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Mind Reading Illusion

Posted in Fun, Skepdude by Skepdude on October 24, 2008

It took me a bit to figure this trick out, but it’s quite cool. Go play the game first then come back for the solution to how it works.

You’re back? It was fun right? Now here is hot it works:

Take any double digit number that starts with 1 and follow the procedure. You will always end up with 9. Try it. (10-1-0=9, 15-1-5=9)

Take any double digit number that starts with 2 and follow the procedure. You will always end up with 18. Try it. (23-3-2=18, 27-7-2= 18)

And so on and so on. Look at the table. The symbol next to the numbers 9, 18, 27, 36 and so on is always the same, because regardless of the double digit number you choose,  you’re always guaranteed to come up with 9, 18, 27, 36 and so on. Every time you play, the game shuffles the symbols around, which creates the illusion they’re after.

Test: Use the same number twice. You’ll get two different symbols.

Clever, but I’m clever too.

9 Responses

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  1. ask;lfjda said, on November 15, 2008 at 5:53 AM

    this is not how it works, i don’t know how it does, but this isn’t right cause it works every time even if i do the same number twice.

  2. Skepdude said, on November 15, 2008 at 6:02 PM

    If you do the same number twice you will get different symbols, which shows that they shuffle the symbols around. The way I explained it is exactly how it works. It’s simple math.

  3. Richbai90 said, on April 3, 2009 at 10:05 PM

    that’s crazy!! haha never woulda thought of that

  4. henry said, on April 11, 2009 at 5:09 PM

    it is divisible by 9 thats all any way you do it the number is divisible by 9. then the symbol that matches the number divisible by 9 is your symbol.

  5. Amber said, on April 22, 2009 at 2:31 AM

    No of course you will get two diff symbols look the chart does refreash which changes all the symbols.

  6. anon said, on June 6, 2009 at 3:43 AM

    look at the grid of numbers and symbols you will see a diagonal of the same symbol starting from 9 in the bottom right and going up to the 81 in the top left. this is the symbol you will get regardless of the number you start with. the simple math trick and the shuffling of numbers is how it works

  7. Miranda said, on December 29, 2009 at 1:33 AM

    Actually, it’s supposed to shuffle them around to give it more anonymity. That way, the player knows that it’s just.. I don’t know, funky. It reads minds, I tell you.

    And I’m not even into this stuff. Did anyone start sneezing a lot when this went on?

    I did.

    • Skepdude said, on December 29, 2009 at 10:18 AM

      No to both. No, it doesn’t read minds and no far as I know no one suffered from a sneeze attack while performing the trick.

  8. yuyhguhkj said, on January 4, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    this thing is so boring !! its just so STUPID !!!!!!!!


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