Archive for the ‘10 Mentalist Maths Tricks’ Category

Trick 1: The Great MATHoudini

September 18, 2018

The Great MATHoudini

Requirements: 1 phone book, Great showmanship

Start by handing one member of the class a sealed envelope. It contains a name that you have seen in your mathematical mind.

All will be revealed at the end of the performance.

Ask one student to write a 3-digit number on the board.

Ask a second student to turn this number around and subtract the smallest number from the largest number.

Ask a third student to turn that number around and add the last two numbers.

Example: N1 = 371.

N2 = 173

N1 – N2 = N3 = 371 – 173 = 198

N4 = 891

N4 – N3 = 891 + 198 = 1089

Give a fourth student a phone book. Ask them to go to page 108 and count down 9 places on the first column and read out the name.

Now open the envelope.

Da! Da!

How does it work? The numbers ALWAYS add up to 1089 so you had plenty of time to check out the name in the phone book.

Source: Magic/Menatalism Tips and Tricks

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged 10 mentalist maths tricks, Awesome, back to school, demonstration, end of year maths fun, engaging, exercise, Houdini maths, Math, maths fun, Middle school, Simple Algebra, surprising, teacher, trick | 3 Comments »

Trick 2: The Math Teacher Knows

August 4, 2018

……………………………………………………………………………………

The Math Teacher Knows Everything

Requirements: 1 die, a fanfare would be nice.

You will find a fanfare here.

Ask a student to roll the die, double the number and add 5. He can show the class the number, but not you.

Ask the student to multiply this number by 5.

Ask the student to roll the die again and add this number to the total.

Now you can tell them the numbers they rolled.

Example:

N₁ = 3

Double: 2N₁= 6

Add 5: 2N₁ + 5 = 11

x5: 5(2N₁ + 5) = 55

Roll dice:

N₂ = 4

Add 4:

55 + 4 = 59

The Math Teacher Knows:

Secretly subtracts 25 from this number:

59 – 25 = 34

Da! Da! There are the two numbers rolled.

Source: Magic/Menatalism Tips and Tricks

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged back to school, clairvoyant, demonstration, dice, Fun, interesting, Math, Middle school, roll, simple, surprising, trick, warm up | Leave a Comment »

Trick 3: Maths Swami Knows Your Age and Foot Size

July 9, 2018

Maths Swami 1: A Magic No.

Maths Swami 2: I Know Your Birthday

Requirements: Calculator and spooky demeanor

Imagine your birthday was 24 September 1973.

Written as an American date (not UK or Australia) this would be:

9-24-73.

Give the calculator to a student:

Take birthday month and add 18:

9 + 18 = 27

x 25

27 x 25 = 675

– 333

675 – 333 = 342

x 8

342 x 8 = 2736

– 554

2736 – 554 = 2182

Divide by 2

2182/2 = 1091

Add day of birthday date

1091 + 24 = 1115

x5

1115 x 5 = 5575

+ 692

5575 + 692 = 6267

x 20

6267 x 20 = 125340

Add the last two digits only of your birth year

125340 + 73 = 125413

– 32940

125413 – 32940 = 92473 = 9-24-73

Yes! Yes!

Hint: It probably would be easier to ask them for their birthday. Ha! But Maths Swami’s are mysterious beings.

You will find a video link on Youtube

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, The Teacher Goes Bananas, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged arithmetic, birthay, calculate, end of year, Fun, magic, Math, Middle school, shoe size, simple, surprise, swami, trick | Leave a Comment »

Trick 4: How to be a Mathematical Clairvoyant

June 22, 2018

How to be a Mathematical Clairvoyant

Requirements: Spooky music and spooky look.

You will find some spooky music here.

Tell your students you will beat them adding up 5 x 5 digit numbers in your head when they are using calculators.

Method:

1. Ask a student to write down 2 x 5-digit numbers on the board.

2. You rapidly write a 5-digit number underneath.

3. Ask another student to write another 5-digit number.

4. You write another 5-digit number quickly.

5. You have 5 by 5 digit numbers. Say ‘Go’. You instantly write down the answer.

Stand back.

This is how it works:

N₁= 97413

N₂ = 28619

N₃ = 71380 (Each digit in N₃ that you write down must add up to 9 with digits in No. above)

N₄ = 64231

N₅ = 35768 (Once again each digit in N₅ must add up to 9 with digits above)

Now you will instantly write down the sum of these five numbers as

297411

Da! DA!

The trick is to subtract 2 from N₁and put it in front:

N₁= 97413

N₁-2 = 97411

Sum of 5 numbers = 297411

This is why it works:

Hint: When you get your students to add up the five 5-digit numbers on a calculator you will beat them, but they will also get many different answers as a number of students will key incorrect numbers.

Magic Chat

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, The Teacher Goes Bananas, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged 5 digit, add, adding, arithmetic, calculator, clever, Fun, in your head, Math, Mentalist Math Trick, Middle school, number, spooky, trick, vs | Leave a Comment »

Trick 5: Cool Math Trick

June 4, 2018

Requirements: A Pack of Cards and a willing assistant.

Take 10 cards from pack including the 10 Diamonds.

Lay out card in 3 columns in a pattern of 4 down, 2 down, 4 down.

Put the 10 Diamonds at the top of the left hand column.

Group students around. You turn your head away and ask a student to point to a card.

You carry on, think allowed and then ask your assistant to point to cards asking:

Is it this one?

No.

Is it this one?

No.…………………………………………………………………………………

When your assistant points to the 10 Diamonds he will show you the position using the diamonds. The cards are laid out on the table in the pattern of the diamonds on the 10 Diamonds.

Whenever your assistant asks is it this one? You will know.

See Mentalism Card Trick:

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged card, crazy, easy, end of year, Fun, Math, mentalist, Middle school, quick, simple, trick | Leave a Comment »

Trick 6: Freaky Math Medium

May 27, 2018

Write the word carrot inside your math text book. Do not show students.

When Mathspig was a mathspiglet we used to play this trick. It doesn’t work on everyone, but it works often enough.

Ask a student to say 15 times 15 fifteen times.

Then ask them to name a vegetable. Students say carrot 90% (I’m guessing) of the time.

To make this trick more dramatic send 10 students out of the class before you begin and tell the other half what you are about to do. Students return one at a time. How often do they say ‘carrot’? What % of students say carrot?

Posted in %, 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged %, 10 Math Mentalist tricks, calculate, classroom, crazy, end of year, entertainment, Fun, Math, mentalist, Middle school, psychic, spooky, stunt, trick | Leave a Comment »

Trick 7: My Math Teacher is Psycho … Psychic!

May 17, 2018

Math Teacher Goes Psycho …. Psychic!

Requirements: Pack of cards and a little practise.

Watch this video to learn the trick. Then try it out on the class.

Beginner Math Prediction Card Trick

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged amazing, card, end of term, end of year, entertainment, Fun, magic, Math, mentalist, Middle school, project, surprise, teacher, trick, trick your students | Leave a Comment »

Trick 8: Spooky Maths Magic

May 4, 2018

Spooky Maths Magic

Requirements; Smart board/data projector.

This is mental maths, but not hard maths. You can play this video by Marco Frezza directly to the class.

It may not work on everybody, but it would be very interesting to see how many students are fooled by this spooky magic man.

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Arithmetic, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, The Teacher Goes Bananas, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged amazing, challenge, easy, end of ear, Fun, ideas, introduction, Math, mentalist, Mentalist math, Middle school, simple, spooky, statistics, video, Year 8 | Leave a Comment »

Trick 9: Coin Trick. How to throw 10 HEADS in a row!!!!

April 30, 2018

Requirements: A coin for each student & smart board or data projector.

First ask your students to toss a coin 10 times each.

Ask each student how many heads in a row they threw.

Now ask students ‘Do you think it is possible to throw 10 heads in a row?

It can be done. Here is how you do it.

Derren Brown is a UK mentalist, magician, hypnotist and maths guru. He’s awesome. He shows audiences how a lack of understanding maths, especially probability, leads to misinterpreting the facts.

Now play this video to the students:

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Junior School, Mentalist Maths, Middle School, probability, statistics, The Teacher Goes Bananas | Tagged 10 heads, amazing, coin trick, derren brown, end of year, foolproof, Fun, gambling, Gambling System, How to flip ten heads in a row, ideas, Math, mentalist, Middle school, punter tips, statistics | Leave a Comment »

Trick 10: A Foolproof Gambling System

April 23, 2018

Math Mentalist Devises Foolproof Gambling System

Requirements: Smart board/Data Projector

or Chalk & Talk

This is the most awesome way to introduce probability.

Mentalist Derren Brown devises a foolproof gambling system. He sends a girl , Kadisha, the number of a winning horse in race to be run the next day. It wins. He sends her the winning horse and race number 4 more times. She ends up with winnings close to £ 1000 before the final race. Derren convinces her to borrow money for the last bet. She does. She places £4,000 on a horse. Did it win?????

Watch Part 5 of The System

If you are not convinced Derren Brown can come up with a foolproof system for horse race tipping, let me explain The System. He took 7,776 e-mail addresses, divided them into 6 equal groups and sent each group a different number for a horse in a 6 horse race to be run the next day. Naturally, one group of 1296 had been given the winning horse number. This group was divided into 6 again and given the number of the ‘winning’ in a six horse race the next day and so on.

Race 1: 7776

Race 2: 1296

Race 3: 216

Race 4: 36

Race 5: 6

Out of 7776 punters, only one punter was given in advance five horse race winners in a row. Was it Kadisha. You will have to watch the Youtube above.

You can watch THE SYSTEM in full here. It takes 47 mins.

Posted in 10 Mentalist Maths Tricks, Junior School, Middle School, probability, Sport Maths, The Teacher Goes Bananas, TV SHOW Maths, Year 7 mathspig, Year 9 Mathspig | Tagged amazing, derren brown, foolproof, Fun, gambling, Gambling System, ideas, introduction, Mentalist math, mentalist maths, Middle school, punter tips, statistics | Leave a Comment »