Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks Book

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Chapter 1: Mathematics in the Air 1

Royal Hummer 8

Back to Magic 15

Chapter 2: In Cycles 17

The Magic of de Bruijn Sequences 18

Going Further 25

Chapter 3: Is This Stuff Actually Good For Anything? 30

Robotic Vision 30

Making Codes 34

To the Core of Our Being 38

This de Bruijn Stuff Is Cool but Can It Get You a Job? 42

Chapter 4: Universal Cycles 47

Order Matters 47

A Mind-reading Effect 52

Universal Cycles Again 55

Chapter 5: From the Gilbreath Principle to the Mandelbrot Set 61

The Gilbreath Principle 61

The Mandelbrot Set 72

Chapter 6: Neat Shuffles 84

A Mind-reading Computer 85

A Look Inside Perfect Shuffles 92

A Look Inside Monge and Milk Shuffles 96

A Look Inside Down-and-Under Shuffles 98

All the Shuffles Are Related 99

Chapter 7: The Oldest Mathematical Entertainment? 103

The Miracle Divination 105

How Many Magic Tricks Are There? 114

Chapter 8: Magic in the Book of Changes 119

Introduction to the Book of Changes 121

Using the I Ching for Divination 122

Probability and the Book of Changes 125

Some Magic (Tricks) 127

Probability and the I Ching 136

Chapter 9: What Goes Up Must Come Down 137

Writing It Down 138

Getting Started in Juggling 145
10 Stars of Mathematical Magic (and some of the best tricks in the book) 153

Alex Elmsley 156

Bob Neale 160

Henry Christ 173

Stewart James 181

Charles Thornton Jordan 189

Bob Hummer 201

Martin Gardner 211

Chapter 11: Going further 220

Chapter 12: on secrets 225

Notes 231

Index 239