Derren Brown recently attempted to predict the spin of a roulette wheel. By betting £5,000 on one single number he tried to win £175,000 for one lucky viewer. Unfortunately for that ‘lucky’ viewer, Derren Brown failed and missed the number by 1, thus losing the £5,000 stake.
How did he do it?
The theory behind the prediction was relatively simple. Brown practiced measuring speed and trajectory through a number of different examples. First, Brown correctly guessed the exact speed of motor cars travelling under a bridge. Through this not only did he need to make a snap judgement, but he needed to take into account the rate of acceleration or deceleration. He proved this by closing his eyes and doing the trick through his hearing alone. Second, Brown correctly guessed the location in which a squash ball hit at random would land. Through doing this, he once again proved that the landing position could be determined by making a judgement about the speed and trajectory of the ball.
Was it real?
That Brown can make such quick judgements is amazing if true. However there is another possibility. Recently new roulette computers have come onto the market that aim to read the speed and trajectory of the ball by tracing its speed for the few seconds it spins on the wheel before betting is called off by the dealer. That Brown was hiding a camera up his sleeve indicates that there was plenty of opportunity to hide this smaller camera up there too! They are far less conspicuous that hiding a television camera.
Did he mean to get it wrong?
The TV programme was scheduled to end at 10pm. If Brown had got the prediction correct as everyone would have thought then surely the TV programmers would have left some time for the celebrations, a goodbye from Derren, the usual sort of thing that we have witnessed in all other programmes in the series. However, Derren walks into the casino at 9.57pm, places the bet, loses, and walks straight out. The cameras are all prepared to pan out dramatically and the show rolls the credits instantly. Granted, this may have been a back-up plan, but the timing suggests that perhaps this was indeed deliberate.
Why would he deliberately get it wrong?
There is the real question! Perhaps as a media stunt, to keep people interested in him… or perhaps it was just too easy to reveal the truth as to how he does it. If Derren Brown gets things wrong then perhaps it makes the tricks he gets right more believable?