Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:
Erik D. Demaine and Martin L. Demaine, “Juggling and Card Shuffling Meet Mathematical Fonts”, in Connections in Discrete Mathematics: A Celebration of the Work of Ron Graham, edited by Steve Butler, Joshua Cooper, and Glenn Hurlbert, 2018, pages 297–304, Cambridge University Press.
BibTeX
@InCollection{JuggleShuffle_Graham80,
  AUTHOR        = {Erik D. Demaine and Martin L. Demaine},
  TITLE         = {Juggling and Card Shuffling Meet Mathematical Fonts},
  BOOKTITLE     = {Connections in Discrete Mathematics: A Celebration of the Work of Ron Graham},
  PUBLISHER     = {Cambridge University Press},
  EDITOR        = {Steve Butler and Joshua Cooper and Glenn Hurlbert},
  YEAR          = 2018,
  PAGES         = {297--304},

  papers        = {JuggleShuffle_G4G12},
  webpages      = {fonts/juggling; fonts/shuffle},
  category      = {art},
}

Abstract:
We explore two of Ron Graham's passions—juggling patterns and perfect card shuffling—through one of our passions, mathematical fonts. First, for each letter of the English alphabet, we design a one-person three-ball juggling pattern where the balls trace out the letter (possibly rotated 90°). Second, using a deck of 26 cards labeled A through Z, we show how to perform a sequence of in/out perfect riffle shuffles to display any desired sequence of letters (forming a word, phrase, etc.), using algorithms already developed by Diaconis and Graham. Along the way, we pose some new open problems about perfect shuffling.

Availability:
The paper is available in PDF (1949k).
See information on file formats.
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Related papers:
JuggleShuffle_G4G12 (Secret Messages in Juggling and Card Shuffling)

Related webpages:
Juggling Font
Card Shuffling Font


See also other papers by Erik Demaine.
These pages are generated automagically from a BibTeX file.
Last updated January 22, 2026 by Erik Demaine.