Math + Magic = Success and Utter DespairInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Magician and Professor Arthur Benjamin

This is not our joke but that won't keep us from using it.

Our beloved father, Tom Hardy III, son of Tom Hardy IV, once said, "Son, there are three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count; and those who can't."

We love math but math doesn't love us back.

It doesn't even feign civility when we are at the same parties. "Two's a couple, three's a crowd," it says.

Its haughty disposition towards us is understandable, we failed it.

We were so caught up in the accoutrement of the arcane science — the slide-rule (we're old), the compass, the protractor — we missed the essence of our boyhood crush.

Some magicians, however, are good with math. We dislike these people and want to say bad things about them. We even challenge their tricks or lie when they announce the correct sum in their speedy magic math square demonstration.

In so many ways — perhaps a million or a thousand — we are bad.

Imagine our jealousy, envy, and incalculable (by us) feeling of inadequacy reading today's Modesto Bee:

"Magician squares fun with math: Nimble-minded numbers cruncher Arthur Benjamin uses 'Mathemagics' to have the pitter-patterns of squares and weekdays multiplying in the minds of his audience."

If you can't relate to our pain, consider a headline to fit your insecurities. Perhaps, "Mrs. Jones Loves Neighbor Boy More than Own Son — 'He Never Did Anything Good!'" or maybe, "Mrs. Jones to Join Convent — 'My Husband Convinced Me Married Life Was Wrong and Wasteful.'"

So Benjamin Arthur use math the way we use a Kleenex or sleeve – a necessary tool that is also a plaything. We hate him.

What does Mr. Arthur say to that?

"When it comes to numbers, Arthur Benjamin wants people to be players, not haters."

Now we feel worse.

Enough about us. Let's talk about Mr. Benjamin.

Who is he? Where did he come from? How does he know our beloved mathematics so intimately?

The young professor teaches audiences to love math through his magic program called, "Mathemagics."

The show will be offered at the Modesto (CA) Junior College this Friday.

A math professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Benjamin said he can demonstrate and explain how to do math in your head.

"With even just a little bit of practice, most people can get a lot better," he said.

Like most boys in eighth grade, he said, one day he was thinking about numbers that add up to 20.

He had "the pleasure" of discovering the patterns in squared numbers and saw a way to work numbers from left to right in his head — the same way we read text. He understood a quicker way to multiply. It's not a method he conjured up, just one he realized without a teacher.

"It was really just a matter of playing with numbers," Mr. Benjamin said.

Mr. Benjamin is a real-live magician as well as a mathematician…

Magician and Professor Arthur Benjamin

This is not our joke but that won't keep us from using it.

Our beloved father, Tom Hardy III, son of Tom Hardy IV, once said, "Son, there are three kinds of people in this world: Those who can count; and those who can't."

We love math but math doesn't love us back.

It doesn't even feign civility when we are at the same parties. "Two's a couple, three's a crowd," it says.

Its haughty disposition towards us is understandable, we failed it.

We were so caught up in the accoutrement of the arcane science — the slide-rule (we're old), the compass, the protractor — we missed the essence of our boyhood crush.

In so many ways — perhaps a million or a thousand — we are bad.

Imagine our jealousy, envy, and incalculable (by us) feeling of inadequacy reading today's Modesto Bee:

"Magician squares fun with math: Nimble-minded numbers cruncher Arthur Benjamin uses 'Mathemagics' to have the pitter-patterns of squares and weekdays multiplying in the minds of his audience."

So Benjamin Arthur use math the way we use a Kleenex or sleeve – a necessary tool that is also a plaything. We hate him.

What does Mr. Arthur say to that?

"When it comes to numbers, Arthur Benjamin wants people to be players, not haters."

Now we feel worse.

Enough about us. Let's talk about Mr. Benjamin.

Who is he? Where did he come from? How does he know our beloved mathematics so intimately?

The young professor teaches audiences to love math through his magic program called, "Mathemagics."

The show will be offered at the Modesto (CA) Junior College this Friday.

A math professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Benjamin said he can demonstrate and explain how to do math in your head.

"With even just a little bit of practice, most people can get a lot better," he said.

Like most boys in eighth grade, he said, one day he was thinking about numbers that add up to 20.

He had "the pleasure" of discovering the patterns in squared numbers and saw a way to work numbers from left to right in his head — the same way we read text. He understood a quicker way to multiply. It's not a method he conjured up, just one he realized without a teacher.

"It was really just a matter of playing with numbers," Mr. Benjamin said.

Mr. Benjamin is a real-live magician as well as a mathematician and professor. He has performed at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, Disneyland, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

His shows last about an hour — so that's about 72 minutes or 57 minutes — and while math tricks and tools are taught, he does not reveal all of his secrets.

Mr. Benjamin can show "most people" (subtle attack) " how to square two and three-digit numbers in their heads, come up with the day of the week that corresponds to any date in history, and more."

Mr. Benjamin said his goal is to bring math to the masses. "And, I'm a little bit of a ham."

Arthur Benjamin's "Mathemagics" performances are scheduled Friday at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. in Forum 110 on the Modesto Junior College East Campus. The shows are free and open to the public.

He's also offering a workshop for teachers Saturday morning.

Check out his very cool web site for more information about the man, the math, the magic, and his programs:

http://www.math.hmc.edu/~benjamin/

Dr. Benjamin has written books, papers, programs and even has a magazine dedicated to magic and math. This guy is good.

We have to call in for a refill on our prescription and then curl into a fetal position whilst we avoid thinking of our mathematical dysfunction and seek out our happy place.

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