Abstract:

Magic has the ability to amaze and trap viewers, but what many people do not know is that magic and mathematics have always gone hand in hand, there are many magic tricks that are based on mathematical facts, some of great complexity and other simpler ones. It is the latter that are called in Spanish “matemagia”, which involves simple games that allow us to read minds or guess unknown numbers, thanks to mathematics. “Matemagia” is a great resource to use in the classroom, since in addition to attracting the attention of students and favouring their motivation, it can also be used to understand numbers and the relationships better. In addition, it is a very powerful tool to introduce algebraic language, equations and systems of equations, as well as the rest of the abstract concepts that are worked on in the first years of Secondary Education. This didactic proposal that we present is developed in the subject "Extension of Mathematics, Problem solving", of the third year of Secondary Education (15 years), and consists of starting the class session with a simple magic trick, which we will repeat at the beginning of the two weekly class sessions for two weeks, during that time the students will have to “discover” the mathematical reasoning behind said magic trick and expose it in class. If no student has managed to find the trick, the teacher will guide them through the mathematical process that underlies the magic game, to help them understand it. It begins by proposing a magic trick that is well known to them to capture their attention. Once they discovered the very elementary mathematics that this trick contained, the motivation increased, so we began to work on challenges that needed algebraic language to be solved. Later, this resource was used to introduce geometry, employing the trick of "infinite chocolate", the paradox of the lost square. Finally, students were asked to develop their own math tricks, applying some of the concepts worked on in class. This work is based on the presentation of the proposal carried out to work on Algebra and Geometry contents though magic tricks in the area of Mathematics.

Keywords:

Matemagic, mathematics, Secondary Education, algebraic language and geometry.