📅 The Lightning Calendar

The Lightning Calendar for kids: the whole trick

You draw a month on a sheet of paper. Somebody rings any square block of nine dates. You glance at it once and say the total of all nine, faster than anyone can add them. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 8 to 13 (grades 3rd–7th), takes 15 minutes to learn, and needs 2 things you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.

The secret

The middle number of the block times nine is the total, every time. You only ever look at one number.

What you need

• A sheet of paper
• A marker

How to do it

1. Draw a month on the paper with the marker: seven across, the dates in rows.
2. Ask somebody to ring any block of nine dates, three across and three down.
3. Glance at it, find the middle number, and times it by nine in your head.
4. Say the total out loud and let them add the nine up to check.

Magic words to say

“Ring any nine you like. Go on, make it a hard one. ...One hundred and thirty-five. Take your time checking, I'll wait.”

Pro tips

• Letting them check is the best part. Adding nine numbers takes a while, and every second of it is yours.
• Times-by-nine is times-by-ten take one away. Practise that on its own for five minutes and the trick is learned.
• Works on any calendar on any wall, which makes it the trick to do at somebody else's house.

If something goes wrong

If they ring a block that runs off the edge of the month, say "it has to be a full square" and let them choose again. That is a fair rule, not a save.

Safety notes

• Only from the front.
• No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.

Why it works

In any three-by-three block, the numbers sit evenly around the middle one: whatever you take off on one side you add on the other. Pair them up across the middle and every pair is twice the middle number, so the nine of them come to nine times the middle. That is true of any calendar, any month.

What kind of trick is this?

🔮 Prediction. You knew all along, or you read their mind. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.

The skill it teaches: Your magician name. Every magician has a stage name and a style. Perform it and it counts towards the Mind Reader badge.

Questions about the lightning calendar

How do magicians read minds?

They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.

Are there magic tricks with a calculator or phone?

Yes. The Calculator Prediction fills a whole screen with your friend's favourite digit, nine times over, after a single multiplication. Any calculator works, including the app on a grown-up's phone.

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