Card Tricks > Geometric Treatment Card Trick
Breaking the Code
The late John Hilliard in his practical treatise on modern magic
titled 'Greater Magic' recalls with nostalgia his introduction to the
next card trick that originally carried the exotic label 'Mutus, Nomen,
Dedit, Cocis'. These Latin words conjure up an aura of mystery and to a
younger browsing through a battered old book on magic, this curious and
provocative title must have afforded him a thrilling experience. Now, we
substitute English words for this trick when working with a twenty card
packet. Better to use the special geometric layout that is
explained in detail in the comment section. By using this geometric
design many more cards can be used and the basic idea is more
effectively concealed.
Presentation
The performer will demonstrate with playing cards, a modern method
for identifying international criminals using a code technique. To
illustrate this policing procedure the performer proceeds to deal out
ten pairs of face up cards on a table explaining that each face up pair
represents an official delegation of two attending an important embassy
event.
During social festivities, a secret service agent spots two people from
one delegation in the act of stealing an important document from a wall
safe. He reports this theft back to his superior but in the interest of
diplomacy and to confuse anyone listening in or 'bugging' their
conversation, the secret service agent refrains from specifically naming
the couple involved but rather gives his superior one or two general
listings of certain persons attending this social function. From the
listed names, his superior immediately identifies the guilty pair
responsible for the theft and takes appropriate action.
To illustrate this coding technique, the performer enlists the services
of a spectator who is willing to play the role of the secret service
agent. The spectator is expected mentally select a card pair to
represent the thieving couple, but he is to give no clue whatsoever as
to the card pair has in mind. The performer has to pick up the paired
cards in any haphazard order and follows this by dealing them again, one
by one in random fashion to form four rows of five cards each. He
explains this deal out by noting that the guests would normally
circulate around and at given time might take up positions such as
indicated by the cards as they engage in the social amenities of the
occasion.
This being done, the performer asks the spectator to point to or read
off to him the five cards for any of the rows that involve one or both
of the thieving pair. From this information, the performer is able to
identify the two guilty parties involved in the theft.
Method
The secret of the identification of the card pair lies completely in
the manner in which the performer lays down the cards to form four rows
of five cards each. This is not carried out in random fashion as noted
under presentation but rather according to a very precise and
prearranged order using the passwords 'await', woody, feted, and filly'
to assist him. In his imagination, the performer visualises these
passwords as spelled out in large letters on the table as given below.
A W A I
T
W O O D
Y
F E T E
D
F I L
L Y
In dealing out card pairs, he places the two cards of each card pair on
the same letter. Exactly ten letters have been repeated in these four
words, so that there is one letter pair for each card pair. It makes no
difference which card pair goes on which letter pair, but there
must be no hesitation in laying down the cards, for otherwise the
audience will immediately suspect that a geometrical pattern is
involved.
The subsequent identification or reading off of the cards in one or two
of the four rows by the spectator is merely a device to let the
performer know in which rows the two cards mentally selected by the
spectator are located. If the spectator lists the cards in only
once row, then both cards are located in this single row and will be
located over the letter that is repeated twice in the password for this
row. If the two cards are in different rows, then the performer
determines which letter is common to the two passwords for these two
rows and from this he knows that the two required cards are placed over
this common letter.
Explanation
The explanation of this effect is simply that a special geometrical
word pattern is used wherein ten different letters are distributed over
a total of four five-letter words so that no duplication arises among
them nor will any two different letters involve the same row or set of
two rows.
Comments
The success of this card trick will be more or less in proportion to
the dramatics accompanying the presentation. Thus, the effect can be
built up further by imagining that the four rows of five persons came
about as the result of seating arrangement for a concert and
that the secret service agent tips off his superior as to the guilty
pair by passing on to him a coded number corresponding to the rows that
seat the two thieves.
It is also possible to expand the effect to 15 couples (30 cards) or
in general to a total of n (n+1) cards where n is an integer. Thus by
letting n take the values of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in turn, the total
number of cards that can be handled becomes correspondingly 2, 6, 12,
20, 30 ad 42. The manner of laying down a larger number of cards ( in
rows of n+1 cards per row) where n is greater than four is tied in with
the ability of the performer to automatically associate pairs of cards
together. One geometric pattern that can be followed in placing the
cards on the table. However, before dealing the cards into this pattern,
it is necessary that the performer secretly transfer a single card from
the top to the bottom of the pack that is too be dealt. The reason given
to the audience for the card placement on the table in the manner of
Figure 4-2 is that the first outlining the seating arrangement for the
embassy entertainment after which he merely fills in the vacant spaces.
Card Tricks > Geometric Treatment Card Trick
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