The 21 Card Trick and its Generalization

Abstract

The 21 card trick is well known. It was recently shown in an episode of the popular YouTube channel Numberphile. In that trick, the audience is asked to remember a card, and through a series of steps, the magician is able to find the card. In this article, we look into the mathematics behind the trick, and look at a complete generalization of the trick. We show that this trick can be performed with any number of cards.