Someone is phishing my mind.

July 21, 2006 12:19 PM

How does the game on www.milaadesign.com work?

It asks you to pick a two-digit number then subtract the sum of the digits from the original number. It then guesses the new number. Full URL: http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

Some things I noticed:
1) It works best when you do indeed concentrate on one number.

2) The position of the mouse does not seem to affect the outcome.

3) The symbols repeat but not often enough for random selection of a symbol to be the correct 'guess.'

posted by oddman to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

Because there is only one solution for each set of ten (every number beginning with 7 will be 63, 8 will be 72, 9 is 81 - basically the 9x the number). All the symbols are the same for those numbers.
posted by mckenney at 12:26 PM on July 21, 2006

The number you get from following the instructions will always be a multiple of 9... and all the numbers that are multiples of 9 have the same symbol. Easy. :)
posted by base_16 at 12:26 PM on July 21, 2006

Drat, too late!
posted by base_16 at 12:26 PM on July 21, 2006

hmm.. I can't seem to mark more than one of you as "best answer," odd. Thanks both of you!
posted by oddman at 12:30 PM on July 21, 2006

Or.... I'm on crack, nevermind the two marks comment.
posted by oddman at 12:31 PM on July 21, 2006

Smoking crack probably makes that weird cackle when the symbol is revealed that much more frightening... :-)
posted by gwenzel at 1:33 PM on July 21, 2006

By the way, to see that the answer is always a multiple of 9, express your original number as 10x + y where x is the tens digit, and y is the ones digit. Now, the instructions are to subtract the sum of the digits, which is x + y. So that gives 10x + y - (x + y), or 9x. And, since x is an integer, 9x must be a multiple of 9.
posted by Turd Ferguson at 4:49 PM on July 21, 2006