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Self-Working Number Magic: 101 Foolproof Tricks

Karl Fulves
Publisher: 
Dover Publications
Publication Date: 
1983
Number of Pages: 
154
Format: 
Paperback
Price: 
8.95
ISBN: 
9780486243917
Category: 
General
[Reviewed by
Megan Patnott
, on
07/5/2016
]

Self-Working Number Magic, one of many books on magic by Fulves, is a lot of fun! The instructions for each trick are clear, easy to follow, and include suggestions on how to perform the trick with style. Many of the tricks themselves rely on cleverly disguised arithmetic, such as surprising factors of large numbers, and Fulves credits Martin Gardner as a major contributor.

I enjoyed figuring out why each trick works. But this isn't really a math book. As he warns in the introduction, Fulves only discusses the mathematics behind the tricks when it is particularly simple, so I did have to work out the background mathematics for myself. Although I enjoyed reading and working through this book, I would look elsewhere if I was primarily interested in the mathematics behind number magic.


Megan Patnott is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Regis University in Denver, CO. Her training is in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra.

 

AMAZING NUMBER MAGIC
  1 The Nine Mystery
  2 Computer Dating
  3 Resistible Rithmetic
  4 Step Right Up
  5 Dollar-Bill Poker
  6 Familiar Spirit
  7 A 5¢ Computer
  8 Mark of the Beast
  9 Think of a Number
  10 Lightning Strikes Thrice
  11 Blue Lightning
  DEVILISH DATES
  12 Guess Your Age?
  13 Fourth-Dimensional Dates
  14 Mysterious Math
  15 Astrology Cards
  16 Neale's Number
  17 Stunumbers
  LIGHTNING CALCULATORS
  18 Linear A
  19 Slippery Sevens
  20 Alberti's Game
  21 The Fifth Power
  22 Playing the Market
  23 Tricky Total
  24 Mathematically Inclined
  25 Fake Arithmetic
  26 Ultraffinity
  27 Dollars and Dice
  MAGIC WITH NUMBERS
  28 Mental Amazement
  29 Locked-Room Mystery
  30 The Two Guns
  31 Prime Choice
  32 Lucky 13
  33 Future Thought
  34 The Decoder Card Trick
  MAGIC SQUARES
  35 The Marrakech Game
  36 The Broken Square
  37 Swindle Square
  38 Anti-Magic Square
  39 Curious Magic
  40 Add and Subtract
  41 The Paradox
  42 The Automatic Magic Square
  THE CLASSICS
  43 The Root of the Problem
  44 Haunted Hotel
  45 Arithmetrick
  46 Contrary Clock
  47 Mountain Time
  48 Significant Digits
  49 Unwritten Rule
  50 Unequals
  51 What's Next?
  52 Cryptarithms
  53 Eve Did Talk
  54 Orderly Transition
  55 Naming Numbers
  56 Zebra Algebra
  57 Fidget Digits
  58 Strange Symbols
  59 Catch Questions
  60 Scrambled States
  61 Puzzle Parts
  62 Six Quik
  63 Who Pays?
  64 The Monkey and the Coconuts
      "Answers to "The Classics"
  CALENDAR CONJURING
  65 What a Week!
  66 Best Daze
  67 Four of a Mind
  68 Day Five
  69 The Square Week
  70 Cross Out
  71 Second Saturday
  72 Date Sense
  73 Crazy Calendar
  GAMES AND BETS
  74 Mexican Bingo
  75 A Dollar You Can't
  76 A Dollar I Can
  77 The Fortune 100
  78 Bamboozled
  79 Rapid Boxscores
  80 Portable Poker
  81 The Game of 21
  82 Telefooled
  83 License-Plate Showdown
  84 Auto Suggestion
  GIANT MEMORY
  85 The Master Memory System
  86 Instant Memory
  87 Double Master
  88 Serial Secret
  89 Mind Erasing
  90 Pseudo Memory
  91 Memorease
  92 The Ultra Mind
  93 Digit Memory
  MORE NUMBER MAGIC
  94 Sum Fantastic
  95 Psychic Card Reading
  96 Devil's Dial
  97 What's My Line?
  98 Transcendental Book Test
  PREDICTING THE FUTURE
  99 Super Prophet
  100 Astro Thought
  101 The Million-Dollar Prediction