| DaleB |
you will need a calculator though.
1. Key in the first 3 digits of your phone number into a calculator.
(not your area code, but your phone number)
2. Multiply that number by 80.
3. Add 1.
4. Multiply by 250.
5. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number.
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
7. Subtract 250.
8. Divide by 2. |
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| egurry |
| Did it, but don't understand it. Came up with 87, 349. Care to explain? |
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| zman |
| You should end up with your phone number. It worked for me. |
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| DaleB |
quote:
Originally posted by zman
You should end up with your phone number. It worked for me.
So much for the surprise! |
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| Emerald01 |
quote:
Did it, but don't understand it. Came up with 87, 349. Care to explain?
That answer means... you need to take a course on how to use your calculator. J/k |
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| egurry |
Actually, the result depends on how good your calculator is. An everyday calculator will assume that you meant to hit the "equals" button after each operation. Good scientific and financial calculators, however, will not. Due to the mathematical priorty of multiplication and division compared to addition and subtraction, the results are quite different.
So on a financial calculator (which is what I used), the equation looks like this:
xxx*80+1*250+yyyy+yyyy-250/2 = 87,349
But on a regular calculator it looks like this:
xxx*80=zz,zzz+1=zz,zzz*250=zz,zzz,zzz+yyyy=zz,zzz,zzz+yyyy=zz,zzz,zzz-250=zz,zzz,zzz/2 = x,xxy,yyy
Just goes to show... few things are as black-and-white as they first appear. |
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| Emerald01 |
egurry,
No problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Admitting it is hard. But again, if you knew your calculator, you would know that your not doing the math in the order that was described.
quote:
###*80+1*250+####+####-250/2 = 87,349
If you want it all in one line, I'd enter it like this:
((((((###*80)+1)*250)+####)+####)-250)/2 = #######
Not sure how much you care but, you just gave everyone your phone number. :eek: If they do a little search, they can find what area you are from, and figure out the area code.
Although I used a plain calculator, I think if I entered it into my HP49G (in reverse polish mode), I'm pretty sure I could have come up with my phone number as well. I'll give it a try... |
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| egurry |
quote:
Originally posted by Emerald01
... if you knew your calculator, you would know that your not doing the math in the order that was described...
Actually, I look at it a bit differently. Notice that the second step says to multiply "that number" by 80, indicating that the result of the query in step 1 should be used. The remaining instructions don't use this terminology, however. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that steps 3 through 8 are meant to run concurrently. Hence my comment about things not always being as black-and-white as they seem - there's always some contrarian out there (like me) who can read things a bit differently.
As for my phone number... woops! :eek: Fair point. I think I'll edit that out right now! Thanks. |
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| Emerald01 |
| I'll edit mine too for your sake...:) |
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| egurry |
quote:
Originally posted by Emerald01
I'll edit mine too for your sake...
Thanks! |
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| mdxxxx |
| Worked like a charm... (windows calculator) |
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