Symbol Pattern Square I

by Werner Miller
Werner Miller is a retired teacher of mathematics, whose hobbies are recreational mathematics and magic. A magical inventor and writer, Werner has produced a prolific volume of work, mostly what he calls semi-automatic card tricks based on mathematical principles. He is the author of "Fast von selbst", "Alles Miller oder was", "Ratatouille", more than 300 trick contributions to various magazines and web sites and more than 30 related computer programs. In addition, Werner is also a staff member of the German magazine "Magische Welt", a columnist for the British magazine "The Magician", and regular contributor here at Visions. Werner's first English-language book, Ear-Marked, is available here. If you are interested in magic squares you are probably familiar with the "Knight's Move Method" for constructing odd-order magic squares. I adapted this method for producing a pretty semi-magic pattern of ESP symbols. You will need a standard ESP deck (25 cards,cyclically stacked). Draw a 5x5 grid on a sheet of paper, each box wide enough to hold an ESP card, and place this sheet on the table. (After a couple of performances you will probably be able to do it without this sheet.) Think of each row and each column as a closed loop. Performance Ask the spectator to give the deck a complete cut. Instruct him to take the top card and place it face down in the center box of the grid. Stress the fact that this card is the spectator's selection and put any small object on it to mark it.

False cut the remaining cards or mix them by doing a Reverse Faro. (It is vital that the symbols are still running cyclically, having the four cards matching the one laid down at positions 5, 10, 15, 20.) Deal the top card face down into the box marked "1" (a). Deal the next card one box down / two boxes to the right ("2"). Again, go one box down / two boxes to the right (wrap around!) and deal the third card. Repeat this move, and place card no. 4. Repeat it again (wrap around!), dealing card no. 5. This move is called "knight's move" (as in chess). In the figures, knight's moves are indicated by red arrows. Now you are blocked. You can't do another knight's move because the target box is not empty. Do the "blocked move": Move one box to the left and one box upward, i.e. go diagonally as indicated by the blue arrow in b (wrap around!), and deal card no. 6. Continue by doing four knight's moves. Repeat this procedure (one blocked move, four knight's moves) until the grid is filled completely (c, d, e). (Don't give up! It's a lot easier than it sounds. Just count mentally from 1 to 24; if the number is a multiple of 5, do the blocked move, otherwise do the knight's move.)

When all the cards are dealt, you are ready for the climax. Turn over the card in the lower left corner. Turn over the card in the upper right corner. Both symbol match (they are e.g. both Stars). Turn over the remaining cards of this diagonal except the center one -- Stars, too. Let the spectator turn the center card (his own selection!) over -- also a Star (f). Turn all the other cards face up, first on one side of this diagonal (g), then on the other side (h). Even each "broken diagonal" consists of matching symbols. And the rows and columns? Point out that each row consists of five different symbols, also does each column. (And the other diagonal and the broken ones running parallel to it, too.)

Werner Miller
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