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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
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TEDPOX
New Member
USA
14 Posts |
 Posted - 02/19/2003 : 01:18:19 [Permalink]
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Simple. No matter what number you choose the symbol will always match up to the corresponding number after the math is done. For example 74. 7+4 =11. 11-74=63. So whatever symbol is next to 63 is what the crystal ball is going to "predict". All in all it's pretty stupid and why were you looking at it in the first place. 
The numbers and symbols are prearranged to coincide. |
I've had about enough of me. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2003 : 07:33:54 [Permalink]
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| It is pretty cool nonetheless for us ignoramuses who didn't think quickly enough to realize that there are only nine possible answers and those nine answers changed every time. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2003 : 18:42:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
TEDPOX:
Simple. No matter what number you choose the symbol will always match up to the corresponding number after the math is done. For example 74. 7+4 =11. 11-74=63. So whatever symbol is next to 63 is what the crystal ball is going to "predict". All in all it's pretty stupid and why were you looking at it in the first place.
What I didn't notice was that the symbols changed positions on each new screen. That's what threw me. It was late. As for it being pretty stupid, I think, all in all, it's pretty clever. And no, I did not think there was anything paranormal going on. Just a cool psychic thingy, as I said.... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2003 : 19:14:28 [Permalink]
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| I don't think anybody really thinks it's a psychic thing but it is a good illustration of how easily we can be led astray. They lead us to believe that there are 90 plus possible answers and that these symbols are placed at random, and there's fancy artwork and sound to throw us off further. Everyone I've talked to knows it's a trick, but not being familiar with such tricks, they think it's pretty clever. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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TEDPOX
New Member
USA
14 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2003 : 13:37:33 [Permalink]
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Kil,
I was just pickin' on ya' hehehe...
Besides, you would be one of the last people I would even consider believing this to be something evenly slightly paranormal.
~ Ted
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I've had about enough of me. |
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shadykyd
New Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2003 : 16:29:02 [Permalink]
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if you REALLY want to know how it works here goes.  actually you always get one of these numbers (9,18,27,36,45,54,63...) any factor of nine. . any 2 digit number can be thought of as 10X + Y, if X is the first number and Y is the second number. like 24. 2=x, 4=y, 24=10X+Y. then subtract X + Y like they tell you to. and you get 10X + Y - X - Y. the Y cancels and you get 10X-X=9X.
so the only answers you can get are 9 times the first number. if you chose 10 through 19, your answer is 9,
20-29= answer -18
30-39= answer -27
and so on. So they put the same symbol next to each of the possible answers (9,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,81) =(happy face, for example), and you get the happy face no matter which first number you pick, because your answer is always one of the numbers above. and each time you click try again they put a new symbol next to the answers, it's just a math trick. |
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Computer Org
Skeptic Friend
392 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2003 : 08:25:23 [Permalink]
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Gorgo: "It is pretty cool nonetheless for us ignoramuses who didn't think quickly enough to realize that there are only nine possible answers and those nine answers changed every time."
Orggy Porgy: I've got 2 degrees in Math (B.S. & M.S.) and one in Probability and Statistics (M.S.) but, uh, er, I didn't notice that until I read the minute details over in the Humor forum.
Kil: "What I didn't notice was that the symbols changed positions on each new screen."
Orggy Porgy: Not only didn't I notice that, but on about the third try I ended up with 54 and a square. Slightly taken aback, when the screen came back (--I thought that it was the same screen--) I looked up the square only to find that 54 was a flag and the square was next to it on 34.
"Incredible!!" I thought to myself in near panic. When I moved my eyes from 66 (my number) to 54 I must have skipped a column and concentrated on the square by error------BUT THE STUPID THING STILL KNEW!!!! When I tried to do it correctly, staring at the flag on 54, it showed the flag. ACH!!!
Gorgo: "I don't think anybody really thinks it's a psychic thing...."
Orggy Porgy the ignoramus: I had (almost) become a true believer: The thing seemed to truly be psychic!
More Gorgo: "...and there's fancy artwork and sound to throw us off further."
Orgy Porgy: Uh: No sound on the Public Library computer where I post. As to artwork: I wrote my first computer program in 1961 and have been computer-active ever since. I was in awe of fancy tricks in DooM and, particularly, Heretic; the later stuff is, to me, fancy-dancy anti-climatic. As to clever computer programming simulating advanced intelligence: I was well into my PhD program in '71 when the Great Whirlpool of computers sucked me permanently in; thirty years working with computers and a recent period living in the artificial computer-generated world RuneScape has numbed me to any such trickery. Nonetheless....
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Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. --Falstaff |
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