HS kids analysis of a few TAM4 clips

phyz

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phyz
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I showed my high school physics students a few clips from TAM4.

1. Randi floats Ed Lu on stage. Morning classes couldn't figure out the trick; afternoon classes could!

2. Richard Wiseman's Magic Circle: showed them the whole thing from the first paper toss to the final ovation. The funny thing was that the common explanation was that Wiseman memorized all 16 numbers and placements for all values from 35 to 90. They decided it was a simple thing to do. HS kids are amusing in that they love to be unimpressed.

Haven't played them the Britney or the Led Zep clips yet... but they enjoyed watching me in my post-TAM buzz.
 
Richard Wiseman is such an entertaining and informative guy!. The perfect combination for a great talk. The most hilarious moment was he switching places with Phil Plait during the presentation. I admit it took me a few seconds to figure out the move :p
 
I bumped into Richard Wiseman at the airport and we were on the same plane back to the UK.
My lips are sealed as to what secrets he revealed...
(paypal accepted)
 
phyz said:
I showed my high school physics students a few clips from TAM4.


2. Richard Wiseman's Magic Circle: showed them the whole thing from the first paper toss to the final ovation. The funny thing was that the common explanation was that Wiseman memorized all 16 numbers and placements for all values from 35 to 90. They decided it was a simple thing to do. HS kids are amusing in that they love to be unimpressed.
Click to expand...

I doubt #2--there is likely a formula--like the one for telling you any day of the week for any day in history--it is not just for idiot savants--it is a formula--I would not call it a simple one--but simple addtion and division are required with only memorizing 12 cofactors for the 12 months and there are mnemonics for that....
 
I have to admit, I've been trying to work out the Magic Circle for some time. That's the kind of thing that drives me insane.

Glad to hear you're sharing TAM with highschool students. I know I would've loved this kind of thing when I was that age.
 
vbloke said:
I bumped into Richard Wiseman at the airport and we were on the same plane back to the UK.
My lips are sealed as to what secrets he revealed...
(paypal accepted)
Click to expand...
Well, I'm after the fire walk video he showed at TAM3. Any suggestions on how or where I can find it would be appreciated. And yes, I have a PayPal account, but I need a discount :D :p
 
Fun2BFree said:
I doubt #2--there is likely a formula--like the one for telling you any day of the week for any day in history--it is not just for idiot savants--it is a formula--I would not call it a simple one--but simple addtion and division are required with only memorizing 12 cofactors for the 12 months and there are mnemonics for that....
Click to expand...

Well, whatever it was, it has nothing to do with the magic squares discussed in David Blaine's book. Nope. Nothing at all. :D
 
Patricio Elicer said:
Well, I'm after the fire walk video he showed at TAM3. Any suggestions on how or where I can find it would be appreciated. And yes, I have a PayPal account, but I need a discount :D :p
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You and me both. I was hoping to catch him at TAM IV and ask him if it was possible to get it somewhere.

A
 
aofl said:
You and me both. I was hoping to catch him at TAM IV and ask him if it was possible to get it somewhere.

A
Click to expand...

Has anyone checked through the TAM3 DVD set for it? Or is it in there and of such low quality (3rd generation) as to be unusable? I show my kids a video on the Leidenfrost Effect that includes such stunts as dipping the hand into molten lead, putting liquid nitrogen into the mouth, and walking over hot coals. Wiseman's video of the failed firewalkers would be a great add-on to that.
 
phyz said:
Haven't played them the Britney or the Led Zep clips yet...
Click to expand...
A great place to finds a lot of these clips is at http://www.reversespeech.com/music_reversals.htm . The cool part about most of the clips is that it gets played forwards first, then backwards at three different speeds... apparently they get easier to understand if you slow them down a bit.

Two caveats:
1) Some of the reversals have words in them that would be HIGHLY inappropriate for a high school teacher to play to his students. So pre-screen them first!
2) The author of the site is a woo-woo that believes that all these messages are intentional. In fact, he's a psychiatrist who uses Reverse Speech to psychoanalyze his patients. Be forewarned.
 
The key to the magic square is most likely the placement of the 11 and the 4. If I'm not mistaken, he wrote those numbers down either before or while he was asking for a number.

Edit: Most likely because of how I remembered it. I could be completely wrong.
 
LostAngeles said:
The key to the magic square is most likely the placement of the 11 and the 4. If I'm not mistaken, he wrote those numbers down either before or while he was asking for a number.

Edit: Most likely because of how I remembered it. I could be completely wrong.
Click to expand...

I remember him doing that as well. I must learn more!
 
LostAngeles said:
The key to the magic square is most likely the placement of the 11 and the 4. If I'm not mistaken, he wrote those numbers down either before or while he was asking for a number.
Click to expand...
You are not mistaken.

I'm sure the rest of it is just some mental arithmetic involving 11, 4, the number picked, and the other previously-calculated numbers. The hard part is keeping talking about stuff while you're doing all that calculation, I'm sure.
 
Beleth said:
You are not mistaken.

I'm sure the rest of it is just some mental arithmetic involving 11, 4, the number picked, and the other previously-calculated numbers. The hard part is keeping talking about stuff while you're doing all that calculation, I'm sure.
Click to expand...

Ahh... now what did the numbers have to be between again?
 
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