The Magic Memories (111)

Hello everyone!

Today’s topics are: Repdigit 111; More on the Schnapszahl 111; Match Puzzle; I’m feeling lucky.

These are The Magic Memories 111, gone online Sunday, February 12th, 2023, at 0:07h sharp.

All The Magic Memories from 2021, 2022, including the Magic Advent Calendar from 2020 can be found HERE.

Repdigit 111

A repdigit is a multi digit number with all digits identical, and today we are at number 111 of The Magic Memories!

I strongly assume that most in our audience have never really bothered about the concept, let alone heard the terminus technicus “repdigit” (“Schnapszahl” in German, a funny term!), which is why it makes for a possibly captivating Prologue (I capitalize “Prologue as well as “Epilogue” because I consider them as much a technical term as Double Lift or Overhand Shuffle, which are also capitalized – see Sharing Secrets, “Prologue and Epilogue”, p. 88/89).

I say “possibly captivating” because it will only be so if properly introduced, argued and finally meaningfully linked to some kind of performance piece.

So, it might not be so smart to start by asking, “Who knows what a repdigit is?”, because you are telling them how ignorant they are, and that’s not what they want to hear, although it is of course true, because we all are ignorant about most things in life, and in that sense, you might say, it would be a philosophical thing to do 🙂

This, by the way, shows how close magic and philosophy are, as magic, like philosophy, shakes one’s apparent certainties. For those of you who have Card College 3&4 – Personal Instruction, the videos, watch “Philosophical Aces” in “Lesson 29: False Display Counts 2”, the second trick at the end of the lesson; it has nothing to do with our repdigit, but with the affinity of magic and philosophy.

Therefore, you need to think about how to introduce the subject in a clever way. A good way nowadays is to simply do a little search on Internet, maybe starting with Wikipedia HERE. As you’ll see this takes you into as many directions as you want to go.

If you like, you can now explore this further.

More on the Schnapszahl 111

What could possibly be so special about the number “111”?

More than meets the eye, and magic is the perfect metaphor that shows us that we look, but we don’t see, and therefore should take a closer look at things.

Here we go: 111…

… can be written with four fours:

… is a “palindromic number”, as it is the same forward and backward, but also a “strobogrammatic number”, because it is the same when read upside-down, and in a mirror, I might add, which opens up some “magical” possibilities )lateral thought: How many “mirror” digits, numbers letters and words in the Latin alphabet are there? Ha…)

… the spelling of 111 in words is “one hundred eleven”, and thus it is an “aban number” as well as an “iban number”.

… is an “evil number”, because the sum of its binary digits (1101111) is even (that’s not a pun, but an actual mathematical curiosity, see HERE)

… is a “semiprime”, which means that it is the product of two primes (3 and 37).

… is an “interprime number” beause it is at equal distance from the previous prime (109) and the next prime (113).

… is a polite number, since it can be written in three ways as a sum of consecutive naturals, for example, 16+17+18+19+20+21=111.

… is an equidigital number, since it uses as much as digits as its factorization.

… and finally, it is the “magic constant”magic constant of a 6 × 6 magic square (if you wish you can explore this HERE).

And where did I find all of this? Easy, as I mentioned above, search Internet, e.g., HERE, and you’ll also find the explanation of all those funny terms most of us do not understand:-)

Match Puzzle

Take three matches the same size and place them in a row – you get the number 111, what else did you except?

Now, with them create four equilateral triangles (see solution in The Magic Memories 112), without breaking, splitting or otherwise changing their shape.

As I’ve mentioned in various entries in Secret Agenda, Hidden Agenda, and Secret Twitter, these “match puzzles” are a lovely introduction into a magic piece (a Prologue); simply find a good connection, obviously.

Also, use some of those long matches to light cigars – some of them are quite beautiful and make a nice “trip” for these puzzles.

I’m Feeling Lucky

Inspired by Goggle’s search option “I’m feeling lucky!”, may I suggest that you take three, five, or – why not – ten of your favorite magic books, or any magic books for that matter, from your library, open them at page 111, and then practice the item on that page. That’s actually such a good idea (it occurred to me as I’m writing), that I’ll do it myself right now!

P – A – U – S – E

OK  I’m back, and here are the three books I picked, and the items on this pages:

• “Speller Transition” (p. 110-11), Super Subtle Card Miracles by Frank Garcia (suggestion: Instead of spelling THIS – IS – MY – CARD, which is a bit lengthy, have him do a Down-under Deal – for this the selection must start out 2nd from top in the five-card packet)
• “Teleport”, (p. 106 – 111), Worlds Beyond by Paul Curry
• “Bertram’s Ace Trick”, (p. 111 – 113), Tricks With Cards by Prof. Hoffmann

What has all of this got to do with our repdigit 111?

Well, not much, really, but I hope you’ll find it a fun exercise 🙂

(That was actually so much fun, I might go back to my library and do this with the remaining 3’497 books… on second thought, maybe not…).

PS: Don’t forget to enter “111” in Denis Behr’s Archives… you never know what you get 🙂

PPS: I had 111 ideas to share, but thought four should suffice. Why four? As my over-talented friend Dani DaOrtiz would say, “Why not?”

Wish you all a very successful week!

Roberto Giobbi