The Math of Shuffling Cards

A magic trick based on the “Perfect Shuffle”. Featuring Professor Federico Ardila. I watched his videos on Hopf Algebras while learning the background material for my honours project on Quantum Groups.

Mathemagician Persi Diaconis discusses which is the best way to shuffle: Overhand shuffle, Riffle Shuffle, or “Smoosh” Shuffle? Watch the video to find out!

Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas That Animate Great Magic Tricks is an interesting book by Professor Diaconis, featuring Magic Tricks that have a mathematical background! This book is a great idea for a gift for students, teachers, or friends!

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Author: mathtuition88

Math and Education Blog

9 thoughts on “The Math of Shuffling Cards”

  1. I remembered learning perfect faro when I first started magic and it’s not an easy skill to perfect. Well, it took me two months to be able to do it smoothly. However, it took me more than half a year for me to be able to do it 100%…

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  2. Ok, here are some of my recommendation. These are the easier and better tricks that I can find. I just realized that many of the YT videos about card tricks either suck or infringe the copyrights of some creators… which is so sad.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZgwfwCfKpo – based from a trick by Paul Gordon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-twRPFx93Y – based from Bill Simon’s ‘Business Prophecy Card Move’

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI75QUxtuEA#t=101 – Based on Bob Hummer’s CATO principle.

    For books, I recommend any books by Karl Fulves. They are very good for beginners and are easyto find. If you have more questions, you can ask me.

    And to answer your first question, I have performed magic professionally before during my university days.

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