Mathematics, Magic and Mystery

Famed puzzle expert explains math behind a multitude of mystifying tricks: card tricks, stage "mind reading," coin and match tricks, counting out games, geometric dissections, etc. Probability, sets, theory of numbers clearly explained. Also, more than 400 tricks, guaranteed to work, that you can do. 135 illustrations.

Martin Gardner was a renowned author who published over 70 books on subjects from science and math to poetry and religion. He also had a lifelong passion for magic tricks and puzzles. Well known for his mathematical games column in Scientific American and his "Trick of the Month" in Physics Teacher magazine, Gardner attracted a loyal following with his intelligence, wit, and imagination.

Martin Gardner: A Remembrance
The worldwide mathematical community was saddened by the death of Martin Gardner on May 22, 2010. Martin was 95 years old when he died, and had written 70 or 80 books during his long lifetime as an author. Martin's first Dover books were published in 1956 and 1957: Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, one of the first popular books on the intellectual excitement of mathematics to reach a wide audience, and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, certainly one of the first popular books to cast a devastatingly skeptical eye on the claims of pseudoscience and the many guises in which the modern world has given rise to it. Both of these pioneering books are still in print with Dover today along with more than a dozen other titles of Martin's books. They run the gamut from his elementary Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing, which has been enjoyed by generations of younger readers since the 1980s, to the more demanding The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry and Asymmetry from Mirror Reflections to Superstrings, which Dover published in its final revised form in 2005.

To those of us who have been associated with Dover for a long time, however, Martin was more than an author, albeit a remarkably popular and successful one. As a member of the small group of long-time advisors and consultants, which included NYU's Morris Kline in mathematics, Harvard's I. Bernard Cohen in the history of science, and MIT's J. P. Den Hartog in engineering, Martin's advice and editorial suggestions in the formative 1950s helped to define the Dover publishing program and give it the point of view which — despite many changes, new directions, and the consequences of evolution — continues to be operative today.

In the Author's Own Words:
"Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs."

"A surprising proportion of mathematicians are accomplished musicians. Is it because music and mathematics share patterns that are beautiful?" — Martin Gardner

Preface
1. Tricks with Cards--Part I
  The Curiosities of Peirce
  The Five Poker Hands
  Tricks Using Cards as Counting Units
  The Piano Trick
  The Estimated Cut
  Tricks Using the Numerical Values
  Findley's Four-card Trick
  A Baffling Prediction
  Henry Christ's Improvement
  The Cyclic Number
  The Missing Card
  Jordan's Method
  Tricks Based on Division of Colors and Suits
  Stewart James' Color Prediction
  The Royal Pairs
  Tricks Using Front and Back
  Matching the Colors
  Hummer's Reversal Mystery
  The Little Moonies
2. Tricks with Cards--Part II
  O'Connor's Four-ace Trick
  The Magic of Manhattan
  Predicting the Shift
  The Keystone Card Discovery
  Two-pile Location
  Spelling the Spades
  Elmsley's Card Coincidence
  Magic by Mail
  Belchou's Aces
  The Tit-Tat-Toe Trick
  Other Tricks of Interest
3. From Gergonne to Gargantua
  Naming the Position of the Card
  Bringing the Card to a Named Position
  Walker's Method
  Naming the Card
  Relation to Ternary System
  Gargantua's Ten-pile Problem
4. Magic with Common Objects
  Dice
  Guessing the Total
  Frank Dodd's Prediction
  Positional Notation Tricks
  Hummer's Die Mystery
  Dominoes
  The Break in the Chain
  The Row of Thirteen
  Calendars
  Magic Squares
  Gibson's Circled Dates
  Stover's Prediction
  Calendar Memorizing
  Watches
  Tapping the Hours
  Die and Watch Mystery
  Dollar Bills
  Heath's Bill Trick
  Matches
  The Three Heaps
  Match Folder Mind-Reading
  The Tramps and Chickens
  The Purloined Objects
  Coins
  The Nine Mystery
  Which Hand?
  Heath's Variation
  Heads or Tails?
  Checkerboards
  Hummer's Checker Trick
  Miscellaneous Objects
  Hummer's Three-Object Divination
  Yates' Four-Object Divination
5. Topological Tomfoolery
  The Afghan Bands
  Handkerchief Tricks
  Finger Escape
  Tabor's Interlocked Handkerchiefs
  Knotty Problems
  String and Rope
  Garter Tricks
  The Giant's Garter
  More String Tricks
  Clothing
  The Puzzling Loop
  Reversing the Vest
  Removing the Vest
  Rubber Bands
  The Jumping Band
  The Twisted Band
6. Tricks with Special Equipment
  Number Cards
  Window Cards
  Sam Lloyd's Version
  Tap Tricks
  Crazy Time
  "Heath's "Tappit"
  Tap-a-Drink
  Tap-an-Animal
  The Riddle Card
  Dice and Domino Tricks
  "Heath's "Di-Ciphering"
  Sure-Shot Dice Box
  Blyth's Domino Box
  Blocks of India
  Hummer Tricks
7. Geometrical Vanishes--Part I
  The Line Paradox
  Sam Lloyd's Flag Puzzle
  The Vanishing Face
  "Get Off the Earth"
  DeLand's Paradox
  The Vanishing Rabbit
  Stover's Variations
8. Geometrical Vanishes--Part II
  The Checkerboard Paradox
  Hooper's Paradox
  Square Variation
  Fibonacci Series
  Langman's Version
  Curry's Paradox
  Curry Triangles
  Four-piece Squares
  Three-piece Squares
  Two-piece Squares
  Curved and 3-D Forms
9. Magic with Pure Numbers
  Rapid Cube Root Extraction
  Adding a Fibonacci Series
  Predicting a Number
  Curry's Version
  Al Baker's Version
  Divining a Number
  The Mysteries of Nine
  Digital Roots
  Persistent Root
  Guessing Someone's Age
  An Addition Trick
  A Multiplication Trick
  The Mysteries of Seven
  Predicting a Sum
  "Al Baker's "Numero"
  Psychological Forces
Name Index