Credit for Calculator Force
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Credit for Calculator Force
Does anyone know who came up with the idea of using a scientific calculator to force a large number - i.e., in performance, a handful of audience members improvise a complex equation, but when they press the equal sign, the number that comes up is actually one you stored in the memory. Any help would be greatly appreciated by the entire writing staff of the Magicana section.
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
The one where you mislabel one of the keys? (m- to =)
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Jonathan Townsend wrote:The one where you mislabel one of the keys? (m- to =)
No, the one where, prior to the show, you enter the force number, then press +, then 0, then X as in multiply, then ( as in the "open paranthesis" symbol. This will save your force number in the memory. During the actual performance, a multitude of entries can be made, but when the = sign is pressed, your force number will always pop up.
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
David, I think this is one of those things about which Marc DeSouza knows all. Have you spoken with him?
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Max Maven and Richard Osterlind might know as well.
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Curtis Kam wrote:David, I think this is one of those things about which Marc DeSouza knows all. Have you spoken with him?
Hi Curtis,
Ironically, this is for a trick of Marc's that I'm writing up. He says Bob King first published the idea in the early 1980s, but doesn't claim to have invented it.
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Max, do you know who came up with the idea of using a scientific calculator to force a large number - i.e., in performance, a handful of audience members improvise a complex equation, but when they press the equal sign, the number that comes up is actually one you stored in the memory. Any help would be greatly appreciated by the entire writing staff of the Magicana section.
Now tweeting daily from @David_Acer
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
David Acer wrote:No, the one where, prior to the show, you enter the force number, then press +, then 0, then X as in multiply, then ( as in the "open paranthesis" symbol. This will save your force number in the memory. During the actual performance, a multitude of entries can be made, but when the = sign is pressed, your force number will always pop up.
Check "Nth Degree" by David Altman in Bascom Jones' Magick No. 447 (1990) page 2234
Share your knowledge on the MagicPedia wiki.
Re: Credit for Calculator Force
I believe that Richard Osterlind, who taught this force on a DVD, gave the credit to John Cornelius.
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
John Cornelius did a lot of work with gaffed and non-gaffed calculators in the early 1980's.
Bill Palmer, MIMC
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Karl Fulves had a book called "Calculator Tricks" which came with the required (ungaffed) scientific calculator. But I'm off to the Riviera tomorrow morning and damned if I'm going fishing for a credit right now. Sorry, David.
Re: Credit for Calculator Force
My understanding has been that the TOXIC method was invented by Bob King and he called it "Calculation Sensation."
I could be wrong.
My friend Vinnie Grosso has a version using an I phone in his lecture notes. Deceptive because the calculator the people see is the basic version and not the scientific.
I could be wrong.
My friend Vinnie Grosso has a version using an I phone in his lecture notes. Deceptive because the calculator the people see is the basic version and not the scientific.
In thoughts and friendship
Banachek
Banachek
Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Hi David (et al),
Bob King said an accountant friend had shown it to him, not a magician, so i tend to think that this is something that ran around mathematician circles before magicians got a hold of it. If only Martin Gardner were still alive...I'll be he'd know. BTW, Marc Salem is the one who reminded me of it about six years ago.
Marc DeSouza
Bob King said an accountant friend had shown it to him, not a magician, so i tend to think that this is something that ran around mathematician circles before magicians got a hold of it. If only Martin Gardner were still alive...I'll be he'd know. BTW, Marc Salem is the one who reminded me of it about six years ago.
Marc DeSouza
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Re: Credit for Calculator Force
Thanks for the info. Bob King is referenced in the issue (out now). It's interesting that the force was shown to him by a mathematician, not a magician.
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