Credit for Calculator Force

[David Acer]

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.

[Jonathan Townsend]

The one where you mislabel one of the keys? (m- to =)

[David Acer]

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.

[Curtis Kam]

David, I think this is one of those things about which Marc DeSouza knows all. Have you spoken with him?

[Dustin Stinett]

Max Maven and Richard Osterlind might know as well.

[David Acer]

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.

[Richard Kaufman]

Check with Max.

[David Acer]

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.

[Joe Pecore]

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

[Jim Sisti]

I believe that Richard Osterlind, who taught this force on a DVD, gave the credit to John Cornelius.

[Bill Palmer]

John Cornelius did a lot of work with gaffed and non-gaffed calculators in the early 1980's.

[Matthew Field]

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.

[Banachek]

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.

[fkaps1]

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

[David Acer]

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.