🔢 Top 10 mind-reading tricks with numbers
Ours, all ten: every trick on this list is from Peabody's Magic Shop, free, with picture steps read aloud by Flick.
Every trick on this list reads somebody's mind with numbers, and every one is on the shop's maths table for teachers, which means each has a real piece of arithmetic behind it that always lands in the same place: place value, binary, the nine times table, opposite faces of a die. Nothing can go wrong with your hands, because there is nothing to hide.
They are in the order to learn them, easiest level first, then quickest. Do one for the family, then turn it into a puzzle: can they work out why it can't fail? The why-it-works box on each trick's page says it in a child's words, and Flick's Mind-Reading Machine does three of them on you first.
How it is ranked: Prediction tricks on the teachers' maths table (every one runs on a sum that always comes out the same), easiest level first, then quickest to learn. Checked against the shop on .
The 10
- 1. The Answer Is Always 3The Mind Reader's CornerDoing and undoing: inverse operations. Apprentice, 2 minutes to learn, ages 6 to 11; you need nothing but your hands.
- 2. The X-Ray DiceThe Mind Reader's CornerOpposite faces of a die always add to seven. Apprentice, 3 minutes to learn, ages 5 to 10; you need dice.
- 3. The Magic Number 1089The Mind Reader's CornerPlace value, and reversing a three-digit number. Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 7 to 12; you need paper, pencil, envelope.
- 4. The Countdown CardThe Card CabinetCounting on and back to the same place. Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 6 to 11; you need deck.
- 5. The Knuckle CalendarThe Mind Reader's CornerMonths and days, and a pattern you can feel. Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 6 to 10; you need nothing but your hands.
- 6. The Nine Times FingersThe Mind Reader's CornerThe nine times table, and why the digits of 9 × n add to 9. Apprentice, 5 minutes to learn, ages 7 to 11; you need nothing but your hands.
- 7. The Secret Number CardsThe Mind Reader's CornerBinary: every number built from 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. Apprentice, 10 minutes to learn, ages 7 to 12; you need index card, marker.
- 8. The Birthday Mind ReaderThe Mind Reader's CornerMultiplying through brackets, and a constant left over. Conjurer, 10 minutes to learn, ages 8 to 13; you need calculator.
- 9. The Heads or Tails Mind ReaderThe Coin CounterOdd and even, and what one change does to a count. Conjurer, 10 minutes to learn, ages 7 to 12; you need coin.
- 10. The Magic ClockThe Mind Reader's CornerCounting round a dial: arithmetic that wraps. Conjurer, 10 minutes to learn, ages 7 to 12; you need paper, marker.
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