Yes, I often wonder if there is anything that is REALLY original. Authors of magic books and some originators of tricks, much of the time but not ALL the time,recognize this by giving credit to at least some of the earlier users of the principles in their tricks. I often notice, though, that when an author gives credit to a particular earlier magician, I can think of someone else NOT mentioned who ALSO used that principle. I guess there are lots of different sources to learn things from.

Bob Farmer in his Flim-Flam column from Magic Magazine, called this routine "Debit & Credit". He also included an extensive write-up of variations of it.

If you want a truly inspired version, as well as be assured that there is originality in magic, check out "DOLLARS AND (SIXTH) SENSE" in "Stewart James In Print: The First Fifty Years", Jogestja, 1989, pp. 972-975.

Yes, I often wonder if there is anything that is REALLY original. Authors of magic books and some originators of tricks, much of the time but not ALL the time,recognize this by giving credit to at least some of the earlier users of the principles in their tricks. I often notice, though, that when an author gives credit to a particular earlier magician, I can think of someone else NOT mentioned who ALSO used that principle. I guess there are lots of different sources to learn things from.
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I feel silly quoting myself. But, in this Sunday's NY Times "Week in Review" section there's a piece about the apparently common phenomenon of a scientist "discovering" what some other scientist, or several of them, have already discovered. This happens in spite of the enormous apparatus of journals and the Internet and so on that is supposed to make communication in science so excellent. So, if there can be more than one honest independent discovery of the same principle in science, I guess we shouldn't be surprised to find it happening in magic, too.

Read TOTM Barrie Richardson you will find out how it fooled Einstein.

John

I saw John Lenahan do this trick in his close up show.

He gives all the history.

Einstein was NOT fooled by this but it was used as a slogan by a magician (poss koran) as a publicity tagline.

Lenahan did it with poker chips.

The guy wins two Nobel Prizes in Physics for The Photoelectric Effect and Brownian Motion Thermodynamics and gets no prize for the Theory of Relativity but somehow the math was done by some chess player. I don't think so. The language of physics is mathematics and Einstein was fluent in that.

As far as I know Albert Einstein won one Nobel prize in 1921 for the Photoelectric effect.
Regarding his math, I am sure he was proficient in math beyond the average level but I do recall that in order to develop some complicated ideas in general relativity he needed support.
N.

Nir,
Oops! You're right about the 1921 Nobel Prize. He didn't win a second for Brownian Motion.
Larry

I've always thought it was astounding that Einstein didn't win a Nobel for either the General OR Special Theories of Relativity. Either one alone is enough to make a lifetime reputation. Most people assume he got one for 'Relativity' and have never even heard of his work on the Photoelectric Effect.

The funny thing is that the PE effect paved the way to quantum mechanics which Einstein had some trouble with...

If I recall correctly there's a version of this effect in the David Blaine book"MYSTERIOUS STRANGER"

all the best,
John

I have been doing this for years, I have changed it up a little and it seems to play well. I use two coin purses with the same amount of coins in them, they can pick what every purse they want, I then have them remove a few coins without looking and have them place them in their pocket. they then add up the coins left in the purse and we go to the normal ending. An then if that flys I reveal what coins are in their pocket.

John