[Capuchin]

Hehe someone will get it, I was being a little sarcastic with the given it away comment :p

I know someone at my place of work who got it (took them half a day though)

[galactus]

No worries. I'm not thin-skinned

So there:p :D

[asterisk_man]

*dim bulb*

[Evil dead]

0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 9, 5, 1, 1, 0, 55, 55, 1.

Hmm. This is something to do with square root or cube root. The way it shoots up to 55 then straight back down to 1 is quite bemusing.

How ever, what I do know that it is based on Computer Science or some sort of Binary Code.

[Capuchin]

Hi Evil dead and welcome to the discussion!

Maybe you and asterisk man can shove your heads together! :)

[asterisk_man]

Based on the initial 4 zeros I'm led to believe that the function is f(n-1,n-2,n-3,n-4) and that terms 1 2 3 4 are the initial conditions.

[Capuchin]

You would be incorrect in that belief.

[asterisk_man]

is it a sequence which is defined by the numbers that capuchin and galactus randomly generate for the purpose of keeping asterisk_man in a perpetual state of confusion?? If that's the case, is the next term in the sequence ?

[Capuchin]

Eheehehehhehe

Okay here is a huge clue.

The terms that you might want to concentrate on are five, six, eleven and twelve.

[colbtech]

Well I can't remember the last time an England opener scored 55 ? Cou;dn't you have started with a sequence like 1,2,3,4,5,

Think I could have coped with that one. (Hint: Nothing to do with cricket!)

[Capuchin]

Another clue?

The sequence is poorly defined beyond term 34

[galactus]

Cap, ol' buddy, it's time you gave it up. Think mapping and Roman numerals.

[Capuchin]

Yes I completely forgot about this lol

The sequence is formed by taking each term, removing all letters that aren't I, V, X, L, C, D, or M, and then reading the number as a roman numeral.

for example, six = ix = 9
twelve = lv = 55

It's poorly defined after term 34 because thirty-five is iiv which is not a standard roman numeral.

It is sequence A002904 in the The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.

Thanks for playing.

[galactus]

The pattern is rather obscure.

one=0
two=0
three=0
four=0
fIVe=4
sIX=9
seVen=5
eIght=1
nIne=1
ten=0
eLeVen=55
tweLVe=55
thIrteen=1
fourteen=0
fIfteen=1
sIXteen=9
seVenteen=5
eIghteen=1
nIneteen=1
twenty=0
twenty-0ne=0
twenty-two=0
twenty-three=0
twenty-four=0
twenty-fIVe=4
twenty-sIX=9
twenty-seVen=5
twenty-eIght=1
twenty-nIne=1
thIrty=1
.
.
.
.
.
seVenty-sIX=59

And so on and so on. See the pattern?

[Capuchin]

Why is vix 59? :/ it's poorly defined also. Could be 59, or 4, or 14, or 45. They would write 59 as lix

[agneau]

okay, a mini clue, it's an infinite sequence.

This reminds me of this other sequence: 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 6...

(although that looks fairly regular... it is not about the numbers themselves but about the number of letters in the words ONE, TWO, THREE etc... )

I am convinced they are similar somehow... but I am thrown by the 0, 0, 0... assuming it is something to do with the words ONE, TWO etc... could it be a formula e.g. relating the number of vowels to consonants? Or should I be looking at other languages than English?

ONE, TWO, THREE all have
abs(Vowels - Consonants) - 1 = 0
but this fails with FOUR

and it could never give an answer of 9!

before I try to pursue this any further and totally go mad... am I on the right track?

a

[Capuchin]

Erm, I've given the answer ;)

[agneau]

Erm, i've given the answer ;)

LOL... I guess I should make sure I have read the whoe thread, not just the first page, before replying! At least that gave me something fun to think about for a bit. And I am relieved I wasn't being completely thick. That is the sort of sequence it is impossible to work out unless you have a BIG clue... like the answer!

Thanks

A

[Capuchin]

It's not that hard, you just need to tweak it.

[asterisk_man]

OK. I was starting to get in the right ballpark. I knew that it had something to do with the names of the numbers. Though I hadn't quite made the leap to roman numerals yet.

Tricky sequence!