The Windmill Trick

Difficulty: Easy

Skills Required: Counting, Memory

Description: A volunteer selects a card from one of four piles of four cards. When the cards are placed face down, he magically selects his chosen card.

The Trick:



The Explanation:





Hints:

This trick requires picking up the cards and placing them in the same order. For practice I thought we could do this trick together. I've selected a card and it is somewhere in Pile 3. Make note of the order in which I pick up the cards (A, B, C, D) from the piles in the following order: top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right. Note that when I deal the cards I always deal them one pile at a time in the order of top, right, left, and bottom

 

Note the positions of the cards in the new piles. All of the top cards are in the first pile, all of the right side cards are in another, etc. Also note that the top card from Pile 1 is on the top, Pile 2's card is on the right, Pile three's card is on the left and Pile four's card is on the bottom.  

Now I'm going to tell you that my selected card is in the new pile 3. Do you know which one it is? If you wanted to end the trick here you could announce it to your audience, but it wouldn't be as climactic. So pick up the cards again in the very same order. All you have to do now is remember when you picked the card up.

When you deal them out again, you should use that same order we have used previously. Where is the card now?




No Cheating....




Are you sure?

Did you figure out that the card was the ace of clubs and that it was on the right hand side of Pile 3? When you are finishing this trick remember to ask the volunteer to pick 2 piles, then 1 pile, then 2 cards and finally 1. Reveal that card to them. Remember: don't tell them what you are going to do with the selected piles or cards. You are going to force the card based on whether or not the volunteer picked correctly. Keep it if the card is there. Toss it if it is not.