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EXPERIMENT
Fortune-Telling
with a Pendulum?
Tie
a weight to a ten-inch string and let the weight hang freely
in front of you. Hold the end of the string as steady as possible.
Pretend that a circular motion of the pendulum means "yes"
and a back-and-forth motion means "no." Now ask
the pendulum some questions. For instance, "My name is
so-and-so", "Will I be going to school tomorrow?",
"Does so-and-so like me?" Was the pendulum right?
Accurate readings may be explained by small, undetectable
muscle tension. The motion of the pendulum magnifies this
tension and because we may have already decided what answer
we'd like to see for our question, we may be unconsciously
affecting the pendulum's movement. Numerous trials show that
the circular motion we're pretending means "yes"
happens more than the back-to-front motion. Could it be that
the muscular response creating the circular motion comes more
easily to us than the back-to-front? Check to see if this
claim is accurate.
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