HI,
I was interested to know if anybody has any interesting presentational ideas for this mathematical routine?
owen

Not familiar with that name. Could you describe it?


Thanks,
Jack Shalom

Hi,
For those of you not familiar with the routine:
A spectator picks 5 cards from a pack (with the picture cards and tens removed), and places them in a face up row on the table. You explain to the spectator that you are going to form a triangle by adding the two numbers next to each other to get another number. This goes above the two numbers, but if it results in a number over 9, you take 9 away from it. You remove a prediction card and the spectator builds the triangle. The top of the triangle is left empty, you ask the spectator which card should go there, they reply as you turn over your prediction card to show that it fits as the triangles apex

It is a favourite trick of Harry Lorayne’s yet it was invented years ago by a German magician. I found it in print in Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Carnival”, under the chapter dedicated to Pascal’s Triangle
Hope you understand,
Owen

If you use marked card for this trick, I think the effect will be magical, otherwise it will be a mathematical trick.

Hideo Kato

P.S.
You don't need to avoid 10 and picture cards for this trick. You can use J as 11, Q as 12 and K as 13. You always add total until you get single digit.

Owen-Daniel is WRONG!! Three years after the fact, no one will read this. I don't care. It makes me feel better to post it! HARRY LORAYNE.

I read it and now others will too!

Chris

Somehow I have found myself reading this almost a decade after my original post! I don't want to cause an argument here, however also don't like to leave my younger self defenceless... the claim that the original effect was by a 'German magician' (not sure why I was so vague there... perhaps I didn't have the book nearby) comes directly from Martin Gardner who writes



Perhaps this reference is wrong, I post it purely to absolve my role in any crediting issues!

Owen

PS. Perhaps what was misleading here was the fact that I used the word 'invented' rather than 'originated'. If this was the root of the problem, then I apologise for the wording!

PPS. I also brought this topic back to life so that people unfamiliar with the effect can discover it. I still perform this routine these days, though mainly for mathematicians to demonstrate how they can bring undergraduate mathematics to life!