posted Jan 15, 2023
in In the Spotlight, Puzzles
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:
- Ask each person to think of a number from 1 to 10.
- Ask them to multiply their chosen number by 9.
- If the number they got is a two-digit number, ask them to add those digits together.
- 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!
- 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.
- Now ask them to think of a country whose name starts with that letter.
99% of people will think of Denmark at this stage!
- 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!"
- 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!