really hard puzzle, noone has solved yet...

[billygrippo]

[ QUOTE ]
OMG381

blake

[/ QUOTE ]

wrong.

[The Truth]

Meh, it follows a logical pattern. I think it should count [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

It follows a pattern of 3rd order rate of change.

blake

[billygrippo]

[ QUOTE ]
Meh, it follows a logical pattern. I think it should count [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

It follows a pattern of 3rd order rate of change.

blake

[/ QUOTE ]

please eloborate.

[thijsr]

again you totally mis the point that there is a lot of information in the statement: "the following is a puzzle".

you sequence works and is just a fancier version of philo's: "add a bunch of 1's". You write your answer as a Fourier sequence,
observe 17 initial datapoints and therefore take 18 variables in your sequence.
now you claim you have one degree of freedom left to do what you want.
sure, that's trivial.
it is not the answer to a puzzle though.

implied in the statement that it's a puzzle is the observation that if it is a fourier sequence with 18 terms,
all of them should be obtainable from the initial data. so you are left with one sequence (the one i already hinted to).

this one will probably have the nast feature that it won't map the next number in the sequence to a integer, so it fails
(b/c we are talking about a puzzle).

i don't want to dispute anything you guys are saying about random sequences (ones of which we have no information on its origin or character)
but we are talking about a PUZZLE and that is not a trivial statement.

-matthijs

( [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] i knew i shouldn't have come back to read this thread)

[thijsr]

i was saying the in general we could assume that the rules changes with each entry, although for most puzzle they probably won't.
your rule for each entry (if taken to be constant), has a provision of the type: when n>18 the nth entry is 1. it is therefore of the type :
"if n>m then n=1" with m=18 outside of the initial data. for a mathematical sequence this is fine, not for a puzzle.

i'm sure we agree on most technical aspects of this matter.
i have to disagree though with the sense i was getting from your posts (maybe by mistake, in which case my apologies) that
'this type of thing makes no sense'.
that there is no mathematical rational why 'one solution is prefered above any other' is absolutely without any practical
meaning for a human being and as such an irrelevant critique to a puzzle.

[_TKO_]

matthijs: Well put.

Everyone else: If we all worked together on the puzzle, perhaps we could get the solution. Try posting your reasoning for reaching the answers posted above.

OP: Is the number pattern independent of the letter pattern?

[Exigency]

[ QUOTE ]
philo, if there is a puzzle that starts like this:

2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59


how is the next number ANYTHING BUT 61?!?!?!? this must be the only unique answer to this puzzle. if you can come up with some math or logic that will yeild a different number, please show us now.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll give you two solutions:

Rule 1: Primes that do not include the digit 6. The next value is therefore 71.

Rule 2: Digital Clock Primes. The next number is therefore 101.

"On a 24-hour digital clock, there are 211 possible prime values: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 101, ..."

Ref: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ClockPrime.html

[billygrippo]

[ QUOTE ]

OP: Is the number pattern independent of the letter pattern?

[/ QUOTE ]

the XXX is derived from the 3 sets of given numbers. the ### is derived from the XXX AND the given numbers. and its quite tricky, even with this hint.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

OP: Is the number pattern independent of the letter pattern?

[/ QUOTE ]

the XXX is derived from the 3 sets of given numbers. the ### is derived from the XXX AND the given numbers. and its quite tricky, even with this hint.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since the XXX is derived from the 3 sets of given numbers and the ### is derived from these as well as the XXX, doesn't it follow that the ### is derived soley from the 3 sets of given numbers?

OK, I got the letters to be OMG.

Now, onto the numbers.