Email forwards are a curious phenomenon, aren't they? There are the forwards that tell you that you must send the email to ten of your friends and one back to the person who sent it to you in the first place, or something horrible will happen to you......something like facial warts or unsightly hair will grow between your eyes. There is always some unspoken threat if you dare to break the chain. This is nothing more than the modern-day version of the old chain letter. Remember the chain letter that told you if you added your name to the top of the list and then sent a dollar to the last person on the list, you'd end up getting five thousand dollars, or some other ridiculously phantom amount. I'm certain that I fell for that chain promise at least once in my younger years. Then there was the rumor that chain letters were illegal and if your name was found on one you would be in serious legal trouble.
Different personalities forward certain types of emails. There are some individuals who forward emails that you know will be funny and most definitely will exact a guffaw from the reader. Other email forward 'sources' will send only the kind that have music, scenes of beaches with gentle blowing winds and young children frolicking in the sand, looking all cute and irresistible. Other emails tell you to forward to ten other strong and independent women to celebrate National Strong Women Day, or something like that.
I received a forward, today, from a friend whose emails are always funny and, generally, have a political theme. I find her forwards funny because we share similar political views. I understand that people of differing political persuasions might not nor would not find her forward contents to be humorous. I do.
Today's forward was about finding your favorite movie among a numbered list of movie titles. The instructions were as follows:
Pick a number between 1-9. Multiply by three. Add three more. Multiply that number by three. Then add that number's two digits together and that sum's number would be the movie title on the list that would be your favorite. At first I did not realize this forward had a political undertone to it. I just thought it would be fun to see if I really liked the movie title associated with the initial number I selected. After I did the first numerical iteration, I got curious and ran through the sequence, using every number from one to nine. Sure enough, the final number is always the same. Being a mathematically mental midget, I do not understand how this works, although I do know two people very well who could probably instantly give me the reason why the end answer is the same.
All I know is that it was funny. I do not want to spoil the mathematical mystery by knowing why. Besides, I probably wouldn't understand the 'why' anyway. I just enjoyed the chuckle.
Ancora imparo
