Spooky Number Game

LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-06 AT 05:04 AM (CST)
 
The off-beat show Coast to Coast had a link to an mysterious number game that really had me scratching my head for a while. See if you can figure it out. I'm sure there are some rocket scientists who will come up with the answer quickly.
http://www.milaadesign.com/wizardy.html

It is kind of a repeat, isn't it? He just puts the same image on all of the numbers that could possibly come up.

1 from 10 is 9
2 from 11 is 9
3 from 12 is 9
4 from 13 is 9 or

3 from 30 is 27
4 from 31 is 27
5 from 32 is 27 or

5 from 50 is 45
6 from 51 is 45
7 from 52 is 45

Do we begin to see a pattern here? There aren't that many combinations that he has to cover (and all using the same symbol) while putting in a whole bunch of other numbers that will never come up.

It is a good carnival shill game.

LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-06 AT 06:44 PM (CST)
 
That's about it. All of the possible answers are divisible by 9. There are several repeating symbols in the chart and all of the symbols appear to be randomly assigned each time. But as long as 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, and 81 all have the same symbol, the right answer will appear every time. The chart doesn't stay on the screen very long and I wasn't sharp enough figure out what the trick was for a good while. I used the "print screen" button to capture an image of the chart and counted up all of the repeating symbols and then it eventually it dawned on me what was happening.

I first saw this about 5 years ago. Yes, and it is based on the fact that the sum of digits of all multiples of 1 through 9 total 9

1*9 = 9 (sum of digits of product = 9)
2*9 = 18 (sum of digits of product = 9)
3*9 = 27 (sum of digits of product = 9)
...
8*9 = 72 (sum of digits of product = 9)
9*9 = 81 (sum of digits of product = 9)

This one has more sophisticated graphics than the one I remember, but the math has stayed the same.

You can use that trick to build your own "mind bending" puzzles. I think I built two, after stealing that idea.