Magic Shop
Ooh, a good one. Here's what they'll see.
You type a strange eight-digit number into a calculator and hand it over. Your friend names their favourite digit out loud. One multiplication later, the whole screen is their digit, nine times over.
Works by itself, or one simple move. It works the first try.
Yes. The Calculator Prediction fills a whole screen with your friend's favourite digit, nine times over, after a single multiplication. Any calculator works, including the app on a grown-up's phone.
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
More in Ask the Magician.
You type a strange eight-digit number into a calculator and hand it over. Your friend names their favourite digit out loud. One multiplication later, the whole screen is their digit, nine times over. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 6 to 11 (grades 1st–5th), takes 3 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
12,345,679 — the digits one to nine with the 8 left out — times 9 makes 111,111,111. So multiplying it by nine lots of their digit fills the screen with their digit.
“Your favourite number is more powerful than you think. Give it one little push and it takes over the whole calculator. Ready? Press it.”
If the screen comes out wrong, the 8 crept in. Say "this calculator is being awkward", clear it, type it again in front of them, and let them check it digit by digit.
12,345,679 × 9 = 111,111,111. Multiplying by nine lots of a digit is the same as multiplying by 9 and then by the digit, so the nine ones all become that digit instead.
🌈 Transformation. Something changes into something else. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches: Practise like a pro. Ready means ten times in a row without looking at your hands. Perform it and it counts towards the Mind Reader badge.
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