"Psychic"

[see attached xkcd cartoon or see http://xkcd.com/628/]
 
 
the rollover text on the website says:

 "You can do a lot better than 1% if you start keeping track of the patterns in what numbers people pick.".

 

 

Psychic debunker James Randi gave a lecture in my "Science and Pseudoscience" class, and explained how "psychics" do know the pattern that people pick when given a choice of numbers from 1 to 100.

 

People tend to pick a number over 50.

People tend to pick a number that's not too close to 100.

People tend to pick even numbers.

People tend to avoid duplicating numbers.

 

 

So a "psychic" will ask an audience to think of a number from 1 to 100, and know that "68" has a greater than 1% chance of being picked.

 

Much greater.

 

 
 

James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims

http://www.randi.org/jr/

 

 

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