Requirements for this impromptu mystery are very simple and ordinary. A pencil, a slip of paper, and a single die complete the list of necessary apparatus.
The basic principle is a mathematical oddity which seems to be little known, and, in this particular instance, quite easily overlooked by the very few who might have heard of the idea. It is excusable on their part for misdirection at the beginning makes the feat appear far from being mechanical.
The performer has members of his audience give him “any single number” until six are named. Should one of these be repeated another is requested. They are marked down upon the paper slip as given and the paper handed another member of the audience. This person is also given a single die which he rolls several times to prove fair. Then he rolls it once more and multiplies the row of figures on the paper by the topmost number on the die just thrown.
The performer explains the impossible nature of the test. It is one of genuine telepathy wherein he is enabled to “read” a group of figures multiplied by a number arrived at by chance, and positively unknown to him, etc.
And without further ado the performer apparently fulfills his claims to greatness.
A subterfuge enters into the effect at the very start when the performer secretly writes down his own row of six figures instead of the ones given. The mystic figures are 1-4-2-8-5-7. Asking a person to give another figure, “for that has been named” is a cute bit of “throwing off” for no one of the six people knows what the other gives.
The paper and die are given someone else and the multiplying done. This selection of a figure with which to multiply is so obviously fair that no one will think it possible for the performer to have any idea of the total reached.
However, the oddity of the six figure number used, and as written by the performer, is that it may be multiplied by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, and the result will consist of the same six figures in different orders. And further, the six totals possible of being reached, will rotate from left to right in the same relative positions to one another as in the original number multiplied, although each total starts with a different one of the six figures.
The fact that the resultant number is divisible by 9 allows of an additional effect. Once the total has been computed the performer explains the impossibility of his knowing anything about it. The spectator is asked to concentrate upon one of the six figures and draw a circle about it. Then he is to add together the remaining five figures and name the total thus reached. The performer reveals the circled figure merely by remembering that the six figures total 27 and the circled figure will be the difference between that number and the total called out, i.e., the total of the remaining five.
This over, the performer, knowing the other five component figures, is able to reveal each of them, one by one, in any order that he may choose. Or, he may ask the spectator the position of the first named figure, adding, “And now, which other figure do you just want to concentrate upon, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.”, leaving out the one revealed. Knowing its position gives the performer the exact line up of the other five !
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