David Blaine "mentalist" tricks
Davidelic
May be a little late to be mentioning David Blaine's ABC special, so forgive
that. And I've read comments in this group appreciating Blaine's
sleight-of-hand skills ... but I need to ask about his numerological
"mind-reading" tricks. That's what blew my mind, because Blaine guessed
numbers that *I* had chosen watching at home!
In the first case, you may recall, Blaine walks up and asks a woman to pick a
number between 50 and 100 ... except both digits have to be even numbers, and
each digit a different number from the other. I thought, "68." Blaine said,
"68." I said, "Holy Moses Malone!" Only later did I realize that there were
only six possible choices: 62, 64, 68, 82, 84 and 86. And perhaps there's
some quirk of human psychology where an average person asked to pick such a
number would immediately think "66" then add two to it. But wait ...
Next thing Blaine did was walk up to a man and say "Pick a number between 1 and
1,000." I thought, "334." Blaine said, "333." I said, "Yowzah!" At that
point I hit the "record" button ... had to get the rest of this guy's act. The
third time he did the pick-a-number thing, I was way off. But I'm particularly
curious about that "333" thing. Clearly he's not reading anybody's mind, but
he must have some quirky knowledge of human psychology. Had the feel of a Psyc
101 classroom stunt or something.
So then, if anyone could please enlighten me about these particular "mentalist"
tricks, I'd appreciate it.
David Mills
Jim Hill
>In the first case, you may recall, Blaine walks up and asks a woman to pick a
>number between 50 and 100 ... except both digits have to be even numbers, and
>each digit a different number from the other. I thought, "68." Blaine said,
>"68." I said, "Holy Moses Malone!" Only later did I realize that there were
>only six possible choices: 62, 64, 68, 82, 84 and 86. And perhaps there's
>some quirk of human psychology where an average person asked to pick such a
>number would immediately think "66" then add two to it. But wait ...
Pick a number between 10 and 100, both digits odd and different. You
picked (next page...)
37 or possibly 35, didn't you?
As you observed with Blaine's problem, there aren't many combinations to
choose from and most people pick the same ones (37 being most likely but 35
not too far behind). Why? I dunno; we just do -- and the "mentalist"
doesn't have to know why we pick what we pick, only that we'll pick it.
>"Pick a number between 1 and
>1,000." I thought, "334." Blaine said, "333." I said, "Yowzah!"
333/4 are a third of the way through the range he picked. Again, the
why is answered with "Well, that's just the way we are" but again, the
man demonstrating his Amazing Mind Powers doesn't need the why.
What I'd like to see is a study looking at cultural differences; maybe
if you ask my odd-numbers question in Equatorial Guinea the folks will
overwhelmingly kick out 93.
Jim
--
jim...@swcp.com http://www.swcp.com/~jimhill/
"You can't see the truth when your head's in a bag, Jack!"
-- "Manson", The Ben Stiller Show
Twc6
>In the first case, you may recall, Blaine walks up and asks a woman to pick a
>number between 50 and 100 ... except both digits have to be even numbers, and
>each digit a different number from the other. I thought, "68." Blaine said,
>"68." I said, "Holy Moses Malone!" Only later did I realize that there were
>only six possible choices: 62, 64, 68, 82, 84 and 86. >>
And didn't he say the first digit had to be LOWER than the second? Which means
68 was the only answer possible!
Hope Braun
No, he didn't say that. I was thinking 82. But 68 did cross my mind.
--
Hope E. Braun (br...@cig.mot.com)