Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners

The team behind Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN), brings you Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners. Develop your skills as a magician while also learning the basics of computer science by exploring its links to magic. Each chapter explains how to do a simple magic trick, step-by-step, then uses the trick to introduce linked fundamental ideas in computer science in a fun way.

By reading the book you will learn to do self-working tricks, be able to hold magic shows, create your own versions of tricks, and with creativity even invent your own. We cover:

• Self-working card tricks
• Magical jigsaws, boxes and other objects
• False shuffles and cuts
• False choices
• Magic with books and pictures
• Mentalism, clairvoyance and tricks with ghosts
• Magic built on technology
• Find out your friends' superpowers!

You will also learn how computation underpins conjuring, answering questions like:

• What is computation?
• Why are the skills of a computational thinker, such as decomposition, abstraction and generalisation, so important?
• Why is data represented in different ways?
• How is easy-to-use software created?
• How does maths underpin programming?
• What are the basics of cyber security and privacy?
• Why must we all understand how computing technology affects society?

The book includes profiles of computer scientists, alongside magicians with links to technology, through history.

Master conjuring and thinking computationally.