Another trick

[Z4!]

I am enjoying m00n's "Math trick" thread but I didn't think this one was up to the caliber of that thread:

http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/archive/dump/flash/psychic.swf

[ancientdude]

How does it do it?

[krew]

The answer is a cross for all the numbers.

[sputnik]

That's cool, I'm sending it around to some friends. Look at the

table, all of the answers whose digits add up to nine have the same

character. It changes with each click of the crystal ball but

they always have the same character. Very clever.

[colterphoto1]

You're not gonna catch me with that. I'm gonna stare at that damn ball and some gruesome character is gonna jump out and give me a heart attack. Nope, not me.

Michael

[dtel's wife]

and some gruesome character is gonna jump out and give me a heart attack.

Michael

I was lurking on this forum when the gruesome character jumped out. If remember correctly, it was Moon that I cursed for about a week after I viewed it. I thought I was having a heart attack. Dtel tricked everyone that visited our home with that one. He thought it was hilarious to see people jump off thier seats that high.

Does anyone still have the link to that site?

[Jeff Matthews]

Okay, now that's intriguing! The first try was wrong, but about 6 or 7 tries after the first were all right. Then, I stopped. Who can tell us how this works?

[Fish]

It's magic.

[colterphoto1]

Sorry, it almost never works for me. Perhaps my brain is faulty?

M

[customsteve01]

I'm at work and I can't see it. (those IT guys have these comp. so locked down)[]

Steve

[m00n]

dtel's wife

Oh yeah.... Glad I could be a service!

http://www.funtoosh.com/ghost/ahhg.htm

[dtel's wife]

Moon,

Thank you, that link will make dtel's day. Oh yea, and thanks for the "heart check-up" when you originally posted that link. I wouldn't open any links you posted on the forum for a while after that.

[m00n]

I lean back, put my hands behind my head and administer an evil grin from ear to ear. [6]

It was only fair to share the experiance that I had with others. I was at work when I seen that. Had my headphones on and was studying that picture like there was no tomorrow. That image came up and in one motion, I fell to the floor flung my head phones across my cube and screamed like a 6 year old little girl.

[dtel's wife]

It made me laugh to know it scared the heck out of you. I was sooooo...mad at dtel, then I was sooooo mad at you.

I am surprised I can even laugh about it now, because it scared me bad...

[sputnik]

Okay, now that's intriguing! The

first try was wrong, but about 6 or 7 tries after the first were all

right. Then, I stopped. Who can tell us how this

works?

No matter what two digit number you pick, when you add both digits and

subtract that sum from the original number, the answer is composed of

digits that always add up to nine. Look on the table, note that

9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, and 90 all have the same symbol

associated with them. These are the numbers you will always end

up with when you do that math routine on any two digit number.

Each time you click on the crystal ball the symbols on the table are

reassigned but those key numbers will always have the same symbol that

appears in the crystal ball. It's a very slick presentation of a

combinatorics problem.

edit: I need to correct something I said above. 90 will never come up as an answer.

[Jeff Matthews]

Sputnik, thanks. That was a very clever trick. The reasoning was so simple, but I immediately blocked out trying to figure it out because at each new iteration, the symbols were all changed. When I was playing, I had NO IDEA they were changing the symbols. The changing of the symbols was the big slight of hand. Otherwise, the same symbol would have always been picked, and the trick would have become obvious.

[filmboydoug]

Right. Any 2 digit number can be expressed as 10X + Y where X is the 10's digit and Y is the 1's digit.

(10X + Y) - (X + Y) is always going to be a multiple of nine.

I think Drwho or someone else smarter than me explained this on this forum several months ago.