Effect 01
Always Five
Make one private choice. Follow five public instructions. The prediction is already waiting.
Prediction sealed before you begin
Keep the number in your head
- Choose a whole number. Keep it to yourself.
- Double your number.
- Add 10.
- Halve the result.
- Subtract your original number.
The staged controls appear when JavaScript is available. The complete procedure remains here either way.
The prediction is sealed
Choose nothing on this page. Your starting number stays with you.
Follow one cue at a time
I predict your result is 5
Compare that prediction with the result you have.
A different result is useful evidence
Multi-step instructions are easy to bend. No score is being kept. Review the path once:
- Choose a whole number. Keep it to yourself.
- Double your number.
- Add 10.
- Halve the result.
- Subtract your original number.
What might be happening?
This is not graded. Pick the thought nearest to yours.
Hold that thought lightly
The prediction, procedure, and information flow can now share the same stage.
The visible system
x is a temporary name for the number you kept private. An invariant stays unchanged while a system moves. Cancellation is what happens when equal opposites combine to zero.
x2x2x + 10x + 55
The system does not need the value of x to follow what the instructions do to it.