# Pick a number



## coolmission (Jun 5, 2009)

Please do not read replies to this thread until you have done all the steps and posted yourself; it will be funnier this way. 

I don't know if this has been posted before but I have just recently found it, so enjoy!

1) pick a number from 1-10

2) subtract 5

3) multiply by 3

4) square the number (multiply by the same number)

5) sum the digits.

(i.e. 646+4=10)

6) if the number is less than 5, add five. Otherwise subtract 4.

7) multiply by 2

8) subtract 6

9) map the digit to a letter in the alphabet

(e.g.1=A, 2=B, 3=C, etc...)

10) pick a name of a country that begins with that letter

11) take the second letter in the country name and think of an animal that begins with that letter

12) go to the 4th letter in the animal's name and choose a colour which starts with that letter

Now post the country, animal in *spoiler tags*, and let's see what happens


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## Logan (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler



Denmark, Elephant, Pink

I can't remember the trick (country) to pick to beat this.


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## byu (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler



denmark elephant purple



Oh, wow...


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## Lord Voldemort (Jun 5, 2009)

Oh my god -
I have the same things as Logan


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## fanwuq (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler



Djbouti, jaguar, ultramarine  You fail.  I remember studying such math tricks in AP psychology. Funny how people are fooled.

Edit: You had to pick a letter with only 4 countries didn't you?


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## James (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler



Dominican Republic, Orangutan, Navy Blue


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## ThatGuy (Jun 5, 2009)

for step 12 what if my animal has less than 4 letters? I'll just do the last one.
spoiler
Danmark (how those people actually spell it) ass (donkey) sepia


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## Sa967St (Jun 5, 2009)

Dominica Osprey Russet

I've seen this "trick" so many times...


Funny how most people think of Denmark first as a country that begins with the letter D. I was deciding whether to choose Djibouti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic or Dominica


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## anythingtwisty (Jun 5, 2009)

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Elephant, Purple


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## PatrickJameson (Jun 5, 2009)

Denmark elephant pink

Kind of hard to think of anything else when you've heard this before


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## coolmission (Jun 5, 2009)

When I was doing it, I was thinking of the Luxembourgish names for countries, so even I failed  ie: Germany = Daitschland


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## waffle=ijm (Jun 5, 2009)

Djibouti, Jellyfish, Lavender

I was reading after I did this and sarah got my country. :\


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## Poke (Jun 5, 2009)

*.Djibouti, **Jaguar, Ultramarine

*I thought I was creative on my country name.


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## coolmission (Jun 5, 2009)

No spoiler tags for you?


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## Poke (Jun 5, 2009)

coolmission said:


> No spoiler tags for you?



Fixed it.

Spoiler(another one):
Finland, Lion, Navy Blue (never said it had to be an integer)


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## ThatGuy (Jun 5, 2009)

Poke said:


> coolmission said:
> 
> 
> > No spoiler tags for you?
> ...



Cheater. Stop using hax. lol.


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## ISuckAtCubing (Jun 5, 2009)

what if i got -15? what letter is that? i started out with 5


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## Poke (Jun 5, 2009)

How do you get -15 if you squared a number?


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## Ethan Rosen (Jun 5, 2009)

ISuckAtCubing said:


> what if i got -15? what letter is that? i started out with 5


If you start out with 5 then you get 4...


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## coolmission (Jun 5, 2009)

Ethan Rosen said:


> ISuckAtCubing said:
> 
> 
> > what if i got -15? what letter is that? i started out with 5
> ...



Then you should change your name to ISuckAtMath.


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## kjcellist (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler Below

Denmark Elephant Purple

Creepy...


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## Sa967St (Jun 5, 2009)

kjcellist said:


> Creepy...


not really, 


Spoiler



no matter what number you start with, you will end up chosing a country beginning with the letter D


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## Lucas Garron (Jun 5, 2009)

Spoiler



Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eel, BAD POINTER


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## Faz (Jun 5, 2009)

I just coloured mine white.

Denmark - indigo echidna


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## Dene (Jun 5, 2009)

Ethan Rosen said:


> ISuckAtCubing said:
> 
> 
> > what if i got -15? what letter is that? i started out with 5
> ...



You always get 4. 
I mean, this test is hardly surprising. We all know that there is only one well known country starting with "D", and one animal that particularly stands out starting with "E". The test is also flawed, as shown by the animal "Eel", where there is no fourth letter.


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## endless_akatsuki (Jun 5, 2009)

Here's one that my friend thought of.

1.	Pick a number between 0 and 36.
2.	Add up the digits of your number.
3.	Add 8 to your number.
4.	Multiply your number by 7.
5.	Take the last digit of your number, multiply it by 2, and subtract it from the rest of your number. (121 --> 12 – 2 = 10 or 68 --> 6 – 16 = -10)
6.	Square your new number.
7.	If your number is less than 25, add 8 to it. If your number is 25 or greater, subtract 41 from it.
8.	Find the corresponding letter of the alphabet. (1-->A, 2-->B, etc.)
9.	Choose a state whose name begins with that letter.
10.	Take the last letter of its capital and choose a state whose name begins with that letter.
11.	Take the last letter of the new state's capital and convert it back into a number.
12.	Take the square root of the number.


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## ISuckAtCubing (Jun 5, 2009)

Ethan Rosen said:


> ISuckAtCubing said:
> 
> 
> > what if i got -15? what letter is that? i started out with 5
> ...



oh, i saw if i get less than 5, add 5, i subtracted 5


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## cmhardw (Jun 5, 2009)

Before reading any other posts:



Spoiler



I actually did this algebraically because I wanted to see if I could spot whatever the "trick" is.

My number from 1-10 was u.
1) u
2) (u-5)
3) 3*(u-5)
4) 9*(u-5)^2
5) summing the digits will be a multiple of 9, since this number is clearly divisible by 9, and summing the digits is a way to tell divisibility by 9. I tested the different choices for u at this point and discovered they all sum to 9 at this step except for choosing 5. Choosing 5 gives zero at this step.
6) We will subtract 4 from 9 giving 5 at this step. Had you chosen 5 from the start you will have the answer zero here, but that means you add 5. No matter what the original choice of number was you have the number 5 at this step.
7) 5*2=10 all choices of original numbers give 10 at this step.
8) 10-6=4 all choices of original numbers give 4 at this step. 
9) 4->D
10) Denmark (I chose Denmark, but some more choices are: Dominican Republic, Djibouti, Dominica)
11) Elephant (I chose Elephant, but of course there are many other, eel, emu, eft, eagle, earthworm, etc.)
12) Pink (I chose pink but you could do purple, peach, etc.


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## ThatGuy (Jun 5, 2009)

What if I want to spell Denmark how the people from there spell it? (Danmark)


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## Johannes91 (Jun 5, 2009)

ThatGuy said:


> What if I want to spell Denmark how the people from there spell it? (Danmark)


The spelling doesn't depend on where the speaker is from, but on what language he's using. It's Danmark is Danish and Denmark is English, just like Suomi vs. Finland.

And this trick obviously isn't meant to work in other languages than English.


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## cmhardw (Jun 5, 2009)

endless_akatsuki said:


> Here's one that my friend thought of.
> 
> 1.	Pick a number between 0 and 36.





Spoiler



Again, I want to know your trick here. My number from 0-36 is u.

1) u
2) This determines divisibility by 3. Also, taking this answer (mod 3) will tell me the remainder when dividing my original number by 3. The smallest answer I could have here is 0 and the largest is 11.
3) My answer is in the range of 8-19 at this point.
4) multiplying by 7 gives me the possibility of having 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, 91, 98, 105, 112, 119, 126, 133 at this step.
5) This is a divisibility test for the number 7. The result of doing this will give me a multiple of 7 at the end of this step, since my number is clearly already divisible by 7. Possible answers at the end of this step are: -7, 0, 7
6) Possible answers at the end of this step are 0, 49
7) I end up with 8 at the end of this step regardless of my original choice of number.
8) 8->H and all choices give H.
9) Hawaii is the only state that starts with H. Everyone has picked this by this step.
10) Honolulu -> u -> Utah (it's the only "U" state).
11) Salt Lake City -> Y -> 25
12) 5

I have to say I like how you use a divisibility test for the number 7 in your trick after multiplying by 7. I figure most people wouldn't know that trick and would not pick up on that.



Chris


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