Memorial Hall Library

January 2023 Mid-Month Sudoku

Okay, Sudoku fans—this month's puzzle comes with a party trick that involves numbers. You can do this with one person but it's more fun if you have a group.

Tell the group you can read their minds. Offer to demonstrate:

  1. Ask each person to think of a number from 1 to 10.
  2. Ask them to multiply their chosen number by 9.
  3. If the number they got is a two-digit number, ask them to add those digits together.
  4. Now ask them to subtract 5 from their number.

At this point, everyone should have the number 4 in mind, but don't tell them that!

  1. Ask everyone to think of the letter of the alphabet that corresponds with their number. "One" would be "A," "Two would be "B," and so on.
  2. Now ask them to think of a country whose name starts with that letter. 

99% of people will think of Denmark at this stage!

  1. Ask everyone to think about the second letter in that country's name, then to think of an animal whose name begins with that letter.

99% of people will think of "elephant!"

  1. Now ask the group to think of that animal's color.

Appear to concentrate hard, then look at your audience and say:

Hmm, this can't be right...THERE ARE NO GRAY ELEPHANTS IN DENMARK!

 

randomness