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Spelling Card Trick II (Posted on 2006-09-29)

In preparation for a card trick, a certain number of cards are taken from a standard deck of cards.

The trick goes as follows: Cards are taken from the top of the deck and transferred to the bottom, each time calling out a letter in the name of a card, starting with A, then C, then E, spelling out ACE; the next, fourth, card transferred is then shown to be the ace of hearts. This continues, saying "T" for the fifth card, "W" for the sixth card and "O" for the seventh card, and showing the eighth card to be the two of hearts.

Since letters are transferred to the bottom, this continues as many times through this modified deck as needed to have shown all the hearts through the king, and then all the spades, from ace through king.

How many cards from the full deck were used to make this modified deck so as to let the trick work?

Submitted by Charlie

Rating: 2.5000 (2 votes)

Solution: (Hide)

47 cards were arranged like this:

.X.17.j2..8.q3.9.k4X.1.5j2.6..q3.7.k4..8.5..96. h hs hh s hh s hhs s hss h ss h ss h s hs

where a dot indicates the identity of the card in that position does not matter. An X indicates a 10.

DATA ace,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten,jack,queen,king DATA ace,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten,jack,queen,king FOR noCards = 26 TO 52 den$ = SPACE$(noCards) suit$ = den$ psn = 0 RESTORE s$ = "h" n = 0 good = 1 DO n = n + 1 READ d$ psn = psn + LEN(d$) + 1 IF psn > LEN(den$) THEN psn = psn - LEN(den$) IF MID$(den$, psn, 1) > " " THEN good = 0: EXIT DO IF n < 10 THEN MID$(den$, psn, 1) = LTRIM$(STR$(n)) ELSEIF n = 10 THEN MID$(den$, psn, 1) = "X" ELSE MID$(den$, psn, 1) = LEFT$(d$, 1) END IF MID$(suit$, psn, 1) = s$ IF n = 13 THEN IF s$ = "h" THEN s$ = "s": ELSE EXIT DO n = 0 END IF LOOP IF good THEN FOR i = 1 TO LEN(den$) IF MID$(den$, i, 1) = " " THEN PRINT "."; ELSE PRINT MID$(den$, i, 1); END IF NEXT PRINT : PRINT suit$: PRINT LEN(den$) END IF NEXT noCards

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)

Subject	Author	Date
Puzzle Thoughts	K Sengupta	2023-05-22 00:19:06
re(2): Full solution with minimum no. of cards	Ken Haley	2006-10-04 00:26:41
re: Full solution with minimum no. of cards	Leming	2006-10-03 12:23:34
Full solution with minimum no. of cards	Ken Haley	2006-10-03 01:28:35
The D-E-U-C-E with it!	Dej Mar	2006-09-29 10:55:23
Solution / spoiler - nothing up my sleeves	Leming	2006-09-29 08:55:31

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