This first one has been around for many years. How long and who started it, I couldn't say.
1. Think of a number, any whole number from one to ten. Multiply that by nine.
2. Add the two integers together. (For instance, 25 would be 2+5=7.)
3. Subtract five from the result.
4. Replace the resulting number with the corresponding letter of the alphabet where 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, and so on.
5. Think of a country that begins with that letter.
6. Think of an animal that begins with the last letter of the country from above.
7. Think of an fruit that begins with the last letter of the animal from above.
Did I get it right? Are you amazed or amused? Or maybe even boggled?
I actually don't know if I got it right or not, but if you're like 95% of people I did. That's because the math and resulting choices of country, animal and fruit are not as random as you might suppose. Because of a quirk of math you will always get the letter D to begin the choice of country.
This starts at step two where you multiply by nine. The integers of any multiple of nine if added together will always give you nine. For example nine times 2, 3, 4 give you 18, 27, and 36 respectively. As you can see 1+8=9, 2+7=9, 3+6=9. You can go as high as you want and get the same. 9x73=657, so 6+5+7=18, and then 1+8=9. Therefor you always get nine at step three.
Subtract five and get four which translates to the letter D for step five. This is where it can go off track. But not very often because there aren't that many countries that begin with D. Denmark most readily comes to mind. Can you think of another? Let's see, there's Dahomey, Dominican Republic... uh...
So most people go with Denmark and so their animal will start with K. How many animals spring to mind starting with K? Kangaroo is the obvious, but you might go for koala bear, or kiwi, or... what? Again, a limited selection.
So most folks have kangaroo and so their fruit will start with O. Again, what is more obvious than orange?
As you can see, getting to a kangaroo and an orange in Denmark is not really surprising or amazing. Nor magical. But it is a trick. A trick on the mind that sees randomness where there actually isn't any. Or very little, at any rate.
Go to Mind Boggler Number Two