Another hastily constructed page by Phil Carmody Home / tricks / Penn & Teller "Find Love"
This examines the workings of the trick Penn & Teller concluded with in episode 1 of season 3 of "Fool Me". And how/why it works - it's clever use of simple mathematics - absolutely beautiful, and masterfully presented. There's a TL;DR at the bottom if you don't want to read the full explanation and just want less illusion to the process.
| Instruction | card state |
|---|---|
Setup | |
| Initial state | AaBbCcDd |
| Fold, tear, stack | ABCDabcd |
| top card to bottom | BCDabcdA |
| top 2 cards to bottom | DabcdABC |
| top 3 cards somewhere in the middle | cDabdABC cdDabABC cdADabBC cdBADabC
= cxxxxxxC |
| Note: This is the crucial setup that is required and that everyone performs identically. | |
| top card near your heart = c | xxxxxxC |
The Illusion Of Choice | |
| 1 2 or 3 cards off the top somewhere in the middle | xxxxxxC |
| Note: It matters not how many, or where, as the top and middle can change, as only the bottom card is important. | |
| exchange top card with random other person, and put somewhere in the middle | xxxxxxC |
| Note: Again, top and middle can change, as only the bottom card is important. | |
| 1, 2, or 3 cards and throw them away | xxxxxC xxxxC xxxC |
The Rotate | |
| monday card to the bottom | xxxxCx xxxCx xxCx |
| tuesday card to the bottom | xxxCxx xxCxx xCxx |
| wednesday card to the bottom | xxCxxx xCxxx Cxxx |
| thursday card to the bottom | xCxxxx Cxxxx xxxC |
| friday card to the bottom | Cxxxxx xxxxC xxCx |
| saturday day card to the bottom | xxxxxC xxxCc xCxx |
| sunday day card to the bottom | xxxxCx xxCxx Cxxx |
| Note: "All got a different number of cards, all in a different order" - not so, the position of the desired card is a function of the number of cards which are left | |
The Josephus Count | |
|
The final sequence can be thought of in terms of the Josephus problem from Knuth et al.'s Concrete Mathematics. OK, there's also a Josephus Count wiki page. Anyway - the card which will remain is mathematically determined. J2(6 = 1102) = 1012 = 5; J2(5 = 1012) = 0112 = 3; J2(4 = 1002) = 0012 = 1; And sure enough, those with 6 cards have C in position 5, those with 5 cards have it in position 3, and those with 4 cards have it in position 1. Genius! | |
| Loves me card to the bottom | xxxCxx xCxxx xxxC |
| Loves me not card thrown | xxCxx Cxxx xxC |
| Loves me card to the bottom | xCxxx xxxC xCx |
| Loves me not card thrown | Cxxx xxC Cx |
| Card chewing and "Minnesota 1978" - beautiful patter. humoristic engagement with the audience! This is what makes Penn and Teller brilliant showmen. | |
| Loves me card to the bottom | xxxC xCx xC |
| Loves me not card thrown | xxC Cx C |
| Loves me card to the bottom | xCx xC C |
| Loves me not card thrown | Cx C C |
| Loves me card to the bottom | xC C C |
| Loves me not card thrown | C C C |
Simply follow the instructions with 3 pieces of white paper, and one piece of coloured paper in the order: white, white, black, white. You'll see that all the "shuffling" operations where you apparently have some choice about the order of the cards are irrelevant.
Another hastily constructed page by Phil Carmody
Home / tricks / Penn & Teller "Find Love"