The Magic Manual is a guide for users of stations from the Magic Mathworks Travelling Circus. There are 11 topic sections. Each section begins with a synopsis, followed by an analysis. Individual stations are described.
Downloads (all pdf files)
Contents (200KB)
0. Introduction
1 Multiplication (6.5MB)
2. Transformations (7.6MB)
3. Symmetry (8.9MB)
4. Packings (4.7MB)
5. Dissections (4.2MB)
6. Solids (5MB)
7. Sequences (11.8MB)
8. Loci and linkages (3.8MB)
9. Communication (1.5MB)
10. Heuristic (8.3MB)
11. Estimation (1.6MB)
Magic Manual all sections together (57MB zip file)
You will need to ‘un-zip’ this file to see all the sections. Your computer will usually be able to do this. If not, you can use 7-Zip (PC) or Free StuffIt Expander (Mac) – choose ‘StuffIt Expander Only’ option.
How to find things in the Magic manual
If you’ve used the Extension activities or tried the NRICH links you’ll have found codes like ‘2.3.1’. The ‘2’ means the station belongs to the second of the Magic Mathworks topics, ‘Transformations’. If you only need one section, just download that file above.
Once in the section, there is a lot of introductory material but if you track through the thumbnails on the left of the screen you’ll come to the third main station – the ‘3’ in the code – and the first experiment there – the ‘1’ in the code (called: ‘Squaring up and down’).
If you download all the sections and store them together in a folder, then you can open the Magic Manual ‘Contents’ page, click on the appropriate arrow and you’ll arrive at the correct section.