Learn Something New, Day 7: Calculating Your Age With Chocolate

Monday, May 7, 2007

Recently I got an email from one of my sisters, demonstrating how I can calculate my age using chocolate.  I'd gotten it before a long time ago.  I did it again this time, and, sure enough, it calculated my age correctly.  I know there is a trick to it, so I decided to find out how it works.  What do you know, there is actually a WikiHow article explaining how it is done.

 

Here's how it goes: 

1.  Determine how many times a week you eat or want chocolate. It must be a number between 1 and 10, including 1 or 10.

2.  Multiply that number by 2.

3.  Add 5 to the previous result.

4.  Multiply that by 50.

5.  Add 1757 if you've had a birthday this year. If you haven't had a birthday this year, add 1756.

6.  Subtract your birth year.

7.  You'll end up with a 3 or 4 digit number. The last two digits are your age (if you're under 10 years old there will be a zero before your age). The remaining one or two digits will be the number of times per week you eat or want chocolate (the number you specified in the first step).

Sure enough, the last two digits in my calculations were 4 and 1.

So, how does it work?  Well, first of all, this formula will only work this year. Next year you would have to change the numbers in Step 5 to 1758 if your birthday already went by and change it to 1757 if it didn't.

The chocolate part is just for fun, and has nothing to do with the formula (duh!); and this will only work for anybody from 1 to 99 years old.  If you're 100 or older, well, too bad...this trick isn't for you!

Here's how Wikihow explains it:

"Select a number between 1 and 10. Multiply by 2, add 5, multiply by 50. These steps are just a fancy way to push your random number out into the hundreds place. Here is what you'll get for all possible selections:

1	350
2	450
3	550
4	650
5	750
6	850
7	950
8	1050
9	1150
10	1250

Add 1757 or 1756, if your birthday hasn't happened yet this year. This yields the year of your last birthday (2006 or 2007) plus 100 times your chosen number:

1	2106
2	2206
3	2306
4	2406
5	2506
6	2606
7	2706
8	2806
9	2906
10	3006

Subtract the year of your birth and get your age plus 100 times your chosen number. Put another way:

(Year of your last birthday + (100 x your chosen number)) - Year of your birth = Your age + (100 x your chosen number)"

So, now you know how the formula works.  Eler Beth and I enjoyed learning it and then showing off our magnificent powers to Andrew and Dad.

Tags: WikiHow, Calculate your age using chocolate