Figure this out

[Ken Weaver]

Any idea how this works?

http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

Too early in the morning for my brain to figure it out.

[rosesunkist]

Originally, the answers were written in a grid 10 characters wide. They changed it for this one, because a regular grid made it too obvious. And notice whatever number you choose, you end up with a multiple of 9?

21: 2+1=3, 21-3=18 (a multiple of 9).
34: 3+4=7, 34-7=27 (a multiple of 9).
73: 7+3=10, 73-10=63 (a multiple of 9).
99: 9+9=18, 99-18=81 (a multiple of 9).

All of the multiples of 9 on the answer key are the same symbol.

[Ken Weaver]

Ah - there it is, I didn't see that, thanks!

[DaveS]

Mathmatically speaking, there are only a handful of solutions to this formula. If you look at the chart of symbols, all of the possible solutions have the same symbol. They assign a new random symbol to the solution set each time you play, to keep you from figuring out how you do it.

To see what I mean about "only a handful of solutions":

Look at the following illustration:

Here are the steps:
(1) pick a two digit number
(2) add the digits
(3) subtract the result from the original number

Let's start with 70 and go up....

70 - (7 + 0) = 63
71 - (7 + 1) = 63
72 - (7 + 2) = 63
73 - (7 + 3) = 63
74 - (7 + 4) = 63
...


So, the only solutions are:
9,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,and 81

If you look quick at the list of symbols, you will see these all have the same symbol.

[Jaden]

Ken,

That was reeeeeaaalllyy creepin' me out, until the smart folks showed up and x-plained it.........lol

Steve

[Wood_workur]

I have creeped out people by doing that... Really simple to get the hang of.