tt Once you understand the algebra, you can apply this method to
all kinds of multiplication problems whenever the 2 numbers being
multiplied are close together.
For more details, check out the Great Course Secrets of Mental Math.
74 Math and Magic

MENTAL LOGS
tt How do you add big numbers quickly?
9563
8459
6837
+ 1 976
26835
tt The answer is actually staring you in the face.
tt The answer appears in the second row from the bottom.
tt To get the answer, take the third number, 6837; place a 2 in front of
it, 26,837; and then subtract 2 from the last digit:
26,835.
tt Now try it with these special numbers:
5763
4939
8533
+ 9 2 96
tt From the third number, 8533, you get the answer (put 2 in front and
then subtract 2 from the end):
28,531.

WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ The numbers on each side are chosen so that the first, second, and
fourth numbers of each log always add up to 18.
¸¸ For example, in the last example, you have what follows.
5763
4939
8533
+ 9296
¸¸ As a result, the ones digits contribute 18, the tens digits contribute 180,
the hundreds digits contribute 1800, and the thousands digits
contribute 18,000 for a grand total of 19,998.
1 8
1 80
1 800
+ 1 8000
1 9998
¸¸ Now, when you add the third number—for example, 8533—it gets added
to 19,998 (which is 20,000 − 2).
¸¸ So, all you need to do is add 20,000 to 8533 (by placing a 2 in front) and
then subtract 2 to get 28,531.
76 Math and Magic

DO IT YOURSELF
¸¸ You can do the mental logs trick at home using popsicle sticks. Create 10
popsicle sticks, each with 5 numbers on the front and back. You can use
any numbers that you like; all that is needed is that with each number,
the first, second, third, and fifth digits add to 18.
¸¸ For example, on the first stick, you can put
7 + 6 + 5 + 0 = 18.
¸¸ On the second stick, you can put
3 + 7 + 6 + 2 = 18.
¸¸ Thus, no matter which popsicle sticks are chosen, regardless of what

side is showing or what order is used, to get their total, all you have to
do is take the second number from the bottom, attach 2 in the front, and
subtract 2 from the end.
9 3 8 6 4 9
¸¸ For example, what’s the total if your
volunteer chooses 6 sticks that give 1 7 0 3 0 7
you these five 6-digit numbers shown 2 6 7 4 9 2
at right.
5 7 8 7 7 3
¸¸ It will be a 7-digit number, beginning 6 2 3 5 5 0
with 2.
¸¸ When you attach that to your key number, 578773, and subtract 2 from
the end, you get the answer:
2,578,771.
¸¸ Try not to use more than 5 or 6 digits because the more digits you
use, the longer it takes for your volunteer to check your answer with a
calculator, and there is the increased chance that he or she will make a
mistake themselves. Also, the more digits that you have in your answer,
the more likely it is that your volunteer might notice that it has a lot in
common with the fourth row.

SQUARING
tt Squaring is the act of multiplying a number with itself. To square
a number that ends in 5, you just have to remember 2 things: The
answer will always end in 25, and it begins by taking the first digit and
multiplying it by the next-higher digit.
tt For example, for the square of 35, the first digit of 35 is 3, so the answer
begins with 3 times 4,
3 × 4 = 12,
and ends with 25. Therefore, the answer is

35 2 = 1225.
tt It even works with larger numbers. For example, let’s do the square of
115. You start with 11 and its next-higher number:
11 × 12 = 132.
tt Therefore,
115 2 = 13,225.
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ The reason this works is based on the algebra:
a2 = (a − 5)(a + 5) + 25.
¸¸ For example, this says that the square of 35 is
(30 × 40) + 25 = 1200 + 25 = 1225.
¸¸ Let’s extend this in 2 different ways. If you multiply both sides by a, you
get a fast way to cube —or take to the third power—a 2-digit number that
ends in 5 (or at least get a quick approximation):
a3 = (a − 5)a(a + 5) + 25a.
78 Math and Magic

¸¸ For example, 35 cubed is approximately
353 ≈ 30 × 35 × 40 = 42,000.
¸¸ To get the exact answer, add 25 × 35 = 875:
42,875.
¸¸ A more useful generalization is that with practice, you can square any
2-digit number (or higher) based on this formula:
a2 = (a − d)(a + d) + d2 .
¸¸ For example, you may already know that 12 squared is 144, but here’s
how you would calculate that with this method. Just let d = 2 to get
12 2 = (12 − 2)(12 + 2) + 2 2
= 10 × 14 + 4 = 144.
¸¸ You don’t have to think about the algebra when you square numbers.
For example, when you square 12, you can go down 2 to 10 and then to
balance it go up 2 to 14. Multiply those together to get 140. And because
you went up and down 2, you add 22, which is 4, to get 144.
REFERENCES
Gardner, Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games.

E XERCISE
1 Using the skills from this lesson, quickly mentally compute the answers
to the following problems:
a) 54 × 11
b) 76 × 11
c) 76 ÷ 91
d) 85 2
e) 542
f) 106 × 109
g) 98 × 95
h) 112 × 94
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 130.
80 Math and Magic

LESSON 9
THE MAGIC
9
OF NINE
I n this lesson, you will learn how to do some

impressive calculations and feats of mind that
are based on the number 9. You will also learn
how to apply cube roots in magic tricks as well as
how to figure out how old someone is from just a
few seemingly random calculations.
EXPLANATIONS
MISSING DIGIT
tt People usually assume that this trick requires superhuman calculating
abilities, yet it’s all based on the magic property of the number 9. What
does 9 have to do with it?
tt Let’s look at the first few multiples of 9.

9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90, 99, 108, 117, 126, 135, …
tt What do they all have in common? If you add the digits, you get 9.
1 + 8 = 9; 2 + 7 = 9; 5 + 4 = 9; 1 + 2 + 6 = 9
tt An exception is 99, which adds to 18. But that’s okay, because 18 is a

multiple of 9.
Lesson 9 ♠ The Magic of Nine 81

tt Here’s the deal: A number is a multiple of 9 if and only if when you add
the digits, you either get
9 or 18 or 27 or 36 …
tt The digits have to add up to a multiple of 9.
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ Let’s take the number 3456.
3456 = (3 × 1000) + (4 × 100) + (5 × 10) + 6

= 3 × (999 + 1) + 4 × (99 + 1) + 5 × (9 + 1) + 6
= (3 × 999) + (4 × 99) + (5 × 9) + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6
¸¸ Because 999 is a multiple of 9, then so is 3 × 999. And so is 4 × 99 and

5 × 9. And when you add these multiples of 9 together, you still have a
multiple of 9:
3456 = (a multiple of 9) + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6
= (a multiple of 9) + 18,
which is still a multiple of 9.
¸¸ By the same argument, if you take any number and add its digits, it tells
you how far it is above a multiple of 9.
¸¸ For example, the number 64 has
6 + 4 = 10,
so it’s 10 bigger than a multiple of 9. That can be verified, because
64 − 10 = 54
is a multiple of 9.
82 Math and Magic

tt In this trick, you ask your audience to choose a 3-digit number,
mentally add the digits, and then subtract that number from the total.
You do that to force them to start with a multiple of 9.
tt For example, if they start with the number

352,
sum the digits,

3 + 5 + 2 = 10,
and then subtract that from their original number, they get
352 − 10 = 342,
which is a multiple of 9. You can tell that it’s a multiple of 9 because the
digits of 342 add up to 9.
tt Another way to start the trick without doing the subtraction step is to
just give them a multiple of 9 to start with, such as
3456 or 567,
which add to 18.
tt To make this number more personal, you can use a year that is
meaningful to you, or you can just use the first 4 digits of pi: 3141,
which adds to 9.
tt Next, have your audience multiply their number by any 3-digit number.
The number can be of any length, but it’s probably most impressive if
the answer is 6 or 7 digits long. (If it’s any longer than that, then there
is too much of a chance that the person you choose to call out his or her
digits will make a mistake.)
tt Let’s suppose that the person calls out 6 of his or her 7 digits in random
order, and they happen to be
235711.

tt You don’t know what that person’s 7-digit number is, but you do know
that his or her answer has to be a multiple of 9. This is because the
person started with a multiple of 9 and multiplied it by something,
so his or her answer still has to be a multiple of 9. So, as the person is
calling out his or her numbers, you add them up. In this case,
2 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 1 + 1 = 19.
tt So, what do you need to add to reach a multiple of 9?

19 + 8 = 27,
so the missing digit has to be 8.
tt Remember that the person can call out his or her 6 digits in any order
and you can still figure it out.
tt Let’s do a trickier example. Suppose the person calls out the digits
442557,
which adds to 27. What did they leave out? You may be tempted to
call out 0—and it might be 0, but it could also be 9. You don’t know if
the 7-digit numbers add to 27 or if they add to 36. In that situation,
you guess!
tt But as a magician, you can do it in such a way that it does not look like
you’re guessing. For example, you can say you are having trouble with
one of the person’s numbers—that’s because he or she left out a 0 or 9.
When this happens, ask the person to concentrate on his or her number
and say, “It seems like you’re thinking of nothing. You didn’t leave out
a 0, did you?” If the person says yes, then you say, “Ah, that’s why I was
getting a lot of nothing!” and you take your bow. If the person says no,
then you say, “I didn’t think so, but it seemed like you were thinking of
nothing, so really concentrate this time. Then say, “You’re thinking of
the number 9” and take a bow.
84 Math and Magic

tt If you want to avoid the 0 or 9 issue altogether, there’s another approach
that some magicians use. When the person looks at his or her 7-digit
number, have him or her mentally circle any one of his or her numbers.
But tell the person, “Just don’t circle a 0, because that’s already a circle.”
That seems reasonable, or at least humorous. Then have the person
call out his or her other digits, and if they add to a multiple of 9, then
because the person agreed to not think of 0, you know he or she left out
the number 9.
DIGITAL ROOTS
¸¸ If you take a number, such as
1776,
and add its digits,
1+ 7 + 7 + 6 = 21,
and if you get a 2-digit number, add those digits,
2 + 1 = 3,
then the 1-digit number that you end up with is called the digital root.
So, in this example, 1776 has a digital root of 3.
¸¸ What does the digital root tell you about the number?
¸¸ If the digital root is 9, then your number is definitely a multiple of 9.
¸¸ If the digital root is not 9, then the number that you get tells you the
remainder that you get when you divide that number by 9. In the case
of 1776, because it has a digital root of 3, then you know that it is 3
bigger than a multiple of 9.
¸¸ Incidentally, if the digital root is 3, 6, or 9, then your original number is

a multiple of 3. So, 1776, though not a multiple of 9, is a multiple of 3.

CASTING OUT 9S
¸¸ There is another surprising way to create a multiple of 9: Take any

number, such as 1618, and scramble the digits to create a new number,
such as 8116, and when you subtract the smaller number from the larger
one, you are guaranteed to get a multiple of 9.
¸¸ In this case, you have
8116 − 1618 = 6498,
which (because the digits add to 27) is a multiple of 9.
¸¸ The reason this works is because when you scramble the digits, you don’t
change the digital root. In this case, 8116 and 1618 both add to 16, so
they both have a digital root of 7. So, both of these numbers are 7 bigger
than a multiple of 9. In this case,
8116 = 9x + 7
for some integer x, and
1618 = 9y + 7
for some integer y.
¸¸ Hence, their difference will be
(9x + 7) − (9y + 7) = 9x − 9y = 9(x − y),
which is definitely a multiple of 9.
¸¸ The process of simplifying and reducing numbers to their digital roots

and doing arithmetic with them is sometimes called casting out 9s
because every number is reduced to a single digit, casting out—or
subtracting—a multiple of 9. This can be used as a useful way for
checking your work or even solving tricky math problems.
86 Math and Magic

CUBE ROOTS
tt Let’s do another calculation that seems extremely hard but is in fact
very easy to do. This time, instead of multiplying, squaring, or even
cubing, you will work with cube roots.
tt In this trick, you ask a volunteer to cube a 2-digit or 3-digit number.

You know that the number that he or she is giving you is a perfect cube.
If the number is not a perfect cube—for example, if the person asked for
the cube root of 10—then the answer is not a whole number (the cube
root of 10 is about 2.154).
tt This method only works when the

person’s answer is a perfect cube, Recall that cubing a number
and it’s very easy to do. All you is taking a number to the
need to know are the cubes of the third power. For example, 5
numbers from 1 to 10. cubed is 53 = 5 × 5 × 5 = 125.
The cube root is the reverse

13 = 1 63 = 216 of this process. For example,
23 = 8 73 = 343 the cube root of 125 is 5.
3
3 = 27 8 3 = 512
43 = 64 93 = 729
53 = 125 103 = 1000
tt Look at the last digit of each number:

1, 8, 7, 4, 5, 6, 3, 2, 9, 0.
tt Notice that all of the digits are different. There’s only one cube that
ends in 1—namely, 1. There’s only one cube that ends in 2—namely, 8.
In fact, the last digit of the cube is either the same as the original digit
or is 10 minus the original digit. For example, 3 cubed, or 27, has a last
digit of 7, and 3 + 7 = 10.
tt How does this help you? Let’s suppose you ask a volunteer to cube
a 2-digit number and the answer is 74,088. To figure out his or her
original 2-digit number, you start by finding the cube root of 74,088.

tt When you hear this answer, you listen for 2 things. The first thing you
listen for are the thousands—that is, the numbers before the comma. In
this case, that would be 74.
74,088
tt Now 74 lies between 4 cubed and 5 cubed.

43 = 64
53 = 125
tt This means that the first digit of the cube root must be 4. Why? Well,
403 = 64,000
503 = 125,000
tt Hence, the cube root of 74,088 must lie between 40 and 50, so the
answer must be in the 40s.
tt To find the last digit of the cube root, you just look at the last digit of
the cube. The number ends in 8,
74,088,
tt and only one number when cubed ends in 8—namely, 2. Thus, the
original 2-digit number must have been
42.
tt Let’s try another example. Suppose that a 3-digit number is cubed and
the 9-digit answer is
197,137,368.
tt How can you figure out the original 3-digit number? Again, you look at
the number before the first comma, representing the millions, which is
197. From the table of cubes, you see that 197 lies between 125 and 216.
53 = 125
63 = 216
88 Math and Magic

tt So, the first digit has to be 5. And because the 9-digit number ends
in 8, the original 3-digit number ends in 2. Hence, the cube root looks
like this:
5 ? 2.
tt How do you find the middle digit? Notice that if you add the digits of
the 9-digit number, you get 45.
1 + 9 + 7 + 1 + 3 + 7 + 3 + 6 + 8 = 45
tt This means that the 9-digit number is a multiple of 9 and therefore the
original 3-digit number has to be a multiple of 3. This means that the
digits of the original number have to add up to a multiple of 3. Thus,
the 3-digit number has to be either
522 or 552 or 582.
tt Which one is it? You saw that the millions

number, 197, is between 125 and 216. If the cube root
is not a multiple
53 = 125 of 3, then the
situation is a little
63 = 216 trickier. The details
are provided in
tt And it’s much closer to 216 than it is to 125.
the Exercises
Thus, your answer should be the largest of section at the end
the 3 candidates, so the cube root is of this lesson.
582.
AGE DETERMINATION
tt This trick applies the ideas of this lesson to figure out how old someone
is from just a few seemingly random calculations. Let’s go through the
steps of the first calculation of this trick.
tt Your volunteer starts with his or her age, but it can be any random
2-digit number. Next, he or she adds 7, which creates another random
number. Nothing has happened yet.

tt Then, the volunteer multiplies by 24, which creates a multiple of 3.
When the person adds or subtracts 60, he or she still has a multiple of 3.
Then, when the volunteer multiplies by 12, this creates a multiple of 9.
In addition, it has to be an even number. Then, the person multiplies by
another number, so it’s still an even multiple of 9.
tt But after the volunteer adds his or her age, 2 things happen. First, if the
person’s age is even, then his or her answer will still be even, and if the
person’s age is odd, then his or her answer will be odd. So, by looking at
the last digit of the answer, you can tell whether the person’s age is even
or odd.
tt Second, when the volunteer adds his or her age to a multiple of 9, the
digital root changes from 9 to whatever the digital root of his or her age
is. For example, if the person is 43, which has a digital root of 7, when
he or she adds that to a multiple of 9, the answer will have a digital root
of 7. So, by adding up the digits of the answer, you know the digital root
of the person’s age.
tt For example, suppose that after asking your questions, your volunteer
produces an answer of
314159.
tt How do you determine their age?
tt First, by looking at the last digit, you know that his or her age is an
odd number.
tt Next, you add the digits of their answer. In this case, the numbers add
to 23:
3 + 1 + 4 + 1 + 5 + 9 + 2 = 23.
tt This person’s age has the same digital root as 23. And because his or
her age is an odd number, the answer might be 23. If it’s not, then all
you have to do is add or subtract 18 until you reach his or her age.
tt Remember that the digital root stays the same as you add and subtract
multiples of 9, and because you know that the last digit of the person’s
age is odd, you can just add multiples of 18.
90 Math and Magic

tt So, starting with 23, and adding or subtracting 18, the person’s age
must be one of these numbers:
5, 23, 41, 59, 77, or 95.
tt And that should be enough information for you.
tt Let’s do another example. Suppose the person shows you the number
1618033.
tt You can tell from the last digit that this person’s age must be an
odd number.
tt Next, add the digits of this number:

1 + 6 + 1 + 8 + 0 + 3 + 3 = 22.
tt Can this person’s age be 22? No, because his or her age is odd. And
because 22 has a digital root of 4, if the person is younger than 22, then
subtract 9 and his or her age must be 13, which also has a digital root
of 4. If the person is older than 22, then you add 9 to get 31. So, the
person’s age must be 31 or be larger by a multiple of 18. So, his or her
age is either
31 or 49 or 67 or 85 or 103.
tt If you’re still not sure, then play it safe and guess young! For example,
suppose you’re not sure if the person is 49 or 67. Guess 49 and if the
person says, “I wish,” you say, “Well, the numbers were saying that 67
was most likely, but I didn’t believe it, so I went with the second-most-
likely option. Are you really 67? You look much younger!” So, even if
your first guess is wrong, the person will be happy with your answer.
tt If you don’t want to take any chances, then the second calculation gives
you the answer without any guesswork.
tt This time, the first few steps are random, but as soon as your volunteer
multiplies by 12 and then by 30, he or she has a multiple of 360, which
is a multiple of 9. In addition, you know that it ends in 0. And that’s still
true, even after the person multiplies by another 2-digit number.

tt For example, at this point, the person’s number could be
17,357,760.
(Notice that it’s a multiple of 9 because the digits add to 36.)
tt Then, you have the person subtract 3141, which is a multiple of 9, so

the answer is still a multiple of 9. Moreover, the last digit will now be 9,
which is less conspicuous than the 0.
tt Subtracting 3141 from the last answer gives this:

17,357,760 − 3141 = 17,354,619.
tt Next, when the person adds the age of his or her friend, 2 things
happen. First, as before, the digital root of the answer becomes the
digital root of the age. And second, because the number used to end
in 9, as soon as you see the final answer, you will know the last digit of
the age, by simply increasing the last digit by 1.
tt For example, if the friend’s age was 42, the new answer would be
17,354,619 + 42 = 17,354,661.
tt When the person shows you this big number, you know 2 things. By
looking at the last digit, which is 1, you know immediately that the age
the person is thinking of ends in 2. Second, when you add the digits of
the big number, you get 33:
1 + 7 + 3 + 5 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 1 = 33,
which has a digital root of

3 + 3 = 6.
tt So, the person’s secret 2-digit number has a digital root of 6. This
means that the sum of the digits must be 6 or 9 bigger, which is 15. And
because the person’s final digit was 2, you know that his or her secret
age must be 42.
92 Math and Magic

REFERENCES
E XERCISES
Here’s another interesting pattern about cubes. Look at the table of cubes
from 1 to 10 and notice the digital root of each number:
DIGITAL
DIGITAL
ROOT
ROOT
13 = 1 1 63 = 216 9
3 3
2 = 8 8 7 = 343 1
3 3
3 = 27 9 8 = 512 8
3 3
4 = 64 1 9 = 729 9
3 3
5 = 125 8 10 = 1000 1
What’s going on here? When you cube a multiple of 3 (such as 3, 6, 9, etc.),

then it makes sense that the result will have a digital root of 9 (because
it will be a multiple of 9). What this table also shows is that if you cube a
number that is 1 or 2 more than a multiple of 3, then the digital root will
be 1 or 8, respectively. This pattern can be useful when doing cube roots of
3-digit cubes, as described in some of the following exercises.

1 Find the cube roots of the following perfect cubes. The first 2 have
2-digit answers and the last 3 have 3-digit answers.
a) 148,877
b) 704,969
c) 34,012,224
d) 273,359,449
e) 656,234,909
2 Here’s another way to determine anyone’s age between 10 and 99 with

no guesswork required at all. Suppose you ask a volunteer to perform
the following steps, making sure that he or she presses the equals (=)
button after each step.
STEP 1 | Enter a random 3-digit number on your calculator.
STEP 2 | Multiply by 12 (number of months in a year).
STEP 3 | Add or subtract 24 (hours in a day).
STEP 4 | Multiply by 30 (average number of days per month).
STEP 5 | Multiply by any 2-digit number.
STEP 6 | Subtract 3141 (digits of pi: circular reasoning).
STEP 7 | Add any age.
When your volunteer shows you the answer, you tell him or her the age
with just a little bit of thought. How do you do it?
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 131.
94 Math and Magic

LESSON 10
LOOK LIKE
10
A PSYCHIC
I n this lesson, you will learn some magic tricks

that will give the illusion of your ability to read
someone’s mind or predict the future—all using
the power of mathematics.
EXPLANATIONS
EXACT BIRTHDATE CALCULATION
tt The secret to figuring out someone’s birthday exactly is a little
special algebra.
tt Let’s say that your volunteer’s birthday has month m, date d (written as a
2-digit number), and year y (also written as a 2-digit number).
tt You start with the month and add 16, producing

m + 16.
tt Then, you multiply this by 25, which is

25(m + 16) = 25m + 400.
tt Then, you subtract 36, giving you

25m + 364.
tt Then, you multiply this by 8, which is

200m + 2912.
Lesson 10 ♠ Look like a Psychic 95

tt Then, you subtract 64, giving you
200m + 2848.
tt Next, you divide by 2, giving you

100m + 1424.
tt Then, you add the date, leaving you with

100m + d + 1424.
tt If your volunteer doesn’t want to give you the year, you could end the
trick now by asking them to subtract
1424,
which will produce

100m + d,
which is the person’s birthday.
tt For example, if the birthday is March 19, then m = 3 and d = 19, so the
number would be
319,
which is the birthday

03/19.
tt Assuming that your volunteer is willing to enter his or her year of birth,
then instead of subtracting 1424, multiply by 5, producing
5(100m + d + 1424) = 500m + 5d + 7120.
tt Then, you add 314, giving you

500m + 5d + 7434.
tt And when you multiply this by 20, you get

20(500m + 5d + 7434) = 10,000m + 100d + 148680
96 Math and Magic

tt Next, you subtract your fudge factor of 5823, giving you
10,000m + 100d + 142,857.
tt Finally, when you add the year y,

10,000m + 100d + 142,857 + y,
and then subtract 142,857, you get what you want, which is
10,000m + 100d + y.
tt So, if you take March 19, 1961, where m = 3, d = 19 and y = 61, this
would give you what follows.
3 0000
1 900
+ 61
3 1 96 1
tt And this is the birthday 03/19/61.
MAGIC NUMBER 142,857
¸¸ The number 142857 is a magical one. When you write the fraction 1 ⁄7 in
decimal notation, you get
1
⁄7 = 0.142857 142857 142857 ….
¸¸ As a consequence of that, it has a curious property: If you multiply

142857 by 1, you get the same number! Okay, that’s not so amazing. But
if you multiply it by 2, you get
2 × 142857 = 285714,
which are the same numbers as before, starting with the number 2.

¸¸ Furthermore,
3 × 142857 = 428571
4 × 142857 = 571428
5 × 142857 = 714285
6 × 142857 = 857142,
which are the same digits in the

same circular order.
¸¸ And if you multiply this magical

number by 7, then you get
7 × 142857 = 999999.
STACKED DICE
tt This trick is very simple, but it still fools most people,
even those who play with dice a lot. The secret of this
trick is to look at the number on top of the top die and
subtract it from 21. That’s it.
tt So, if the dice were stacked like this, with a 3 on top,

then the total must be 21 − 3 = 18.
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
¸¸ This trick exploits the well-known feature that the numbers on the
opposite sides of a die always sum to 7. If you were to sum the top and
bottom number of each stacked die, the total would come to 21. But you
are only summing the numbers on 5 of the 6 sides, so you subtract the
top side.
¸¸ In general, you can let your volunteer roll any number of dice, and if he
or she uses n dice, then the sum of all the “hidden numbers” is
7n − the top number.
98 Math and Magic

ALPHABET CARDS
tt The secret to this trick is almost staring you in the face, and it has a lot
in common with some of the card tricks in lesson 2, which were based
on parity. Imagine that the letters of the alphabet were placed on a
5-by-5 checkerboard, plus 1 extra square at the bottom for the letter Z.
tt When you do so, you’ll notice

that all of the vowels happen
to be on light squares. That’s
because the vowels A, E, I,
O, U, W, and Y are in odd
positions of the alphabet: 1,
5, 9, 15, 21, 23, and 25. In other
words, all of the vowels have
the same parity, because they
correspond to odd numbers. As
a result, you are guaranteed to
start on a light square.
tt Every time you make a move—

whether it is up, down, left, or
right—you will always move
to a square of opposite color:
either from light to dark or from dark to light. More specifically, if you
take 1 step, or 3 steps, or 5 steps, or any odd number of steps, the ending
square will be of opposite color of the starting square.
tt So, because you know that your volunteer started off on a light square,
then after he or she has taken 3 steps, (by going 1 step and then 2 steps
more), you know that the person is now on a dark square.
tt At this point, you can safely remove some light squares because you
know that your volunteer can’t be on them. After that, you have the
person move an odd number of steps again and then you remove some
dark squares because you know he or she won’t be on any of those.
tt Eventually, you are led to the only dark square that remains on the
board at the end (which was the letter P in the video).

PILE-SPLITTING PREDICTION
tt This is a trick where the secret might be more
interesting than the trick itself. For this trick,
you can use
tt If you start with 10 chips and split them into coins, buttons,
piles and record the pile sizes as you go along, poker chips, etc.
then somehow, when you multiply the pile sizes
at each step and add them together, you always
get a total of 45. That’s pretty surprising, because there are almost 100
ways that you can split these piles up into smaller and smaller piles, yet
they all result in the number 45. Why is that?
tt If you start with a pile that contains n chips, then when you finish the
calculation, the final result will be
n2 − n .
2
tt So, with 10 chips, the final number will be

10 2 − 10 = 90 = 45.
2 2
tt Let’s check out smaller piles and see what they contribute.
tt Notice that a pile of 2 chips can only be split into piles of size 1 and 1, so
its total, after 1 split, will be
1 × 1 = 1,
which agrees with the formula because

2 2 − 2 = 2 = 1.
2 2
tt A pile of 3 chips must be split into a 2 1 pile, and

then a 1 1 pile.
tt This will lead to products of 2 × 1 = 2 and 1 × 1 = 1,

with a total of 3.
100 Math and Magic

tt This also agrees with the calculation because
3 2 − 3 = 6 = 3.
2 2
tt As the number of chips grows, there are more possibilities for how the
chips will be split.
PROOF BY STRONG INDUCTION
¸¸ Suppose you verified the formula whenever you had less than n chips.
Here’s a quick proof that the formula will continue to work when you
have exactly n chips. (This is known as a proof by strong induction.)
¸¸ Suppose that you split your first pile of n chips into piles with size x and y,
where x + y = n.
¸¸ This means that this split will directly contribute a product of xy to

your total.
¸¸ Also, because x is smaller than n, then by the assumed formula, no

matter how you split it into smaller piles, it will produce a grand total of
x2 − x .
2
¸¸ Likewise, the y pile will produce a grand total of
y2 − y
.
2
¸¸ So, altogether, the grand total starting from n chips will be
x2 − x y2 − y
xy + + .
2 2
which algebraically simplifies to
x 2 + 2 xy + y 2 − ( x + y ) ( x + y ) 2 − ( x + y )
= .
2 2

¸¸ And because x + y = n, this is none other than
n2 − n .
2
which is what you wanted to see.
¸¸ If you haven’t done a proof by induction before, don’t sweat it. Luckily,
the trick will always work whether you completely understand the theory
or not.
TOXIC PREDICTION
tt At the end of this trick, the fact is that you can produce any number
on your calculator. It could be 1.618033 (as it was in the video), or pi,
or even your phone number. You just have to set things up with your
calculator in advance.
tt This is how to force an answer of pi—but you can use any number that
you want. To do this, you will need a scientific calculator. In fact, if you
have a smartphone, you probably have a scientific calculator on it. If
you bring up the calculator and turn the phone on its side, the simple
calculator turns into a scientific one.
The Teaching Company Collection.
102 Math and Magic

tt First, enter the number pi (or press the p button). Then, follow these
simple instructions:
♣♣ Press the + sign. You can even

perform this trick
♣♣ Press 0. on someone else’s
calculator if you
♣♣ Press the multiplication button, ×. can quickly get to
the scientific mode
♣♣ Press the left parenthesis button, (. for a few seconds
to set things up.
tt It’s easy to remember these steps because the That will make the
4 symbols effect even more
amazing.
+0×(
seem to look like the letters

toxc
and this is why magicians call it the toxic calculation .
tt What does this accomplish? When you add 0 times anything, you are
just adding 0, so your answer won’t change. Everything you type after
the left parenthesis will eventually be multiplied by 0, so it doesn’t
matter what numbers your volunteer gives you.
tt Note: Don’t press the equals button until you are done with the
calculation. When you press the equals button, that acts like a right
parenthesis, and everything before it will get multiplied by 0 and then
added to your original number and the trick will be over.
tt Let’s go through the trick so that you learn some important details.
tt On your smartphone, bring up the calculator and then turn the

phone on its side so that you are working with the scientific calculator.
Enter your force number, pi (or press the p button), and then press the
toxic buttons.
+0×(

tt Next, turn your phone upright so that the simple calculator is in
the display.
tt When your phone is on its side, the multiplication button might still be
lit up in the scientific mode, and that might cause suspicion, so don’t
turn the phone upright—and into the simple calculator mode—until
after the volunteer gives you his or her first number.
tt Let’s say that the person chooses the number 5. Once you press 5,
the multiplication button is no longer lit up and you’ll show that to
your audience.
tt Then, ask for a 1- or 2-digit number to multiply. Let’s say the volunteer
chooses 7. You hit ×, then 7, and then + (don’t press =). This will show
the answer of 5 × 7, which is 35, so the audience will see that the
calculator is working properly.
tt Next, ask the volunteer to add a 2- or 3-digit number. (You’ve already

pressed +, but there’s no harm in pressing it again.) When the person
gives you his or her number, you enter it and then press − (not =). Again,
the calculation will display the right answer.
tt Then, have your volunteer subtract a smaller number. Enter it and then
press ÷. When you do this, the calculator will not yet show an answer
because it’s waiting for the next number to complete its calculation.
Most people won’t seem to notice this, and they will stop thinking hard
about the numbers on the display when they hear the word “division”
anyway.
tt Finally, ask the volunteer to divide by another number. You can ask
for a number that will be somewhere in the range of the answer you
want, but it’s not that important. You can just ask for a random 2-digit
number if you want. After the person gives you his or her number, you
press = and, voilà, out pops your force number, which in this case is pi.
tt If you keep the method of this trick secret—and please do—then you
will amaze a whole lot of people!
104 Math and Magic

REFERENCES
E XERCISES
1 Think of a number between 1 and 30. The magician shows you the
following 5 cards and asks you which cards contain your number.
Card 1: 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
Card 2: 2 3 6 7 10 11 14 15 18 19 22 23 26 27 30
Card 3: 4 5 6 7 12 13 14 15 20 21 22 23 28 29 30
Card 4: 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Card 5: 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
After indicating which cards have your number, the magician

immediately reveals the number. How?
2 The following curiosity can be turned into a feat of psychic power or

supersensitivity. Take any number of coins—for example, 10—and
notice how many of them are showing heads. Suppose that h of the
coins are showing heads. Divide the coins into 2 piles by choosing any
h coins and putting them in a pile on your right, and the rest of the
coins go to the left. Then, turn over every coin in the right pile so that
it shows the opposite side. It should now be the case that the right pile
and the left pile have an equal number of heads. Why?

LESSON 11
GEOMETRIC AND
11
TOPOLOGICAL
MAGIC
T his lesson focuses on things that seem

physically impossible—that seem to violate
the laws of geometry and topological intuition.
You will be exposed to geometric and topological
mysteries that are based on mathematics.
EXPLANATIONS
VANISHING RABBIT
tt Every course on magic should include the illusion of making a rabbit
disappear. This trick is a mathemagical version. It is an example of
what mathemagicians call a geometrical vanish . But before this trick
is explained, let’s look at a few other puzzling geometrical vanishes—
starting with one that wouldn’t fool anybody but illustrates the point.
tt In the video, there are 5 long lines on the screen.
tt With a wave of the magician’s hands, the 5 lines become 4 lines. Which
line disappeared?
tt Technically, none of them did. Instead, he switched the 5 lines for 4

lines that are each slightly longer than they were before. That’s the basic
premise of most geometrical vanishes.
106 Math and Magic

tt Let’s start with an 8-by-8 square, 8
which has an area of exactly 64. Cut
out a 3-by-8 rectangle; then cut that 3 3
along the diagonal to form 2 right
triangles. From the other rectangle,
cut 2 trapezoids with sides of length 5
and 3. 5 5
tt When you rearrange the pieces in the

way they are displayed in the video,
5 3
you get a 5-by-13 rectangle. Note
that the sides really do have lengths 5
and 13, but this figure has an area of
65. Where does the extra area come from?
tt The secret, which you can see if you look closely at the screen on the
video, is that the diagonal from the bottom left to the upper right is not
really a straight line. If it were a straight line, then it would have a slope
of 5 ⁄13, which is approximately 0.38.
5
⁄13 ≈ 0.385
tt But note that the bottom triangle has slope 3 ⁄8 , which is

3
⁄8 = 0.375,
which is slightly lower.
Lesson 11 ♠ Geometric and Topological Magic 107

tt And the upper part of the diagonal that comes from the other trapezoid
has slope 2 ⁄5, which is
2
⁄5 = 0.4,
which is slightly higher. So, what looks like a diagonal line actually has
a little bit of a dent in it.
tt Similarly, if you look above the diagonal, you see that the trapezoid has
a slope of 0.4 and then the triangle has a slope of 0.375. The result is
that there is a little bit of open space inside the rectangle. In fact, it’s a
tiny parallelogram that goes through the points (0, 0), (5, 2), (8,3), and
(13, 5).
tt The area of that parallelogram turns out to be exactly 1.
FURTHER EXPLANATION
¸¸ The area of a parallelogram that goes through the points (0, 0), (a, b), (c,
d), and (a + c, b + d) is the absolute value of ad − bc.
¸¸ In this example, because the parallelogram goes from (0,0) to the points
(5, 2) and (8, 3), that gives you an absolute value of
(5 × 3) − (8 × 2) = 15 − 16 = −1.
¸¸ So, the area of the parallelogram is 1.
108 Math and Magic

tt Incidentally, you may have noticed that the numbers that appeared in
the parallelogram—2, 3, 5, 8, and 13—are all Fibonacci numbers! Even
the dimensions of the original square (8 by 8) and final rectangle (5 by
13) are Fibonacci numbers. That is not a coincidence.
THE FIBONACCI NUMBERS
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, …
tt The Fibonacci numbers have many amazing mathematical properties.

One of them is that if you take a Fibonacci number, such as 8, and
multiply its immediate neighbors—5 and 13—you get 65, which is just 1
away from 82, or 64.
tt The Fibonacci numbers also have the parallelogram property. If you

take any 4 consecutive Fibonacci numbers a, b, c, and d, then it can be
shown that ad − bc is always 1 or −1.
tt For example, with 2, 3, 5, and 8, you have

(2 × 8) − (3 × 5) = 16 − 15 = 1.
tt You can use the Fibonacci numbers to create larger geometrical vanishes
where the tiny parallelogram becomes even more invisible. In the case of
a 13-by-13 square, the new 8-by-21 rectangle loses 1 unit of area because
the diagonals just barely overlap to form a parallelogram of area 1.
tt Here’s a variation on the last geometrical vanish. This idea is attributed

to Paul Curry, an amateur magician who created some amazing
card tricks.
tt Start with the 5-by-13

triangle shown at right.
B

A
B
tt Notice how you can rearrange the pieces to obtain a new 5-by-13
triangle but with an entire 1-by-1 square missing from it. Essentially,
what’s happening here is the same
A idea as before, but it’s more difficult
to see the missing parallelogram.
tt You start with a right triangle with sides of length 8 and 3. Let’s call it
triangle A, and it has an area of 12. Triangle B is a 5-by-2 right triangle,
which has an area of 5. There are also figures that look like a comb and
a toothbrush, with 7 and 8 squares, respectively. The total area of these
pieces is
12 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 32.
tt When you put them together, it looks like a triangle. But it’s not, because
triangle A has a slope of 3 ⁄8 = 0.375 and triangle B has a slope of 2 ⁄5 = 0.4.
So, the figure, which looks like a right triangle with a hypotenuse going
from (0, 0) to (13, 5), actually has a tiny dent in it at the point (8, 3) that
is hard for the eye to detect.
tt After the pieces are rearranged, again it looks like a right triangle with a
hypotenuse going from (0, 0) to (13, 5), but this time there is a tiny bulge
at the point (5, 2). So, once again, the difference in the area of this new
triangle minus the difference of the old triangle is the parallelogram
from before, which has an area of 1.
tt Hence, this bulging triangle would have an area of 33, which allows you
to squeeze in an extra 1-by-1 square.
110 Math and Magic

tt In the original disappearing rabbit There are many fascinating
trick, instead of using a 5-by-13 variations of geometric vanishes,
triangle, a 6-by-13 rectangle is used. and the principle goes back
Here, there’s an extra legitimate centuries.
6-by-13 right triangle that doesn’t
In the video, there is an Alice
move. Also, there are 13 extra in Wonderland–themed vanish
rabbits that are attached to the 2 created by ThinkFun, a company
triangles so that they appear as that produces games and
trapezoids. But otherwise, the same puzzles based on mathematics
mathematics shows that the bulge and logic. The puzzle is in honor
of the rearranged object (which is of Martin Gardner, who was the
partly hidden by the upper triangle) world’s expert on mathematical
has an area of 1, which allows magic, geometrical vanishes,
you to have an extra space for the and Alice in Wonderland. See if
unit square. you can figure it out!
MÖBIUS MAGIC
tt When you tape the ends of a simple strip of paper together, they form
a loop. Naturally, if you cut through the loop, you end up with 2 loops.
But suppose you take your strip and give the end a half twist before
taping the ends together. Mathematicians call this a Möbius strip,
named after the 19th-century mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius,
who discovered many of its properties.
tt The Möbius strip only has 1 side. If you run your finger around the
“outside,” you eventually reach the “inside.” This is in contrast with
the previous loop, which is 2-sided, because if you run your finger on
the outside, then it stays on the outside, and if your finger starts on the
inside, then it stays on the inside.
tt The video shows what happens if you cut

through Möbius strips in various ways—
leading to mysterious and surprising results!
Try these experiments yourself and explore
variations to see what you can discover.
©PeterHermesFurian/iStock/Thinkstock.

BAGEL CARVING
This lesson requires the careful and skillful use of a knife and is
potentially dangerous. Please use extreme caution in attempting this or
any tricks involving knives.
tt This trick applies the Möbius ideas presented in the video. It involves
taking a regular bagel and carving it in just the right way to create 2
linked bagels—a Möbius bagel.
tt The steps that follow outline the method of Glen Whitney, founder
of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York. You just have
to learn 1 move and repeat it 4 times. The key points to note on your
bagel are the north pole (in the top center), the south pole (at the bottom
center), and the points that represent 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock on the front
and back of the bagel.
tt First, you carve a curve from the north pole to 3 o’clock. As you carve,
your knife should always be perpendicular to the surface and go all the
way through. In other words, when your knife is at the north pole, it
is pointing down vertically, and when it reaches 3 o’clock, it’s pointing
horizontally. It’s helpful to go back through the same path again, just to
make sure that the knife went all the way through.
tt Next, you flip the bagel over so that the north and south poles switch
places; then, you do the same move again, carving from the north pole
to 3 o’clock, where you join up with the previous cut. Again, it’s good to
go through it a second time.
tt Next, twirl the bagel around so that 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock switch
position. Then, perform the same move again, carving from the north
pole to 3 o’clock. Finally, you switch the north and south poles and do
the same move one last time, joining up with the previous cut.
tt Then, carefully pull the bagel apart, and if all has gone well, you will
have linked bagels!
112 Math and Magic

REFERENCES
Pickover, The Möbius Strip.
Prevos, The Möbius Strip in Magic.
8
E XERCISES
1 Using a sheet of graph paper take
3 3
an 8-by-8 square and cut it into 2
right triangles (with legs of length
3 and 8) and 2 trapezoids (each
with a height of 5 and parallel
sides with lengths of 3 and 5). 5 5
Clearly, the 8-by-8 square has an
area of 64.
5 3
Next, rearrange the pieces to form

an object that looks like the triangle
shown at left. Because the triangle
has a width of 10 and a height
of 13, then its area is 65. What’s
going on?

2 Reproduce this template on
a full-size sheet of paper. (It
doesn’t have to be exact.) Cut
out the cross shape along the
solid line.
Give strip A a half twist and

tape the ends together.
Make a separate loop with

strip B (do not twist) and tape
the ends together. Loop A and
loop B should not intersect.
In a moment, you will cut

through each loop, but before
you do, what shape do you
think you’ll get?
Cut along the dashed lines

of loop A and then along the
dotted lines of loop B.
What shape did you get?

Was your guess right?
SOLUTIONS CAN BE
FOUND ON PAGE 133.
114 Math and Magic

LESSON 12
MAGIC SQUARES
12
T his final lesson explores the magic and

mystery of what mathemagicians refer to as
magic squares. Although there are many ways
to create magic squares, the video focuses on 3
methods: one that is fast, one that is “smooth,”
and one that is personal.
EXPLANATIONS
FAST MAGIC SQUARE
tt There is a quick way to come up with a
magic square that uses all the numbers 1 2 3 4
from 1 through 16. To make it, start
with the numbers 1 through 16 in their 5 6 7 8
natural order.
9 10 11 12
tt Draw an X through the square, which goes
through 8 of the numbers. 13 14 15 16
tt Swap each number that is on the X with
the number that is diagonally opposite
it. So, you swap 1 with 16, 4 with 13, 6
16 2 3 13
with 11, and 7 with 10.
tt Removing the X gives you a magic square 5 11 10 8

where every row, column, and diagonal
add to 34. 9 7 6 12
4 14 15 1
Lesson 12 ♠ Magic Squares 115

tt It turns out that there are 880 different
ways to arrange the numbers 1 through
16 to create a magic square. Such a
magic square must always add to 34
8 11 14 1
because the numbers 1 through 16 add
up to 136, which is 4 times 34. 13 2 7 12
tt The magic square shown at right
has even more symmetries. In this
3 16 9 6
magic square, not only does every
row, column, and both diagonals 10 5 4 15
add to 34, but so does every 2-by-
2 square inside of it, as well as the
wraparound diagonals.
tt How do you create a magic square for

any total, besides 34? To use the fastest
method, all you have to remember is
8 11 56 1
the magic square shown above. In fact,
you only need to remember 12 of the 2 7 12
16 numbers: the numbers 1 through 12.
3 9 6
tt If you’re given a total of t, then all you
have to do is subtract 20 from that
total and put it in the first missing spot. 10 5 4
For example, if the total was 76, you
would subtract 20 and put 56 in the
higlighted square.
tt For the other 3 squares, you just

subtract 1, resulting in 55; then add 3, 8 11 56 1
resulting in 58; and subtract 1 again,
resulting in 57. You end up with the
square shown at right. 55 2 7 12
tt You can check that every row, column, 3 58 9 6

diagonal, and most symmetrically
placed groups of 4 squares will add
to 76. 10 5 4 57
116 Math and Magic

tt In general, if you want a total of t,
you get the square shown here.
tt As you can check, every row, 8 11 t − 20 1

every column, both diagonals, and
many other groups of 4 add up
to the total t. This method is fast, t − 21 2 7 12
because you always write the same
12 numbers down and the other
4 numbers are easy to remember. 3 t − 18 9 6
But this method tends to produce
a very lopsided magic square,
10 5 4 t − 19
where 4 of the numbers can be
much larger than the others.
“SMOOTH” MAGIC SQUARE

tt In this version, all 16 numbers are close together. In fact, they are
almost consecutive, with no large gaps to be seen. Also, this version
gives your assistant something to do because he or she can point to the
squares in any order and you can fill in the square immediately.
tt First, show the original magic square with the numbers 1 through 16.
As you’ll see, that’s not just for the audience’s benefit, but for yours as
well. You will use this magic square to create a magic square for your
assistant’s total.
tt Then, you ask for any 2-digit number larger than 30—prefereably
bigger than 40. Let’s say your assistant chose 74. If you can somehow
add 40 the first magic square, which adds to 34, then you can create a
magic square with a total of 74. The easiest way to do that is to add 10
to each number in the original square, because that will add 40 to every
group of 4. Thus, all the groups of 4 that add to 34 in the first magic
square will now add to 74 in the square you create.

tt So, as your assistant points to a square,
all you do is look at the corresponding
square and add 10 to it. The resulting
magic square would look like the one 18 21 24 11
shown at right, which adds to 74 in
dozens of different ways. 23 12 17 22
tt But now suppose that instead of a total
of 74, your assistant asked for a total of 13 26 19 16
76. What do you do in that situation?
(You’re certainly not going to add 12.5 20 15 14 25
to every square because that would be
ugly.) You pretty much do the same thing
as before, but now you have to squeeze
in an extra 2 to each row, column,
and diagonal.
8 11 14 1
tt To do this, you take the 4 largest
numbers of the original square: 13,
14, 15, and 16 (circled). And for these 13 2 7 12
numbers, instead of adding 10, you
add 12, which is 2 more than 10. 3 16 9 6
tt Notice that every row, every column,
and both diagonals have one circled
10 5 4 15
number in it. This means that they
will all increase by
10 + 10 + 10 + 12 = 42.
tt So, the new total is guaranteed to add

to 76. 18 21 26 11
34 + 42 = 76
25 12 17 22
tt In other words, if this were the magic
square that added to 74, then by 13 28 19 16
adding 2 more to the circled numbers,
you get the magic square for 76.
20 15 14 27
118 Math and Magic

tt A word of caution: It is no longer the case that every 2-by-2 block that
added to 74 will add to 76. To get a total of 76, you need exactly 1
circled number. But luckily that does include every row, every column,
both diagonals, the 4 corners, and all the other 2-by-2 blocks (except for
one that has 2 circled numbers and one that has no circled numbers).
The reason that the 4 circled numbers were chosen to correspond to

the 13, 14, 15, and 16 in the original square is that because you are adding
12 to the 4 largest numbers of the original square, the new magic square
will still consist of 16 different numbers. No numbers will be repeated,
which is aesthetically nice.
tt In general, to create a magic square with total t, you need to add t − 34

to the original magic square. If this number is divisible by 4—that is, if
t − 34 = 4q,
where q stands for quotient—then you simply add q to every number.
tt For example, if the requested number was 62, then because

62 − 34 = 28 = 4 × 7,
then you simply add 7 to every entry of the first magic square to get the
new magic square.
tt On the other hand, if your assistant

chose the number 63, which is 1 15 18 22 8
more than 28, then you still add 7
to most of the squares, but whenever
he or she points to one of the squares 21 9 14 19
corresponding to the 13, 14, 15, or 16,
then you add 1 more than 7—namely, 10 24 16 13
8—giving you the square shown
at right.
17 12 11 23

tt The general rule is this: Given your total t, if t − 34 is not a multiple of
4—for example,
r − 34 = 4q + r,
tt where the remainder r is equal to 1, 2, or 3—then when your assistant

chooses a square that corresponds to one of the 12 small numbers, you
add q to it. But when your assistant chooses a square that corresponds
to 13, 14, 15, or 16, you add q + r.
After you create the new magic square, say to your assistant, “Now we
noticed that the first magic square adds to 34; let’s see how we did with
your magic square.” Then, put the first magic square away. That’s called
ditching the evidence—so nobody has the time to compare the 2 magic
squares.
DOUBLE-BIRTHDAY MAGIC SQUARE

tt Although this method’s resulting magic square is not as “smooth” as the
one you were just introduced to, it looks much more challenging, has a
surprise ending, and is much more personalized because you base it on
your assistant’s birthday.
tt To start, your assistant’s birthday

goes in the top row. In the video, People really enjoy this magic
the magician used his assistant’s square routine, especially if
daughter’s birthday, which is you base it on someone’s
12/3/2013. birthday. And if you do it on
the back of your business
tt The most important step is to card, you can be sure that the
add these 4 numbers—12, 3, 20, person will keep that card as a
souvenir for a very long time.
and 13—correctly, because if
you make a mistake here, there’s
no recovery.
12 + 3 + 20 + 13 = 48
120 Math and Magic

tt Because you’ve seen this trick before,
you know that the person’s birthday
not only appears in the top row but
12 3 20 13
also in the 4 corners, so write down a
3 in the bottom left corner. (Save the
20 from the year for last to keep it a
surprise.)
?
tt Next, you start heading up the
diagonal. The secret to the magic
square is this: You can essentially 3
place any number you want in the
highlighted square and the rest of the
square is essentially forced. The only
number you don’t want to put in this square is the number that appears
in the third square in the top row, which is 20 in this case. If you do,
you’ll still get a magic square, but every row and column will have the
same 4 numbers—12, 3, 20, and 13—and that won’t look very magical.
tt On the other hand, the farther you get

away from this number (in this case,
20), the more likely it is that you will
end up with negative numbers, which 12 3 20 13
you should try to avoid if possible.
So, all you do is take this number 19 14 11 4
(again, 20) and add 1 to it. In this case,
20 + 1 = 21, and you write that number
in the highlighted square. 14 21 2 11
tt Now this magic square becomes like 3 10 15 20
the easiest Sudoku you’ve ever done.
tt As you can verify, there are dozens of

groups of 4 that add to 48.

tt But how can you be sure they will always work? The answer is
through algebra.
tt For any birthdate with numbers a, b, c, and d, the grand total will be
a + b + c + d.
tt The end result is the magic square

shown here, where adding 1 to a
number is denoted by +, adding 2 to a a b c d
number is denoted by + +, subtracting
1 from a number is denoted by −, c− d+ a− b+
and subtracting 2 from a number is
denoted by − −.
d+ c+ b− a−
tt Notice that every row, every column,
and both diagonals contain an a, a b, a b a− − d++ c
c, and a d as well as an equal number
of pluses and minuses. Hence, they will
add up to the total: a + b + c + d.
tt If your assistant is born between 2000 and 2009, avoid using c = 0

in the top row because that forces a c− = −1 in the second row and
you want to avoid negative numbers if possible. Instead, for a date
like 2005, put c = 20 in the top row and d = 05 next to it so that the
entire year is spelled out. When this happens, it’s worth noting that you
will always have c+ = 21 and c− = 19 in your magic square, which saves
calculating time.
The reason most magicians don’t explain their tricks is because they’ve
all made that mistake before and haven’t gotten the reaction they want.
As a magician, you want people to say, “Wow, that’s clever. You’re

good!” But they never do once you’ve shared the secret of how the trick
is done. Instead, they say, “Oh, that’s simple! I thought you were good,
but I just wasn’t paying attention!”
So, if a magician shares his or her method with you, remember how
impressed you were before he or she explained it.
122 Math and Magic

tt Finally, although you might try to avoid negative numbers in your
square, sometimes they are unavoidable. For example, any birthdays
in January will have a = 1 and will therefore have an a− − = −1 in the
bottom row. But you can live with that.
tt If you look for them, there are more than 3 dozen different neatly
arranged groups of 4 that are guaranteed to add to your total. In
addition to the 10 main rows and diagonals, there are 12 other 2-by-2
squares (including the 4 corners), 2 broken diagonals, 2 pentagons, 4
corners of 3-by-3 squares, 4 stalagmite-stalactite pairs, and 4 L-shaped
regions. See if you can find more!
REFERENCES
Pickover, The Zen of Magic Squares.
E XERCISES
1 a) Create a fast magic square for the total 38.
b) Create a “smooth” magic square for the total 38.
c) Create a double-birthday magic square for the date 11/18/36.
d) Use the algebraic magic square chart to verify that the magic
square will give the proper total for at least 40 different groups of 4.
2 What is the secret to the magic matrix trick at the end of the
video lesson?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benjamin, Arthur. The Magic of Math: Solving for X and Figuring Out Why.
New York: Basic Books, 2015.
Benjamin, Arthur, and Michael Shermer. Secrets of Mental Math: The

Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks.
New York: Random House, 2006.
Craven, Tom, and Paul Gordon. The Second 16th Card Book. Worthing, UK:
Natzler Enterprises, 2007.
Diaconis, Persi, and Ron Graham. Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical

Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2012.
Fulves, Karl. Self-Working Card Tricks. New York: Dover Publications, 1976.
Gardner, Martin. Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games. Providence, RI:

American Mathematical Society, 2005. CD.
———. Mathematics, Magic and Mystery. New York: Dover Publications,

1956.
———. Mental Magic: Surefire Tricks to Amaze Your Friends. New York: Dover
Publications, 2009.
Kaufman, Richard. Paul Gertner’s Steel and Silver. Silver Spring, MD:
Kaufman and Greenberg, 1994.
Minch, Stephen. The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley. vol. 1. Tahoma, CA: L
& L Publishing, 1991.
Morris, S. Brent. Magic Tricks, Card Shuffling and Dynamic Computer

Memories. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 1998.
124 Math and Magic

Mulcahy, Colm. Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects. Boca
Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2013.
Pickover, Clifford. The Möbius Strip: Dr. Augustus Möbius’s Marvelous Band
in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology. New York:
Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006.
———. The Zen of Magic Squares: An Exhibition of Surprising Structures across

Dimensions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Prevos, Peter. The Möbius Strip in Magic. Kangaroo Flat, AU: Third
Hemisphere Publishing, 2018.
Scarne, John. Scarne on Card Tricks. New York: Dover Publications, 2003.
Simon, William. Mathematical Magic. New York: Dover Publications, 2012.
Trost, Nick. The Card Magic of Nick Trost. Tahoma, CA: L & L Publishing,
1997.
Bibliography 125
EXERCISE SOLUTIONS
CLICK to go back
to the lesson.
LESSON 1
1 After performing the procedure described above, the selected card
will be the 11th card from the top. The way you should perform it is to
deal about 15 cards faceup, mentally noting the 11th card, and then say
to your volunteer, “Would you be surprised if the next card I turned
over was your card?” Because he or she has seen you deal past his or
her card, the volunteer will usually say that he or she would be very
surprised. Your volunteer expects you to deal the 16th card, but instead
you simply turn the 11th card from faceup to facedown!
Why does the selected card go to the 11th position? After the first
deal, the card’s column is picked up second, so it will be in position 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14. After the second deal, the card will be in the
third, fourth, or fifth position in the column. Thus, after the cards are
gathered, it will be in the 10th, 11th, or 12th position. After the third
deal, the card will be in the fourth position of its column, and after
those cards are gathered, it will be the 11th card of the deck.
2 The trick begins with 4 cards, and after they are torn, you have 8 half
cards arranged in some order abcdabcd. Let’s see what happens after
each step.
STEP 1 | Transfer the top card to the bottom: bcdabcdab.
STEP 2 | Transfer the top 2 cards to the bottom: dabcdabc.
STEP 3 | Bury the top 3 cards in the middle: c(6 other cards)c.
STEP 4 | P
ut the top card in your pocket: (6 other cards)c.
At this point, you have taken card c, and its mate is at the
bottom of the packet.
126 Math and Magic

STEP 5 | T
ake
the top 1, 2, or 3 cards and put them in the middle of
the packet. Card c is still at the bottom.
STEP 6 | T
ake1, 2, or 3 cards and either put them in the middle or
throw them away. You now have 4, 5, 6, or 7 cards, and card c
remains at the bottom.
STEP 7 | T
ransferthe top card to the bottom 7 times. Depending on
whether you have 4, 5, 6, or 7 cards, your new arrangement
will now be one of these 4 arrangements, where x represents
any card that is not c: cxxx, xxcxx, xxxxcx, or xxxxxxc.
STEP 8 | P
layShe Loves Me, She Loves Me Not, where every other
card is eliminated until you are left with a single card. Notice
that in all 4 arrangements, the card that survives is card c. For
example, with 6 cards, numbered 123456, you first eliminate
numbers 2, 4, and 6 and then card 3 and then 1, so the
surviving card would be the fifth card, which is card c.
LESSON 2
1 Either the faceup or facedown letters
will spell the word “MAGIC.” The
reason is that if you imagine that the
letters are written on a checkerboard
with alternating light and dark squares,
then the light-colored squares consist
only of the letters M, A, G, I, C, and
some blank squares.
2 The faceup cards (and the facedown cards) will sum to 35. That’s
because the cards on the light squares and dark squares each add to
35. Note that the first 14 numbers of the table come from the digits of
pi but the 15th digit was chosen to make the trick work. (The 15th digit
of pi would be 9 instead of 2.)
Exercise Solutions 127

LESSON 3
1 a) LMH (low, medium, high) adds 1 to 6¨, so the facedown card is 7¨.
b) MHL (medium, high, low) adds 4 to 8ª, yielding Qª.
c) HML (high, medium, low) adds 6 to J¨, yielding 4¨.
d) LHM adds 2 to 4§, yielding 6§.
2 a) 2 + 7 + 1 + 8 = 18 is 2 greater than 16, so the anchor card is in the

second position—namely, 7♥. The other 3 cards, 2A8, are in MLH
order, so you add 3 to 7♥ to obtain 10♥.
b) 0 + 0 + 9 + 4 = 13 is 1 greater than 12, so the anchor card is in the

first position—namely, Kª. The other 3 cards, Q94, are in HML
order, so the facedown card is 6ª.
LESSON 4
1 Recall that every 4 cards is the same suit and causes the value to go
down by 1. Because 20 is a multiple of 4 (4 × 5), then 20 cards after the
Jª the card must still be a spade, and the value has decreased by 5, so
the card would be 6ª. To find the 23rd card, just count 3 cards forward
from 6ª. Adding 9 and shifting 3 suits farther gives you 15♥, which
is 2♥.
2 The cards are in Si Stebbins order, and cutting the cards will not
disturb that. After spelling “COLOR” and looking at the next card,
the magician has counted 6 cards, which will be the same color (and
different suit) from the chosen card. After spelling “NUMBER,” the
following card would be 13 cards after the original card, which will
have the same value. (Incidentally, it will also be of the opposite color.)
Then, after spelling “MATCHING CARD,” the next card will be
another 13 cards and therefore will be 26 cards away from the original
card, which will be the mate of the selected card.
128 Math and Magic

LESSON 5
1 28 = 16 + 8 + 4 has binary representation 11100. So, the proper
sequence would be in-in-in-out-out. For position 42, you note that 41 =
32 + 8 + 1 = 101001, so you would perform in-out-in-out-out-in.
2 The binary number 110000 represents the number 32 + 16 = 48, so the

top card will go to position 49. For the 17th card, recall that for cards
in the top half of the deck, an in-shuffle sends a card in position n to
position 2n, whereas an out-shuffle sends the card to position 2n − 1.
For cards in the bottom half, the in-shuffle sends the card in position
n to position 2n − 53 and the out-shuffle sends it to position 2n − 52.
Hence, the 2 in-shuffles will send the card at position 17 to position
34 and then to position 68 − 53 = 15. The next 4 out-shuffles will send
the card to position 29, then to position 6, then to 11, and finally to
position 21.
LESSON 6
1 Because of the Gilbreath principle, the first 4 cards consist of all 4
suits. Because your facedown cards are a diamond and a heart, then
you know that your volunteer’s facedown cards must be a club and a
spade. Also by the Gilbreath principle, the first 13 cards will consist
of all 13 different values. Because you can see all values except for
the 5 and 7 among these 13 cards (ignoring 6♥), you know that your
volunteer’s facedown cards must be 5 and 7. Thus, his or her cards
must either be 5§ and 7ª, or 5ª and 7§. You can ask (or guess) which
suit has the larger number, but you can do better than guessing. Look
at your facedown cards. In the 8-kings stack, 9♥ comes before 5ª, so
the chances are very, very good that the 5 is 5ª instead of 5§. Also,
2¨ and 7§ are adjacent in the 8-kings stack, so you can say with
confidence that the facedown cards are 5ª and 7§.
2 Begin with the cards in alternating color order, which won’t be

disturbed when the cards are cut. After the volunteer gives the cards
a riffle shuffle, deal a few cards to show that there is no pattern to the
cards. Deal until you get 2 cards of the same color next to each other;

then, deal one more card. The cards will now have the property that
every pair of cards will have a black card and a red card. So, when the
volunteer guesses the color of the card, you turn up the card to see if
his or her guess is right or wrong. Look at the turned-up card and then
guess the opposite color for your card. You will be right every time.
LESSON 7
1 Starting with PIN abc, the number abcabc is equal to abc × 1001. And
because 1001 = 7 × 11 × 13, when you divide the 6-digit number by 11,
13, and the PIN, then you must end up with 7. But it’s more impressive
to end up with something that is not a whole number. By dividing
by 23, then 16, and then the PIN, you will end up with 1001 ÷ 368 =
2.72010869…. Provide as many digits as you want to.
2 If you start with the numbers a, b, and c, then when you create the
numbers ab, ac, ba, bc, ca, and cb, you note that each letter appears
twice in the ones column and twice in the tens column. Hence, the
ones digits will contribute 2a + 2b + 2c to the total, and the tens digits
will contribute 20a + 20b + 20c to the total, so the numbers must add to
22a + 22b + 22c = 22(a + b + c). When this number is divided by the sum
of the digits, a + b + c, you must get 22.
LESSON 8
1 a) 594
b) 836
c) 0.835164…
d) 7225
e) 2916
f) 11,554
130 Math and Magic

g)
98 (−2)
×95 (−5)
In this case, you compute 98 − 5 = 93 and then multiply by 100 to

obtain 9300. Adding (−2) × (−5) = 10 to this gives you 9310.
h)
1 12 (1 2)
× 94 (−6)
In this case, you compute 112 − 6 = 106 and then multiply by 100 to
obtain 10,600. Adding 12 × (−6) = −72 gives you 10,528.
LESSON 9
1 a) The cube root is 53, because 148 lies between 53 and 63 , and 33 ends
in 7.
b) The cube root is 89, because 704 lies between 83 and 93 , and 93 ends
in 9.
c) The cube root is 324. Because 34 lies between 33 = 27 and 43 = 64,

the first digit of the cube root must be 3. And because 43 ends in 4, the
last digit must be 4. Thus, the cube root has the form 3 ? 4.
To find the middle digit, you add the digits of the cube:
3 + 4 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 4 = 18,
which has a digital root of 9, which means that the original 3-digit
number must be a multiple of 3. Thus, the digits of 3 ? 4 must sum to
a multiple of 3, so the middle digit is either 2 or 5 or 8. And because
the 9-digit number is much closer to 27 than it is to 64, you choose the
smallest of the middle numbers for a cube root of 324.

d) Comparing 273 with 63 = 216 and 73 = 343, you see that the first
digit is 6, and because 93 ends in 9, the last digit is 7. So, the cube root
has the form 6 ? 9. For the middle digit, you sum the digits
2 + 7 + 3 + 3 + 5 + 9 + 4 + 4 + 9 = 46,
which has a digital root of 1. Thus, 6 ? 7 must be 1 more than a

multiple of 3, so the middle digit is either 1 or 4 or 7. Because 273 is
squarely in between 216 and 343, you choose the middle candidate for
a cube root of 649. To verify this, notice that 6503 is approximately
(and a little larger than) 600 × 650 × 700 = 273,000,000.
e) As in the previous 2 problems, because 656 lies between 83 = 512

and 93 = 729, you know that the first digit is 8, and because the cube
ends in 9, you know that the last digit is 9. Hence, your cube root
is of the form 8 ? 8. To find the middle digit, you see that the digits
of 656,234,909 sum to 44, so it has a digital root of 8. This means that
8 ? 9 must be 2 bigger than a multiple of 3, so the middle digit must
be 0, 3, 6, or 9. Because 656 is not especially close to 512 or 729, you
can rule out 0 or 9 as the middle digit, and because 656 is a bit closer
to 729 than it is to 512, you choose the larger candidate for a cube
root of 869. (Also, 8503 is about 800 × 850 × 900 = 612,000,000, so the
middle digit should be greater than 5.)
2 After step 5, the number on the volunteer’s calculator will be a multiple

of 9 that ends in 0. After step 6, the number is a multiple of 9 that ends
in 9. After adding the age, the final answer will have the same digital
root as the age, and the last digit of the answer will be 1 less than the
last digit of the age. This will completely determine the age, because
you know the last digit and you know what the sum must be. For
example, suppose you see the final answer 5,545,981. By looking at the
last digit, you know that the chosen age ends in 2. Also, by summing
the digits of the final answer,
5 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 9 + 8 + 1 = 37,
and 37 sums to 10. So, you know that the age has a digital root of
1 and therefore sums to 1 or 10. Because the last digit is 2, the only
possible first digit is 8, so the chosen age was 82.
132 Math and Magic

LESSON 10
1 Every number from 1 to 30 can be uniquely expressed as the sum of
some of these powers of 2:
1, 2, 4, 8, and 16.
The numbers on cards 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the numbers that use the
numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16, respectively, in their representation. For
example, the number 19 = 16 + 2 + 1 appears on cards 1, 2, and 5. All
the magician needs to do is add the first numbers that appear on each
card that is used. For example, if your number is on cards 3, 4, and 5,
the magician knows that the chosen number must be 4 + 8 + 16 = 28.
2 Suppose you start with n coins, h of which are heads. You move any h
coins to the pile on the right. Let’s say that among these h coins, x of
them are currently heads and h − x of them are tails. How many coins
in the left pile are heads? h − x. When you flip the coins in the right
pile, you will have x tails and h − x heads, so the number of heads in
each pile will now be equal.
LESSON 11
1 The 4 rearranged pieces don’t form an
exact triangle—because the slopes of
the triangles, 8 ⁄3 = 2.67 and 13 ⁄5 = 2.6,
are close but not equal.
2 You get a small Möbius loop

interlocked with a big square.
Try it!

LESSON 12
1
8 11 18 1 9 12 15 2 11 18 3 6
17 2 7 12 14 3 8 13 2 7 10 19
3 20 9 6 4 17 10 7 7 4 17 10
10 5 4 19 11 6 5 16 18 9 8 3
d) Every group of 4 that contains an a,

a b, a c, and a d and an equal number of a b c d
plus signs as minus signs will add to the
magic total of 38. It’s easy to check that c− d+ a− b+
all 4 rows, 4 columns, and 2 diagonals
have this property. But there are many d+ c+ b− a−
others. For example, there are seven 2-by-
2 squares like these 4 in the middle that b a− − d++ c
add to a + b + c + d (at right).
See below for more examples.
a b c d a b c d a b c d a b c d
c− d+ a− b+ c− d+ a− b+ c− d+ a− b+ c− d+ a− b+
d+ c+ b− a− d+ c+ b− a− d+ c+ b− a− d+ c+ b− a−
b a− − d++ c b a− − d++ c b a− − d++ c b a− − d++ c
There are 2 broken diagonals: a b c d a b c d
c− d+ a− b+ c− d+ a− b+
d+ c+ b− a− d+ c+ b− a−
b a− − d++ c b a− − d++ c
134 Math and Magic

There are 4 that are shaped like a pentagon:
The corners of the 3-by-3 squares sum to the proper total:
There are 4 stalagmite-stalactite pairs:
There are 4 L-shaped patterns:
And last but not least (and by design), there are the 4 corners.

2 Let’s look more closely at the numbers in 31 41 59 26
the matrix.
5 15 33 0
It’s true that the first 5 squares come from
the digits of pi, but that’s just a red herring. 17 27 45 12
What’s really going on is that this is an
addition table. 14 24 42 9
Notice what happens when you put numbers alongside the rows and
columns of the matrix like this:
0 10 28 −5 Every entry in the matrix is

the sum of the corresponding
31 31 41 59 26 row and column numbers.
For example, the number 42
in the fourth row and third
5 5 15 33 0
column is equal to 14 + 28.
When you find the matching
17 17 27 45 12 colors, you will have 4 entries
that each lie in different rows
14 14 24 42 9 and columns.
For example, consider what happens if you end up like this:
Each of the 4 selected

0 10 28 −5 numbers will be the sum of
one of the row numbers and
31 31 41 59 26 one of the column numbers.
So, the grand total must be
the sum of the 8 row and
5 5 15 33 0
column numbers, specifically.
Any 4 numbers from different
17 17 27 45 12 rows and columns must add to
14 14 24 42 9 31 + 5 + 17 + 14 + 0 +
10 + 28 − 5 = 100.
136 Math and Magic

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Math and Magic

4840 Westfields Boulevard | Suite 500 | Chantilly, Virginia | 20151‑2299

Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2018

Printed in the United States of America

A rthur T. Benjamin is the Smallwood Family Professor of

ii Math and Magic

iv Math and Magic

2 Math and Magic

T his first lesson will focus on card tricks in

A-C-E F-O-U-R S-E-V-E-N T-E-N K-I-N-G

Lesson 1 ♠ Mathematical Card Tricks 3

4 Math and Magic

tt Each of the 4 piles will contribute 11 to the final total.

Lesson 1 ♠ Mathematical Card Tricks 5

6 Math and Magic

BEFORE FINAL FLIP AFTER FINAL FLIP

BEFORE FINAL FLIP AFTER FINAL FLIP

Lesson 1 ♠ Mathematical Card Tricks 7

BEFORE FINAL FLIP AFTER FINAL FLIP

♣♣ Finally, if the club is in position 4, then after flipping 1, 2, 3, and 4,

BEFORE FINAL FLIP AFTER FINAL FLIP

8 Math and Magic

CLICK the buttons to navigate.

Before moving on to the next lesson, practice what you’ve learned in

Lesson 1 ♠ Mathematical Card Tricks 9

I n this lesson, you will explore some magic tricks

10 Math and Magic

Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 11

12 Math and Magic

tt The same is true with the next pair of cards—3 and 4.

Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 13

14 Math and Magic

Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 15

16 Math and Magic

LEFT PILE RIGHT PILE

Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 17

Then, erase the letters J-O-K-E.

Next, fold the paper like a map

18 Math and Magic

Lesson 2 ♠ What’s Your Deal? 19

P eople assume that magicians must be skillful

20 Math and Magic

tt Originally, the packet that the magician shuffled had 9 cards,

tt The 9 cards that the volunteer shuffled—let’s call it group B—consisted

tt Now here is what makes it all work. Magicians call it the

tt If you try every possibility, you will discover that

♣♣ if your volunteer has 1 pair, then you have 2 pairs;

Lesson 3 ♠ Look like a Card Shark 21

tt You begin by shuffling the 9 cards of group A while your volunteer

22 Math and Magic

Lesson 3 ♠ Look like a Card Shark 23

tt This trick, known as Cheney’s 5-card trick, is a perfect blend of

tt This is the ordering

24 Math and Magic

tt With these 3 cards—the 3 of hearts, the 5 of clubs, and the 8 of

Lesson 3 ♠ Look like a Card Shark 25

tt They can be arranged in exactly 6 ways: