Can You Solve the Mystery of 61 52 ?? 94 45?

  • Context: High School 
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a numerical puzzle presented as "61 52 ?? 94 45," with participants exploring potential patterns or rules governing the sequence. The scope includes reasoning about number sequences and the nature of puzzles, with references to similar problems.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests that the second digit in each pair increases by one, but expresses uncertainty about its significance.
  • Another participant questions the accuracy of the last number being 45, proposing that if it were 46, the middle term would be easier to determine.
  • There is a discussion about whether the original poster has confirmed the correctness of the number 45, with some suggesting that the lack of clarification may indicate a desire for participants to struggle with the puzzle.
  • A participant introduces a different sequence puzzle, indicating that there are many ways to generate sequences, which may complicate the search for a definitive answer.
  • Another participant reflects on the nature of similar puzzles, suggesting they may be based on localized knowledge that high school students might encounter.
  • One participant mentions a polynomial they have been considering, hinting at its relevance to the discussion but not providing a clear connection to the original puzzle.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express uncertainty regarding the correctness of the last number in the sequence and whether the proposed patterns hold. Multiple competing views and interpretations of the puzzle remain unresolved.

Contextual Notes

There is ambiguity regarding the assumptions behind the sequence, particularly the significance of the numbers and the potential for multiple interpretations based on different mathematical or contextual frameworks.

TSN79
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I found this on another forum, and no one has figured it out there yet so I thought I could ask here too. It's said that many "smart" guys don't get it, but that many high school students do...

61 52 ?? 94 45

Any suggestions? Apparently the second digit increases by one every step, but I'm not sure it means anything. Could just be a coincident.
 
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Are you ABSOLUTELY sure that the last number is 45 and not 46?
(In that case, the middle term is real easy to figure out)
 
That quickly became an issue at the other forum too, but the thread starter has not stated that 45 (forty five) is wrong.
 
Hmm..has he said outright that 45 is, indeed, correct?
 
No, but he has posted several times since the issue came up, so I suppose he would've said something if it was wrong. Or maybe he just likes to see people struggle to no prevail...
 
That's actually kind of funny. Here's another one for you:


1 2 3 ?? 5 6 \pi

Find the missing number. ;)
 
"Smart" guys would recognize that there are an infinite number of perfectly reasonable ways to produce a sequence of 5 numbers!
 
TSN79 said:
It's said that many "smart" guys don't get it, but that many high school students do...

These sort of things can be very silly. I think it was in the puzzle forum here (perhaps not), someone posted a "find the next number in the sequence" and it turned out to be the sequence of bus or train stops along some specific route in some specific city. Tthis high school reference suggests it's some sequence that high school students (possibly in a very localized area) see often. Though perhaps not, it could really be anything-here's another one, what's next:

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, ??

I should warn anyone who tries to solve this that I've been thinking about the polynomial 15-437/15*x+91/4*x^2-187/24*x^3+5/4*x^4-3/40*x^5 quite a lot lately.
 
shmoe said:
I should warn anyone who tries to solve this that I've been thinking about the polynomial 15-437/15*x+91/4*x^2-187/24*x^3+5/4*x^4-3/40*x^5 quite a lot lately.
And with good reason, too!
The zeroes of that polynomial is so beautifully placed along the real line.
(It was that feature you have pondered over, right?)
 

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