Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks
Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks
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神奇的数学：激发伟大魔术的数学思想
DOI：
10.1080/09332480.2013.794620
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
C. Robert
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Robert
当得知Persi Diaconis和Ron Graham合著了一本关于魔术数学的书时，我立即向普林斯顿大学出版社索要了一本！尽管我对纸牌戏法一点也不感兴趣。也不是杂耍。(这个标题[对于像我这样的非母语人士来说]有点令人困惑，因为它听起来像是专注于数学的魔力，而不是相反。)书一到，我就把它拿给我的妻子看，她马上就开始读，在不情愿地归还之前又看了一遍第一章。后来，在凤凰城和明尼阿波利斯之间的飞机旅行中，我碰巧坐在一位职业魔术师的旁边，他开始和我谈论他的工作和一些技巧。他知道珀尔西是一名魔术师，但令他惊讶的是，他在数学家中同样出名，而且没有听说过这本书。Hondo向我展示了几个(令人印象深刻的)花招，并解释了一个很好的数学技巧(基于创造明显的随机性，同时总是从牌堆中提取相同数量的牌)。我还见过几次这本书如何吸引非魔术师和/或非数学家的注意；这表明它对广大读者的吸引力。当然，一旦一个人开始读这本书，吸引力就会增加。这是一本非常有趣的书，用相当简单的数学水平写成。它也很漂亮，页边距很宽，页边空白处有漂亮的(但可读的)字体、照片和图表。
When learning that Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham had co-authored a book on the mathematics of magic, I immediately asked Princeton University Press for a copy! Even though I am not at all interested in card tricks. Nor in juggling. (The title is a wee confusing [to a non-native speaker like me], as it sounds like focusing on the magics [sic] of mathematics, rather than the converse.) Once the book arrived, I showed it to my wife, and she started reading it right away, going over the first chapter prior to returning it reluctantly. Later, on a plane trip between Phoenix and Minneapolis, I happened to sit next to a professional magician, The Amazing Hondo!, who started chatting with me about his work and some of his tricks. He knew about Persi as a magician, but was surprised he was equally famous among mathematicians and had not heard about the book. Hondo showed me a few (impressive) sleights of hand and explained a nice mathematical trick (based on creating apparent randomness while always extracting the same number of cards from the pile). I have had a few other occurrences of how the book attracted the attention of non-magicians and/ or non-mathematicians; this illustrates its appeal for a wide audience. Of course, once one starts reading the book, the attraction is increased. It is a very entertaining book, written at a fairly easy mathematical level. It is also beautiful, with wide margins, fancy (but readable) fonts, photographs, and graphs or tables in the margins.