This Is Uncanny

Are figures clairvoyants?  This looks like it.

• Put down the number of your living brothers.
• Multiply by two.  Add three.  Multiply the results by five.
• Now add the number of your living sisters.  Multiply the total by ten.
• Add the number of your dead brothers and sisters.  Subtract 150 from the total.
• The right hand figure will be the number of deaths, the middle figure the number of living sisters and the left hand figure the number of living brothers.[1]

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[1] When Clare first worked this through—doubtless she did—she was probably 15.  Her calculations would have looked like this:

                6 living brothers (Bay, George, John, Oz, Lew, and Graham)

* 2 = 12

+ 3 = 15

* 5 = 75

+ 2 living sisters (Bertha, Nita) = 77

* 10 = 770

+ 1 dead sibling (Edward) = 771

- 150 = 621

Try it yourself…it works!