This is odd
February 11, 2003 9:20 AM   Subscribe

This is odd It aint friday but it is freaky. Anyone know how this thing works?
posted by H. Roark (22 comments total)
 
Simple trick. The answer is always a multiple of 9 (18, 27 etc.), up to 81. They use the same symbol for all these numbers. Then they change the symbol after each time you try, so you won't notice.
posted by Berend at 9:27 AM on February 11, 2003


Simple. Your number will always be a multiple of nine.

Example. Pick any two digits, x and y to make a two digit number:

10 * x + y.

Subtract the sum of the digits:

10 * x + y - ( x + y ) = 9 * x

If you look, all the multiples of nine have the same symbol.
posted by elbie at 9:27 AM on February 11, 2003


...and here I thought the guy was using flash to figure out which number my cursor was hovering over or something. Freaky, but cool trick.
posted by mathowie at 9:29 AM on February 11, 2003


Good trick though. Nice find.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 9:30 AM on February 11, 2003


Also the symbols next to the numbers divisible by nine change from round to round. Good trick.
posted by aaronscool at 9:31 AM on February 11, 2003


Except if you got the same symbol every time you played, you'd start to think something was up. The symbol appearing at every multiple of 9 changes with each re-load.

Took me a cuppacoffee to snap to that, before then I was seriously freaking out.
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:31 AM on February 11, 2003


of course, Berend already mentioned the symbol changing in the very first comment, so why aaronschool and I are here is beyond me. More coffee! Now, if someone can predict from a two-digit number how I take my coffee, then I'll be impressed.
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:34 AM on February 11, 2003


Creams, and lots of sugar. Shazam!!!!
posted by hincandenza at 9:37 AM on February 11, 2003


It's not too hard to figure out if you look at several possible answers in the same set (like, without clicking the crystal.) Then it becomes kinda obvious. His 3D experiments are pretty cool, too.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 9:38 AM on February 11, 2003


Now, if someone can predict from a two-digit number how I take my coffee, then I'll be impressed.

32: 3 + 2 = 5 - 3 for flinching + 2 for his heels =

4 sugars, 1 tsp. yak milk. Am I right?
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:39 AM on February 11, 2003


Even better than the card trick mentioned somewhere on mefi. Good link--I would never have figured it out and probably descended into madness and/or polytheistic beliefs.
posted by ashbury at 9:40 AM on February 11, 2003


Didn't work for me. 99 - 18 = 81. It told me the symbol for 75.
posted by Shane at 9:50 AM on February 11, 2003


Wait, it did work. My mistake.
posted by Shane at 9:56 AM on February 11, 2003


"Then they change the symbol after each time you try, so you won't notice."

Indeed!
posted by Shane at 9:57 AM on February 11, 2003


I saw this posted on Stile's blogwars page, and it was funny to see people saying it only worked like half the time, meaning their math only worked half the time!
posted by quercus at 9:59 AM on February 11, 2003


People who think it didn't work may have done what I did--hit the back button because they forgot what symbol they chose. Then, of course, the symbol would have changed, and it would appear that the crystal didn't work.
posted by Shane at 10:02 AM on February 11, 2003


What coffee? Cream, no sugar. Naturally.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:37 AM on February 11, 2003


With some sleight if hand, I used a prearraged deck and pulled the card trick off live on three of my neices and nephews. I did it thre times and it wasn't until the third try that my very perceptive nephew discerned it (if done live, try it on a single spectator with others watching from a distance and distract them from the cards).
posted by effer27 at 10:41 AM on February 11, 2003


there's a description of the maths behind this here and a bit simpler approach here (neither explains this actual trick, but they give the appropriate background).
posted by andrew cooke at 11:32 AM on February 11, 2003


Fuck the numbers, I thought of a symbol and it didn't guess it. Clearly this flash game is not my messiah.

Michael Shermer, what do you have to say about all of this. . .
posted by dgaicun at 11:44 AM on February 11, 2003


Math problem. Gotten really popular on the web lately. This is a slicker version. I like it.
posted by jmccorm at 9:38 PM on February 11, 2003


nifty trick.
posted by Jimmy Olsen at 1:52 AM on February 13, 2003


« Older Turntablism at Berklee   |   The 2003 Oscar and Golden Raspberry Nominees Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments