Presentation used at G4G11 Atlanta.

1. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Magic and the Periodic Table of the Elements
G4G11, Atlanta, 20/3/2014
Miquel DURAN
Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis
Universitat de Girona
miquel.duran@udg.edu http://miquelduran.net @miquelduran
This presentation is available at http://slideshare.net/quelgir
Fernando BLASCO
Depto. Matemática Aplicada, ETSI Montes
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
fernando.blasco@upm.es http://fblasco.com @fblascoc

2. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
My tweetCV
• University professor. Research in
Quantum Chemistry. Digital
Science Communication, Magic
and Science, MOOCs, TEDx
events, Open Knowledge (see
also @quelet)

3. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
But look.. Girona has the best socializing chemical
lab in the world
i.e., the best restaurant - “El Celler de Can Roca”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/e_calamar/6937429192/

4. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
The ancient Periodic Table of the Elements:
water, earth, wind and fire
(From Wikipedia). 4 elements to Alchemy – Other cultures had more elements
Row: Humidity similar
Column: Temperature similar
Wind Fire
Water Earth

5. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
The current Periodic Table of the Elements
Girona’s Periodic Table of the Elements

6. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Gardnerine: alkaloid from Gardneria
plant - C20H24N2O2
Image from wikipedia

7. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Martin Gardner’s books and the PTE
• The last recreations: Hydras, Eggs, and Other
Mathematical Mystifications: “The wonders of a
planiverse”
• Sixth book of Mathematical Diversions:
– Extraterrestrial communication: the inhabitants of
Planet X might understand a description of the
periodic table of elements more readily than a
description of a house or tree
– Wolfgang Pauli's exclusion principle, which finally
explained the structure of the periodic table of
elements, was the outcome of combinatorial thinking.

8. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
G4G11… or should it be Ga4Ga11 ?
Or GaBeGaNa ?

9. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
And also…
Or should it be GaGaGa aka Ga3 (Gathering for
Gardner in Georgia)
Curiosity: Gallium (Ga) has atomic number #31, but
Georgia (GA) ZIP code is #30 ! A near miss!
And Gallium is used to bend spoons in actual magic
performances
G4G11 is held in At La N Ta !

10. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Chemical elements in Magic
• Helium: change voice of magician
• Nitrogen: in liquid state – petrifier
• Zinc – cooper to silver coins
• Gallium – spoon bending
• Posphorous – fireworks (3 allotropes)
• Iodine – gives color to starch
• Sulfur
• Mercurium – pulsating effect
Spoon bending
kit, Amazon

11. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Chemical elements in Magic
• Beauty of Bismuth
Cristals
• All kinds of alloys
– memory materials
– Magnets, e.g. Neodimium
Source: wikipedia

12. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
• 2011: International Year of Chemistry
• 2014: Now International Year of
Crystallography: Quasycristalls, Penrose Tiles,
Art, Golden Ratio, and a Gilbreath-related trick
by De Bruijn

13. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Cards, Periodic Table and so
• One-to-one correspondence btw atomic symbols
and atomic numbers
• Periodic table characteristic: one of the rare ways
Nature provides natural numbers.
• There are ca. twice elements (103) as standard
poker cards (52)
• The number of lantanides and actinides is ca. the
number of cards in a suit (13)
• Main columns are length 5 - suitable for poker
games and trick

14. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Adapting classical MG game

15. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Classical MG game (SciAm version)
4 pairs: H/O, C/Al, Fe/As, Mo/Br
They sum up to Pb !
Four double-numbered cards: MG game, triple
outcome. Each card has x and x+n. Prediction
must be 4x+2n.

16. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
• Calendar tricks can be translated into PTE.
• Gilbreath-2 tricks: 2 columns, 2 rows, two groups
• Gilbreath-4 tricks: same
• Gibreath-n for a particular row or column
• Fibonacci-related tricks, (Hydrogen, Helium,
Lithium, Boron, Oxygen, Aluminum, ...)
• Parity games
• Spelling
• The dream row-column

17. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Two key properties of TPE that may
provide new tricks + games
• PTE has a correspondence between numbers
and 1- and 2-letter atomic symbols. Thus one
can mask numbers while teaching TPE.
• Symbols are either one- or two-letter, and
their order is relevant.

18. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Now a small trick to teach a few atomic
symbols
• Write 7 cards each with H, N, C, T, B, R, G
• Write 7 cards, 3 with A and 4 with E (or
opposite)
• Duplicate if necessary (total of 14 or 28 cards).
• Alternate, Rosseta or Riffle Shuffle, or make 2
stacks (Gilbreath-2)
• Show that you always get a valid Element!

19. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Two more things…
• Carbon: C60, graphene, …
– Nobel Prize 1996: fullerenes
– Nobel Prize 2010: graphene
– Nobel Prize 2011: quasicrystals
• Chirality and Martin Gardner
– Chiral Apples
– Chiral Hypercard
– Chiral tetrominoes and pentominoes

20. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Clathrus ruber: a fullerenic mushroom

21. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
(Endo)fullerenes

22. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Relation to the Gilbreath principle and
Martin Gardner

23. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
• Atomic model of an aluminium-palladium-
manganese (Al-Pd-Mn) quasicrystal surface

24. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
MG apples: useful to teach Chirality

25. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
All chemistry is magic
• Chemistry is magic itself
• We plan a MOOC “Magic, Science and
Confessable Secrets”
(MOOC: Massive Open Online Course)

26. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
And now a question for you…
think of your badge and answer…
How many symmetric two-letter pairs can you
find in the Periodic Table of the Elements?
e.g.; As/Sa
How many of them are fully consonantic?
Which vowel is dominant?
(i.e., gamification of the PTE)

27. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Take home message
• I’m a (quantum) chemist, but I’m not a bad
guy…
• Chemistry is magic
• There’s chemistry in magic: it creates bonds
• Thanks!

28. Miquel Duran @miquelduran http://miquelduran.net miquel.duran@udg.edu
Key ideas to (tweet and to)
take away
• The Periodic Table of the Elements is a
valuable tool in magic, and magic is a
valuable tool, in turn, to teach the PTE
• There is no Chemical Magic. Chemistry is
magic itself.
• Education is not a preparation for life..
Education is life itself
• Let me introduce you to my favourite
chemist – Panoramix
• Thank you!
• This presentation is available at
http://slideshare.net/quelgir