Can you solve this "ESP" trick?

[pmbryant]

The "Clifford Pickover ESP Experiment":

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/esp.html

From the site:

I am conducting a fascinating ESP experiment.
Recent statistics suggest that my system can predict the correct outcome of your choice with 98% accuracy.

(Those that may have seen this before, don't give the trick away! :-) )

Peter

[arwalden]

1. Hint:

Secretly pick TWO cards... what happens?
Secretly pick THREE or FOUR cards... what happens?

-- Allen*

*who was also fooled by this trick (for about 10 minutes).

[Blecht]

2. You shouldn't give it away --

At least not in the first response.

[arwalden]

5. That's Why I Labed It A "Hint"

and that's why it was only a hint and not a blatant "give away" by stating EXACTLY how it's done.

Sorry for spoiling the fun, Blecht. That's just the way I am.

[GoBlue]

8. I only feel half as stupid

Took me about 5 min.

[LynneSin]

9. 10 minutes - damn your IQ must be at Bush's level...

...it only took me 2 minutes to be fooled by it!

[Demonaut]

13. not to boast but 30 sec for me, I clicked back immediatly

[RobertSeattle]

3. This should be part of the President Debates

I would just love to see Bush trying to explain this. Fool me once...

Kerry in a Landslide.

[GOPisEvil]

4. Hahaha! I love all the "explanations".

I got it now. :-)

[jpgray]

6. LOL, that took me longer than it should have

The explanations offered are hilarious.

[tsakshaug]

7. this went around my office last year

this site or one just like it.
took me two trys to figure it out

[pmbryant]

11. You're good

It definitely took me more than 2 tries.

--Peter

[tsakshaug]

15. I knew there was some sort of trick

so the second time I wrote down all of the cards and didn't "pick" one.

[DS1]

10. Cute

:bounce:

[mrboba1]

12. I'd love to see the person who claims they beat this one!

:eyes:

[jpgray]

14. I feel so sorry for this guy

From Guy B.:
I am quite impressed, Mr. Pickover. I am quite sure that the other explanations for why your little ESP program works are totally incorrect, however, I am at a total loss, especially since I did the best I could to generate random numbers. I couldn't find any dice handy, so I used the Time of Day clock on my computer, and found its remander when divided by 3 for the first number; took out the first business card that came to hand and took the first phone number on there modulo 6, and then located a calculator and had it generate a pseudo-random number which I then did modulo 6. I did the little experiment 3 times, and your program "got" it all times. And, no, I did not say the name of the card aloud or stare at it or anything like that; it has nothing to do with what side of the side of the screen I clicked on. As I said before, I am quite impressed. I do not at this point know how to download and disassemble Java code, unfortunately, or maybe I could figure out how you did it. (Assuming you wrote this in Java.)

LOOK AT THE FREAKING CARDS MORON!

[Speck Tater]

16. I saw this a year or so ago.

I don't remember how long it took me to figure it out last year when I first saw it, but just to impress everyone I'll claim I figured it out in 10 seconds flat!

....

Would you believe five minutes flat?

[TXlib]

17. Solution

None of the cards in the original set are in the second set.

King of Diamonds is substituted for King of Hearts, Queen of Clubs for Queen of Spades, etc.

I've seen this before, but it took me only 2 tries to figure it out, since i wrote down all the cards the second time.

[jpgray]

18. I was too trusting

I picked different combinations of eye selection and card selection the first few times, and then picked three cards to memorize and figured it out.

[Speck Tater]

19. Somebody go post this in Freeperland.

They'll be from now till election time trying to figure it out and they'll be so wrapped up in it they'll forget to vote.

[pmbryant]

20. LOL

Not a bad idea! :-)

Peter

[BlueJazz]

21. I picked it up on the second try... but in fairness...

..I used to do card tricks!

[Unperson 309]

22. I Figured It Out In 2 Minutes! SPOILER at bottom!

I laughed to read all the testimonies! I had it about half figured out when I went to the page... so I proceeded to test it by writing down the suites and numbers of each card. It's really a simple trick!



spoiler alert!








Do not go beyond this point!











Unless you like having your illusion shattered!












The simple trick is that NONE of the cards in the second frame match the six in the first! So no matter which card you choose, it's not going to show up!

First frame had KH JC KS QD QC and JD

Second frame had KD QS JH KC and QH. None of the cards in the above rank!

But since people's visual memory doesn't usually track cards that well (this would not fool a card counter!) all they see is face cards of the four suites and they assume they are the same cards as in the previous frame... MINUS the card they picked! VOILA!

309

The skeptic's skeptic!