Convocation | Arthur Benjamin
January 30, 2018
“By chance did anyone bring a calculator tonight?” Dozens of hands shoot up in perhaps the liveliest response ever to such a question. Harvey Mudd math professor and self-proclaimed mathemagician Arthur Benjamin calls Chrissy Robinson ’18, Oscar Vasquez ’20, Clare Meehan ’19, and Kenneth Liou ’20 up to the front of Wiegand Stage during his Monday night Convocation.
“I combine my loves of math and magic to do something I call mathemagics,” says Dr. Benjamin as he begins jogging around the theatre calculating the squares of called-out numbers faster than the four calculator-wielding student volunteers. The audience chuckles in disbelief as the numbers get higher while the answers are uttered just as quickly.
For his second number, Dr. Benjamin completes a magic square or as he calls it “a “sudoku puzzle on steroids,” based on volunteer Daphne McKeefry’s ’19 birthdate. The audience gasps as his four-by-four grid of numbers, where each column and each row should add up to the same numbers, is revealed to be infinitely more complex than it seems at first.
The audience is lively and engaged, many on the edge of their seats, suggestions and answers flying from the crowd. When Dr. Benjamin asks if anyone can calculate the square of 97, Brandon Man ’20 knows the answer (9409) and the crowd erupts with applause.
The mathemagician then delights members of the audience by confirming the day of the week on which they were born. With a calendar app in hand, Jason Zhao picks a random date for Dr. Benjamin to work out. “Just don’t go past 1600 because then were are off the Gregorian calendar and that throws me off a little.” Jason picks 1806, July, 3rd. “Was that a Thursday?” It was.
For his last trick, Dr. Benjamin calculates the square of a random five-digit number (78632). He does this on paper for everyone to see, speaking out loud so students can hear his process. He is, after all, a teacher of math and while he revels in the applause and gasps, sharing his love of math with young people is clearly his true passion.
About Arthur Benjamin
Dr. Arthur Benjamin is both a professor of mathematics and a magician. He has combined his two loves to create a dynamic presentation called “Mathemagics,” suitable for all audiences, where he demonstrates and explains his secrets for performing rapid mental calculations faster than a calculator. He has presented his high energy talk for thousands of groups throughout the world.
Dr. Benjamin has appeared on many television and radio programs, including The Today Show, CNN, The Colbert Report, and National Public Radio. He has been profiled in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Scientific American, Discover, Omni, Esquire, Wired, People Magazine, and Reader’s Digest.
Dr. Benjamin has given 3 TED Talks, one of which has been viewed over five million times. Reader’s Digest calls him “America’s Best Math Whiz”.
About Convocation
Convocation is a celebrated tradition of boarding school life at Cate. A series of speakers and performers addresses the School every Monday in the theatre after a formal dinner in the Raymond Commons.