Wednesday, December 11, 2019

How Does Ask Peter Work? The Trick Behind the Prank

We all like a good magic trick. That’s why the virtual tarot website Peter Answers is so much fun. Somehow, no matter what question you ask Peter, he always has the right answer.

Of course, it’s simply an illusion. If you want to know how Peter Answers works, and how to use Peter Answers to trick your friends and family, you’ve come to the right place.

What Is Peter Answers?

Peter Answers website screenshot

Peter Answers is a simple website. It calls itself a virtual tarot. While a tarot reader is usually someone who uses cards to tell the future, Peter Answers is different. Supposedly, you can ask any question and Peter will give you the answer.

You probably came across the website after someone showed it to you. You pose a question, your companion types it in, and lo and behold it displays a suitable response.

The website has two fields. The first is a petition, the second is a question. If the website’s instructions are to be believed, the petition must read:

“Peter please answer the following question”

The second field is for your question. You could ask something you already know the answer to—your favorite food or animal—or you could ask something speculative, like whether you’ll have any luck next year.

Once you type a question mark or click Send, Peter will then display an answer.

Peter Answers no response

Chances are, with your companion in control, Peter displays a suitable response. But if you try it yourself, you’ll get a vague response such as “the stars are not in line for this request” or “you must have a deeper desire to learn the answer to this question.”

Why isn’t Peter playing ball? How do you get Peter to behave and give a proper answer? Here’s how the Peter Answers trick works.

What Is the Peter Answers Trick?

Sadly, Peter Answers can’t read your mind or see the future. You have to type in the answer you want Peter to give.

To do this, enter a period into the petition field. Then type the answer you want. Whatever you type, the field will display “Peter please answer the following question”.

When you’ve finished typing the answer, enter another period. You can use as many periods as necessary to get the full petition text to display.

For example, let’s say the question I want to ask is “Will I ever find love?”

In the petition field, I could type something like “.No, you will never find love except in your dreams.” to have that displayed as my answer. Note the two periods either side of the sentence.

Peter Answers correct response

Move to the question field and type your question. Once submitted, you will then see the answer you typed earlier displayed.

Obviously, you can’t play this trick on yourself! Instead, use it to fool others. It works especially well if you’re a quick typist and the other person doesn’t watch your keyboard.

Peter Answers App for Android and iOS

The Peter Answers website is optimized for mobile, so it works just fine if you want to pull it up on your phone’s web browser.

For the committed, there’s an Android app. It’s free, supported by adverts at the bottom, and works in entirely the same way. Simply type a period into the petition to disguise your answer.

You can swipe from the left to reveal a menu, from where you get basic options: How to play, Share, and Rate this app. In fact, the “How to play” page doesn’t tell you the secrets of Peter Answers at all. So if you do forget what you need to do, refer to this article.

Although there’s no official app for iOS, there is a knock-off Peter Answers app for iOS available. It works in the same way, so Apple users can be perfectly content using this.

Download: Peter Answers for Android | iOS (Free)

Build Your Own Peter Answers

If you want to take a peek behind the scenes, or perhaps take a shot at building your own version of Peter Answers, take a look at this GitHub project.

It’s written in CSS to provide the styling and JavaScript for the magic. It’s a relatively simple bit of code, so if you have programming experience then you can use this GitHub to tweak it to your heart’s content.

Perhaps you want to change the petition phrase? Or add some new responses for Peter? With this source code, you can do exactly that.

Other Services Like Peter Answers

You might also stumble across Ask Jud, which is basically exactly the same as Peter Answers, but under a different name. However, if you have a particularly gullible companion, you could use this to trick them twice the same way.

For something a bit different, check out Akinator. This is a genie that can guess anyone you’re thinking of—real or fictional. It does this by going through a series of questions and using the previous answers to work out who the person is.

If you want some other ways to while away the time, we’ve covered loads of fun websites to cure boredom.

Now You Know the Real Answer

Now you know how Peter Answers works. Go ahead and ask Peter anything! Be sure to use it to trick people and make them think that this virtual tarot can read someone’s mind.

Now that you know the inner workings of this particular prank, why not take a look at some iPhone and texting pranks to trick your friends with.

Read the full article: How Does Ask Peter Work? The Trick Behind the Prank



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