Stupid Blue Elephants riddle

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » June 23, 2005, 10:55 am

Does anyone remember, or have that stupid riddle that makes you think of Blue Elephants or something? It's one of those psychology tricks that makes most people think of blue elephants. Or something very odd, I can't quite remember. I know there's one for a carrot, but thats not the one I want. It's probably spawned into some annoying, mass-forwarded email.

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » June 23, 2005, 11:39 am

whoa, weird, I was thinkin bout that same thing yesterday

miir · Post by **miir** » June 23, 2005, 12:54 pm

Clatis wrote:whoa, weird, I was thinkin bout that same thing yesterday

even weirder, I'm going to be thinking about the same thing tomorrow.

Tinkin Tankem · Post by **Tinkin Tankem** » June 23, 2005, 3:43 pm

I'm thinking about blue elephants atm if. Was that the trick

Fash · Post by **Fash** » June 23, 2005, 9:10 pm

Spell Roast
r o a s t
Spell boast
b o a s t
Spell Coast
c o a s t
What do you put in a toaster?
TOAST!

why? is there someone else who toasts your bread first?

Spell Shoe
s h o e
Spell True
t r u e
Spell Crew
c r e w
What color is an elephant?
BLUE!

blue? what are you smoking? and can i have some?

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » June 24, 2005, 7:43 am

From my experiences, you would ask questions like "what do you put on your foot," instead of spelling.

Jassun · Post by **Jassun** » June 27, 2005, 4:34 pm

1. Pick a number from 1-9

2. Subtract 5

3. Multiply by 3

4. Square the number (multiply by the same number -- not square root)

5. Add the digits until you get only one digit (i.e. 64=6+4=10= 1+0=1)

6. If the number is less than 5, add five. Otherwise subtract 4.

7. Multiply by 2

8. Subtract 6

9. Map the digit to a letter in the alphabet 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc...

10. Pick a name of a country that begins with that letter

11. Take the second letter in the country name and think of an animal that begins with that letter

12. Think of the color of that animal

Your animal is a gray elephant from Denmark.

After the teacher performs that trick, students should be put in groups and are asked to use algebra to figure out how the trick works by writing algebraic expressions to match the steps written on the board. Use x as your number, and perform the adding and dividing steps as used in the trick. The algebra should work out so that you end up on the same number, 4, no matter which one you start with.
The teacher will be moving around the room offering help for students if they are not getting this concept. At the end of the class, the teacher will explain the above steps to make sure everyone gets it. The following are the mathematical algebra steps. First start with x and build the algebra expression: Each line of this proof represents one of the instructional steps given in the script:
x
2x
(2x + 8 )
(2x + 8 ) / 2
(2x + 8 ) / 2 - x
Simplifying:
2x/2 + 8/2 - x
x + 4 - x
= 4
Notice no matter what x is, you will always get 4!
The letter ‘D’ is the letter that is used, and Denmark is one of the only countries students can think of that begins with ‘D’. The second letter in Denmark is ‘E’, and an elephant is usually the only animal that students can think of.