pretty cool mindreading website

[Pepka]

Here's a cool website my dad found. Fooled the hell out of me for a minute. I'm not much for "interactive" magic sites, but this is pretty neat.
web page
Pepka

[Robert McDaniel]

I saw this a couple weeks ago, and sent it to family and friends. The reaction was pretty incredible. I think this is the best Internet magic trick I've ever seen. And, I must admit, it foolded me for a while, too.

Robert McDaniel

[Dustin Stinett]

I have had people at work hounding me for an explanation. (Some have spent so much time trying to weasel an answer out of me that if they had applied the same effort to studying the thing, they'd figure it out!) What gets them is its ability to repeat without duplication.

Dustin

[Matthew Field]

The really clever thing is that the symbol changes for the repeats.

Matt Field

[Guest]

Originally posted by Matthew Field:
The really clever thing is that the symbol changes for the repeats.

Matt Field

A randomize function can go a long way.

HR

[Guest]

A friend of mine e-begged me for an explanation

I replied

The good news is that I know how it's done.

And the bad news, for you, is that I'm not going to tell you. Well, not for a day or three, anyway. I'll let you stew.

Make 'em think a bit.

Dave

[Larry Horayne]

I works by an algorithm that produces a single symbol for every number on any single play of the game.
That is, if you stood at your computer with 98 friends and each of you chose a different one of the 99 numbers listed, you would all arrive at a result that is assigned the very same symbol (say a smiley face).
You can test this by doing it with Nana choosing a different number from yours-- provided you don't make an arithmetical error, you will both come out with the same symbol and so will the machine. What makes it look mysterious is that the computer switches to a different symbol on the next play of the game, so the next time the same algorithm yields the same symbol for any of 99 numbers you choose, but it gives a different symbol than it gave on the previous play of the game. You can prove this to yourself by writing down (or printing out) the assignment of symbols to numbers on the first play of the game, and comparing it with the assignment of different symbols to those same numbers on subsequent plays of the game.
www.SandySinger.com

[Guest]

He could use "cookies" and then it would only possible to see it once and harder to explain...

[Guest]

N=10*A+B
(10*A+B)-(A+B)= 9*A
Where A can = 1, 2, 3, ..., 9
Enough said?

[Guest]

Originally posted by Dale Hoyt:
N=10*A+B
(10*A+B)-(A+B)= 9*A
Where A can = 1, 2, 3, ..., 9
Enough said?

Precisely. But as to "Enough said?", there are two sorts of people - those who have a reasonable grasp of basic maths, and those who don't.

And the first lot will have reasoned it for themselves without your explanation, and the second lot won't understand your explanation. At least, it would need to be fleshed out a lot for maths laypersons (as I've found). So it isn't enough said.

(That isn't meant to be a criticism of your succinct explanation.)

Dave

PS - Perhaps I should have said that there are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.