Main content

The Magic of Maths

How a love of magic led to a love of maths for Stanford professor Persi Diaconis.

Tim Harford speaks to Persi Diaconis, top professor of maths and statistics and legendary magician. The Stanford University professor and co-author of the book Magical Mathematics has an enthralling story to tell of how he discovered magic as a boy - and as a consequence, a love of maths. And to illustrate how closely maths and magic are linked, Crossing Continents editor and the 91福利社's in-house magician, Hugh Levinson, performs a mathemagical card trick.

(Image: Lane the Conjuror. Credit: Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Mon 19 Aug 2013 02:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 17 Aug 2013 23:50GMT
  • Sun 18 Aug 2013 11:50GMT
  • Mon 19 Aug 2013 02:50GMT

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

91福利社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast