Book:Martin Gardner/Mathematics, Magic and Mystery

Martin Gardner: Mathematics, Magic and Mystery

Published $\text {1956}$, Dover Publications, Inc.

ISBN 0-486-20335-2

Contents

PREFACE

CHAPTER ONE: 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

CHAPTER TWO: 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

CHAPTER THREE: 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

CHAPTER FOUR: 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

CHAPTER FIVE: 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

CHAPTER SIX: TRICKS WITH SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

Number Cards

Window Cards

Sam Loyd'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

CHAPTER SEVEN: GEOMETRICAL VANISHES - PART I

The Line Paradox

Sam Loyd's Flag Puzzle

The Vanishing Face

"Get of the Earth"

DeLand's Paradox

The Vanishing Rabbit

Stover's Variations

CHAPTER EIGHT: 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

CHAPTER NINE: 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