Saturday, September 28, 2019

Apple TV+ Unveils Trailers For New Children’s Shows, Including ‘Snoopy In Space’ And New Series From The Makers Of ‘Sesame Street’

AppleTV+AppleTV+

Apple will be unveiling its new streaming service in November and on Friday Apple TV+ unveiled trailers for three of its anticipated new children’s programs.

The “Peanuts” gang will return to delight a new generation in “Snoopy in Space”, which sends Charlie Brown’s imaginative dog to the stars, with an aim of encouraging youngsters to gain a passion for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

RELATED: Apple TV+ Unveils New Trailer For ‘The Morning Show’ Series With Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon

“Blast off with Snoopy as he fulfils his dream to become a NASA astronaut,” explains the show’s synopsis. “Joined by Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang, Snoopy takes command of the International Space Station and explores the moon and beyond.”

Also coming to Apple TV+ is “Helpsters”, a new live-action preschool series from Sesame Workshop, makers of “Sesame Street”.

“Cody and the Helpsters are a team of vibrant monsters who love to solve problems,” notes the synopsis. “Whether it’s planning a party, climbing a mountain, or mastering a magic trick, the Helpsters can figure anything out â€" because everything starts with a plan.”

Sesame Workshop is also behind another live-action series, “Ghostwriter”, described as a “re-imagining” of its educational series that originally ran from 1992 until 1995.

“When a ghost haunts a neighbourhood bookstore and starts releasing fictional characters into the real world, four kids must team up to solve an exciting mystery surrounding the ghost’s unfinished business,” the synopsis reads. “Each episode story arc is grouped around literature, featuring classics and new works commissioned from popular authors like DJ Machale and Kwame Alexander.”

Apple TV+ will launch on Friday, Nov. 1

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Friday, September 27, 2019

Math Magic: Let’s Make Multiplying Quick, Fun, and Easy

ARE YOU having a hard time solving multiplication problems? Last time I checked, it’s a normal dilemma for many students, and it’s also a reason why many hate mathematics even if they use it everyday â€" yes, math is in traveling, shopping, and even baking! But don’t worry, because here are some easy-to-learn tips and tricks that will make multiplying two to three digits quick, fun, and easy.

Before we start, let’s review the parts of the multiplication equation first.

The factors are the numbers that are multiplied. The factor before the multiplication sign is called the multiplicand, while the factor after the multiplication sign is called the multiplier. It tells how many times the multiplicand is added to itself. The result of the multiplication is called the product.

Example: 32 × 24= 768

Step 1. Multiply the multiplicand to the first digit of the multiplier, or 32 × 2. The answer will be 64.

Step 2. Affix a zero to the rightmost side of the partial product 64; it will become 640. The number 64 is called a partial product because it’s not yet the full answer even if we multiplied two numbers already.

Step 3. Next, multiply the multiplicand to the last digit of the number, or or 32 × 4. The answer will be 128.

Step 4. Finally, add 640 and 128 to get the final answer â€" 768.

Example: 47× 53= 2491

Step 1. Note the value of each digit: 47 is 40 + 7, while 53 is 50 + 3. Line them up the usual way.

Step 2. Down, down. Multiply 40 and 50 to get 2000, then 7 and 3 to get 21.

Step 3. Crisscross. Multiply 40 by 3 to get 120, then 7 and 50 to get 350.

Step 4. Add the partial products: 2000 + 21 + 120 + 350 to get the final answer: 2491.

Are you enjoying the tricks? Here are more!

Example: 104 × 102= 10608

Step 1. Find the difference of the factors from 100, or 104â€"100 = 4 and 102â€"100 = 2.

Step 2. Add the differences to 100; thus, 100 + 4 + 2 = 106. You now have 106 as your partial answer.

Step 3. Affix a zero to the rightmost side of your partial answer, so it will become 1060.

Step 4. Multiply the differences you obtained, or 4 × 2 = 8. Affix this result to your most recent partial answer which is 1060. The answer will be 10608.

Squaring is another form of multiplication. It means multiplying a number by itself for a number of times based on the exponent, or the superscript number found at the end.

Example: 96² = 9216 (It means that you need to multiply 96 by itself twice, or 96 × 96.)

Step 1. Subtract the given number from 100, like this: 100â€"96 = 4.

Step 2. Subtract the difference from 96, or 96â€"4 = 92.

Step 3. Square the number obtained in Step 1. Then, affix a zero in front of the answer â€" but only if the answer is a one-digit number. In our example, we will square 4: 4² = 16.

Step 4. Combine the answers from Step 2 and Step 3 to get the final answer, which is 9216.

So you see? Math can be a little tricky at times, but it sure has a lot of “hidden” techniques that you can discover and use to make learning math quick, fun, and easy!

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Here's a simple magic trick anyone can do, thanks to a basic mathematic principle

Flickr / Jin Arthur Benjamin is a math professor at Harvey Mudd College, but he's got a side gig, too: as a magician.

His new book, "The Magic of Math," combines his two passions — which actually have a lot in common. "Mathematicians and magicians both want their audience to wonder: How did you do that?" Benjamin explains, in an interview with Deborah Kalb. "The magician keeps the method secret, but the mathematician wants you to understand."

So first, here's one of Benjamin's magic tricks from his book, and — because he's also a mathematician — we'll also explain why it works:

Think of a number between 20 and 100. Got it? Now add your digits together. Now subtract the total from your original number. Finally, add the digits of the new number together.

What did you get?

Arthur Benjamin. Tedx / YouTube

Your result should be the number 9. (If it's not, check your arithmetic.)

This is, in fact, an old trick, and there's a simple reason why it works. Any two-digit number can be represented as a sum of 10*x + y, where x and y are both single-digit numbers. (Forty-two, for example, is [10*4] + 2.) The sum of those digits is x + y.

Now think about what the trick did: (10x + y) - (x + y). The answer to that will always be 9x, and as any elementary school child can tell you, the sum of the digits in any multiple of 9 is always 9.

Benjamin devotes a whole chapter to "The Magic of 9," but that number is really just one small example of what he calls "the beautiful aspects of mathematics."

"Mathematics is filled with magic like this," he writes.

Now go try it on an unsuspecting friend — then show how it works.

MAGICIAN OR MATHEMATICIAN?

NTTI Lesson: MAGICIAN OR MATHEMATICIAN? MAGICIAN OR MATHEMATICIAN?Grades 6 - 8 Overview

Where do you see patterns? How are they connected to mathematics and science? We will use the series Math Vantage to explore the concepts of patterns used in magic tricks. Participants will have the chance to investigate and create patterns. After viewing a magician's amazing card trick, students will have an opportunity to create and perform "magic" tricks of their own!

ITV Series

"Math Vantage segment: Patterns #101"

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Describe a pattern and explain how it works
  • Continue a pattern and predict the outcome of a pattern
  • Create and communicate a pattern using magic tricks.
  • Materials

    1 per student

  • calculators
  • worksheet, "Mostly Magic?"
  • 1 deck per group of students 1 per class
  • rabbit/carrot transparency
  • optional for teacher:
  • magician's costume - top hat, tuxedo, magic wand, crystal ball
  • Pre-Viewing Activities

    Ask students to, "Predict what the next numbers are in this pattern '2, 4, 6,...'". After students answer, ask them "How did you know the next numbers were 8, 10, 12?" Discuss that the pattern is even numbers and that two was added each time. Say, "Now finish this pattern, 1,3,5,7...". Discuss the students' answers, and what patterns they see. Say, "We've looked at two patterns. Now I would like you and your group to create a pattern for another group to try." Direct students to work in small groups to create number patterns. Have groups exchange patterns, and try to complete each others patterns. Class discussion follows. Ask students, "Why do we use patterns?" Direct the class to brainstorm why we use patterns. One student will record the responses on the overhead while the other students record the responses in their journals.

    Focus Viewing

    To give students specific responsibility while viewing, introduce the video with the following directions: "Let's see if you predicted all the functions of patterns. If you see one of the classes' responses during the video, put a star by it. If you see a use for a pattern that you don't have, add it to your journal."

    Viewing Activities

    START tape at the beginning when the commentator says, "Ever notice how every morning the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west?"

    To underscore the point of why we use patterns, PAUSE the tape when the commentator says "In fact, math has been called the science of patterns. We use patterns to explain, create and predict." Ask the students, "Why do we use patterns? " Class discussion follows. Emphasize the uses of patterns: to explain, create and predict.

    Give each student a calculator. Say, "I've been working on my magic skills, and I want to show you a magic trick that I've discovered. Everybody pick a number and write it down. Now I would like you to add 6 to the number you picked. Next, multiply the sum you got when you added your number and six, by 2. Take the answer that you now have and subtract 12 from it." Check to make sure everyone is on task. "Take the new answer and divide it by 2. Next, subtract your original number. Now look at the final answer and don't say anything while I read your minds... (The teacher exaggerates, acts as if she is reading the students' minds) Wait, I'm getting a picture...I see the number zero!"

    Wait while the students express their amazement (or skepticism), then say, "Let's try another trick! Pick another number and write it down. Add 10 to your number. Has everyone picked a number and added 10 to it? Now I would like you to multiply the answer that you have by 3. Does everyone have that product? Next step, please subtract 30. Now, divide that answer by 3. Next, subtract your original number. Ok let me get a reading, oh, I am getting a strong reading of ZERO!"

    Ask the class, "Do you think I'm really a magician?" Pause while the students discuss the "magic" among themselves. Then say, "Maybe I just know a pattern!" Turn on the overhead and say, "Lets look for a pattern." On the overhead place a rabbit, and say, "Let's let the rabbit represent the number you picked. Next, we added the number 6 to the rabbit, (place 6 carrots on the overhead). Then, we multiplied this sum by 2 . What should we have on the overhead now? (put another rabbit and 6 more carrots on the overhead). We then subtracted 12, which is the same as 6x2 (take the 12 carrots off the overhead) and then, we divided by 2 ("divide by 2", take one rabbit away, leave one rabbit on the overhead). Next, we subtracted a rabbit (take the last rabbit away). What do I have left? Do you see a pattern?" The students discuss the pattern in their groups. A class discussion will follow about patterns that were found in the problem. Say, "That's how I came up with zero, no magic involved!".

    Direct students to work in groups to discover a pattern for the second problem, using the worksheet, "Mostly Magic?" "Work in your groups and see if there is a similar pattern for the other "magic trick". Give groups five minutes to find the pattern in the second magic trick using the hand out "Mostly Magic?" Have the class disc uss what patterns their groups found.

    To give students specific responsibility while viewing, ask the class, "Has anyone ever seen a magician? Was it really magic? Now we're going to see a magician perform a magic trick. When he performs the magic trick I want you to watch closely to see if it's magic or if the trick is really a pattern."

    RESUME the video, so that students can observe the magician and look for patterns. To enhance students' observation skills, talk over the tape when the magician appears and ask, "Do you think he's really a magician?" When the magician starts laying out the cards, talk over the tape and say,"Watch carefully how he lays out the cards." When the arrow points to the ace of hearts, say over the tape, "We're picking the ace of hearts. Notice there are three rows with four cards in each row. How many cards are there? Watch how he picks up the cards!"

    PAUSE the tape after the card trick, when the commentator says, "Hmmm I think I see a ma thematical pattern!", to allow time for students to predict a pattern. Ask the students, "Did anyone see a pattern?" Class discussion follows.

    REWIND the tape to the beginning of the magic trick to provide time for students to check their theories. Say, "Let's watch the card trick one more time and see if your hypothesis works." Watch the trick again. Remind students to watch how the magician picks up the cards.

    PAUSE the tape after the card trick, when the commentator says, "Hmmm I think I see a mathematical pattern!", to give students a chance to test their theories. Give each group a deck of playing cards. Tell students, "You will now have 5 minutes to experiment with playing cards to test your theories and look for a pattern. Work in your group to discover the pattern used in the card trick. Make sure you keep a record of which theories work, as well as which theories don't work."

    After students have had a chance to experiment using the playing cards, have grou ps discuss with the class what patterns they found.

    RESUME the tape to validate students' ideas and to allow students to see the pattern. Say, "Lets watch the rest of the magic segment to see if you're right."

    Continue the tape through the explanation. PAUSE the tape to emphasize the word explain when the speaker says "We see how patterns explain things". Say, "In the card trick the pattern was used to explain the magic!"

    STOP the Video.

    Post-Viewing Activities

    Working in groups of two, students will create a "magic trick" using a pattern. The students will perform their magic trick for the other groups, and see if the other students can discover their pattern. Students will write a description of the "magic trick" they created, and explain in their description how the pattern works. A book will be made of the classes' different magic tricks, which will be placed in the school library.

    Action Plan

    Students will take their "magic show" on the road! The class will travel to a nearby elementary school and nursing home, where they will perform (and explain) their magic! Also, students will perform magic tricks at "parent nights", and during the annual Math Fair.

    Extensions

    MathematicsHave students create games which use patterns, like the game NIM. Using calculators, have students create a game using patterns. Use a "Hundreds Chart" to look for patterns. Have students create number tricks, and use algebra to solve them. For example, the solution to the first "pick a number" problem could be described as: [2( x+6)-12]/2-x

    ScienceInvestigate patterns and shapes in nature. Students will create a news report which uses patterns to describe weather. Investigate patterns found in science, such as DNA. Students can explore patterns found in their finger prints. Students can study the Fibonacci sequence, and discover how rabbits "multiply".

    Language Arts Write a story that uses a pattern to solve a mystery. For example, a detective might discover that the numbers of all missing math books are multiples of three.

    ArtInvestigate patterns used in Hopi Baskets and Navajo Rugs. Have students create Hopi Baskets and Navajo Rugs using materials s uch as construction paper or yarn. Use a computer to design patterns. Use patterns to create tessellations.

    MusicHave students use patterns and items found in the classroom to create a musical composition.

    ResourcesThe Nebraska Mathematics and Science Coalition's "Math Vantage" segment: Patterns, contains segments which demonstrate patterns used in music, sports, art, weather and games.

    Zaslavsky, Claudia. Multicultural Mathematics, J. Weston Walch,Publisher P.O. Box 658, Portland, Maine 04104-0658. Contains lessons on the patterns found in Hopi baskets and Navajo rugs.

    Reimer, Wilbert and Luetta. Historical Connections in Mathematics Volumes I and II, 1993 AIMS Education Foundation, P.O. Box 8120 Fresno, CA. 93747-8120. Contains "Number Tricks" and patterns such as square and triangular numbers.

    Family Math Contains lessons which use patterns, including the game "Balloon Ride", a game similar to NIM.

    MASTER TEACHER: Diane Weaver

    Worksheet

    Click here to view the worksheet associated with this lesson.

    Top of lesson

    Monday, September 23, 2019

    From Poof to Proof: Inside the Mind of a Mathemagician

    For mathematician and "mathemagician" Arthur Benjamin, the best way to illustrate the basic concept of algebra is with a little magic trick: "Think of a number between one and ten. Now, double it. Add ten. Then, divide by two. Subtract the number you started with originally."

    "Is the number you arrived at 5?"

    Then, he explains why the trick works: "Let's call the number you started with n—and right away, we've achieved the major goal of algebra, which is the concept of abstraction, using a letter to represent a value that we don't know. First, you doubled the number, so you had 2n. Then, you added 10, so you had 2n + 10. After that, you divided the number by 2. When you divide 2n + 10, you get n + 5. Finally, when you subtract n—no matter what number it is—you're left with 5."

    That's just one example of how Benjamin, who is well known for his magic shows in which he performs mental calculations at lightning speeds, demonstrates the fun and fascinating aspects of math in his latest book, The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why. 

    "Many mathematicians say that math exists without humans. But Arthur epitomizes the social strain of math that involves sharing ideas with people and converting young people, getting them interested in math by reminding them it's a cool subject," says Paul Zeitz, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of San Francisco. "Even when he gives math talks without magic, he's amazing at captivating an audience. He's done more for math than most people do in their entire careers."

    Benjamin, a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd College, became a "mathemagician" by accident, beginning the '70s. Growing up, he was an avid follower of the prolific popular mathematics writer Martin Gardner, reading books such as Mathematical Carnival and completing Gardner's puzzles in Scientific American. He started doing magic shows for kids while he was in high school, which then grew into shows for adults, featuring feats of mental agility that were less challenging than they appeared. Benjamin was good at doing quick math in his head, so he added that to his shows and developed various techniques for doing fast math in his head—the same way many others had. 

    "What made me different was I had a knack for performing on stage," he says. After finishing graduate school in 1989, he settled in southern California and started performing again, earning a coveted spot at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, a clubhouse for the world's best magicians. Twenty-five years later, he's still performing, at roughly 75 events a year—a full-time job, in addition to his full-time teaching.

    "I learned how to be a good teacher through my early experiences as a magician," he says. "My approach to teaching has always been, 'How do I make this material entertaining?' Math is a serious subject, but that doesn't mean it has to be taught in an overly serious way."

    In The Magic of Math—his first high-profile release since 2006, when he wrote the popular Secrets of Mental Math—he explains why "9" is the most magical number, offers some mental math shortcuts, and shares his technique for figuring out the day of the week for any date of the current or upcoming year. "I want people to have two reactions to each exercise, or trick," he says. "First, I want them to say, 'Cool!' and second, I want them to ask, 'Why?' "

    Both the fun and the explanations are often missing from math instruction in today's schools, according to Benjamin—despite the fact that so many people are calling for better education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Frequent testing leaves little time for exploring math for the sake of beauty and pleasure, and students are often told they need to learn math skills only because they'll need them in future math classes. "I don't like delayed gratification," Benjamin says, "especially when the answer never comes. Math needs to be made relevant."

    Another problem is that many teachers don't love math. "It's hard to fake a passion for math," he says. "A lot of elementary school teachers are math-phobic and I worry they are passing on those phobias to students. You can't expect students to be more excited about math than their teachers are." Yet, there are barriers that keep people who truly love math—such as math and engineering majors—from going back to classrooms as educators. "I wish we could do more to attract the best and brightest math students to teaching, and give great teachers more money and more respect," he adds.

    In his 2009 TED Talk, Benjamin suggested that high school students should be taught statistics rather than calculus and he still advocates for this approach. While calculus is currently a must for students seeking acceptance to competitive colleges, "I would rather see the typical high school graduate have a good understanding of probability and statistics," he says. "Unless students are going into engineering, science, math or a related field, they're not going to use calculus in their daily lives, but probability and statistics are around us everyday, when we're reading the newspaper or making financial decisions. Data surrounds us, and the more you understand it, the better off you will be."

    Keith Devlin, executive director of the Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (H-STAR) at Stanford University, agrees: "Calculus is a totally inappropriate summit course for high school. Most students at that age do not yet have enough other mathematics beneath their belts, or sufficient mathematical maturity to do it properly."

    Overall, Benjamin hopes that someday students will have more options, and less of a prescribed track, when it comes to studying math. "I believe that will allow a love of math to grow, and not be decimated," he says.

    He hopes The Magic of Math will be a resource for students, parents, teachers and adults who are curious about math. At the end of the book, in a section called "Aftermath," he recommends other resources such as Kahn Academy, The Art of Problem Solving and videos by Numberphile. He says, "There are a ton of popular math books out there right now, perhaps because people are looking outside of the education system for fun math. If mine is the only math book you ever read, then I have failed."

    Sunday, September 22, 2019

    How Artificial Intelligence Is Improving Magic Tricks

    Forget lightning speed calculations, technological superiority and machine-like precision. Thanks to the efforts of some researchers, artificial intelligence can now create magic.

    "We've done a number of different tricks involving artificial intelligence," says Peter McOwan, a computer science professor at Queen Mary University of London.

    McOwan and his coauthor, Howard Williams, recently published a study in PLOS ONE on using search algorithms to scour the internet to find the hidden mental associations magicians can use to astound their spectators.

    "A piece of software is like a magic trick in that it has something that seems amazing," McOwan says.

    McOwan says he first got into magic when his father bought him a trick he picked up at a shop while on a business trip. He got hooked, but the hobby kind of dropped away later when he went to university. As he got into computer science, he realized that some of the same algorithms you can use to develop mathematically based card tricks were used to develop software and applications.

    "I combined my passion for magic tricks with my passion for computer science," he says, adding that what started off as a childhood hobby ended up as a whole field of research in artificial intelligence.

    "Magic as a hobby is a fantastic thing to get into. It gives you self-confidence, it gives you the ability to learn communication skills—it's a really good hobby to have."

    While the term "artificial intelligence" is often misconstrued to mean a whole assortment of robot apocalypse scenarios, much of what's considered AI today is really born from algorithms. But using numbers to create tricks isn't anything new—in fact many magic tricks involve math.

    Jason Davison, a mathematical magician based in London, uses a minor sleight of hand and a few calculations to pull tricks like getting a given card you've chosen at any point in a deck you tell him just by shuffling the cards.

    Another trick involves using a much more complex understanding of patterns and a little deck fixing to ensure that any way the spectator shuffles a deck, the cards will appear to have an uncanny order in which every set of four cards pulled from the top represent each of the four suits.

    "There are many others with algebra and formulaic self-working tricks," Davison says.

    He has even designed a simple computer program that appears to be able to guess the correct color of a given card in a deck fixed in the same way as the latter trick. He gets the spectator to shuffle the cards as above, then divides the deck into two piles. He asks the spectator to guess the color of the cards in one pile one by one before revealing them and enters the answers into the program.

    The robot then predicts the other pile, and (un)naturally gets it all right. But what might seem like robot mind-reading is really just a programmatic sleight of hand. Davison knows which colors the cards will be in that pile because they will be the opposite of the spectator's pile based on the way the deck is shuffled. So when the spectator gets one wrong, he inserts an extra space before the answer he types. This cues the program that the answer is wrong.

    So rather than controlling something we can't comprehend, the program is merely a slave to Davison's own knowledge of the pack. "The computer 'guesses' the coloring of the other pile using this information I have fed to it," he said in an email.

    McOwan has taken algorithms to the next level, though.

    His trick works like this. A custom deck will have cards with words, and another pile of cards will have images. Spectators will be asked to instantly choose word cards that associate most closely with an image. (The researchers invite you to download the cards and instructions.)

    The real magic in this trick comes in determining how far off the wrong meanings can be without seeming fixed. You might have a picture of a hamburger, for example. But if you have five words—hungry, fish, cat, boat and tree—it will be obvious to anyone which card the spectator will associate with the photo.

    If the words instead are hungry, tray, lettuce, bun, and ketchup, the ability to guess the right answer seems much more uncanny though.

    McOwan says that in order to determine the precise difference, he used a complex algorithm that searches the internet to find the words most often associated with particular images. The algorithm specifically looks at the words that popular commercial brands use to accompany their products—so in a sense he's harnessing all the work of decades of marketing research to figure out which word associations we are most likely to make with an image. So even though it seems like you have a choice, your unconscious decision is locked in fate.

    "This is basically a new probe into looking at how people's brains work," McOwan says, adding that a magician could do this without a program but it would take a huge amount of trial and error before figuring out the most likely answers.

    Other tricks he has created with the help of a computer include the design of a jigsaw puzzle that appears to lose simple lines if you put it together a different way. It's based on a type of illusion in which an algorithm has calculated the amount of changes you can make to shapes without people noticing anything is amiss.

    This would be incredibly difficult for a human to design, but a computer program makes it quite easy.

    Davison says that other computer-based tricks are coming out with new technology. He talks about trick dice that cue the magician to the numbers they show by sending a signal to a mechanical ticker attached to the magician's leg, or even trick websites or applications that somehow send messages to magicians.

    "I would say that AI definitely has a strong place in magic in the future," he says.

    Brian Curry, a professional magician in the Washington, D.C. area, agrees. He says that some of the tricks that would have astounded audiences 15 years ago no longer pack the same punch because there are apps that do the same work. But new technology can also help magicians stay on top of the game.

    "Technology and magic are always correlated," he says.

    McOwan says there are possible uses for artificial intelligence in other forms of magic beyond card tricks. He says that he and other researchers did some initial work on mathematical models for optimizing sleight of hand tricks. It could also be used for designing optical illusions on the stage—tricks such as making a cabinet appear smaller than it actually is and giving someone space to hide in it.

    McOwan says that right now, artificial intelligence can only help magicians gain the raw material for a trick. The real magic comes in conjuring up a spectacle, though—the performance art and pulling of a convincing rendition. To that end, while he might reveal to computer science students the magic tricks he creates personally, he considers some of the more clever mathematical tricks employed by professional magicians off limits.

    "They are just so so clever," he says, adding that he would perform them but never reveal them. "I would never give away the real secrets of the trade," he says.

    These computer-based tricks may become more and more popular, Davison says.

    "But at the same time, nothing is more glorious than making someone childishly believe in magic again with nothing more than a simple coin."

    The Magic of Math

    As a professor, perhaps his most important audience is his own students. He takes teaching seriously â€" he has been honored with a University System of Georgia Regents Teaching Excellence Award and, earlier in his career, the Georgia Tech CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Award â€" but not so seriously that he can’t find a place for magic in the classroom. He likes to incorporate tricks into his teaching and surprise students with magic in class.

    “I pretty much always have a deck of cards on me,” he said.

    He also brings the magic of mathematics to high school students by teaching a distance learning course on number theory and cryptography. The course, in its second year, was developed to give high school students who have completed Tech’s Distance Calculus sequence a way to continue their math education with Tech.

    “Some of these students are only juniors in high school, but they’ve already completed multivariable calculus,” said Baker, who also designed the number theory course. “We could have done differential equations or something else that would continue the calculus series, but I wanted to do something different to show them that math is more than just calculus.”

    Baker enjoys performing, of course, but he incorporates magic into his lessons with students in mind, striving to make his videos on mathematics as stimulating as those he once used to learn magic.

    “As professors, it’s good for us to look at how we can be more engaged in the classroom,” he said. “Students like it. Ideally, the word will get out that Tech is a fun place to be, and maybe I can have something to do with that.”

    Saturday, September 21, 2019

    Penn Jillette does the math: America's next big magic star will be a woman

    Legendary magician Penn Jillette, along with his longtime partner Teller, are currently in their sixth season of their show "Fool Us" on the CW. On the show, other magicians try to get a trick past these expert illusionists in order to win a prize: a guest spot in their Vegas show.

    They've also launched a VR video game where players can fool their own friends, "Penn & Teller VR: Frankly Unfair, Unkind, Unnecessary and Underhanded."

    Jillette visited Salon's studio for a conversation about his underlying theory of practical jokes, why "our goal in life was to be carny trash" and what the number of women competing and winning on "Fool Us" says about the direction magic is going in America. Watch our conversation on "Salon Talks," or read the transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity, below.

    What made you want to get into VR?

    Way back in the '80s we did a video, a VHS tape called the "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends." There is this moment when technology happens, the technology could become a magic wand. People will believe anything is possible. So when video recording first started getting into homes constantly, you could do fake recorded video that people would still believe was on TV, would still believe was broadcast. So we had all these tricks to do.

    Now with VR, nobody knows what it can do yet. You know, when you first get a VR rig, there's this wonderful kind of gray area where you may know intellectually what's possible, but you don't know viscerally. You're in this wonderful situation, right? Because the first thing you do when you get a VR rig is you invite your friends over to show them how great it is.

    Then you take somebody and say, "Want to see this VR rig?" Then while you're in your home, you obliterate their eyesight and you obliterate their hearing, and have them standing in your room. Which means all their attention is on what's happening inside their head. So you can do things out in the real world that you can change. Obviously, the first thing you would think of is if someone is, you know, out on the ocean or something in the VR, you could throw a glass of water on them, that's the simple stuff.

    But we went and got very, very complicated so that people can believe they're seeing really phenomenal stuff happening that VR is not capable of doing, but with an accomplice in the room. So this is a game that you play, not against the game, but it's actually a tool you use to scam your friends out of mostly dignity, but occasionally money.

    There comes the underhanded.

    Yes.

    And it is unfair.

    Yes.

    That sounds fascinating. 

    Penn Jillette:   Certainly unkind.

    I'm not a VR person myself, that's why I work primarily in nonfiction. But I certainly appreciate the draw of this, and I think it's fascinating.

    You know, me too on that.

    I believe my rule on practical jokes is that the person for whom the joke is played on must enjoy it the most of anybody. We do use that sensibility. So you're really not talking about being in a fictional world like you would normally would be, I'm just talking about an interaction with a person where you take the opportunity to show them how to care about them by pulling a scam on them that makes their mind be blown, or blow their funky minds as George Clinton said.

    I have been following you and Teller for years. It is true, I dated myself, but my dad took me to your shows when I was a kid here in New York. I think you were still off-Broadway, un-televised, and it was probably "Penn and Teller Go Public" in 1985. I am that old.

    You know, you guys have changed, in that you've grown, your visibility has grown, your venues, your success, obviously, over time. But what do you think has changed most about your work and your act?

    You know, we've trusted the audience more all the time. One of the big things that was different about us from other people in magic was our trust of the audience. We want to do magic without ever insulting the audience. You know, Jerry Seinfeld said that all magic was, "Here's a quarter, now it's gone, you're a jerk. Now it's back, you're an asshole. Show's over."

    We really didn't want to do that. We really wanted to let the audience in on the inside, and we really wanted to be fair and kind to the audience. We began never dumbing down our stuff and always trusted the audience to be smarter than we were, and doing stuff as smart as we possibly could. Over the years, we have gotten nothing but reinforcement on that.

    So, we have gotten, and I think this is a little unusual, we have gotten actually weirder and bolder as we've gotten older. You know, so many people in the show business seem to get into show business, or to get out of it. You know, in Vegas, a lot of our peers, they put together a show that they did 20, 30 years ago. They move it to Vegas, and they do it every night, and they do a fine job at it. Then during the day they play golf, or they lunch, or they hang out.

    All Teller and I ever wanted to do was put together weird tricks for people, and we've been doing that since we were children. The idea that, you know, in our 60s, we can have a crew and a theater that's filled with people every night, and keep doing weirder and crazier things, is just my joy. I mean, I don't know how golf can compare with doing stuff that's in your heart, in your mind, that people enjoy.

    That's so lucky that you not only found this as a young person and have been able to not only make a living, but more so do it in the way that you feel is apt.

    We're in a very odd position, because if you talk to anybody with a great deal of success . . .  Houdini or Madonna or Howard Stern or Paul McCartney, they would all tell you that they should have been more successful than they were. All of them. Paul has said that, Paul McCartney had said that clearly, so has Howard Stern. Houdini said that constantly.

    We, however, at our tier of show business, are much more successful than we expected or we deserve. We keep waiting for the invisible hand of the economy to correct. There should be a mark of correction on Penn and Teller. Because we always expected to play for, you know, a couple hundred people a night, play fairs, do that kind of stuff. We were doing that, and we were successful, and very, very happy.

    Then we came to New York kind of on a whim, and all of a sudden it turned out that we were more successful than expected, and that's been wonderful. But you know, our goal in life was to be carny trash, and we accomplished that very quickly.

    I didn't say it.

    We maintained that sensibility.

    You know what? There's something about that, and it sounds cheesy maybe, but the attitude of gratitude. You guys don't go into this with that mentality that you mentioned Jerry Seinfeld has, and I think that's going to earn you more respect from your audiences, and give you that longevity that you have.

    Well, it also turns out that, maybe this is a weakness of character, but if you like our show, I'm much more apt to like you.

    So we try to be nice to those people.

    I did mention that you and Teller have been doing this since you were kids, right? So that's a nice segue for me to ask you, do you remember a moment or a particular event that made you enamored of magic?

    My relationship to magic is my relationship to Teller. Teller had a childhood sickness, and he was five years old, and they got him a magic kit. He clicked into that, and that became everything to him. Now I had quite the opposite reaction. I was a rock and roll fan, a big fan of reading. I wanted desperately to be in show business, but I was in a tiny town, had never met anybody in the arts, never met one person in the arts. So, I learned to juggle, and my first relationship with magic was very, very bad.

    It was a mentalist, Kreskin, on TV, claiming to be doing science, but actually doing tricks. I was so upset by that. This is the kind of overreaction you can only get from a child. I guess I was 13 or 14, and the idea that adults lied to children about stuff like this, I went from an A student to a D student. I went from being very, very interested in science and academics to no interest at all. It really, really broke my heart, and I hated magicians tremendously.

    Of course you don't remember this, because nobody does, but the act that was on after The Beatles on Ed Sullivan was a magic act. You would you watch those variety shows, and I watched as a young child with my parents. The variety acts, it would come on around the rock and roll shows, people that were on after The Who and after The Rolling Stones. I just hated it, I had no interest in them at all.

    Then when I was still in high school, 17 or 18, I met Teller. Teller said a sentence to me that seemed insane. He said that magic was essentially intellectual. Magic, you know, a greasy guy in a tux with a lot of birds torturing women in front of Mylar, seemed anything but intellectual. But the idea, music, your body moves, you tap your foot. But with magic, you have to make a map of the way the world works and compare what you're seeing. That is a very high level intellectual event. Deciding how we ascertain what's true is also an intellectual event.

    So that was an amazing thing to say. Then Amazing Randy, the skeptic, and Teller, also said to me that you could do magic and be very, very honest. The idea of saying within this frame we are now going to play along with how we ascertain what's true. Not outside that frame, we won't go outside that frame no matter what, but within this frame we can play with this.

    That fascinated me. So, my whole relationship with magic starts really with Teller. I mean, before that I was very good with the deck of cards, but only in terms of cardistry. I always liked practicing learning things. But the intellectual love of magic comes completely from Teller. I'm very unusual in that way, because virtually every other magician, Copperfield, David Blaine, all those people, start five years old, six years old, and their obsession with magic is at that level, is where it starts. Mine starts really, pretty much as an adult.

    You seem to have a tremendous amount of respect for the grind, the hardest working people, because you and Teller are that way, and you proceed to apply that across your life. I was doing some reading. A lot of people will look, of course, [and think] this is Penn Jillette, and he is much smaller than you might have known him a few years ago.

    Yeah. I'm two thirds the man I used to be.

    For years and years, like many, many Americans, I struggled with my weight and thought that the best way to [address] that with some way that was easy, you know? Take smaller portions, you know, eat more protein, eat less fat, eat less carbs, whenever you want to do. There's always little things.

    Then a friend of mine, Ray Cronise, who I call Cray Ray, who worked at NASA, he had been doing a lot of research on diet and the way people lose weight. I said to him, because I was really a hundred pounds overweight. I said to him, you know, "Is there a way that I can lose this weight easily?" He said, "No, it's going to be really, really hard." He was the first person to say that.

    Every doctor had said, "It's not that hard, you can lose this weight." I realized, at that moment, that in my entire life I have never respected moderation in any way, ever. I mean, I have never had a drink of alcohol in my life, I never had a drug in my life. I've never respected people who drank wine with dinner, but I've had a lot of heroin addicts that I thought were great artists.

    I always like the intense and the extremes. For some reason, although I knew that no one brags about walking up a grassy slope, but they brag about climbing Everest, that I did that in my whole life. I wanted to do things the hard way, except the diet. So when he finally said, you know, "We're going to do this really intense stuff," and I took it as a hard thing, I really dug it.

    Now when people say, you know, "Is it hard to keep the weight off?" You know, I've hit this magic time, it's now been, you know, four and a half years, and most people gain the weight back within two. People say, you know, "Is it easy?" It's a very hard thing to answer, because the real answer is I like the fact that it's difficult. But then again, that's kind of easy, because that's where I like to live. It's a very complicated thing.

    So now are you maintaining with IMF, intermittent fasting?

    Yeah.

    It's trendy now, and I know that's not why you do it. But when you began this, I imagine it was sort of lesser known.

    Yeah, it was a little lesser known, and I really enjoy it. I did a two week fast under doctor supervision. Two or three days you can do pretty much anything you want, but beyond three days you really need supervision, medical supervision that's competent. Probably I was overly careful, but that's the way I like to be.

    That was interesting, but not as wonderful as the intermittent fasting. You know, I used to feel, if I had something important to do, that you would get up and have a good solid breakfast to be ready. Now when I have something, especially with a lot of stress, not eating, really seems to focus me. You know, when I went on "Jeopardy!", where I won, I was backstage, and the other two people were eating scrambled eggs and bacon, and toast and bagels, and getting all filled up. I was back there going, "Oh my goodness, I'm going to win."

    You knew it, right? Well, you are great predictor of outcomes, it's part of your work. You know, before we went live, we were talking a little bit about statistical analysis of actual numbers in the world. You look at the world today, and we will get to your show, because I want to mention it and talk about some of the difference between that and the other.

    But, you know, if you turn on the news and it looks doom and gloom, and we're living in a very particular time now, things you say are actually improving across the board, and why you feel that's the case.

    It's interesting because it's analogous in my mind to exactly what you're talking about with diet. You know, for billions of years the biggest problem living things encountered was too few calories. That was all you were living for. What mammals and primates and humans, what they were always striving for was warmth, light, and food, sustenance. Then for this very short period of time, I mean, not even one frictional rub of this huge stone, for maybe 75 years, for maybe one 1000th of the population, we all of a sudden have this other problem, which is too many calories, too much light, like too much warmth.

    Expecting organisms to deal with that quickly and easily is expecting a lot. Now, for all the amount of time that humans have been communicating information, getting information has been very, very difficult. As somebody, even recently, 300 years ago, the amount of information you would've gotten in your whole life was the amount of information that's contained in one issue of The New York Times. That would be a whole lifetime of information.

    So now we've got this situation where we have information on suffering around the world that we would have been oblivious to. You know, we would have had a tribe of 300 people that we would have been aware of, and we would have had a really clean statistical view of how dangerous things are. In 300 people, we would know what our big dangers where. If you knew someone that died of that, it was a real danger.

    But now we're in a situation, we get information kind-of, sort-of. There's still a lot of proximity effect, but kind of, sort of, you get information on seven billion people. That gets condensed and sent to us. So when we see 300 people killed, it's very hard, emotionally, I would say impossible, to see what percentage that is of seven billion. But when we look at it, we can see that by any measure, health, starvation, I'm doing these in reverse, but health, being fed, lack of violence. Every way, life expectancy.

    The big thing is, all you really need to judge the world is the education of girls. The number of girls going to school will tell you everything. It's interesting, that tells you how much violence there is, tells you how much starvation there is, it tells you everything. The way people treat girls seems to be the metric that tells you everything else. Now we have 90% or over now. 90% of girls on planet Earth are being educated.

    As you also said, it's like two steps forward, one step back, right? So, with that sense of humanity that comes with women, is it actually a sense that — most indigenous cultures were . . . led by women, nurtured by women, fed by women, and so on.

    Also, that still is an indicator. The more women you have in power, the more peaceful and healthy a society you have. That's not philosophical, that's mathematical. That's just statistics.

    Your current show "Fool Us," in its sixth season on the CW, it's a little bit different than some past shows. Always respecting the audience, something we spoke about earlier, always exposing parts of tricks, and yet here you turn the tables on yourself and try to have people fool you and Teller.

    You get into magic not because you want to fool people but because you enjoy being fooled. Then you'll continue as you learn about how tricks are done, you continue to chase that first high. It's harder and harder for us to be fooled. So we've put ourselves in a situation where there is a team of people with a lot of money who go all over the world to find people who can fool us. When we get that, if you're talking about statistics, about 12% of the people on the show have fooled us.

    That's not a good number for them; it's very good for you guys and your brand.

    But 12% means that every season we get deeply fooled by about 15 people, which is a pretty wonderful feeling. To look at something at our level, to look at something and just be completely blown away. There's an interesting thing that happened. It's a real weird glitch that I don't think anybody noticed, but I did. Last season we had the most, we pushed very hard for this, because magic is, I don't think there's any way to couch this, magic is sexist. The Magic Circle, biggest magic organization in London, did not allow women on the premises until the '90s.

    Wow.

    The big organization is the International Brotherhood of Magicians. But all of a sudden because of the Internet, because you don't have to be in environments that are uncomfortable, there are a lot of girls into magic. I get asked all the time, I have two children. They say, "Is your son into magic?" I say, "No, my daughter is." My daughter's a big fan. So we pushed really hard.

    Now here's what I found interesting. Last season we had six women magicians who were on, as not part of a team, but were on as solo performers. There were six. Out of those six women magicians, six fooled us.

    We're in our 60s, we've been in magic all this time, we are completely surrounded by the culture of magic that didn't include women.

    Until I noticed it afterwards, I didn't notice any sort of thing, but I went, "Wow, there is a new kind of thinking." There's no way that's gender related, but it is outsider-related. It means that people that came up a little bit outside of the form knew things that we didn't know being so deeply inside it. Nothing pleased me more about all the seasons of "Fool Us" than that particular fact.

    It's never safe to predict anything, but what happened in comedy was you went from women not being important in comedy very much at all, with a few very important exceptions, to the biggest comedy stars in the world today are women. In the United States today, I can't speak to the world.

    That's about to happen in magic, because it used to be that every other night after the show, some boy would come up and show us a magic trick, and it would be a girl once a year. Now they're even, and that happened in two-year period. Which means that the number of girls who are into magic now is extraordinary, which means just statistically, we're going to see in five years the biggest magic star in the country is very likely to be a woman, and I am thrilled about that.

    Math magician, Mark Mitton, shows how math and magic go hand-in-hand

    Magician and performer to the stars, Mark Mitton, shares some of his magical mind-benders and how magic and math go hand-in-hand. He is performing at the National Math Festival at the Washington DC Convention Center on May 4th, 2019. That event if free to the public.

    Published: 12:53 PM EDT May 2, 2019

    Updated: 12:55 PM EDT May 2, 2019

    Friday, September 20, 2019

    Watch a math magician, light dancers steal the 'America's Got Talent' stage

    Light Balance performs on 'America's Got Talent' (Photo: NBC, Trae Patton/NBC)

    Move over singing auditions, it's time for a bit of magic and dance.

    25-year-old Tom London brought his mathematical magic trick to the America's Got Talent stage during his audition, which aired Tuesday on NBC -- and let's just say, people were impressed.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to try and do something that’s never been done before,” he said, starting his audition.

    He then asked for audience members to hold up their phones, which lit up in different colors.

    “How are you doing that?” judge Howie Mandel asked, stumped.

    “In today’s world, we’re all connected through our cell phones,” London continued. “But what I want to show you is that we’re actually all connected on a far deeper level.”

    He then asked judge Simon Cowell to select three audience members with glowing phone screens. Once onstage, London asked each of them a number-related question and had Tyra Banks, the show’s host, add them to her phone’s calculator.

    The result? What seems to be a completely random number: 73,928,547.

    “OK guys, we’ve got this random number here,” the magician explained. “But there’s something bigger going on, something impossible, something magical.”

    Then, tying the whole trick together, London stumped the crowd yet again by playing a video clip of himself hours before his audition holding up the same number.

    We may need a minute to figure this one out.

    Another crowd-favorite audition came courtesy of the dance group Light Balance, who won over the audience with their creative number that paired music to light-up costumes and props.

    After their performance, host Tyra Banks took to the stage to share her thoughts.

    "I'm amazed by you guys," she said. "Wasn't that incredible? Like, crazy good? Blew my mind good? I feel you guys so so much."

    She felt the dance group so much that she decided to give them a golden buzzer, which sends them straight to the live show.

    Watch the full clip for both auditions below.

    Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2sPzlfw

    College Town: WPI club has magic formula

    At the Society of Magicians, one of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's newest clubs, there are certain types of magic that members have found it best to avoid.

    The goal of most magic tricks is to amaze the audience, and at a school that abounds with science and math geniuses, that can be challenging.

    Sophomore Emily Staknis, the society's president, says magic based on physics doesn't work well at WPI. "I tend to avoid those kinds of tricks because people figure it out," she said.

    Ms. Staknis, a robotics engineering major, has been doing magic 10 years, since receiving a magic kit as a child. She went on to get a larger magic kit that came with DVD instructions, and later she became a regular visitor at an area magic shop, learning tricks from the proprietors.

    When she came to WPI in 2017 and found that there wasn't a magic club, she was disappointed, but didn't think of starting one until she met up with two other student magicians who had started the process. Together they created the Society of Magicians.

    The society received final approval to become a student club earlier this year and has about 20 members.

    What kind of tricks do the student magicians perform?

    "I usually do card tricks. It is easier to amaze the crowd," said graduate student Vignesh Mano'j Varier, a robotics engineering major.

    Ms. Staknis said she also likes to use card tricks, some involving math, explaining that practice is crucial to performing any of the tricks well.

    One thing most magicians look forward to is the reactions.

    "You really don't know how people will react," Ms. Staknis said, adding that some try to figure it out.

    "People enjoy it when they are thoroughly fooled," she said.

    Some want to find out how the trick works, said Mr. Mano'j Varier. "Someone offered me $50 to tell the secret, but I wouldn't tell," he said, explaining that it was a matter of principle.

    Austin Jandrucko, a first-year student majoring in robotics engineering and psychology, said he likes to do "walk-around shows," which allow him to meet people and build an instant rapport. The magic itself might take only two or three minutes, but it can be made into an event that will be remembered for a long time, he said.

    Students in the club perform on campus, and the club plans to do a show in the Goats Head restaurant at the end of the term.

    While no public shows are in the works right now, down the road the club might invite a magician and have members perform a bit of magic as an introduction, Ms. Staknis said.

    Assumption police re-accredited

    Assumption College's Campus Police Department recently achieved re-accreditation from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. The college initially received accreditation in 2012. Every three years the department must go through a re-accreditation process to show that it is maintaining the accreditation standards, which Assumption did in 2015 and then most recently, in 2018, according to Donna Taylor Mooers, executive director of the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission.

    Becker talks tells how to break into the game industry

    As part of the Franklin M. Loew Lecture Series, "How To Get Your First Game Studio Job" will be presented at 6 p.m. Monday at the Colleen C. Barrett Center, 80 Williams St. The discussion will be led by Becker College graduate Brian Brannan, who is a lead game tester for Disruptor Beam. For more information, or to RSVP, call (508) 373-9460.

    Clark professor wins book prize

    Janette Greenwood, professor of History at Clark University, has been awarded the 24th annual Historic New England Book Prize for "Rediscovering an American Community of Color: The Photographs of William Bullard, 1897-1917," which she co-authored with Nancy Kathryn Burns, associate curator at the Worcester Art Museum.

    Nichols students create fundraising challenge

    In conjunction with Giving Tuesday, Nichols College marketing and leadership students created the #NC22Challenge, which runs through Nov. 27.

    It consists of people doing 22 push-ups any way they can and donating $22 or more to the Warrior Connection, a Vermont-based nonprofit organization that helps military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The number 22 represents how many veterans commit suicide each day. Along the lines of the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, each participant is to post a video of themselves doing the push-ups and nominate three others to take the challenge and donate. Social media posts must be tagged with #NC22Challenge.

    Math Magic: 3 Easy Tricks For Kids

    By Mark G. McLaughlin

    Sometimes the easiest, simplest way to liven up a party, sleepover, family gathering or presentation to a class is to perform a magic trick. Most magic tricks require fancy costumes and props, but math tricks require nothing more than pencils and paper, and so can be done with little preparation. Most people already think doing math is like doing magic, and these three easy math tricks for kids will make them believe the performer is, indeed, magical.

    X-Ray Vision Dice Reading Trick

    Everybody has some board games around the house that require dice. Everyone can see the numbers on top when they roll them – but you can see through the dice, because when it comes to dice, you have X-Ray Vision.

    What You Need:

    All you need to do this trick is a piece of paper, a pencil, six six-sided dice, a flat space to roll them, and an audience – or even just one other person.

    Announce the Trick:

    "I can see through dice! If you roll the dice you can see what is on the top but I, the amazing Gazoo (or whatever magical name you want), can see what is on the bottom of the dice!"

    Your Instructions to the Audience:

  • Have a volunteer come up, take and roll the dice
  • Pretend to be concentrating very hard as you look at the dice. Make as much of this as you can (or can get away with), then close your eyes
  • Ask the volunteer to add the top numbers on the dice
  • Silently, in your mind, deduct that number from 42. Write it down on the paper and fold it
  • Have the volunteer turn each die so the side that was on the bottom is now on top
  • Have the volunteer add up those numbers
  • Unfold the paper and show it to the volunteer and ask "is this the number you came up with?"
  • When the volunteer says "yes!" you wave your arms about and say "ta-da!"
  • The Trick Explained:

    The opposite sides of a six-sided die when added together always equal seven. (If the six is up, then the one is down; if the five is up, then the two is down; if the three is up, the four is down, and vice versa).

    So that means that that total of the top and bottom numbers on six dice will be 42 (6 x 7 = 42). If you subtract the top numbers showing from 42, you will get the result for the bottom.

    Example A: If all six dice roll sixes (6×6 =36) then all of the bottom dice are ones and will add up to six. So if the volunteer says "36" you subtract that from 42, and write down the result: six.

    Example B: If all six dice roll threes (6 x 3 = 18) then all of the bottom dice are fours and will add up to 24. So when the volunteer says "18" you subtract that from 42 and write down the result: 24

    This works with any combination of numbers the volunteer rolls.

    "Think of a Number" Math Problem

    This simple math game is one of the oldest tricks in the magician's handbook – and this is the easiest to learn – and to pull off.

    What you Need:

    This works best with an audience of one but will work just as well with an entire classroom. Each member of the audience needs a pencil and paper, as do you.

    Announce the Trick:

    "Silently choose a secret number for this math problem. Whatever you choose, I can predict the answer to the problem."

    Your Instructions to the Audience:

  • Secretly write down your number
  • Now double it
  • Add 10
  • Halve it
  • Take away the number you started with
  • What you do next: make a big show of thinking very hard, say some magic words, ham it up as much as you want, then take a piece of paper and write down the number five.

    Finally, fold the paper, hand it to an audience member and ask "is this the number you came up with after completing your calculations?" Accept their applause, bow and smile.

    If they seem at all skeptical, ask them if they are still not convinced you can read their minds. Tell them you will prove it – and have them do it again. Once again, the answer will be five. (The answer, by the way, will always be five. Not convinced, try it yourself:

    Example A: The number chosen is 90. Doubling it yields 180. Adding 10 makes 190. Halving that makes 95. Take away your chosen number (95 – 90) and the result is five.

    Example B: The number chosen is 13. Doubling it yields 26. Adding 10 makes 36. Halving it makes 18. Subtract the chosen number (18 – 13) and the result is five.

    Revealing Your Age and Shoe Size Through Magical Math

    This is an easy trick, but one best played on an audience composed of people of various ages and sizes (otherwise your audience will think this one is too obvious).

    What You Need:

    An audience that varies in age and size, each with a pencil and paper.

    Announce the Trick:

    "Using the magic of math I will determine your age and your shoe size!"

    Your instructions to the audience:

  • Write down how old you are
  • Multiply it by 20 percent of 100…which is 20 for those who have forgotten your percentages
  • Add to that the number of today's date. (Whatever day of the month it is, 10, 16, etc.)
  • Multiply the total by one-fifth of 25…which, for those who have forgotten their fractions is five
  • Add your shoe size. If you wear a half size, like, say a 12 ½, round up to the nearest whole number, which in that case for big foot would be a 13
  • Write down on the side today's date – and multiply it by five
  • Subtract that number from the larger number
  • What you then say:

    "You have a number with hundreds, tens and single digits. That 'hundreds' number may say, 1200 – in which case 12 is the hundreds. That is how old you are, right? And the last two numbers, well, that is your shoe size. Right?"

    Finally, when the audience asks "how did you do that?" you reply "very well, thank you." (After all, a magician never reveals to his audience how he tricked them; it is part of the Magician's Code).

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