RoR: Forum

I'm flaggergasted! I gotta know, how does it work?

Post 1

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:02am

I can't tell if you are being serious, Scott :-)

If you look at that chart it seems like there are actually only a certain number of symbols even though they are listed over and over to make it look more amazing. I would suspect, the way the formula is written, that there are only a limited number of possible answers (once you add the two-digit number and subtract the sum) and if you could work out the possible answers I bet the exact same symbol is listed for all of them. And probably for each refresh of the riddle, they alternate the symbol so if you sit there in amazement, doing it over and over, you get different symbols each time so it looks like it is choosing a new one from the chart.

I am not good enough at math or riddles to figure out the numbers, but this is what occurs to me as the explanation for what is happening. Or, perhaps it's magic.

Post 2

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:03am

there is always just one symbol that can be taken by all subtractions.. It positioned at those numbers that always will be the result of your subtraction.
10 - 1 = 9, 11-2=9, 12-3=9.. you understand the concept ;)

this goes until the first digit changes... 19 -10 = 9... then it goes one further:

20 -2 = 18, 21-3=18 and so on

(Edited by Max on 6/18, 8:05am)

Post 3

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:34am

You're right, Ash! I am being a knucklehead! So, how you doin'?

Post 4

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:36am

In fact, now that I think of it, I got something like this emailed to me when the internet was in its relative infancy, and even drunk (I will tend to surf for awhile after a few drinks and before bed--unless I have something in bed waiting for me, of course!) I was able to suss it out back then.

Post 5

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 8:51am

I am doing great. I am living in a new place, with a new person, and starting new work next Monday. I love it! If everything isn't constantly changing for me, I start going crazy. So I think that means I am feeling incredibly sane right now.

Post 6

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 10:50am

You can also solve it generally:

A two-digit number AB is really 10*A + B. The sum of the digits, of course, is A + B.

10*A + B - ( A + B ) = 9*A

And as Ashley guessed and Max confirmed, all multiples of 9 have the same symbol.

Post 7

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 10:50am

This is the "Rule of Nine" in action. I've dealt with it in my very first SOLO post. I'll just repeat the first part...

*****
For two-digit numbers:
let y be the ones numeral
let x be the tens numeral

The mathematical restatement is
10x + y - (x + y) = 9x

Obviously, '9x' is always divisible by 9.
*****

Notice that the flash puzzle always has the same symbols (no matter how it's scrambled from try to try) for all numbers divisible by 9, from 9 to 81. The maximum 'result' that can be gained from the given procedure is 81, so there is no need to apply the symbols to 90 or 99.

So just look at the symbol for the number '9'... that will be spouted as the "mind-reading" symbol by the crystal ball.

Post 8

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 10:53am

Oopsie... Eve and I (who is not Adam) just posted the same general solution at almost the same time... beat my by a nose!).

Just click my link above for the extremely general treatment.

Post 9

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 11:13am

ii =: !! :=

(Those are rolling "i"s, by the way, for num++'s "Adam and Eve" joke.)

Post 10

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 11:33am

You young people are just way too smart for me! ;-)

Post 11

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 11:58am

I think I can "solve" Eve's "equation" above....

-1 ⊥ 1- T

.... I guess this makes me a "complex" person.

A psychiatric kind of complex.

Post 12

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 6:03pm

The trickery lies in the fact that it switches the symbols of the numbers divisible by nine everytime, so it takes a few tries to notice every single solution comes up to a number divisible by nine. It doesn't do this with, say, 99 or 90, because following the directions would prove impossible to yield those results.

Good job, Eve, num++ and Ashley, proving once again that reason and logic prove Objectivists superior in their thinking.

(Edited by Steven Druckenmiller
on 6/18, 6:04pm)

Post 13

Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 9:13pm