Chocolate Age Math (how does this work?)

[Whitney]

Below is an (chain) email I received minus the images.  Usually I delete them but I wanted to see what this one was about because it said "chocolate."  How does it figure out your age?  

YOUR AGE BY  CHOCOLATE MATH

Don't  tell me your age; you'd probably lie anyway-but the Hershey  Man will know!

YOUR AGE BY CHOCOLATE  MATH

This is pretty  neat.

DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It takes  less than a minute .
Work this out as you read .
Be sure  you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
This  is not one of those waste of time things, it's  fun.


1. First of all,  pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate

(more than once but less than  10)

 

2. Multiply this  number by 2 (just to be bold)


 


3. Add  5

4. Multiply it  by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator  

 


5. If you have  already had your birthday this year add 1759 ...
If you  haven't, add 1758.



6.. Now subtract  the four digit year that you were born.



You  should have a three digit number


[spoiler:1j14pur5]The  first digit of this was your original number
(i.e., how  many times you want to have chocolate each week).




The next  two numbers are




YOUR  AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)




THIS IS THE  ONLY YEAR (2009) IT WILL EVER WORK,

SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE  IT LASTS.
Chocolate  Calculator.[/spoiler:1j14pur5]
 

[MommaSquid]

Oh, shit...it worked.  And now I want chocolate!

[AlP]

Yay! Algebra time... The calculations can be expressed an an algebriac expression. Suppose you haven't had your birthday yet. You want chocolate T times per week and you were born in the 4 digit year Y.

The arithmetic you are asked to do is this:

  (50(2T + 5) + 1758) - Y
= (100T + 250 + 1758) - Y
= 100T + 2008 - Y

100T will give your chocolate preference in the hundreds column.
2008 - Y is how you calculate your age if you haven't had your birthday this year. It turns into 2009 - Y if you have.

[Heretical Rants]

If you're over 100 years old, you have to change step 4 to "multiply by 500" in order to keep the places separate.  Now that you changed the multiplier, you also changed the little distraction number you made when you added 5, so step 5 has to be changed to "subtract 491"

If you're over 1000 years old... you have to change it again...

Ah, distraction numbers.  The basis of annoying "math tricks"

I would have been impressed, if it had not asked for the date of my birth

[Whitney]

I would have been impressed, if it had not asked for the date of my birth

Ya...I had kinda forgot it asked that when I posted this.

[Will]

126. Clever maths.

[joeactor]

If you're over 1000 years old... you have to change it again...

... by that age, I'm pretty sure someone else would be changing me...