Sleight of Mind

Sleight of Mind PDF

Author: Matt Cook

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0262542293

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This “fun, brain-twisting book . . . will make you think” as it explores more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, philosophy, physics, and the social sciences (Sean Carroll, New York Times–bestselling author of Something Deeply Hidden). Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician’s purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn’t require tangibles, like rabbits or hats. Paradox works in the abstract, with words and concepts and symbols, to create the illusion of contradiction. There are no contradictions in reality, but there can appear to be. In Sleight of Mind, Matt Cook and a few collaborators dive deeply into more than 75 paradoxes in mathematics, physics, philosophy, and the social sciences. As each paradox is discussed and resolved, Cook helps readers discover the meaning of knowledge and the proper formation of concepts—and how reason can dispel the illusion of contradiction. The journey begins with “a most ingenious paradox” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Readers will then travel from Ancient Greece to cutting-edge laboratories, encounter infinity and its different sizes, and discover mathematical impossibilities inherent in elections. They will tackle conundrums in probability, induction, geometry, and game theory; perform “supertasks”; build apparent perpetual motion machines; meet twins living in different millennia; explore the strange quantum world—and much more.

Sleights of Mind

Sleights of Mind PDF

Author: Susana Martinez-Conde

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2011-02-03

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1847652956

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What can magic tell us about ourselves and our daily lives? If you subtly change the subject during an uncomfortable conversation, did you know you're using attentional 'misdirection', a core technique of magic? And if you've ever bought an expensive item you'd sworn never to buy, you were probably unaware that the salesperson was, like an accomplished magician, a master at creating the 'illusion of choice'. Leading neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde meet with magicians from all over the world to explain how the magician's art sheds light on consciousness, memory, attention, and belief. As the founders of the new discipline of NeuroMagic, they combine cutting-edge scientific research with startling insights into the tricks of the magic trade. By understanding how magic manipulates the processes in our brains, we can better understand how we work - in fields from law and education to marketing, health and psychology - for good and for ill.

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand PDF

Author: Phillip Margolin

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2013-04-09

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 0062069926

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Private investigator Dana Cutler must take down a cunning psychopath before he can pull off the perfect crime, in Sleight of Hand, a novel of suspense from Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author of Capitol Murder and Supreme Justice. Charles Benedict – charismatic criminal defense lawyer, amateur illusionist, and professional hit man – has performed his greatest sleight of hand yet: framing a millionaire for the murder of his much younger wife. When Horace Blair married Carrie, the prosecutor in his DUI trial, he made her sign a prenuptial agreement guaranteeing her twenty million dollars if she remained faithful for the first ten years of marriage. Just one week before their tenth anniversary, Carrie disappears, and Horace is charged with her murder. Desperate to clear his name, the millionaire hires D.C.’s most ruthless defense lawyer – Charles Benedict. P.I. Dana Cutler is in the Pacific Northwest on the trail of a stolen relic dating from the Ottoman Empire. Hitting a dead end sends her back to Virginia perplexed and disappointed – and straight into the case of Horace and Carrie Blair. Now Dana must conjure a few tricks of her own to expose Benedict’s plot, before he can work his deadly magic on her...

Sleight

Sleight PDF

Author: Jennifer Sommersby

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-04-24

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1510732128

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A vivid tale of ancient lore, dangerous magic, and complicated love set against the backdrop of circus life. Growing up in the Cinzio Traveling Players circus, Genevieve Flannery is accustomed to a life most teenagers could never imagine: daily workouts of extravagant acrobatics; an extended family of clowns; wild animals for pets; and her mother Delia, whose mind has always been tortured by visions—but whose love for Geni is unwavering. In a world of performers who mystify and amaze on a daily basis, even Delia’s ghostly visions never seemed all that strange . . . until the evening Geni and her mother are performing an aerial routine they’ve done hundreds of times before, and Delia falls to her death. That night, everything changes. Already reeling from the tragedy, the Cinzio Traveling Players have even more to adjust to when the circus falls under new ownership. Though the new benefactor seems incredibly generous, Geni suspects his motives are much darker. And when the owner’s son, Henry, starts taking an interest in her, is it actual attraction, or an attempt to get her to lower her guard so his father can secure what he's really after? Suddenly swept with the terrifying visions that plagued her mother, Geni’s no longer sure who she should trust or love. And, worst of all, she’s starting to question whether she can trust her own mind. Sommersby blends teenage drama, sizzling romance, ancient lore, and dangerous magic, against the bewitching backdrop of the circus in this atmospheric, lushly-written tale.

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand PDF

Author: Laura Adams

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9780967775371

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The night Autumn Bradley died... ...she met the woman of her destiny: the fire-haired woman who sends Autumn back to her dying body and thereafter mysteriously haunts Autumn's dreams. Getting by with sleight of hand and other quick-fingered magic tricks, Autumn has no memory of her life before the age of 17. In the years since only a medieval choral chant has stirred her memory. Life's shadows reach for her. But she resists with the power that dances in her hands. Ursula Columbine begins a journey... ...to join Kelly, the woman she loves. Leaving the protection of a powerful circle that has sheltered her all her life, she is immediately exposed and threatened by a hungry darkness that craves something only the naive Ursula can give.

Champions of Illusion

Champions of Illusion PDF

Author: Susana Martinez-Conde

Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2017-10-24

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0374120404

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A collection of visual illusions with explanations of the science behind them, gathered from the Best Illusions of the Year contest. --

Absence of Mind

Absence of Mind PDF

Author: Marilynne Robinson

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0300166478

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In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate.

Expert Card Technique

Expert Card Technique PDF

Author: Jean Hugard

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-28

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9781614278696

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2015 Reprint of 1944 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This remains one of the most definitive works on card technique, providing step-by-step instructions that will teach you the correct methods for the basic manipulations and for more advanced flourishes. Offering the most foolproof methods available, Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue explain such basic manipulation as the palm, the shuffle, the lift, the side slip, the pass, the glimpse, the jog and the reverse. They detail various false deals, crimps and changes and the more advanced execution needed for forces, fans and the use of the prearranged deck.

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand PDF

Author: Edwin Sachs

Publisher:

Published: 2016-02-01

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 9781614279273

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2016 Reprint of Second, Enlarged Edition of 1885. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Considered by some to be the single most complete book ever written on magic, it includes both stage and close-up magic, chapters on technique, presentation, and all the peripheral skills necessary for great conjuring. Covers every significant aspect - from palming to clairvoyance, vanishing and producing an object, using essential apparatus, etc. Explains hundreds of astonishing tricks - with coins, cups and balls, handkerchiefs, cards, more. A book with an excellent reputation among professional magicians for teaching techniques. 57 illustrations. Chapters: Chapter I - Palming Chapter II - Tricks with Coins Chapter III - Tricks with Common Objects Chapter IV - Tricks with Cups and Balls Chapter V - Tricks with Handkerchiefs Chapter VI - Chinese Tricks Chapter VII - Tricks at Table Chapter VIII - Tricks with Cards Chapter IX - General Remarks Chapter X - The Table and Dress Chapter XI - Sleights and Properties for General Use Chapter XII - Tricks with Cards Chapter XIII - Tricks with Handkerchiefs and Gloves Chapter XIV - Tricks with Coins Chapter XV - Miscellaneous Chapter XVI - The Cornucopian Hat Chapter XVII - Tricks with Watches and Live Stock Chapter XVIII - Sham Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, &c. Chapter XIX - Final Instructions