He's giving the post banquet stage "mathemagic with a deck of cards" show for over
300 people at the Field of Dreams meeting in Atlanta, GA (Friday, 8th Nov 2024).
In his acceptance remarks, Colm said:
"I am very honoured to receive this award and extremely grateful for the recognition. Maths is a language that explains so much of the world around us: the sun, moon, planets and stars, hence the calendar and tides here on earth. That’s how it started for us humans; that and commerce. It’s about observation, curiosity and patterns, explaining symmetries and coincidences, navigating on earth and in space, and making reliable predictions."
He contiued:
"Today, maths is used almost everywhere: in aviation, weather predictions, medicine, all branches of science, finance, insurance and sport. But it’s not all cut and dried calculations, like some believe. Maths requires imagination and innovation and that is exactly what Maths Week delivers: a stage for demonstrating that maths can be really enjoyable and fun, as well as practical. It’s about seeing connections, solving puzzles, knowing how things work and finding a bit of magic in everyday things. It’s aways a thrill to see Maths Week participants, in a class or in the street, have an Aha! moment. That makes all the hard work worthwhile."
During Maths Week Ireland 2024, he also engaged with 4 classes of young pupils (3rd form to 1st year) at St Conleth's in Dublin.
"Mathematics may be presented in polished logical form, but it's discovered and
mastered in a totally different, sometimes semi-haphazard way, with plenty of
false turns, dead ends and much frustration and self-doubt."
Colm's musings (and puzzles and photos) have been featured at
RTE, the
Guardian, and
BBC, and the
NYT.
He has been translated into Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Polish,
French, Spanish, Finnish and Serbian. But not Irish (fós).
He is also the creator and curator of SpelMath, which documents the history of
mathematics at Spelman College going back over a century.
MoMath Math Encounters — Online 6 May 2020 ("Mathemagic with a Deck of Cards" with Colm Mulcahy) ["Your Math Encounters video is really good. It is one of the best MoMath presentations that I have seen. Your slides were excellent (the Proof Without Words shuffling cards slide was really nice). You are a good teacher." BB]
Paul Erdős
(1913-1996) visited Spelman in the spring of 1989. He spoke at the Pi Mu Epsilon
induction banquet. See Colm's Huff Post article
(in which the year of that visit is listed incorrectly).
John H. Conway (1937-2020) was
sometimes described as magical.
He enjoyed playing with the anti-gravity decks of cards, at MOVES conference at
MoMath in
NYC, August 2017. (Photo courtesy of Ibrahim Dulijan.)
(Jul 2021, invited) "The Scottish Irish Mathematical Trail", People, Places, Practices: Joint BSHM-CSHPM/SCHPM Conference, University of St Andrews, 12-14 Jul 2021 (moved from 2020).
36 mins video of "Connected Classrooms: Mathematical Magic with Cards" (April 2014, MAA/Google):
4 mins video of "Cylindrical SurPIse" (March 2022, Julia Robinson Math Fest):
18 mins video of "Card SurPIse" (March 2022, Julia Robinson Math Fest):
9 mins video of 21 Oct 2014 talk on "Martin Gardner 1914-2010 -- The Best Friend Mathematics Ever Had":
30 mins video of 26 Jun 202l talk on "Pioneering WIMEN" from the 3-speaker Women in STEM session at the 9th Robert Boyle Summer School (Colm's part starts half-way in):
10 mins video of 30 Oct 2020 "Iontas Sorcoireach: Cylindrical Surprise" presentation in Irish for Maths Week Ireland:
8 mins video of 14 Oct 2020 "Cleas Cárta Matamaiticiúil" presentation in Irish for Maths Week Ireland:
"Filled with many original ideas that will keep
mathematicians and magicians busy for a very long time"
— Arthur Benjamin
"A lot of fun. It's clever, instructive, and clear. Learn
some tricks. Learn some math. Impress your friends."
— John Allen Paulos
"A stimulating collection of novel card magic tricks that .... form
a wonderful introduction to important ideas in combinatorics"
— Ronald Graham
"A must for your magic library"
— Lennart Green
With the late Martin Gardner, in Oklahoma,
Mar 2007. The famed writer was a sweet, unassuming and generous man. He
played a significant role in enriching the intellectual
climate of a nation during the space race era, turning tens of thousands of
people on to the joys of creative thinking. In a sense, he did for mathematics what
Julia Child
did for French cooking. His legacy is celebrated every Oct with
Celebration of Mind parties worldwide.
With Ethan Brown, in NYC, Aug 2013, at the first
MOVES conference
at the groundbreaking Museum of Math.
Though he's only starting 9th grade, Ethan is already an energetic blogger, and a
protégé of
Art Benjamin. He's a total whiz at magic square completion and can do amazing mental arithmetic feats.
