If an algebra teacher used the words ‘math’ and ‘magic’ in the same sentence, you could be forgiven for thinking the teacher had lost it! Probably intoxicated with an overdose of number mashing! Actually, you can conjure up some very cool math magic tricks pretty easily. Yep. No need to cut up people, make elephants disappear or pull animals out of hats to impress people. Here are a few ‘math magic’ tricks that you can actually count on.
- The number nine: (ages 7 – 12)
- Pick a 2-digit number from 1 to 50… say 25
- Add the two digits together.
- Subtract that sum of digits from the original number.
- If their answer is a 2-digit number, ask them to add the digits.
- Grey elephants in Denmark: (ages 9 to adult)
- Double the number.
- Add 8 to the result.
- Divide the result by 2.
- Subtract the original number…
- Convert this into a letter of the alphabet. (1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, etc.)
- Think of the name of a country which starts with this letter.
- Think of an animal whose name starts with the country’s second
- Think of the color of that animal…
- Magic 27: (ages 9 to adult)
- Deal any odd number of cards up to 27 in three equal piles (this means you’re dealing 15, 21 or 27 cards, according to taste).
- Ask what pile the chosen card belongs to and collate the cards so the chosen pile is in the middle.
- Deal and collate again in the same way.
- Deal one last time.
- 1089 (ages 7 to adult)
- Consider the “reverse” number, obtained by reading it backwards.
- Subtract the smaller of these two numbers from the larger one.
- Add the result to its own reverse.