You’ll always get a two digits number with the numbers you chose!

Turning the trick into an algebra equation shows how it works. Let’s say our two numbers are x and y.
Following the directions, we build the equation.
- First we double x: 2x
- Then we add 5: 2x+5 1. Pick any two single-digit numbers 1-9.
- Then we multiply all of it by 5: 5(2x+5) or 10x+25
- Then we add y: 10x+25+y 2. Take one of your numbers and multiply it by 2.
- In steps 6 and 7 we subtract a total of 25 (4 and 21): 10x+25+y-25 or 10x+y 3. Add 5 to the result.
Multiplying by 10 just adds a 0 to x, making a blank space for the y: xy 4. Now multiply by 5.
And there you have your original numbers! 5. Add the second of your original numbers.
6. Subtract 4 from the total.
7. Finally, subtract 21 from your result.
For more math tricks visit
kids.da-vinci-learning.com What’s your final answer?

Your answer will always be 15. But how?

- Let’s say our number is xxx (we can pick as big a number as we like).
- With step 2, we multiply by 3: 3xxx
- Step 3 adds 45: 3xxx+45
- Then we multiply that by 2: 2(3xxx+45) or 6xxx+90
- Now we divide by 6: (6xxx+90)/6 or xxx+15
- And finally, we subtract our original number: xxx+15-xxx, or 15 1. Pick a number, any number, as large or small as you like.
The trick is that multiplying by 3 and then by 2 is the same as multiplying one time by 6. When we 2. Multiply your number by 3.
later divide by 6, we reverse our multiplication. Steps 1 and 6 cancel each other out, so the number 3. Add 45.
we picked doesn’t matter. We are left with 45x2, or 90, divided by 6. That always equals 15! 4. Multiply the total by 2.
5. Now, divide by 6.
For more math tricks visit 6. Subtract your original number from the result.
kids.da-vinci-learning.com What’s your final answer?

Your original three-digit number now appears twice!

- Take our example number 826. When we multiply by 7, we get 5782.
- When we multiply that by 11, we get 63,602-- not very amazing yet.
- But when we multiply that result by 13, we get 826,826!
- We could do this another way, but it’s not as fun. Instead of multiplying three separate times, we
could first multiply 7, 11 and 13, and then multiply our original number by the result.
7x11x13=1001. Maybe you see now how it works.
Multiplying a number by 1000 adds three zeroes to the end. Multiplying by 1 gives us the original
number. So, 826x1000=826,000. Adding 826 to that gives us 826,826. 1. Pick any three-digit number, such as 826.
2. Multiply it by 7.
3. Now multiply by 11.
For more math tricks visit 4. And finally multiply by 13.
kids.da-vinci-learning.com What’s your final answer? Do you see a pattern?