The Chemical Calculator

Incantation:

Higgledy, piggledy, cinnamon stick,

Ingredients:

Invisible red ink: KSCN, potassium thiocyanate solution (2 scoops in a vial of

Invisible blue ink: K2Fe(CN)6, potassium ferrocyanide solution (2 scoops in a vial of

Ferric ion solution (4 scoopulas of Fe(NO3)3 or FeCl3 in deionized water)

Q-Tips (as brushes)

Tissues (as dauber)

Blank paper

A wide-line marker

Prepare pages ahead of time by painting the “answers” of 99 (for the 2-digit version),
1089 (for the 3-digit version) and 10890 and/or 9999 (for the 4-digit version). Be
sure to mark the paper as to which side holds the ink and which is the top of the
page. Old solutions leave a slight yellow hint of the ink on the page which makes it
easier to see, but easier for the audience to detect, too.

Procedure:

(3-digit version) Set one of your prepared pages in a position so that everyone can
see it.

Call out to an audience member for a digit from 0 to 9. When given one, right it
towards the left edge of the paper and far enough below the top that you can write
one more row of digits above it if necessary.

Now as another audience member for a second digit that is not a duplicate of the
first. Write this digit to the right of the first.

Finally, ask a third member of the audience for a third unique digit and write it to the
right of the previous one.
Now that you have three digits, declare that you are going to reverse the digits and
subtract. Specify that you want a positive result so choose how to write the reverse
order digits accordingly. The larger of the two arrangements needs to be on the top.

Put a pronounced minus sign to the left of the lower number and a line below which
to write the answer. Use the audience help to do the subtraction operation.
Complain that their choice of numbers forces you into doing a lot of borrowing!
Bother! (This is actually crucial to how the mathematics work.) If the left-most digits
result in a difference of zero, write the zero down to preserve the 3-digit character of
the answer.

When you’ve computed the difference, state that you will now reverse the digits of
the answer and add. Write the reverse-order number below your answer, add a
prominent plus sign, draw a line for the answer (hopefully, right above where you’ve
written the invisible ink sum).

Spray or use a tissue dampened with Fe3+ ion to develop the invisible ink. The 3-
digit procedure always results in an answer of 1089.

The 2-digit version is done in an analogous manner, but the final answer will always
be 99.

The 4-digit version is trickier and probably somewhat less satisfying in that until the
third digit is revealed, you’re not certain what the answer will be. If the second digit
is larger than the third, the answer will be 10890. If the second digit is smaller than
the third, the answer is 9999.

Brief Explanation:

The chemistry is a straightforward preparation of a highly colored

Fe3+ + SCN-  FeSCN2+ (blood red)

The blue invisible ink produces Prussian blue:

4Fe3+ + 3 Fe[CN]64-  Fe4(Fe[CN]6)3 (dark blue)

The workings of the mathematics are more subtle. To understand why the 3-digit
version always yields a final result of 1089, consider each digit as a separate
variable – use X as the first digit, Y as the second and Z as the third. Assume for
this case that X is larger than Z. Thus, the original 3-digit number and its reverse
order arrangement will look like this:

X Y Z
- Z Y X
___________________________________________
In the rightmost column, we’ll need to borrow 1 from Y because X is larger than Z.
This means the rightmost digit of the difference will be (Z + 10 – X).

The middle digit of the difference will also require borrowing because you’ve
diminished the Y on the top line by 1 in borrowing in the previous step. Therefore,
the difference in the middle digit is (Y – 1 + 10 – Y). This simplifies to 9 because the
+Y and –Y cancel each other out and the two borrows net a difference of 9.

The leftmost digit difference will be (X – 1 – Z) because of the borrowing operation in

If we right these three results in their appropriate positions and then write the revrse-
order form, to be added, underneath it, we have:

(X – 1 – Z) 9 (Z + 10 – X)
+ (Z + 10 – X) 9 (X – 1 – Z)
________________________________________________

It’s easy to see now why the result is always 1089! The rightmost digit sum has the
X’s and Z’s dropping out leaving 10 + (-1) = 9. The center digit sum is 9 + 9 = 18.
We write down the 8 and carry the one. The leftmost digit sum has the X’s and Z’s
again canceling out. So its sum, with the carried 1 from the center digit, is 10 + (-1)
+ 1 = 10. Voila! 1089!

As mentioned above, when done as a 4-digit version, two cases exist that require the
subtle manipulation of the digits supplied by your audience. If the second digit is
larger than the third, the result will always be 10890. If the second digit is smaller
than the third, the result will be 9999. It’s fun to do both versions because the
different answers almost have the audience believing your solutions have
mathematical reasoning to them! I try to condition my audience by this point to start
shouting out digits before I call on someone specifically. Thus, I can write down
whichever order of digits two and three will produce the number of my prepared
invisible answer.

Precautions:

The iron chloride solution and the colored products can stain wood or fabric with
which they come in contact. Make sure you have an easily washable surface at all
times behind your work area and below where any drips might fall.