More about this activity

The activity has been carefully designed so no knowledge of playing cards is assumed. Mousing over the cards will give a clue as to what is important for each rule.

Here are the rules:

1. Clubs only.
2. Diamonds only.
3. Hearts only.
4. Spades only.
5. Red only.
6. Black only.
7. Court cards only (including Ace).
8. Number cards only.
9. Even cards only. Queen=12
10. Odd cards only. Jack=11, King=13.
11. Alternating red and black.
12. Ascending values - loop after King.
13. Descending values - loop after Ace.
14. Clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades.
15. Alternating odd and even.
16. Suit triples.
17. Alternating color and increasing sequence.
18. Alternating color and decreasing sequence.
19. Same suit or value.

Developer Comments

This activity is inspired by Robert Abbott's game of the same name invented in 1956 and popularised by Martin Gardner in the Scientific American - this is where I discovered it many years ago.

It is often compared to the "scientific method" in that players need to come up with a rule that explains the observed facts. Often a working rule is broken by just one counter-example just like in the Real World.

What do you think?

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Release Notes

Version 22 — May 13, 2011 — 806 KB

* Eleusis can now be played in Tablet Mode - Circle=new, Square or DownArrow=deal card, Tick and Cross.
* In Normal Mode you can use the o, space, y and n keys.
* Outlines now indicate that 3 cards are required.
* Number of wrong guesses shown with a sad smiley.
* Auto restart on the 9th wrong guess.