The Magic of Charles Sanders Peirce
Persi Diaconis, Stanford University
Martin Gardner Lecture

Saturday, August 9
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: Charles Peirce was probably Martin Gardner's favorite philosopher. The father of Pragmatism and co-inventor of symbolic logic, he worked as a mathematician, statistician, geologist, and guru, making substantial contributions. He also invented startlingly original (pretty bad) card tricks. BUT, hidden in his inventions were completely new principles which can be made into terrific tricks. I will explain (and illustrate) the best of these, including some hidden mathematics 'in English'. I'll also tell you how you can find out more, by reading Martin Gardner.

Biography
Persi Diaconis is professor of mathematics and statistics at Stanford University. He works in probability, combinatorics and mathematical statistics and loves to study basic questions: why is a coin toss random (and is it really?). How many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it? He is well known for a colorful history; running away from home at age 14 and spending ten years as a professional magician(!).  Rescued by Martin Gardner, he became an early winner of a Macarthur prize and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.