The secrets of the Spring Festival Gala magic show are revealed! We discovered the step where Nigmat failed!

This year's Spring Festival Gala, magician Liu Qian, who had not appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage for a long time, returned. This time, he brought us two poker card magic tricks, and the audience was very excited. Liu Qian was live on the Spring Festival Gala, and we were at home. How did he put the cards in our hands together in the air?

What was even more unexpected was that the host Nigmat did not put the cards together. Was there something wrong with the performance? Why was it that only his cards did not fit together?

Poker card magic is a common type of magic, and many of the principles behind it are related to mathematics. The second magic performed by Liu Qian is essentially a mathematical magic . After understanding the mathematical knowledge contained in it, you can also play this magic.

Next, please prepare a deck of playing cards. We will review the magic performance process and reveal the secrets behind the magic.

Magic Shows and Reveals

1

Shuffle

Each person takes four different playing cards, puts them in his hand, and randomly shuffles the order; then stacks them into a pile with the back facing up.

To facilitate the following description, we assume that the four playing cards are 1234 in order from top to bottom.

2

Tear in half

Fold the deck of playing cards in half along the long side, tear it apart in the middle, keep the back side facing up, and place one deck under the other. Now we have 8 cards, which are 12341234 from top to bottom.

3

Name Game

How many characters are in your name? Just pick up the top few cards and put them directly at the bottom. No matter how many characters are in your name, the final result will be one of the following four situations. No matter how many characters are in your name, it will not affect the result of the magic .

4

Insert three cards

At this time, please pick up the top three cards and insert them into any middle position of the stack. Note that this is a key step. You must take three cards and insert them into the middle position , not at the bottom.

In the four situations mentioned above, no matter which one, the fourth card and the eighth card are the same, we might as well record this card as A and the other cards as X. Then this step actually puts the first three Xs of XXXAXXXA between the two As, making the card sequence AXXXXXXA .

Now we understand why we must remove the top three cards and insert them in the middle? Because this ensures that the top card and the last card have the same number .

This is the key to the success of the entire magic show!

5

Hide a card

At this time, take the top card and hide it under your buttocks. The order of the cards becomes XXXXXXA .

6

North and South Games

At this time, if you are from the South, pick up the top card; if you are from the North, pick up the top two cards; if you are not sure whether you are from the South or the North, pick up the top three cards; insert the cards you picked up into any middle position of the remaining stack of cards.

This step is essentially a sleight of hand, because no matter where you are from, how many cards you pick up, and where you insert them in the middle of the stack, the last card, the A, remains unchanged .

When you perform magic yourself, you can change the three options of "Northern and Southern people" into other options. The number of options can be 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, but the maximum number is 5.

7

Games for Boys and Girls

If you are a boy, pick up the top card and throw it away; if you are a girl, pick up the top two cards and throw them away.

This step is also a trick, because no matter how many cards you throw away, the last card A remains unchanged . But the boy's card becomes XXXXXA , and the girl's card becomes XXXXA , and the girl has one less card than the boy.

Likewise, you can change the "boy or girl" option to something else.

8

Reshuffle

Next, please repeat the seven words "Witness the moment of miracle" in your mouth. Every time you say a word, you must pick up the top card and put it at the bottom of the remaining stack of cards.

The essence of this step is to reshuffle the cards. After the 7 words are called out, the boy's cards become XXXXAX and the girl's cards become XXAXX . At this time, the position of the last card A has changed, becoming the 5th in the boy's cards and the 3rd in the girl's cards.

9

Keep one, throw one away

Next, from top to bottom, pick up the top card and put it at the bottom (saying "good luck stay"), then pick up the top card and throw it away (saying "throw away troubles"). At this time, the boy's card becomes XXAXX and the girl's card becomes AXXX .

Repeat again "Keep the good luck and throw away the troubles". The boy's cards become AXXX and the girl's cards become XXA .

Repeat again, the boy's card becomes XXA and the girl's card becomes AX .

Repeat again, the boy's card becomes AX and the girl's card becomes A.

At this point, the girl has only one card left, and the boy has two cards left. The boy repeats it again, and there is only one card left, which is the A.

Have you discovered the secret? The next round of the boys is a repetition of the last round of the girls. So in the end, the boys need to perform one more round than the girls to keep the final result the same as the girls.

And in this process, no matter which cards we threw away, the A was kept to the end .

10

pair

This A is exactly the card we hid under our buttocks in step 5! The card you have in your hand will be the same number as the one you hid, and it just matches!

The key to magic

There are several key points to this magic:

Step 4

Take out the first three cards and insert them in the middle instead of at the bottom, so that the numbers on the first and last cards remain the same.

Everyone knows that the host Nigmat's magic show was unsuccessful, and his expression of disbelief immediately became a hot topic. It is very likely that he made a mistake at this step, placing the three cards that should have been in the middle at the bottom, causing his magic to fail .

Step 8

"Witness the Moment of Miracle" shuffles the cards 7 times, which allows the A to be placed in the 5th position for boys or the 3rd position for girls.

Step 9

Starting from the first card, keep one card and discard one card in order from top to bottom. When there are 6 cards, the remaining card must be the 5th; when there are 5 cards, the remaining card must be the 3rd.

It is possible that the host Nigmat made a mistake at this step. Perhaps a card was supposed to be placed at the bottom, but it was inserted in the middle , causing the position of the remaining card to be changed and finally thrown away.

We can understand all the previous steps relatively easily, except for step 9, which is difficult for us to understand. Why “when there are 6 cards, the remaining card must be the 5th one; when there are 5 cards, the remaining card must be the 3rd one”?

This is also the most critical, essential and most important part of the magic. This step actually involves a classic mathematical game - the "Joseph Ring" game .

"Joseph Ring"

According to legend, there was a clever man named Joseph. One day, he and some other people were captured by the enemy. The enemy made them stand in a circle, and then started with a certain person and took turns counting according to a certain rule, such as 1, 2. The person who reported 1 would stay and the person who reported 2 would be killed, and this process would be repeated until only one person was left. This person could survive.

In order to avoid being killed, Joseph quickly calculated where he should stand based on the total number of people and the number reported, and ultimately he survived.

Liu Qian's poker magic trick, at step 9, is essentially a "Joseph Ring" game .

When there are 6 cards (when there are 6 people), according to the counting rule of 1, 2, the remaining card must be the 5th card (the one who survives is the person standing in the 5th position); when there are 5 cards (when there are 5 people), the remaining card must be the 3rd card (the one who survives is the person standing in the 3rd position).

We can draw a circle on paper, arrange the numbers 1 to 6 or 1 to 5 in order, and then follow the counting rule of 1, 2, starting from 1, cross out the numbers with the number 2 one by one, and see how many are left.

With 6 cards, this is what happens:

Let's see, the last card left is the 5th card. When there are 5 cards, the situation is as follows:

The last card left is the 3rd card.

So far, we have revealed the secrets of Liu Qian’s second poker magic. Yes, it is essentially a mathematical magic.

Poker card magic is a major type of magic, and the principles behind it are mostly related to mathematics. If you learn mathematics well, we can all become excellent magicians! Hurry up and show off your skills in front of your family and friends!

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Zeng Xinyue, popular science creator

Reviewer: Dai Teqi, Associate Professor of Beijing Normal University

Planning丨He Tong

Editor: He Tong

Graphics by He Tong and Zeng Xinyue

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