Think of a Number. How Do Math Magicians Know What It Is?

Let's think about picking two numbers between 1-9.

Peter is given the product 24. He knows there are two possible pairs of numbers between 1-9 which produce a product of 24, (3,8) and (4,6), so he says "I don't know the numbers"

Sandy is given the sum 10. There are many pairs of numbers that produce a sum of 10, [(1,9), (2,8)...]. But she also knows that Peter did not immediately know the answer. If the pair of numbers was (5,5), that would have produced a product of 25. If Peter was given a product of 25, he would have immediately known the answer, since there's only 1 pair of numbers that produces that product.

So Sandy knows the answer isn't (5,5). Similarly, she knows it's not (2,8) or (3,7). The answer could be (1,9) though, since the product of (1,9) is 9, and there's another pair that can produce that product (3,3). If Peter was given the product 9 he wouldn't have immediately known the answer. The answer could also be (4,6), since the product of those is 24, and that can also be achieved with the pair (3,8). So there's only 2 pairs of numbers that add up to 10, and which Peter would not have immediately known based on their product. Sandy knows the answer must be either (1,9) or (4,6). Sandy says "I don't know the numbers".

Peter knows the solution must be either (3,8) or (4,6), and he knows that Sandy did not immediately know the answer. If Sandy had been given the sum 11 though, she should have immediately known the answer. There is only 1 pair of numbers that produces 11, but which does not have a unique product. Yes, the pair (2,9) sums to 11, but the product is unique, and if Peter had been given the product 18 to begin with, he would have immediately known the answer. So because he didn't immediately know the answer, and because that was not enough information for Sandy to say that the pair is (3,8), then Peter knows that the summation of the numbers must not be 11. The only other choice then is (4,6), and so Peter says "I do know the numbers".

So if I told you the product of two numbers (positive integers) was 3, you immediately know 3 is prime and therefore the numbers are 1,3. Therefore either they cannot say they don't know if they were told 3. We can go through every combination and find what possibilities they could be.

Well, it cannot be 1,1 or 1,2 or 1,3 because those produce products of 1, 2 and 3 because they don't have any other pair that can generate them. The same is true of 2,3 which is the only way to get six or 2,4 the only way to get 8. And 3,3 or 3,4 which are the only way to get 9 and 12. And lastly 4,4 is the only way to get to 16. You'll note that this is almost all pairs which is easy to iterate over by making the second number greater than or equal to the first. The only pairs left are 1,4 and 2,2 both of which produce a product of 4. So we, as the sun person, now know the product must be four. Given the product and the sum, we can deduce that it's 1,4 because we were told the sun was 5.

When it goes to 100, it's the same process. Except now I have to iteratively eliminate pairs until there is only one solution.