Sometimes learning math might give you some fun, especially for someone  who love numbers. Math also can teach you small tricks like mind-reading.

Try to think of a number between 1 and 9. Then multiply it by number 9 and add the digits of this new number together. Then subtract 4 from your answer and you will be left with a single digit number. Next, try convert this number to a letter. If you number is 1 it becomes A, 2 becomes B, 3 becomes C, 4 becomes D, 5 becomes E, 6 becomes F and so on. Now think of a type of animal that begins with your chosen letter and imagine that animal as strongly as you can. Hold it vividly in the forefront of your mind. It’s an Elephant.

This is a very simple trick, and you ought to be able to work out how I was able to guess the animal of your choice with such a high likelihood of success. There is a little mathematics involved, in that some simple properties of numbers are exploited, but there is also a psychological and even zoological ingredient as well.

There is another trick of this general sort that involves only the properties of numbers. It uses the number 1089, which you may well already have listed among your favorites. It was the year in which there was an earthquake in England,  it is also a perfect square (33 x 33); but its most striking property is the following.

Pick any 3 digit number in which the digits are all different (like 153), make a second number by reversing the order of the 3 digits (become 351). Now take the smaller of the two numbers away from the larger (351 – 153 = 198, if your number has only 2 digits, like 23 then put a 0 (zero) in front, so 023). Now add this to the number you get by writing it backwards (so 198 + 891 = 1089). Whatever number you chose at the outset, you will end up with 1089 after this sequence of operations.