[cman1444]

I consider myself a pretty cynical person, but I tried it myself to prove someone else wrong and I couldn't help but feel like it actually worked.

We were looking for a water pipe, not just sitting groundwater. The only explanation I could come up with was that for some reason a magnetic field was being created by the pipe underground. I don't remember if the water was flowing or not when we did it.

I feel silly even commenting this, but we truly did find the pipe exactly where I was standing when the rods pointed together.

Of course it's very possible that I unconsciously tilted my hands in the spot where I suspected the pipe would be. Even though I did make a conscious effort to not do exactly that, I wonder if there is some psychological factor in the phenomenon.

[stickfigure]

It's possible you just got lucky. That's the problem with N=1 experiments, and why you should be skeptical of your limited experience.

Feynman put it this way: The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.