Charlie Charlie Pencil Game Explained

A recent viral video on the internet is the 'Charlie Charlie Challenge'. It's a game that apparently summons the demon 'Charlie' to answer questions.

To play the game, draw a cross (like X-Y axis) on a sheet of paper. Put a “yes” on two squares and a “no” in the remaining two.Place a pencil on the vertical line and then balance another pencil sitting crosswise atop of it.

To summon the demon, ask “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” After a while the pencil will move to answer 'yes' or 'no'.

Below is the video of me trying it out

 

The reason behind this is gravity. As mentioned in the Independent , The awkward positioning of the pencil means that the slightest disturbance will cause it to move to a equilibrium position. The game's pencil arrangement means that the top pencil will always move irrespective of whether you summon the spirit or not.

The pencil sometimes does not move because it might not have been balanced properly in the first place. So there is it folks, there are no demons or spirits behind this game and is perfectly safe.

Difference between Indian and UK Elections

Having exercised my right to vote in the 2014 Indian general elections as a Indian citizen and in 2015 UK general election as a commonwealth citizen, this post aims to bring out the difference in elections between the two countries.

India having been ruled by the British not so long ago, follows the same electoral system of 'First Past the Post' or 'Winner-takes-all', where the election is won by the candidate receiving more votes than any others.[1]

India used to have a ballot system but has now moved on to Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). The British still use ballot papers. India does not have postal votes.

Registering to vote is really quick in the UK. It took me less that 2 weeks to get my name on the register list. Whereas in India, it takes months requiring a lot of documents. Only citizens of India are allowed to vote in any elections held in India whereas commonwealth citizens staying in UK at the time of elections can vote. The minimum age of voting is 18 in both countries.

Another important difference is, Indian elections have the option of "None of the above (NOTA)". It is a voting option that allows voters who support none of the candidates available to them to register an official vote of "none of the above"[2]. The sad part is even if the 'NOTA' count is the highest, the candidate with the next highest vote wins the election.

References

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_India