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.

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:

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JuggleShuffle_G4G12 (Secret Messages in Juggling and Card Shuffling)

Related webpages:

Juggling Font
Card Shuffling Font