I solved it in under 10 minutes.
I got it.
2581 = 2
I looked it up. I would not have gotten the answer if i tried for a year.
Jesus Christ, I just figured it out and it took me …a while. And now that I discovered the method I feel like an asshole. I hate this puzzle. It’s oppressive.
Ditto. On the bright side, I got it in under 10 minutes!
Three and a bit minutes.
Spoilers.
[tab]I was kinda bemused, then I read “pre-schoolers”, and worked out it couldn’t be anything mathmatical.[/tab]
Another:
10 _____ 10 _____ 10 _____ = 6
You can put any mathematical notation you like into the gaps, but don’t use factors, 'cos that’s too easy.
I wonder what the time difference is between those who have done lots of math and those who have not.
Exactly. That’s the ticket.
I’ve been passing this puzzle around the school I’m in. Until today, I was the only one who could work it… until this math tutor solved it using prime factors and number tables. That was pretty kewl.
She said to take the one’s digits in the code and find out how many prime factors they have and then minus one.
So, for exampe, 4 is 2 x 2, so has 2 factors, minus 1, so 4 = 1.
6 is 2 x 3, has two factors minus one, so 6 = 1.
8 is 2 x 2 x 2, has three factors minus one, so 8 = 2.
9 is 3 x 3, has two factors minus one, so 9 = 1.
She said that the number 0 doesn’t really work this way, but I’m thinking that that doesn’t really matter because if 0000 = 4, then 0 has to be 1. I was also thinking that anything 0 factors with would be 0, so if you used two factors minus one, 0 would still be 1.
?
Please explain in other words how this factoring solves the puzzle.
EDIT : Okay I see how this works.
Spoiler:
[tab]The prime number 2,3,5,7 don’t have the critical loop. The numbers 0 and 1 have just been fudged to make it work out. If we used other symbols for these primes then this method would not work at all. LOL[/tab]
So what you are suggesting is that the faster you work it, the more like a pre-schooler you are.
Actually that makes sense in regards to many things.
The more education one has, the more possibilities one must sort through, hence taking longer investigating false possibilities.
Very often ancient philosophers are right about something but for all the wrong reasons (women are notorious for it).
To solve a problem for children, it often requires forgetting what you know and thinking like a an uneducated child.
It is much like understanding quantum theories or enjoying sci-fi - you must forget rational thinking.
