In fact if you add up all the numbers of every card in the deck, with the ace being one, then two, three, four etc and the jack 11, queen 12, king, 13, the total will be 364. "We have four seasons in the year, just like four suits in a deck of cards. Spread the cards out again in your hands, this time showing a few of the faces, and say. This also automatically brings their card second to the top.)Īdd the joker and we have 365, the same number of days in a year. Say to your audience, " did you know that a pack of cards is very similar to our calendar ? " (Spread through the cards face up towards yourself so that no one can see the faces, and then cut the cards in half, which will bring the joker to the top of the deck. Their card will be next to (on the right) of the joker if you were to spread out the cards face up. replace, the bottom half of the deck, back on top of the top half of the deck each time.What happens is that the cutting doesn't’ really mix up the cards. Make sure that they do complete cuts i.e. Now have them cut the deck in half, 3 or 4 times. Performance:Īsk your spectator to select a card and replace it back on top of the deck. Most times, students, and even math tutors view math as a rather dull subject.Here's an easy to do trick that allows you to find your spectator's card after stating some true facts about days, dates and time of year.īefore you start the trick, place a joker on the bottom of the deck. Reveal to the math expert that the answer is 1089. Subtract the smaller of these two numbers from the larger one.Consider the “reverse” number, obtained by reading it backwards.Ask the tutor to pick a 3-digit number where the first and last digits differ by 2 or more…
Probably one that you go to for math homework help with your school’s math worksheets. Reveal it in whatever dramatic way you like…įor a very fast effect, use just 9 cards and deal only twice (although the underlying math for this 2-step trick becomes rather obvious). The chosen card will be in the middle of the selected row.
You then ponder(whilst scratching your head) and state to the puzzled audience that their collective thinking must have gone wrong, since “ there are no grey elephants in Denmark“…Ī classic trick from the 1950s, but still amazes most people. Think of an animal whose name starts with the country’s second.Think of the name of a country which starts with this letter.Convert this into a letter of the alphabet.You announce to the audience that an entire crowd can be driven into thinking about the same thing!Įach person in the audience is asked to think of a small number(between 1 and 30 is usually preferred) and is then instructed to perform the following operations silently. Grey elephants in Denmark: (ages 9 to adult).No matter what number they pick, the answer is always 9. Reveal to them that you can read their mind. If their answer is a 2-digit number, ask them to add the digits.Subtract that sum of digits from the original number.Pick a 2-digit number from 1 to 50… say 25.One that’ll impress your math teacher as well!Īsk your audience to do the following steps: Here are a few ‘math magic’ tricks that you can actually count on. No need to cut up people, make elephants disappear or pull animals out of hats to impress people. If an algebra teacher used the words ‘math’ and ‘magic’ in the same sentence, you could be forgiven for thinking the teacher had lost it! Probably intoxicated with an overdose of number mashing! Actually, you can conjure up some very cool math magic tricks pretty easily.