Can You Solve This Engineering Brain Teaser?

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The discussion revolves around an engineering exam question that the original poster, Tom, is struggling to solve. He shares his findings related to the differences between certain numbers (5, 15, and 20) and expresses confusion about the problem's context. Another participant suggests that the question might contain a typo and proposes a potential linear equation based on hypothetical input sets. This equation leads to an output that does not match the initial options provided, concluding that the answer is likely E. The conversation highlights challenges in interpreting the problem and the collaborative effort to derive a solution.
Tom McCurdy
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I was looking through some old exams for my engineering class and uncovered the following question...

If you would like to know the answer please scroll down and highlight the text

But I don't have any clue how to get it. If anyone can figure it out that would be great... thx

-tom


















Answer: E
 

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Unfortunately I have never been very good at these sorts of problems so I don't really have anything else to offer.
---edit---
It looks like Greg may have changed the background colour.
 
Sorry it doesn't show on the old forum at least for me... I still have it set up for the old school view...

so far all i got is the difference between
8-13 is 5
13-28 is 15
and 28-8 is 20

working on this idea.
 
I have also found another thing that may help

the problem is 2 dimensional linear equations
 
y can't I see the question? :)
 
If the equation is linear, then in my opinion, there is a typo in the question. Perhaps it should read:

Input A: {1, 0, 1, 1, ...}
Input B: {0, 1, 1, 10, ...}

Output: {8, 13, 28, 208, ... }

If this is the case, the linear equation is f = -7 + 15 * a + 20 * b. Then the inputs a = 10, b = 0 would produce the output f = -7 + 15 * 10 = 143. Since this is not one of the first 4 choices, the answer is E.
 
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