A card trick from the time of Shakespeare

The BBC News website has a story about a mathematician who, aided by his son, has worked out the mathematical basis of a card trick recorded in the 1590s. The trick is recorded in the diary of Philip Henslowe, who built and ran The Rose theatre adjacent to The Globe on Southwark’s Bankside.

 The article, together with the link to the problem-solver’s own description of the mathematics involved, can be seen at Weymouth mathematician solves Elizabethan card trick

Mathematics, beyond those things one needs to survive in daily life, was never my enthusiasm. I have friends who are enthralled by such things, but understanding such matters tends to leave me cold. However I do find it interesting that such mathematical processor were used to provide popular entertainment by at very least the later sixteenth century. The fact that mathematical calculation underlies, indeed is essential to, the creation of medieval castles and cathedrals, and significant parts of medieval science, philosophy and mystical theology, as well as the reception of the heritage of the Greco-Roman world is, of course, remarkable and fascinating. Like Philip Henslowe’s card trick it may well be something we take for granted, and not appreciating how skilled our ancestors were. Henslowe must have used mathematics to create and run his theatre. Whether he was interested in the card trick because of its mathematical basis or just as a party piece we do not know, but his record of it makes him and his world that little bit more immediate to us.