THE BOOKSHELF
Mathematical Card be done rather easily,
without any prepping
Magic: Fifty-Two of the deck. There are
also eight pages of ref-
New Eects erences, many of them
webpages, for further
reading.
I
Reviewed by Rob Eby
My favorite part of
grew up around decks of cards. I cannot remem- the book is the way
ber a time we were not playing hearts or crib- each trick is presented.
bage in my house, and I learned to play bridge First there is a How It
at a young age. I am also interested in magic Looks section describ-
and, of course, mathematics. So I was eager ing the trick from the
to read Colm Mulcahys book Mathematical Card audiences perspective.
Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects, which brings togeth-
Then a How It Works section explains how to per-
er all three of these interests. It did not disappoint.
form the trick. Finally, a section describes the math-
If Colm Mulcahys name sounds familiar, it is likely
ematics and explains how it works in the trick.
because he has been writing the MAAs Card Colm blog
Mulcahy has a conversational tone throughout.
for many years ([Link] On
However, by no means is there a loss of rigor, as he
his blog, and now in his book, he describes card tricks
proves many of the principles that he uses. In fact, this
that succeed because of some underlying mathematics.
He describes these card tricks as mathemagic. book would make an excellent addition to any math
Lest the reader thinkas many of my colleagues club library, and it would provide a fun way to intro-
didthat the mathematics of card tricks extends only duce important mathematical concepts.
to counting cards, here are some of the terms in the A junior mathematics major should be able to
index: arithmetic progression, binary error correcting understand all of the topics, while readers with less
codes, bipartite graphs, combinations, complement of mathematical background should be able to grasp most
a set, cycle decomposition, De Morgans laws, gener- of the ideas. The mathematics in a few of the tricks is
alized Fibonacci numbers, Markov chains, modular quite elementary, so I would even suggest some of them
arithmetic, and a number of entries under statistics. for those aspiring magicians who are not that keen on
mathematics.
Wonderfully Organized Of course, you may want to keep this book and the
The book is wonderfully organized. The first 24 ideas contained in it to yourself. As Mulcahy writes,
pages contain basic tips on stage presence, advice on you should really think twice before divulging how an
how to handle a deck of cards, and explanations of eect works. As soon as you explain it, people cease to
the mathematical essentials needed for the rest of the be entertained. Im glad he didnt take his own advice
book, like modular arithmetic, probability, and tech- and that we have this wonderful, entertaining book.
niques of counting.
There is also a rating system for each trick, with four When Rob Eby is not helping students see the joy of
symbols to rank the sophistication of the mathematics, mathematics, he is playing strategy games with his
the entertainment value of the trick (think: the wow! children.
factor), the level of setup required (such as putting Email: jeby@[Link]
special cards in certain places in the deck), and the
diculty level of the trick (in terms of card handling
and memory).
There is also a phone handle symbol beside those
tricks that require an assistant in the knowalthough
unlike an ordinary magicians assistant, this one must
be prepared to do some mathematics. The introduc-
tion contains a nice touch of listing 21 tricks that can [Link]
28 November 2014 : : Math Horizons : : [Link]/mathhorizons