Download Some Number Tricks

Some Number Tricks
By Richard W. O’Donnell in Games Magazine
The Number Three Trick:
Take a number.
Double it.
Add 9.
Subtract 3.
Divide by 2.
Subtract your original number.
Your answer is 3.
Here’s the algebra to explain it:
Take a number: let x= the number
Double it: (x + x) = 2x
Add 9: 2x + 9
Subtract 3: 2x + 6
Divide by 2: 2x + 6 = x + 3
2
Subtract your original number: (x – x) + 3 = 3
Your answer will always be 3.
The Number 4 Trick:
Take a number.
Double it.
Add 12.
Subtract the “remarkable 4”.
Divide by 2.
Subtract your original number.
Your answer is 4!
Same algebra. Can you make up one? Try it!
The Number Five Trick:
Ask a friend to think of a number and keep it secret (make it one that
is easy to work with in your head).
Ask the friend to double the secret number and then multiply the
answer by 5.
Ask for the total.
Whatever the number is, knock off the last digit –
And you have the secret number the person mentally chose at the
start.
The Number 37 Trick:
Multiply 37 by 3. The answer is 111.
Multiply 37 by 6. The answer is 222.
Multiply 37 by 9. The answer is 333.
How far will this “jump three” pattern work?
Answer: All the way up to 27. The answer of 37 x 27 = 999.
After that, 37 loses it’s “magic.”
An Addition Trick:
Do the following addition trick by saying the partial sums aloud.
Start with 1000.
Add 40.
Add 1000.
Add 30.
Add 1000.
Add 20.
Add 1000.
Add 10. What is the total?
No, it is not 5000. It is 4090, check your place value.
4090 + 10 = 4100
Numbers and Animals?
Think of a number from 1 to 10.
Multiply it by 9.
Add the digits together.
Subtract 5.
Find the letter of the alphabet which corresponds to your
number (1 = A, 2 = B, ...)
Think of a country that starts with that letter.
Think of an animal that starts with the last letter of your country.
Think of a color that starts with the last letter of your animal.
Why did you pick an orange kangaroo in Denmark?
Another Number/Letter Trick:
Think of a letter between A and W.
Keep repeating it out loud as you scroll down.
Think of an animal that begins with that letter.
Keep repeating that animal out loud.
Think of either a man's/woman's name that begins with the last letter
in the animal's name.
Keep repeating that name out loud.
Now count out the letters in that name on the fingers of the hand you
are not using to scroll down.
Take the hand you counted with and hold it out in front of you at face
level.
Look at your palm very closely and notice the lines in your hand.
Do the lines take the form of the first letter in the person's name?
Of course they don't....... Now smack yourself in the head, get a life
and quit playing stupid games!