Vanity: Alright, I'm freaking out over here. How does this work?

http://www.cyberglass.co.uk/assets/Flash/psychic.swf ^

[dead]

This thing seems to work every time, and I'm befuddled:

The Flash Mind Reader

It's gotta be voodoo or something.

[Sir Gawain]

The symbols change every time and the answer is always a multiple of 9.

[dead]

Alright, now I get it. That's pretty darn clever though.

[rwfromkansas]

I bet they simply have created a mathematical formula that works.

[tonyinv]

All the possibilites have the same symbol. Do the math with out touching the mouse then look at the symbol. All the different possiblities I've done have the same symbol.

[Cicero]

My cousins used to pull this on me when I was a boy. I think they called it the rule of nine.

[rwfromkansas]

definitely clever, but when they have you subtract a numer and do all that jazz, there is no doubt there is some cool math thing that is the reason for it, not true mind-reading...:)

[Centurion2000]

It's a trick sequence ..... whatever number you think of minus the sum of its digits is tied to the sequencing in the list of symbols.

[John Jorsett]

It didn't work for me. Try 12 and click. And click again. And again. It isn't always the symbol for the correct number (9).

[Jhoffa_]

Oh, come on..

try "99"

[dawn53]

They are changing the symbol each time. There are only a certain amount of numbers that you will get if you take a two digit number and subtract the total.

So if you'll notice, 18 (which is one of the numbers that will be an answer) one time will be a circle, but the next time you try it, 18 will be a cross, and subsequently that symbol will show up in the circle

Hope that makes sense.

[dead]

It was the fact that they changed the symbols everytime that was throwing me off. Pretty cool idea.

[John Jorsett]

Oops, never mind. Now that I look more closely, I see that the symbols themselves are shifting around for each trial. Just a clever math trick.

[Centurion2000]

If you observe the various symbols they also rearrange themselves in the 1-100 sequence between various attempts.

Get a screen shot and check two different attempts to do this.

[StriperSniper]

The answer is always 0 or a multiple of 9, and they all will always have the same symbol on each round.

[BibChr]

Maybe, but it's a different multiple of nine. 55 gets you to 45, 99 gets you to 81, two different symbols. How does it know which one you chose?

Too weird, dead. Has to be an explanation, but too weird. My 7yo and I did it, and it was right every time. Then we cheated: we came up with a combo, then a second one. He thought of the first, I of the second. It "picked" the second.

But how did it get it? We could have picked either symbol. Has to be an explanation, but... what is it?

Dan

[Senator Pardek]

Thought the link on the thread does not work, it's still fun to read, because metalbird1 is there.

[Registered]

That stuff on your hands? It's too much time!

[Billthedrill]

I told you there'd be trouble sacrificing those goats to Satan, but would you listen? Noooooo....

[HighWheeler]

cool math trick, all the multiples of 9 are the same symbol. All variations of the formula are also multiples of 9. So whatever combo you come up with will be a multiple of 9 and you will get that symbol.

Great trick!