Help!!! (Please)

I have performed Ammar's "Will the cards match" effect with business cards for several years for patients in the emergency room. They love it!

Now, I am interviewing for a job later this week and would like to be able to perform for prospective employers.

I have tried and tried and cannot come up with a phrase such as:

Give Bob the job

Will Bob get the job

Bob really wants this job

or some such.

Can anyone here help me:

1) Come up with a phrase using Ammar's 4-3-5-5 word lengths, or

2) Help me figure out how many cards would be necessary for a phrase such as "Will Bob get the job?"

Thanks so much. I'm really counting on you guys (and gals).

Ammars?

Anyway, at each stage when the packet has N cards you need a word of length (N-1) + mN where m is an integer >= 0. So for a five card packet "Bob's the right man" would work.

/Tomas

Thanks, TomasB

Ammars as in Michael Ammar's? Business card magic?

I'm not following your formula, however. For "will the cards match?" the N would be 5,4,3 and 2 as each card is eliminated. I'm not sure how you choose m, but I know for the same series the value of [(n-1)+mN] is equal to 4,3,5 and 5 for the phrase "will the cards match." Simple algebra then tells me that m was 0,0,1 and 5 at each step, respectively, but how did you get that?

In other words, How can I know at each step, given N cards left, what length words will work?

PS: I like your phrase "Bob's the right man," but do you think I'd be pushing it to use "Hire Bob right now!"

Bob,

The trick has been around forever - it certainly predates Ammar's presentation with business cards - which does NOT take away from Ammar's presentation in any way.

Anyway, to answer your question, it doesn't matter what value you pick for m - as long as it's an integer (no fractions). so let's say you're starting with five cards. So n = 5 and n - 1 = 4. We know a word of 4 letters will work. Using the formula (n - 1) + mn, that means m is 0.

But what if m = 1. Then we have (5 - 1) + (1 x 5) = 9. Yes, a 9 letter word will work as well as a 4 letter word. Try it for yourself.

And the same is true if m = 2. (5 - 1) + (2 x 5) = 14, and a 14 letter word also works - mathematically that is. Try a 14 letter word and you'll see eyes glaze over in your audience...

And of course, after you eliminate a pair, you have 4 cards in each packet, so n = 4. But it still doesn't matter what m is equal to.

For those who care, this is modulo arithmetic.

As for how aggressive you should be, that's something you have to decide for yourself, based on how the rest of the interview has gone and how you believe the people interviewing you will react.

And a final aside to my fellow math geeks here: Yes, I know the parentheses I used are superfluous due to associativity and the fundamental order of operations. But I thought their use makes the presentation clearer to non-geeks.

:banana:

Thanks, rgranville


I think I see it now. I read somewhere else that this idea originated with Larry Becker. Does that sound right?

This is a lovely effect - It always seemed to me to be tangentially related to The Gilbreath Principle - And I stress the word tangentially!

There are some nice variations of this effect published in 'Apocalypse' magazine...

Just for the record: Larry Becker's Will The Cards Match became popular shen I published it in APOCALYPSE so many years ago. Ammar had NOTHING to do with it.

This may not help the original poster , but I will post it anyway

Good job by Bob

Will Bob amaze customers

Will Bob boost sales