I was recently accused by one of my co-worker’s friends of having no “sense of wonder,” whatever the heck that means. The thing is, I’m a natural skeptic about some things. Especially internet ‘magic tricks.’ Most of them are variations on ‘mind reading’ parlor tricks.
Here are a couple that are fairly well done. Check them out, then come back and read the rest of this entry to see how they were done…
The Psychic Flash Movie
The first one is fairly easy. You’re told to pick a single card and to concentrate on the card you picked. However, if you take a look at ALL of the cards, you’ll notice that NONE of the cards in the final row are the same as the ones first shown. That way, no matter which card you pick at first, it can’t be there at the end.
The second one is much more impressive. The giveaway is the little math problem that they ask you to do… Take any two digit number, sum the digits and subtract the sum from the original number. The result you get will ALWAYS be a multiple of nine. Take a look at the list of numbered symbols and you’ll see that all of the multiples of nine have the same symbol. The really well done part of the Psychic Flash Movie is that the symbols keep changing so that the solution is less obvious.
Thursdays at the Hospital is “Gifts of Art” day… There’s usually a concert or something for people to attend during lunch hour. They announce in over the PA system and invite all visitors, patients, faculty and staff. Today it’s a magic show.
I don’t think I’ll go.