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Gergonne's Card Trick, Positional Notation, and Radix Sort

by Ethan D. Bolker (University of Massachusetts Boston)

This article originally appeared in:
Mathematics Magazine
February, 2010

Subject classification(s): Discrete Mathematics
Applicable Course(s): 4.7 Discrete Structures

In this paper the radix sorting algorithm is used to explain why Geronne`s 3 pile card trick works. Generalizations are explored.


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