Magic Numbers

[Bob Hahn]

Okay, this isn't really much of a Xara illustration, but it is an old Xara file I had and maybe you can have some fun with it too.

It's a neat little trick you can try on someone. Kids will like it.

The trick is that you ask someome to pick a number from 1 to 63 and without them telling you their number, you will guess it.

You will have 6 cards with a set of numbers and after the person has their number, you show them a card and ask them if their number is on the card. They will only answer, "yes" or "no."

For example, suppose the person picked the number, 43. You show them the first card and ask them, "Is your number on this card?" I circled the number 43 in red just to illustrate. They would say "yes" when they see ther number and "no" if not.

What you secretly do is for every card that they say "yes" to, you add the first number on each card in your head. In this case it would be... 1 + 2 + 8 + 32 = 43. You then can act out a bit, putting some serious thought in guessing their number, trying to read their mind. Then totally amaze them them by telling them their number is 43!

The graphic you see is just to explain. If I did it right, the xara file is also attached and you can print your own cards.

-Bob.

[Bob Hahn]

Okay, this isn't really much of a Xara illustration, but it is an old Xara file I had and maybe you can have some fun with it too.

It's a neat little trick you can try on someone. Kids will like it.

The trick is that you ask someome to pick a number from 1 to 63 and without them telling you their number, you will guess it.

You will have 6 cards with a set of numbers and after the person has their number, you show them a card and ask them if their number is on the card. They will only answer, "yes" or "no."

For example, suppose the person picked the number, 43. You show them the first card and ask them, "Is your number on this card?" I circled the number 43 in red just to illustrate. They would say "yes" when they see ther number and "no" if not.

What you secretly do is for every card that they say "yes" to, you add the first number on each card in your head. In this case it would be... 1 + 2 + 8 + 32 = 43. You then can act out a bit, putting some serious thought in guessing their number, trying to read their mind. Then totally amaze them them by telling them their number is 43!

The graphic you see is just to explain. If I did it right, the xara file is also attached and you can print your own cards.

-Bob.

[Bob Hahn]

Xara file.

[inabottle]

Awesome I have a little something to do on christmas!

[John Rayner]

Very Cool... I see how it works... It is a binary number line. Each card has all the numbers that use that number.

"111111"=63 all yes

I think I will pull that on the family on Christmas eve...

[masque]

The problem I see is the 'adding the numbers up in your head, as you go along. Might be best left until after the festivities for me.

derek
www.ArtWanted.com/masque

[RTK]

Pretty neat! That would entertain the kids for a while, if as Derek mentioned, you can keep track of the numbers after a bucket of eggnog.

[John Rayner]

six digit binary is a piece of cake! I have been playing with binary numbers since '74... Might even be able to handle it after a few nogs too...

[Egg Bramhill]

For those having difficulty counting
Click Here

[Bob Hahn]

Well done Egg! I like that

Perhaps the manual way may be a little more impressive to people, since it's understandable or acceptable that a program may figure out the number. But if it were a person, it'll be more, "How did you figure that out?"

Still, I like that. I'll bookmark that one

-Bob.