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PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
could perform complex mathematical feats of calculation. If, for example, you asked Clever Hans to divide 48 by 6, the horse would beat its
hoof 8 times. Clever Hans, in fact, could divide, multiply, add fractions,
spell, and even identify musical tones. Clever Hans's fans declared that
he was either more intelligent than many humans, or he could telepathically pick people's brains.
But Clever Hans was not the product of some clever trickery. The
marvelous ability of Clever Hans to perform arithmetic even fooled his
trainer. In 1904 prominent psychologist Professor C. Strumpf was
brought in to analyze the horse and could find no obvious evidence of
trickery or covert signaling to the horse, only adding to the public's fascination with Clever Hans. Three years later, however, Strumpf's student, psychologist Oskar Pfungst, did much more rigorous testing and
finally discovered Clever Hans's secret. All he really did was observe
the subtle facial expressions of his trainer. The horse would continue
to beat his hoofs until his trainer's facial expression changed slightly,
at which point he would stop beating. Clever Hans could not read people's minds or perform arithmetic; he was simply a shrewd observer of
people's faces.
There have been other "telepathic" animals in recorded history. As
early as 1591 a horse named Morocco became famous in England and
made a fortune for his owner by picking out people in the audience,
pointing out letters of the alphabet, and adding the total of a pair of
dice. He caused such a sensation in England that Shakespeare immortalized him in his play Love's Labour's Lost as "the dancing horse."
Gamblers also are able to read people's minds in a limited sense.
When a person sees something pleasurable, the pupils of his eyes usually dilate. When he sees something undesirable (or performs a mathematical calculation), his pupils contract. Gamblers can read the
emotions of their poker-faced opponents by looking for their eyes to dilate or contract. This is one reason that gamblers often wear colored
visors over their eyes, to shield their pupils. One can also bounce a
laser beam off a person's pupil and analyze where it is reflected, and
thereby determine precisely where a person is looking. By analyzing
the motion of the reflected dot of laser light, one can determine how a
PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
could perform complex mathematical feats of calculation. If, for example, you asked Clever Hans to divide 48 by 6, the horse would beat its
hoof 8 times. Clever Hans, in fact, could divide, multiply, add fractions,
spell, and even identify musical tones. Clever Hans's fans declared that
he was either more intelligent than many humans, or he could telepathically pick people's brains.
But Clever Hans was not the product of some clever trickery. The
marvelous ability of Clever Hans to perform arithmetic even fooled his
trainer. In 1904 prominent psychologist Professor C. Strumpf was
brought in to analyze the horse and could find no obvious evidence of
trickery or covert signaling to the horse, only adding to the public's fascination with Clever Hans. Three years later, however, Strumpf's student, psychologist Oskar Pfungst, did much more rigorous testing and
finally discovered Clever Hans's secret. All he really did was observe
the subtle facial expressions of his trainer. The horse would continue
to beat his hoofs until his trainer's facial expression changed slightly,
at which point he would stop beating. Clever Hans could not read people's minds or perform arithmetic; he was simply a shrewd observer of
people's faces.
There have been other "telepathic" animals in recorded history. As
early as 1591 a horse named Morocco became famous in England and
made a fortune for his owner by picking out people in the audience,
pointing out letters of the alphabet, and adding the total of a pair of
dice. He caused such a sensation in England that Shakespeare immortalized him in his play Love's Labour's Lost as "the dancing horse."
Gamblers also are able to read people's minds in a limited sense.
When a person sees something pleasurable, the pupils of his eyes usually dilate. When he sees something undesirable (or performs a mathematical calculation), his pupils contract. Gamblers can read the
emotions of their poker-faced opponents by looking for their eyes to dilate or contract. This is one reason that gamblers often wear colored
visors over their eyes, to shield their pupils. One can also bounce a
laser beam off a person's pupil and analyze where it is reflected, and
thereby determine precisely where a person is looking. By analyzing
the motion of the reflected dot of laser light, one can determine how a