The power of water
—-The power of water—-
According to its authors, this sequence consists of setting up a water detection test protocol. It is deliberately poorly designed at the outset and will need to be gradually improved by participants, possibly with some help. We then very easily and empirically understand a few simple rules so that a scientific protocol is rigorous, and a statistic is well established.
A “Seeker” (and his assistant) performs an experiment to demonstrate that he is able to find water only with his “power”.
Equipment: ten glasses, water, a cardboard device to mask the glasses.
Introduction of the concept of statistical analysis.
The principle is to test whether the number of good results obtained is the result of chance. To do this, it is necessary to determine in advance a threshold of correct answers beyond which the hypothesis of chance will be rejected as too improbable, leaving the emphasis on the hypothesis of real power. A threshold of 5% is commonly chosen, which in this experiment amounts to a score of 9/10 or 10/10. However, this threshold can be lowered to 1% to reduce the risk of rejecting the explanation of chance even further (the number of correct answers then increases to 10/10). The usefulness of redoing the test to confirm the results will also be discussed.