Need a math mind bender for you children today?
This one is written as determining your age by “how many times you want to go out to eat per week,” but you could substitute any other “event” that would be more than 1 and less than 10. And actually it works with 0 or 1 also, but it is more apparent how the calculations are working, therefore losing some of the “awe” factor – but your children may not catch on to that. Also, it won’t work if you are over 100. 🙂
You could do it by telling your children you will be able to tell them their “secret number”. Have them choose a secret number 2-9 (or 0-9) then follow your directions and do the calculations (without letting you see) and then read the answer to you. You will know the last 2 digits are their age, and first (in the hundreds place) is their “secret number”. If doing it with someone whose age you don’t know, you could not only tell them their “secret number” but also their age. (If they are less than 10 years old, their age will have a ‘0’ in the tens place, i.e. 3 years old=03. But I doubt that they can do the calculations, even if they are home educated. 🙂 )
This formula only works this year – 2008.
“Is it possible to calculate your age by how often you enjoy eating out? Get ready for a mathematical mind-bender– and don’t cheat by scrolling down first!
“This takes less than a minute. Work it out as you read, either in your head or on a piece of paper. But be sure you don’t read the bottom until you’ve worked it out!
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat (more than once but less than 10 times)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)
3. Add 5
4. Multiply it by 50
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1758 … If you haven’t, add 1757.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.You should now have a three digit number. The first digit of this was your original number, (i.e., how many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week).
The next two numbers are:
YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!)
This is the only year (2008) the calculation will ever work, so you have less than nine months to spread this around.
