How Does This Psychic Game Work?

Hint -- they move the symbols around each time you do it. (Actually I haven't done this one yet, but seems like the same kind as is on Waggery.)

Ah, and the symbols repeat rather than being 99 different symbols.

But, still, if there are 15 different symbols how does it know which one to display?

BTW, I've tried doing it without actually figuring a number and finding the symbol and get a random symbol. But everytime I do the math it comes up with the symbol associated with that number at the time I did it. That wouldn't be affected by jumbling them each time, right?

There are a limited number of possible answers. A certain symbol is on all the possible answers, so no matter what you get that symbol. Then the next time it shakes up the order, so you don't go, hey, I just get that same symbol every time.

It looks like the "right" symbo is every ninth one. I'll have to think about the math that makes that work.

Do several at once to see what I mean:

15-6=9

25-7=18

33-6=27

All of those should have the same symbol by them. (All the possible answers are multiples of 9.)

(LOL! I still have to laugh out loud every time I see your sig line, FD.)

Glad you like it, squinney. I hope he doesn't take offense.

Okay, so the same symbol is beside 3,9,18,23,27,36,45,54,56,63,68,72,and 81.

The same symbol is beside 0,7,40,42,64,94,96

Not on my screen -- the same symbol (from the link you gave) is only every ninth, with a different one on 90 and 99 because you can't get an answer higher than 81.

Oh I see you just picked a general symbol. They have fillers. Do the actual math, get an answer, then see how many answers have the same symbol as the symbol by your answer. It should be 9, 18, etc.

I found the math (looked it up tho):

Okay, so 10 because it's a 2 digit number. It won't work for single digit. I get it! Thanks! That's a cool little math fact.


10-1 =9..... 20-2 =18..... 30-3=27..... 40-4=36
11-2 =9..... 21-3 =18..... 31-4=27..... 41-5=36
12-3 =9..... 22-4 =18..... 32-4=27..... 42-6-36
13-4 =9..... 23-5 =18..... 33-6=27..... 43-7=36
14-5 =9........ etc .............. etc.......... etc.
15-6 =9
16-7 =9
17-8 =9
18-9 =9

All the same symbols are represented by the number divisible by 9.

Ok, it took me a minute but here's how it works.

All numbers less than 100 can be written as 10x + y where x is the tens digit and y is the ones digit. So, to get your magic number you take

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

x has to be an integer so the difference between the number and the sum of its digits is a multiple of 9.

The same symbol will be there for all divisible of 9 up to and including 81. Imagine that 'x' is the first number of two numbers composing the two digit numbers. 'y' would be the second number.

Original number: 10x+y (i.e. x is 3, y is 7, 3*10+7=37)
original minus sum of two digits: 10x+y - (x+y) = 9x
so naturally, the result would be a divisible of nine.

all the divisibles of nine have to be of one symbol, the rest is just a distraction. by the by, if you want to know exactly which divisible of nine it will land on, just look at the above equation and you'll get that the leftmost digit multiplied by nine is the result.

You are getting close. No matter what number you choose the final sum will always be a multiple of 9. it must be 9, 18, 27, 36, 54, 63, 72,or 81. All these numbers have the same symbol and that is the symbol that displayes. All other numbers do nothing.

To do it by algebra let the two digets be x and y. then the number is 10*x + y and the number minus the sum of the digits is 10*x + y -x -y but this equals 9*x. Thus the number you get will be 9 times your first digit once again always a multiple of 9.