This math trick can work out your age and shoe size

Find out how this trick calculates your age and shoe size

A simple math trick which can calculate a person’s shoe size and age has taken over social media and amused many.

The problem includes a series of simple questions that produces a number, whose first digit is the person’s shoe size while the last digits show their age.



The trick works regardless of whether you use UK, European or American shoe measurements. However, it will not work for people who have already had their birthdays.

Mind blown. Take your shoe size. Times by 5. Add 50. Times by 20. Add 1015. Subtract yr you were born. Answer = your shoe size and your age.

— Lucy Tobin (@lucytobin) January 15, 2016

@ES_JoBourke @lucytobin what is this new witchcraft?

— Peter Campbell (@Petercampbell1) January 15, 2016

This is how it can be calculated:

1) The first step is to multiply your shoe size by five.

2) You then add fifty to the answer

3) Multiply it by 20.

4) Add 1015

5) Subtract the year you were born.

And the answer should have your shoe size and age!



Former Countdown math whizz, Carol Vorderman said, “I love this great little game. It’s simple algebra. It’s incredibly valuable because it takes GCSE maths and turns it into something fun.” The TV presenter added that at the start of next year, the trick will only work if you add 1,016.

Cambridge professor David Spiegelhalter said, “I hope it inspires people to think, ‘Why does this work’ and actually work through the problem. Any child who does that will learn a huge amount.”

How the trick works is fairly simple, the formula subtracts the year of birth from the number 2,015. The way it creates 2,015 is the step which adds 1,015 to 50 multiplied by 20, or in other words, 1,015 plus 1,000. Your shoe size is correctly identified because the step that multiplies it by five, and then by 20, simply adds two zeroes on to the end of the original shoe size. For example if your shoe size is 11, it will work out as 1,100. The final step of the equation adds that number to your age so the first two numbers are your shoe size.



https://twitter.com/_hamjad/status/687951615618187264

This article originally appeared on The Telegraph.