www.magiccardtrick.com-how does it work?

I went to this site earlier, and I really couldn’t figure out how this stuff works. It really guessed my card. Anybody got any ideas?


“I say God DAMN!”

On screen to select from:
Q of Diamonds
Q of Clubs
J of Diamonds
K of Spades
J of Clubs
K of Hearts

On screen after card is removed:
J of Hearts
Q of Spades
K of Diamonds
K of Clubs
Q of Hearts

(Other choices give similar results)
Confusing clubs/spades and hearts/diamonds.

The back button on the browser generally aids one in this type of situation.

I got this 'un before as an Excel macro. Anyhow, the trick is: none of the the cards in the second pass are the same! So of course your card is missing. Write 'em down and see.

For me:

first pass

7 spades
8 diamonds
9 hearts
8 clubs
7 diamonds
9 spades

I pick the 8 of diamonds, say it aloud as per instructions. Click to the next page.

second pass
8 spades
9 clubs
7 hearts
9 diamonds
7 clubs

None of them are the same as the original cards posted. The pages says “your card been picked and has been removed from the pile”. Well, duh. :wink:

The trick depends on the fact that you won’t write down the original set of cards, and the second set is close enough that you are fooled into thinking it is the original. The only card you specifically remember is the one you picked, so of course you only notice that that one is missing.

The trick


Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorn is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that She is pink; logically, we know She is invisible because we can’t see Her.

I’ll tell you how… it’s MA-A-A-A-A-AGIC!!

Actually, this one’s easy… NONE of the cards in the first hand are in the second hand. Here’s what I got for first hand…

7-spades
8-diamonds
9-hearts
8-clubs
7-diamonds
9-spades

Then for the second hand…

8-spades
9-clubs
7-hearts
9-diamonds
7-clubs

Basically, it follows the principle that, at first, few people are as picky and anal about memorizing ALL the cards.


-SPOOFE

Hasen’t this been discussed in the following thread?
http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/006723.html

Dragwyr, yep. Seems to be a lot of people asking the same questions lately. I wonder what gives?