General Discussions

**The Critic** · 11-16-2006, 09:59 PM

My mother-in-law sent me this and it kinda freaked me out at first. It's magical!

Quote:

YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT
Don't tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood
anyway-but your waiter may know!

YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH

This is pretty neat.

DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It takes less than a minute .
Work this out as you read ...
Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would
like to go out to eat.
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1756 .
If you haven't, add 1755.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.

You should have a three digit number

The first digit of this was your original number
(I.e., how! Many times you want to go out to restaurants in a
week.)

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2006) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT
AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

**dodz** · 11-18-2006, 12:44 PM

WOW! It actually works. xD

**stoot98** · 11-18-2006, 01:17 PM

Indeed it does! But ive seen this before where they claim it is the only year it would work and that was a while ago.... hmmm

**vangogh** · 11-18-2006, 05:05 PM

It's also pretty easy to explain how it works, though I won't spoil it for anyone. Unless you all want me to.

**Kane Hill** · 11-18-2006, 08:11 PM

Man, I never stop and do these. But it worked, I am in some kind of shock. Please tell me how, I have to know!!!!!!!!!!

**dodz** · 11-19-2006, 06:09 AM

Yeah, you can tell is.

**vangogh** · 06:51 PM

Ok since you asked. Think for a second about what you're actually doing. Ultimately you're subtracting the year of your birth from some number. I think we'd all agree if you subtract your year of birth from the current year you'll end up with your age. It depends a little on if you've had you're birthday yet this year which is why you either need to use 1755 or 1756.

Let's say you've had your birthday this year and we'll use 1756. 1756 + 250 = 2006 which is this year.

So if we can add at least 250 to that 1756 we'll know when you subtract it will be at least your age. Also notice how at the end you're only using the last 2 digits so if we started by adding 350 to the 1756 then we end up with 100 + your age. However if we add 300 to the 1756 then we'd end up with 50 + your age. If you're 25 that would leave you with 75 at the end which doens't work. As long as in the beginning we add a numbers like 250, 350, 450, etc this will work. Numbers like 300. 400, 500 won't work though.

The problem is obviously that since this starts out with you picking a number between 1 and 10 we don't know what that original number will be. Excpet it's not too hard to make sure it turns out to be one of the numbers above that we want.

Basically any odd number 5 or greater multiplied by 50 will give you a number that works. So at the start you pick a number between 1 and 10. You then double it to ensure it's an even number. Then you add 5 which ensures the number is now odd and at least 7. (If you picked 1 multiply by 2 and add 5 you get 7).

In fact the number you get should be any of 7, 9, 11, 13, 15... on up to 25.

Multiply any of those numbers by 50 and you'll get a number that will ultimately have you subtracting your age from this year plus some mulitple of 100. But again at the end we get rid of the all those hundreds by only using the last 2 digits of the answer.

Ultimately all you're doing is subtracting the year you were born from 2006 if you've had your birthday or 2005 if you haven't. I think we'll all agree again if you subtract the year you were born from the current year you get your age.

As it's written this will only work this year, but change 1756 and 1755 to 1757 and 1756 respectively and it will work next year.

I hope that all makes sense.

**angele803** · 11-19-2006, 10:33 PM

I know it is all a math thing, but I still think it is cool! (Its like the magic tricks that use math to creep you out)
Thanks for explaining things vangogh.

**Talk2Me** · 11-20-2006, 05:22 PM

lol

I was fooled once by this.. This is all Math and nothing else.

**Kane Hill** · 11-20-2006, 11:53 PM

Thanks vangogh, I knew you would come thru.

**vangogh** · 11-21-2006, 12:29 AM

I still think it's cool too even if it is all just math. Sorry if I took the magic out of it for anyone.

**Mohab** · 11-21-2006, 05:26 AM

Someone emiled this to me a week ago except it was called "house-age" and you had to enter your house number instad of the number of times you at out.

**Gaubette** · 12-07-2006, 02:19 AM

this was fun! i got that all true!! ^^ and i sent it to my best friends emails.

**atwitt57** · 12-07-2006, 01:18 PM

Its just math no ur going to tell me santa isn't real :(

**luvlyn** · 12-07-2006, 01:45 PM

Cool Vangogh, nice thinking there! The one who write that thing is AWESOME!

**vangogh** · 12:31 AM

There's another common one. Last I saw you would pick a number and the crystal ball would have you do some math and then pick out the symbol next to your final number after all the math.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about and if you do might you have the link to that crystal ball thing?

**vangogh** · 12-08-2006, 12:34 AM

Ok I found one version it it. Here's the crystal ball that will guess your symbol.

Take a look and see if you can figure out how it's done. If no one knows I can explain this one too. I actually first heard this one in a very different version long before the internet existed.

**felguard** · 12-08-2006, 12:43 AM

LMAO, nice trick. Too bad this is a fake.

Why?

Because it doesn't matter what number you choose for "how many times you eat out" as long as it's between 1 and 10, you'll always get your age as the last two digits.

**Giselle** · 12-08-2006, 10:30 AM

That's pretty neat!

**princess06** · 12-08-2006, 03:56 PM

i already know this one before