Mathematics
Magic and Mistery

Martin Gardner

Table of 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 Off 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