I picked 3, but I changed it to 2 because I remember reading the thing about everybody picking 3. 
I misread the thread title and thought of pictures of each number in the set {1, 2, 3, 4}.
:smack:
Dab Nabbit! I chose 3 because:
1 is what i thought you might say, since everybody has heard this trick.
2 is what i thought you might say, since everybody has heard this trick.
3 AHA! Reverse pschology!
4 is what i thought you might say, since everybody has heard this trick.
It’s like that poison scene out of the Princess Bride. I overanalyzed.
I picked 5.
I’m a non-comformist.
And horrible at math.
I picked 3 because it is felicitous. Now, 1 is also felicitous, but not as much as 3. Just don’t try to fob an infelicitous 4 off on me or I will file intent to have you assasinated.
Perfectly logical.
Vicki
I gotta admit, I picked 5 too. I need more coffee.
I thought of four.
I’m pretty peeved, though, because I thought it would be like those little paper things kids make to pick random messages - sort of folded paper thingies that fit over each thumb and forefinger. Does anyone else know what I’m talking about, or know what these things are called? Anyway, you pick one number, then pick a color, then point to a square, and your friend flips back a panel and reads “You have cooties”. I was looking forward to more choices, even if I was running a cootie risk.
Anybody else feel robbed?
There’s a joke here that’s just dying to get out …
Seawitch,
We always called those things “cootie catchers”. You could also use them as candy dishes.
Yeah, except the book of kids’ magic I read 40 years ago said the same thing, which is why I picked 1.
xash - I chose 2 and 9.
xash: I doubt it means anything, but 1 + 4 = 5 and 5 + 7 = 12.
I picked 2 and 12. I didn’t really have a good reason for picking 2, but 12 felt, somehow, natural. I knew you were gonna say 12.
Thank you, Ferrous, for the memory jog. You’re right.
Hm. Scylla was wrong. I picked 2.
HA! Wrong again! This time I picked 4.
You stink at this game Scylla!
It’s not the “middle,” my innumerate brethren, but the “median”.
I also thought of 3, but only because the thread title reminded me of a bit in the graphic novel The Prisoner that followed the same logic: “everyone chooses 3”.
It turns out the guy was cheating, but that’s another story.
I swear that this was exactly the number that I thought of before clicking. I saw your response and actually got a little frightened. I can see other people thinking in fractions, but shave me with a spoon if that wasn’t freaky.
No. 2 is the middle. You’re letting facts and logic get in the way of truth.
Anybody that chose a fraction or a decimal is going to get the technicality skunk thrown at them.
What is the Technicality Skunk you ask?
Back when I was a kid we used to play D&D and all these other games, and we used to get into these big arguments about minutaie in the rules.
Our friend had this nasty old taxidermy stuffed skunk at his house and one time in frustration over a 45 minute argument about some worthless technicality, he grabbed the skunk and stuffed the stinky old nasty thing in this other kids face (yeah ok it was my face. So what?)
After that the Technicality Skunk would get thrown at anyone who just didn’t get it, and was arguing about stuff that didn’t matter and playing outside of the spirit of the game.
If you chose a fraction or a decimal, you get the technicality skunk. You knew before you clicked here that you were supposed to pick a whole number, and you’re just trying to be difficult.
Two is the halfway point, because everybody knows that two is the halfway point to four.
And don’t give me this crap about the range I designated excluding zero and the halfway point being 2.5.
Yes. Technically you are correct, but you get the butt side of the Technicality Skunk for dealing in fractions (which are implicitly excluded from the exercise,) and for bringin up this whole zero thing which just doesn’t matter within the scope of the exercise.
If nothing else think of the children. This is after all Kid’s Magic If some little kid comes up to you with a cape and a tophat and a magic wand and tells you to think of a number betweeen 1 and 4, are you going to chose Pi?
What kind of a heartless cynical rat would do such a thing to a child?
Why would you ruin a little kids magic trick?
Why, if you were hear right now I’d rub the butt of this stinky old technicality skunk all up and down your faces with a vigorous circle motion previously unknown in these parts but destined to replace the mudshark in near mythology (Heh. Get that reference!)
And if you wouldn’t spoil a little kids magic trick then why oh why would you spoil mine?
Oh shame! Shame on you!
Scylla, you crack me up
from now on until eternity i shall always choose 3 for this question… because facts and logic should never get in the way of the truth.
and because Scylla taught me to be nice to kids in a cape and a tophat and a magic wand who ask you to think of a number betweeen 1 and 4.
Scylla was wrong yet again… I picked 2.3459045. However, I also was reminded of Coolio’s song “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” … thanks a lot!
F_X
To my (in this case but not always) very literal brain, I would see 2 and 3 as the only choices because they are the only (whole) numbers between 1 and 4.