Magical Mathematics
Magical Mathematics

Author: Persi Diaconis

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-10-13

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0691169772

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"Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of amazing, fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. For example, the Gilbreath principle--a fantastic effect where the cards remain in control despite being shuffled--is found to share an intimate connection with the Mandelbrot set. Other card tricks link to the mathematical secrets of combinatorics, graph theory, number theory, topology, the Riemann hypothesis, and even Fermat's last theorem. Diaconis and Graham are mathematicians as well as skilled performers with decades of professional experience between them. In this book they share a wealth of conjuring lore, including some closely guarded secrets of legendary magicians. Magical Mathematics covers the mathematics of juggling and shows how the I Ching connects to the history of probability and magic tricks both old and new. It tells the stories--and reveals the best tricks--of the eccentric and brilliant inventors of mathematical magic. Magical Mathematics exposes old gambling secrets through the mathematics of shuffling cards, explains the classic street-gambling scam of three-card monte, traces the history of mathematical magic back to the thirteenth century and the oldest mathematical trick--and much more"-

Mathematical Card Magic
Mathematical Card Magic

Author: Colm Mulcahy

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2013-09-04

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1466509767

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Mathematical card effects offer both beginning and experienced magicians an opportunity to entertain with a minimum of props. Featuring mostly original creations, Mathematical Card Magic: Fifty-Two New Effects presents an entertaining look at new mathematically based card tricks. Each chapter contains four card effects, generally starting with simple applications of a particular mathematical principle and ending with more complex ones. Practice a handful of the introductory effects and, in no time, you’ll establish your reputation as a "mathemagician." Delve a little deeper into each chapter and the mathematics gets more interesting. The author explains the mathematics as needed in an easy-to-follow way. He also provides additional details, background, and suggestions for further explorations. Suitable for recreational math buffs and amateur card lovers or as a text in a first-year seminar, this color book offers a diverse collection of new mathemagic principles and effects.

The Mathematics of Shuffling Cards
The Mathematics of Shuffling Cards

Author: Persi Diaconis

Publisher: American Mathematical Society

Published: 2023-03-20

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 1470463032

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This book gives a lively development of the mathematics needed to answer the question, “How many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it up?” The shuffles studied are the usual ones that real people use: riffle, overhand, and smooshing cards around on the table. The mathematics ranges from probability (Markov chains) to combinatorics (symmetric function theory) to algebra (Hopf algebras). There are applications to magic tricks and gambling along with a careful comparison of the mathematics to the results of real people shuffling real cards. The book explores links between shuffling and higher mathematics—Lie theory, algebraic topology, the geometry of hyperplane arrangements, stochastic calculus, number theory, and more. It offers a useful springboard for seeing how probability theory is applied and leads to many corners of advanced mathematics. The book can serve as a text for an upper division course in mathematics, statistics, or computer science departments and will be appreciated by graduate students and researchers in mathematics, statistics, and computer science, as well as magicians and people with a strong background in mathematics who are interested in games that use playing cards.

Groups Combinatorics & Geometry
Groups Combinatorics & Geometry

Author: A. A. Ivanov

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 9789812564481

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Over the past 20 years, the theory of groups in particular simplegroups, finite and algebraic has influenced a number of diverseareas of mathematics. Such areas include topics where groups have beentraditionally applied, such as algebraic combinatorics, finitegeometries, Galois theory and permutation groups, as well as severalmore recent developments.

Programming Challenges
Programming Challenges

Author: Steven S. Skiena

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2003-05-12

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0387001638

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There are many distinct pleasures associated with computer programming. Craftsmanship has its quiet rewards, the satisfaction that comes from building a useful object and making it work. Excitement arrives with the flash of insight that cracks a previously intractable problem. The spiritual quest for elegance can turn the hacker into an artist. There are pleasures in parsimony, in squeezing the last drop of performance out of clever algorithms and tight coding. The games, puzzles, and challenges of problems from international programming competitions are a great way to experience these pleasures while improving your algorithmic and coding skills. This book contains over 100 problems that have appeared in previous programming contests, along with discussions of the theory and ideas necessary to attack them. Instant onlinegrading for all of these problems is available from two WWW robot judging sites. Combining this book with a judge gives an exciting new way to challenge and improve your programming skills. This book can be used for self-study, for teaching innovative courses in algorithms and programming, and in training for international competition. The problems in this book have been selected from over 1,000 programming problems at the Universidad de Valladolid online judge. The judge has ruled on well over one million submissions from 27,000 registered users around the world to date. We have taken only the best of the best, the most fun, exciting, and interesting problems available.

Discrete Mathematics
Discrete Mathematics

Author: Douglas E. Ensley

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2005-10-07

Total Pages: 706

ISBN-13: 0471476021

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These active and well-known authors have come together to create a fresh, innovative, and timely approach to Discrete Math. One innovation uses several major threads to help weave core topics into a cohesive whole. Throughout the book the application of mathematical reasoning is emphasized to solve problems while the authors guide the student in thinking about, reading, and writing proofs in a wide variety of contexts. Another important content thread, as the sub-title implies, is the focus on mathematical puzzles, games and magic tricks to engage students.

The Words of Mathematics
The Words of Mathematics

Author: Steven Schwartzman

Publisher: MAA

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780883855119

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This book explains the origins of over 1500 mathematical terms used in English.