Rummy3 Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Psychic Ball Tried as I might, I couldn't stump this - can someone explain how this works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 OK, that's just weird... Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 For some bizarre reason it only got it wrong twice, but now I can't it to do that again. It gets it right now on every single one. Weird! I'm trying to figure it out. You'll notice that some of the symbols are the same for more than one number. But still, how does it know which one you're looking at? I tried where the only thing I touched was the crystal ball, wondering if maybe hovering the mouse over the symbol did something. Nope, just clicking the ball didn't do anything either. Of course tho, try this, just look at any symbol, not doing the number thing. It'll show a different symbol than the one you're looking at. There, that's a way to get it wrong-lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkie McDonough Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Enjoy it first then read the remainder of this post. The symbols change numbers each time. I've noticed that although the symbols change, certain numbers share the same symbol each time. All are divisible by 9. These correspond to the symbol that shows in the ball. Would somebody who has more mathematical prowess than I do like to take it from here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Silkie, you're exactly right. Here's how the numbers play out: 00 - 0 = 0 01 - 1 = 0 02 - 2 = 0 ... 10 - 1 = 9 11 - 2 = 9 .. 19 - 10 = 9 20 - 2 = 18 21 - 3 = 18 .. 29 - 11 = 18 30 - 3 = 27 .. 99 - 18 = 81 See the pattern? The answer is always: x*10 + y - (x+y) = x*9, where x,y is a whole number from 0 to 9. Therefore, the possible answers are some factor of 9 (0,9,18,27,36,..,81), for a possible total of 10 answers. The orb has a 1 in 10 chance of getting the answer right. Now, I need some rum. That's too much math for one morning. Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumba Rue Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 Well not a math person myself, I just gave up. I think it's time to pull out my Tarot cards again and give them a whirl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I had to pull out an old programming book to get the answer. The duplication of symbols was the tip-off. :) I wonder if I still have my old Tarot cards.... Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkie McDonough Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 A friend gave me a set of Tarot cards a few years back ...never did learn how to read them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Bess Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 OK -- I tried it 3 times and it was right every time. Then I read the mathmatical reasoning. So then I just picked out a number (36) and started hitting the button. I did it 3 times, and no matter what the symbol changed to, it always matched 36. So I couldn't even fool it that way. If it only has a 1 out of 10 chance of being right, how could it have been right 6 times in a row? It defies the odds. I'm going back to play some more. Oh, and I used to have the coolest Tarot cards (when I was 13). They were punch-out cards from a 1972 calendar and they had lyrics from rock songs that matched the symbols on them. I wish I still had them now.... Ladies in Scarlet: Piratical Art and Accessories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 They skew the odds by using 24 symbols instead of 10. So the probability shrinks to less than 1 in 4 of getting it right. The House always stacks the odds in it's favour. :) Yo ho ho! Or does nobody actually say that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oderlesseye Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 Oderless Scratches his head... http://www.myspace.com/oderlesseyehttp://www.facebook....esseye?ref=nameHangin at Execution dock awaits. May yer Life be a long and joyous adventure in gettin there!As he was about to face the gallows there, the pirate is said to have tossed a sheaf of papers into the crowd, taunting his audience with these final words: "My treasure to he who can understand." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caraccioli Posted March 9, 2006 Share Posted March 9, 2006 Look at 0 and every number divisible by 9. They're all the same symbol. By following the equation they give you (ab-(a_+_ ) you will always get a number divisible by 9 (9, 18, 27, 36...etc) or 0. Each of these numbers are matched with the same symbol if you study the chart. So unless you make a math mistake, you will always produce a number divisible by 9 or 0 and since all the symbols for those #s are the same, viola! Note that the symbol used for 0 and all the numbers divisible by 9 changes every time you reset it, so it appears as if the machine has magically divined your 'new' symbol/numeric value when all it has really done is changed the symbol for the value you will inevitibly get by using that formula. Since it is a new and different symbol than the last try, it looks like magic. Oh, ah. As for tarot and all that nonsense, I love what the great writer James Michener said in his autobiography. A woman he called Princess had taught him to read fortunes using an ordinary deck of cards. He used her technique to great success in local fairs as "Mitch the Witch". He finally gave it up when people started believing too strongly in what he had to say. Being an intelligent, honest and inquisitive man, however, he had this to say about the whole thing: "Fortune-telling as the Princess taught me to practice it bore a striking resemblance to storytelling. In both activities one used observation, shrewd guesswork and the proper selection of emotion-laden words to create empathy. One also performed best if one relished the jovian exercise of moving mortals here and there on the chessboard. There the similarity between my fortune-telling and my fiction ends. Never once, not even when I was reaping great acclaim as a seer, did I believe a word of what I told my subjects, nor did the Princess. We each had an animal type of cunning, seeing things that others missed. We had an overdeveloped sense of humor, and we loved the world's wild contradictions." "...by sheer accident I hit just enough truths or near-truths to cause neighbors to tell others of the remarkable record I was compiling as a man who could really forsee past and future. It was then that I uncovered the real secret that the Princess had kept from me. In the course of telling a fortune the seer makes about forty-five seperate statements, and at least thirty-five will be totally wide of the mark, but if he or she succeeds in the remaining ten to hit even one right on the nose, that is what is remembered, and the subject leaves the tent asking his friends, 'How could he have known that I bought stock in the dairy company?' It was a string of those lucky hits that established my reputation and began to attract clients from considerable distances. In the process I discovered that one of the profound secrets of fortune-telling is that subjects want to believe what they are being told and will sometimes go to extreme lengths to make these prophesies come true." I know, I know, there's a bunch of you who still believe in it and whatever I or Mr. Michener say will not convince you otherwise. But to me, it's just like ghosts - you only see them because you believe in them. Our minds are powerful machines. "You're supposed to be dead!" "Am I not?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Hand Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 Awhile back, I was asked to do some "fortune telling" "schtick".... I didn't want to use real tarrot cards, so I just made up a deck that would tell absolutly nothing about the future..... the "bit" was basicaly... "this is what you've learned... this is what you are learning now... and this you have yet to learn"....... It sounded good.... and a lot of people realy beleaved it........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caraccioli Posted March 10, 2006 Share Posted March 10, 2006 I like the learning angle. We could all do worse than to focus on what we've learned/are learning/will learn. That's pretty cool, Patrick. "You're supposed to be dead!" "Am I not?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rummy3 Posted March 30, 2006 Author Share Posted March 30, 2006 Awhile back, I was asked to do some "fortune telling" "schtick".... I didn't want to use real tarrot cards, so I just made up a deck that would tell absolutly nothing about the future..... the "bit" was basicaly... "this is what you've learned... this is what you are learning now... and this you have yet to learn"....... It sounded good.... and a lot of people realy beleaved it........ Patrick Hand, you are so good! Want to do a reading for me sometime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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