A whack on the side of the head via Magic

By Maddie Brosky

Before you read my post lets see if you can solve this card trick!!!

In my online teaching class we were told to watch a video of a card trick and try to figure out how to solve it. The trick was simply to pick one card from the first set, memorize it, then watch the computer figure out which card you picked. So as the directions stated I picked out my card, then each and every time watched as the computer guessed the correct card. By this time I was blown away, I had no idea how just watching a video, not clicking on anything just watching how this trick worked.

It was actually amazing watching something so many different times and each time changing my focus to something else to see if I could solve it. I finally wrote down on a piece of paper the suit, number, and color of the first set of cards and then did the same for the second set. After writing each set of data I found that the first layout of cards was completely different than the second set. Not just the card I picked disappeared, but all of them did. This trick worked because of misdirection.

Concepts of assumption, distraction, attention and focus play key roles into how we figure certain things out, and how other people are able to get us to think in a different way. At first I was told to put all of my focus on one card and one card only. Which without even realizing it took my concentration away from the details of the rest of the cards. And because of that I was oblivious that not just one card changed, all of them did.

Being asked to watch a simple clip and try to beat the computer pretty much completely changed my perspective on problem-solving. In education it is very important to view different ways of solving a problem in front of us, which is why this trick was so important to me as an upcoming teacher. This simple task was a great way to see how differently people use their problem-solving skills and how easy it is to misguide someone.