Mathemagician
A mathemagician is a mathematician who is also a magician.
The name "mathemagician" was probably first applied to Martin Gardner, but has since been used to describe many mathematician/magicians, including Arthur T. Benjamin,[1] Persi Diaconis,[2] Colm Mulcahy, and Shona Jean McKay. Diaconis has suggested that the reason so many mathematicians are magicians is that "inventing a magic trick and inventing a theorem are very similar activities."[3]
A great number of self-working mentalism tricks rely on mathematical principles. Max Maven often utilizes this type of magic in his performance.
Notable mathemagicians
- Alan Turing
- Ronald Graham
- Persi Diaconis
- Karl Fulves
- Arthur T. Benjamin[4]
- John Wildrick, Department of Mathematics, West Chester University [5]
- Martin Gardner
- Raymond Smullyan
- Louise Robert M. Segura
- Karagiannakis Dimitrios, Ph.D., Department of Informatics Engineering, TEI Crete[6]
- Manoj Kumar Dhavala
Popular culture
- There is a character named "the Mathemagician" in the 1961 book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. This character is king of a magical realm of numbers. His brother and arch-enemy is king of the realm of words.
- In the Simpsons episode "Grade School Confidential", a "Mathemagician" performs mathematical tricks at Martin Prince's birthday party. He is exposed by Lisa Simpson as doing at least one trick by "cheating".
References
- ^ Albers, Donald J. "Art Benjamin - Mathemagician." Math Horizons, November 1998, 14-18.
- ^ Albers, and Donald J. "Professor of
MagicMathematics." Math Horizons, February 1995, 11-15. - ^ Diaconis, Persi. Quoted in: Albers, Donald J. "Professor of
MagicMathematics." Math Horizons, February 1995, 11-15. - ^ http://www.math.hmc.edu/~benjamin/
- ^ http://www.wcupa.edu/_ACADEMICS/SCH_CAS.MAT/faculty/jwildrick.asp
- ^ http://www.ie.teicrete.gr/en/dkar
Further reading
- Fulves, Karl. Self-working Number Magic. Dover Publications. 1984.
- Gardner, Martin. Mathematics, Magic and Mystery Dover; ISBN 0-486-20335-2. 1956.
- Gardner, Martin. Magic Numbers of Dr Matrix, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-282-3. 1985
- Gardner, Martin. Martin Gardner's Table Magic, Dover; ISBN 0-486-40403-X. 1998.
- Carruth, Rick. Mental Math and Mentalism Download PDF
- Juster, Norton. The Phantom Tollbooth, Random House; ISBN 0-394-81500-9. 1961.
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