Magic tricks for math lovers: a buyer’s guide

For someone who loves math, the best magic is the kind where the numbers do the work. Start with Martin Gardner’s Mathematics, Magic & Mystery for the ideas behind the tricks, add Karl Fulves’s Self Working Card Tricks for card tricks they can do right away, and round it out with two free classics: Rouse Ball’s Mathematical Recreations and Essays and Decremps’s Philosophical Amusements. Every detail below is from the product’s own description.

Why does magic suit a math lover?

Many self-working tricks are math in disguise. A card arrives at the right place because of how a count works, or a prediction comes true because a number pattern always ends the same way. For someone who enjoys puzzles, finding out why a trick works is half the fun. If you want to see what that feels like, try the Fitch Cheney five-card trick or the Afghan bands first.

Which book explains the math behind the tricks?

Mathematics, Magic & Mystery by Martin Gardner looks at why card tricks, mental calculation feats and stage “mind-reading” tricks work, linking them to probability, sets, number theory and topology. Its 115 sections cover tricks with cards, dice and coins, topological tricks with handkerchiefs and cards, geometrical vanishing effects and demonstrations with pure numbers. You’ll also learn how a Moebius strip works and how a Curry square can seem to show that the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts.

The description says no sleight of hand is needed for the more than 500 tricks it describes. It is a 174-page softbound book with illustrations.

Which book gives them card tricks to do tonight?

Self Working Card Tricks by Karl Fulves collects 72 card tricks that, in its own words, work automatically because of the mathematics in the deck itself, without long practice or special dexterity. Almost all of them can be done informally with a borrowed deck, and some adapt to the stage. It is a 113-page paperback with 42 illustrations.

Which free classic suits a puzzle fan?

Mathematical Recreations and Essays by W. W. Rouse Ball is a free, complete 394-page PDF of the 1922 tenth edition (first published in 1892). It covers arithmetical card tricks, magic squares, mazes, the Josephus problem, the Tower of Hanoi, the three pile problem, ciphers, calculating prodigies and string figures. Its description calls it a favourite source for magicians who build self-working and number-based effects.

To download it, you check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

Which free book has number tricks for beginners?

Philosophical Amusements by Henri Decremps is a free 93-page PDF of the 1790 English edition, written as easy recreations for young people. It opens with number tricks, such as a number thought of and the magical century, and includes divinations, puzzles, card tricks, secret writing and optical experiments, each set out step by step with the method explained.

Which one should you choose?

• For understanding why tricks work: Mathematics, Magic & Mystery.
• For card tricks they can do straight away: Self Working Card Tricks.
• For a free book of puzzles and number recreations: Mathematical Recreations and Essays.
• For a younger math fan: Philosophical Amusements.

To try a few number tricks for free first, read our guides to the 1089 number trick, the magic square trick and the dice total prediction. For more old books like these, browse our free ebooks, and for the cards themselves, our playing cards.

Frequently asked questions