h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And "rationale".

There's no reason my solution should be any more correct than theirs - I just fitted their numbers into a cubic polynomial model (as you can always do with a sequence of that length) There are other models which could be used - I just chose a simple one.

"Oddly, the next number in the sequence is 10364 (it starts to increase again)."

Next number after your number or after the 1460?

After the 1460. But then cubic polynomials do wiggle up and down a bit in the middle.

OK, good. Now, as you say, your answer may not be any more "correct" as their answer, but it does seem more logical.

Here's theirs:

9158; take the number formed by the odd digits in the correct order from the previous number multiplied by the number formed by the digits of the even numbers. so 75,634 produces 753 x 64 = 48192.



Here's the original series so you don't have to go back a page:

75634, 78192, ?, 7320, 1460

Yes, I like their answer, but it's fiendishly difficult to spot.

Do they have any kind of indicator to the difficulty of each puzzle?

I have to say the bacteria question seemed very straightforward (although I didn't go for the fact the exponential growth thing); while today's seems almost impossible.

The bacteria was rated 6/10 with a target time of 4 minutes.
Today's was 7/10 @ 8 minutes.

>>while today's seems almost impossible.

But isn't that the thing with puzzles like that...ans also with crosswords and IQ tests? Once you've been trained up in what to look for, they're easier. Hence thre criticism of IQ tests as culturally biased.

Take, for instance, this old chestnut:

Next number in the sequence:
3 3 5 4 4 3 5 5 4 ...

3

RF

42. Obviously.

For what it's worth, with judicious application of logs, I calculate that the answer to the bacteria question should be 15.3 approximately, assuming normal logarithmic behaviour. And assuming I didn't screw up my working.

Bob.

Correct, RF. But my point is that it simply requires knowing how such puzzles work.

To be arch-technical - bacterial do not 'normally' grow exponentially. Their log phase only happens when they have plenty of food and not too many competitors.

Their growth curve (in a finite growth medium) has a lag phase, a log phase, a stationary phase and a death phase.

So if you *really* want to do it properly concerning bacteria then you
cannot answer this question at all as you don't have enough information.

Frankly I think you were overcomplicating the question - as has been pointed out as they should have maybe called them marbles.
My take on it is that it's just too easy a question to be considered challenging.

I think you're being pedantic. The way the question was phrased clearly (to me) implied that the question setter was looking for the intersection of two linear progressions. It was, for the pedant, an error on the part of the setter to use bacteria as the example. Even children know that bacterial growth is not linear, even if they can't state it in those terms.

It's the curse of the clever to be plagued with questions like this by the ignorant. In my experience, one goes through the following phases:

1. You hear a question like "Which animal has no vocal chords?". You don't know the answer. You learn the "correct" answer. Fine.

2. You discover that the answer is not, in fact, correct, and is in fact a commonly held misconception.

3. You hear the question again. You point out to the questioner that, in fact, it is a commonly held misconception, and that they are wrong, and that (a) the word "animal" is not synonymous with the word "mammal", and (b) giraffes do, in fact, have vocal chords. They do not hear you. What they hear is "blah blah blah, I am cleverer than you, blah blah blah, you are an ignorant idiot". They punch you in the face.

4. You hear the question again. You judge that the ignorant idiot in front of you is likely to punch you in the face if you point out the truth, so you say "Giraffe", and perpetuate their self-satisfied ignorance. Congratulations, sellout. Comfort yourself by watching an episode of QI and reading snopes.com, both of which celebrate knowing the actual truth about things rather than the lazy myths. And don't, whatever you do, EVER discuss religion.

I once lost a game of Trivial Pursuit against my chemistry teacher because I knew the correct answer to the question "Who was the Captain of the Hispaniola". The answer on the card was "Long John Silver". If you're clever, get used to living in a world of dolts.

Actually it is true that Giraffe's have no vocal chords

giraffes

All the best games have an element of luck in them.

Well I never, not it's not.

http://www.animalvoice.com/Giraffe.htm