This is driving hubby nuts, and it’s starting to get to me! We can not figure out how this thing is right 100% of the time! What am I talking about, you ask? Well the little bugger is right here: http://64.4.18.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=76a841d20ba679a8e59c286455956b47&lat=1047481085&hm___action=http%3A%2F%2Fmr-31238.mr.valuehost.co.uk%2Fassets%2FFlash%2Fpsychic.swfIt is a crystal ball of sorts.
Unfortunately, we can’t afford to pay the guy the small donation he asks for (pitiful, eh?) so I’ve come here to ya’ll…
Your links don’t work.
Oops, wrong link! Here it is: http://mr-31238.mr.valuehost.co.uk/assets/Flash/psychic.swf
The calculation they ask you to do will always result in some multiple of 9. The web site designer just has to arrage it so that all the multiples of 9 in the table correspond to the same symbol.
But you get a different symbol each time, not the same one. How does that work?
The basic idea is that your final number is always a multiple of 9, and all the multiples of 9 get allocated the same symbol, so it forces you to go for a particular symbol, as all the possible numbers have the same symbol.
The reason you get a multiple of 9 is if you take a 2 digit number, the digits are x and y, so the number is z = 10x+y. For example, with the number 23, x=2, y=3, and z = 2*10+3 = 23.
So if you take off the sum of the digits (x+y), you get:
(10x+y)-(x+y)=9x, which is a multiple of 9.
You get a different symbol each time, but on each time, all the multiples of 9 have the same symbol as each other, so the system knows what your symbol will be, as its the symbol it allocated to the multiples of 9 on that time.
:smack: I can’t believe we didn’t notice this! I feel like such an idiot!!
Thanks for all the help!
And it sure made for a fun morning… 
Do this. Chose the same number each time. Note that the symbol always changes for the corresponding number, and it always gets it right. For instance, 18 is a multipe of nine. Look at all the multiples of nine each time, they all have the same symbol. The trick is, each time you do the test, it changes the symbol.
Had me buggered the first time I tried it too.
Watch the answer key when you click. It fades away, and for the next trial a new key appears. All the symbols have changed. But, as noted, all the multiples of 9 have the same symbol. One time it may be the book symbol, another time it may be the Mercury symbol, but on each version of the answer key, all the multiples of 9 have the same symbol.
What’s more important that how it works is how you figure it out:
Think of 37. 37-3-7=27. What if I’d chosen 36? 36-3-6=27. AHA! Pattern. Try some more. Try and work out why this happens.