Mathematics

[RickG]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

 

[Ken Behrens]

I bet that won't work next year. I thought God was the same yesterday today and forever.

 

[keith99]

So God gets it wrong for everyone born in November and December and a few in October!

 

[John Hyperspace]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

 

[JackRT]

Doesn't work for Catholics.

 

[Cearbhall]

I had to memorize the names of 73.

 

[JackRT]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

Only if you admit negative numbers. They are the devil's work. Almost as evil as imaginary and complex numbers.

 

[ewq1938]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

You might want to add a last step of "Add 1900" if you are older than 16, otherwise add 2000

 

[tatteredsoul]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

Let n = age
66 is a constant.
Let y = current year


66 - n = y - 50
y + n = 116

So, y = 116-n.

For n = 30, we have y = 116 - 30 = [19]86

Notice, our y value yields the ones and tens digits. This is because our calculations implicitly include using the 19__ full year.

For example, let y be the current year, and n is the age. Let''s say I was born in 1970. Then the equation is

n = 2016 - 1970 = 2016 - (1900 + 70) = (2016 - 1900) - 70 = 116 - 70.

So, n = 116 - 70 = 46.

 

[jacks]

It's a miracle!

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

It took a minute to figure it out. Clever.

 

[AV1611VET]

Far out!

 

[Dave Ellis]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

The answer I got was 83

I was born in December of '82

Apparently God needs to go back to math class.

 

[AV1611VET]

The answer I got was 83

I was born in December of '82

Apparently God needs to go back to math class.

For the record, it works from your birthday until the end of the year.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Apparently God needs to go back to math class.

Many have said that concerning "pi" (and never admitted their error when proven wrong).

 

[JackRT]

The answer I got was 83

I was born in December of '82

Apparently God needs to go back to math class.

It only works if you have already had your birthday this year.

 

[pgp_protector]

Hmm was off by 1900 years.

 

[Ken Behrens]

It's a miracle there are so many mathematicians here.

 

[Soyeong]

The bible contains 66 books.

Subtract your age.

Add 50.

God knows the year you were born.

It should be relatively straightforward that if you have had your birth anniversary this year and you subtract your age from the current year, then you will end up with the year that you were born. That's all that's being done here, except that it is subtracting from 116 (66 + 50) instead of 2016 and neglecting to add 1900 (2016 - 116), which means this is saying that we were born in the 1st or 2nd century.

 

[jayem]

It will work with any starting number, provided that you adjust the addition factor. You do this by adding 50 to the difference between 66 and your starting number. You may be adding in negative numbers, so you have to keep track of your signs. Here are 2 examples. My age is now 65. I was born in 1951 (the result will be 51.)

I. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, so we'll start there.

1. Subtracting my age: 154 - 65 = 89

2. Find the addition factor: 66 - 154 = -88. Add this to 50 = -38.

3. Add this to the result from line 1.: 89 + (-38) = 51.


II. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays, so now we'll use that.

4. Subtracting my age: 37 - 65 = -28.

5. Find the addition factor: 66 - 37 = 29. Add this to 50 = 79.

6. Add this to the result from line 4.: (-28) + 79 = 51.

How about that? Shakespeare knows when I was born!