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Magic trick (Posted on 2003-05-08) Difficulty: 4 of 5
We have a normal deck of 52 cards. We want to do the following magic trick:

A person from the audience chooses 5 random cards. The magician's assistant looks at the 5 cards, chooses 4 of them, hands them to the magician one by one face up and keeps the other one hidden. The magician then guesses the fifth card (the one that the assistant kept hidden) just by looking at the 4 cards he was handed in.

Is it possible to devise a strategy, so that no matter what the original 5 cards were, the trick always works?

  Submitted by Fernando    
Rating: 3.8571 (14 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
Charlie's answer is probably the least obvious and easiest to execute in real life (I myself do it that way). It's found here.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Stupid solutionDavid2004-03-31 17:53:35
Some ThoughtsBest one?Gamer2003-07-03 14:46:23
Face Upnikki2003-06-03 12:39:39
FacedownDJ2003-05-11 15:44:23
Some Thoughtsre: Lots of Little SomethingsDJ2003-05-11 14:43:07
Some ThoughtsLots of Little SomethingsDJ2003-05-11 14:27:30
try thisJon2003-05-09 06:33:23
my solutionSteve2003-05-08 20:22:05
my solutionCory Taylor2003-05-08 13:58:51
RestrictionsGamer2003-05-08 12:01:30
Some Thoughtsre(3): How i would do it - How it worksChris2003-05-08 11:44:01
re: Hows dis?levik2003-05-08 09:17:59
Hows dis?Hank2003-05-08 09:07:32
SolutionSolution: (I don't remember where I saw this but it was in the past year.)Charlie2003-05-08 07:59:47
re(2): How i would do it - How it worksBrian Smith2003-05-08 07:49:47
re: How i would do itJon2003-05-08 07:37:16
How i would do itBrian Smith2003-05-08 07:34:41
Solutionsolution correctedJon2003-05-08 07:28:18
Hints/Tipsre: ideaslevik2003-05-08 07:22:46
SolutionideasJon2003-05-08 07:12:39
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