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TuxedoPk
12-07-2005, 03:52 PM
I'm pretty blown away by the percentage of times this actually predicted my answers.

http://trunks.secondfoundation.org/files/psychic.swf

McGary911
12-07-2005, 04:57 PM
Yep, I've seen this one before...it's pretty interesting.....stop reading now if you don't want to know the trick...
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The trick is: There are only a few numbers that you can arrive to using the calculations they tell you to do (all multiples of 9): 0, 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81. All of them will have the same symbol, which will be the hidden one in the ball. If you try it again, all the symbols are shuffled, except all the numbers above will always have the same "correct" symbol.

Still pretty cool even when the magic is yanked out of it :tongue:

edit: OK, 0 isn't a multiple of 9, but they had to have that in case you picked 10.

Formula Jr
12-07-2005, 11:19 PM
What most kids don't get in math is the mysteriousness of it.

0/1 is zero... But 1/0 is undefined. It isn't infinite. Its undefined. 1/<0 is okay as is 1/>0: 1/0 is a problem. It's been there for a while. Blame the Arabs.

With all the rules, here is one that can't be readily understood. And its a very simple expression to write or have hidden in a complicated expression. Our math comes from reality. This is what people forget. So it isn't such a mystery in the end. If you have a block of butter and you divide it in four the expression is one into four or four, 1/4ths. But if you have a block of butter and do not divide it,
as in 1/0, you still have the same block of butter. Logically, 1/0 of a block of butter should equal 1 block of butter. But that messes up everything else that is useful about math.

If you divide a block of butter with one cut it is 1/1. Which in math equals 1.

So we developed faith in saying 1/0 is undefined. You can't say 1/1 - which really means two 1/2s - and 1/0 are the same. And we are better for it. Even if no one knows why that is. Its a language game. Blame the Arabs.....