Mathemagical understanding

[andrewducker]

I'm wondering about the level of mathematical understanding on my friends list.

Go here and check out both the magical puzzle and my explanation.

Then come back here and tell me if my explanation made sense to you.

[Poll #943968]

Comments

[wychwood]

I said "trivial", but it's probably actually somewhere between that and the next one; I would not immediately have come to the realisation that the number "xy" was the same as "10x+y", but I'm fairly confident that I'd have figured it out eventually. The rest of the puzzle was trivial.

[wychwood]

- and I knew it was a trick and that all the possible answers would have the same symbol (naturally). If I'd looked to see which numbers had the symbol, I'd have worked it out more quickly.