In 1978,
Karl Fulves published an excellent book entitled,
Transpo Trix. The final item in this manuscript is an unsolved card problem that Mr. Fulves called "Snark Hunt." Here is the description of Mr. Fulves' card problem in his own words:
This is my idea of an ultimate version of the thought-card transposition. You start with a packet of aces and a packet of jacks. One jack is named and one ace is named. The ace packet is picked up. The named ace magically turns face up, but also, it is the only ace in the packet; the other three cards are jacks. It follows that the named jack is found face up in the other packet, and it is the only jack in the packet; the other three cards are aces. Obviously, the trick must contain some sort of constraint to make the pursuit of a method interesting, and here it would be that the cards must be ordinary.
Ajax Transposition is my solution to Karl's posed problem. This is a strong effect! The fact that the cards are freely mentally selected precludes the possibility of a force or sleight-of-hand in the minds of lay audiences. Yet, not only do the chosen cards turn face up, but all the other cards change places! This is virtually impossible for the average person to backtrack.
1st edition 2024, PDF 27 pages.
word count: 4229 which is equivalent to 16 standard pages of text
