|
|
|
|
In
Your Hands
You
Push the Button... Werner Miller is a retired teacher of mathematics, whose hobbies are recreational mathematics and magic. A magical inventor and writer, Werner has produced a prolific volume of work, mostly semi-automatic card tricks and other self-working miracles. He is the author of "E-Z Square 1 & 2", the "Enigmaths" series and several other books and ebooks on mathematical magic, besides more than 300 contributions to various magazines and web sites. You can find his tricks regulary in, e.g., the German magazine "Magische Welt" and the British "Mystery Magazine", as well as here at Visions. ";… we do the rest." Sounds familiar? This was the famous slogan touting the Kodak camera in 1888. I hope George Eastman does not care when I use it to arouse your curiosity about a little calculator trick. "You" – that’s the spectator who presses the equals button of a pocket calculator and gets a surprising result. "We" – that’s the performer who does the rest; or to be correct: who has done the rest already long before the calculator is given to the spectator. Preparation Secretly find out the birth date of a spectator (or any other multi-digit personal number you are not expected to know). Let’s suppose the birth date is 12-13-1948. Rearrange the digits in descending order: 98432111. Subtract the original birth date: 98432111 – 12131948 = 86300163. Turn on the calculator (or press "C"): display reads 0. Press "-"; display reads still 0. Enter the result of the subtraction; display reads 86300163. Press "+"; display reads –86300163. Press "0"; display reads 0. Do not turn off the calculator.
Instruct the spectator to think on his birth date. In his mind, he should get a clear mental picture of its digits (mm-dd-yyyy). Ask for the frequency of the digits 9 through 0, and without any trickery key in the given numbers of digits (e.g. 999 when you are told that there are three 9’s in the date, 88 when there are two 8’s, and so on). In the given example (12-13-1948) the dialogue runs as follows: "How many 9’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 1. Press openly key 9 once. "How many 8’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 1. Press openly key 8 once. "How many 7’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: none. "How many 6’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: none. "How many 5’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: none. "How many 4’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 1. Press openly key 4 once. "How many 3’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 1. Press openly key 3 once. "How many 2’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 1. Press openly key 2 once. "How many 1’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: 3. Press openly key 1 three times. "How many 0’s are in your birth date?" – Answer: none. Show the display proving that you recorded exactly the spectator’s answers: 98432111. Ask the spectator to press himself the equals key and to watch the readout: As if by magic, each digit jumps automatically into its proper position, and the display reads out the correct date (12131948).
|
All
content ©2008 The Visions Group. All Rights Reserved. Any duplication
without expressed written permission is strictly prohibited. The views expressed are solely those of the contributors and may not necessarily be those of TVG, its clients, sponsors, or affiliates. |
