Richard Wiseman's Blog, page 16

Change the speed with your mind

Martin D sent me this lovely illusion.  Cover up the centre of the image with your fingers, and suddenly it will appear to speed up!

Can you solve the mystery of the pink cup?

We have just made a new Quirkology video.  Enjoy!

Does this dot change size?

Jerome H sent me this great animated Ebbinghaus illusion…..amazingly the orange circle stays the same size!

 

 

I think it originates here, along with lots of other cool stuff.

 

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

On Friday I posed this puzzle…

John and Joan decide to play several games of cards, with a stake of £1 per game.  After several games John has won three games and Joan has won £3.  How many games did the two of them play?

If you haven’t tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

The two of them played nine games.

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

First, alas I won’t be able to make it to the Amazing Meeting this year because of a clash of dates.  Sorry about that.  It’s a wonderful convention, and if you are into science and skepticism it’s a great place to be.

OK, here is the Friday puzzle!  Solution on Monday.

John and Joan decide to play several games of cards, with a stake of £1 per game.  After several games John has won three games and Joan has won £3.  How many games did the two of them play?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Can you figure this out?

Dave L sent me this video, and it’s very good. Can you count how many people emerge and figure out how it was made?

Wonderful immersive experience

More projection stuff today – a great video showing how a company turned a lounge into an amazing immersive experience!

Amazing digital projection and juggling

@blurreds sent me this wonderful combination of juggling and projection. Boy is it good….

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

On Friday I set this puzzle.  If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

Imagine that you have a coin that is biased – that is, in a long series of tosses it won’t come up with 50% heads and 50% tails.  Alas, you don’t know the extent of the bias.  How can you use the coin to generate a random series of zeros and ones?

The sequence Heads-Tails is as likely as Tails-Heads, no matter the extent of the bias.  And so you toss the coin twice for each trial.  You ignore the Heads Heads and Tails Tails sequences, and assign a 1 to Heads Tails, and a 0 to Tails Heads.  That way, you will generate a random sequence of 1s and 0s from a biased coin.  Did you solve it? Any other answers?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Here is the Friday puzzle!  Solution on Monday.

Imagine that you have a coin that is biased – that is, in a long series of tosses it won’t come up with 50% heads and 50% tails.  Alas, you don’t know the extent of the bias.  How can you use the coin to generate a random series of zeros and ones?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.