Tricks Archive
Fooling Churchill
The magician Paul Curry created the following trick known as either “Out of This World” or “The Trick that Fooled Churchill” since it was supposedly performed for him during the war. The Effect The Magician holds a
Penney’s Game
Here is a trick you can do with pennies. It is called Penney’s game. It is named after Walter Penney. Or was he named after the game? No one knows. You choose a sequence of heads and
One In 52 Continued
Before we explain the significance of this question you’ll need some background. I am giving one of my training courses to a group of investment bankers, hedge fund managers, risk managers, regulators, anyone with an interest in
One In 52
PAUL Pick a card, as they say, any card. INT. A MEDIUM-SIZED LECTURE THEATRE – DAY PAUL, the lecturer, is standing at the front of an almost-full lecture room. The audience is almost entirely male. But PAUL
Throat Reading
Magic brings out the gullibility in people. This is good and is bad. It is good for magicians. But it is bad if powerful people are dumb. We can therefore use magic to figure out, to some
A Trick With Horses
I am going to teach you a trick with horses. You can do it at home if you have enough horses. This old trick was famously done by TV’s Derren Brown. We will run a with race
Houdini – The Master Of Topology
Little known fact – in which we specialize – Houdini could have been a great mathematician. Specifically a topologist. Escapology, topology, there are great similarities. Topology is the mathematical study of shapes and spaces. I don’t know
A Trick With Dice
Ten is bigger than five, and five is bigger than one. And so ten is bigger than one. Basic stuff. In symbols (we mathematicians like symbols, more than we like numbers): If A > B and B
A Trick With Money
Everyone loves money! Everyone loves magic! Everyone loves mathematics! Sadly not all of this is true. Actually most of it is not true. Imagine how difficult it must be for David and me to earn a living.