Mathemagician
A mathemagician is a mathematician who is also a magician. The term "mathemagic" is believed to have been introduced by Royal Vale Heath with his 1933 book "Mathemagic"..[1]
The name "mathemagician" was probably first applied to Martin Gardner, but has since been used to describe many mathematician/magicians, including Arthur T. Benjamin,[2] Persi Diaconis,[3] and Colm Mulcahy.[4] 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."[5]
Mathemagician is a neologism, specifically a portmanteau, that combines mathematician and magician. A great number of self-working mentalism tricks rely on mathematical principles. Max Maven often utilizes this type of magic in his performance.
The Mathemagician is name of a character in the 1961 children's book The Phantom Tollbooth. He is the ruler Digitopolis, the kingdom of mathematics.
Notable mathemagicians
- Matt Baker[6]
- Arthur T. Benjamin
- Persi Diaconis
- Richard Feynman
- Karl Fulves
- Martin Gardner
- Ronald Graham
- Royal Vale Heath
- Colm Mulcahy
- Raymond Smullyan
- Bernard Meulenbroek[7]
- Tori Noquez[8]
References
- "Mathemagic" by Royal Vale Heath and Jerome Sydney Meyer, Simon and Schuster, New York (1933)
- Albers, Donald J. "Art Benjamin - Mathemagician." Math Horizons, November 1998, 14-18.
- Professor of
MagicMathematics by Don Albers and Persi Diaconis, Math Horizons Vo. 2, No 3 (February 1995), pp. 11-15 - Mathematics Awareness Month 2014: Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery Committee Members
- Diaconis, Persi. Quoted in: Albers, Donald J. "Professor of
MagicMathematics." Math Horizons, February 1995, 11-15. - "The Magic of Math". www.news.gatech.edu. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
- "MatheMagician". mathemagician.tudelft.nl. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
- "Is the Hand Quicker Than the Zoom Window?". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
Further reading
- Diaconis, Persi & Graham, Ron. Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks Princeton University Press, 2012. ISBN 0691169772
- Fulves, Karl. Self-working Number Magic, New York London : Dover Constable, 1983. ISBN 0486243915
- Gardner, Martin. Mathematics, Magic and Mystery, Dover, 1956ISBN 0-486-20335-2
- Ron Graham, Ron. Juggling Mathematics and Magic University of California, San Diego