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Missing

cinelli
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Missing

#293438

Postby cinelli » March 23rd, 2020, 1:13 pm

72     99
\ /
\ /
27 45
\ /
\ /
18 39
\ /
\ /
21 36
\ /
\ /
x 28
\ /
\ /
13 21
\ /
\ /
7

The numbers above have been arranged according to a certain rule. What is the value of the missing number x?

Cinelli

ReformedCharacter
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Re: Missing

#293446

Postby ReformedCharacter » March 23rd, 2020, 1:46 pm

I think this has been posted before but annoyingly I cannot remember the answer :)

RC

UncleEbenezer
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Re: Missing

#293479

Postby UncleEbenezer » March 23rd, 2020, 3:47 pm

ReformedCharacter wrote:I think this has been posted before but annoyingly I cannot remember the answer :)

RC

Yes, and some of us played silly games and dropped cryptic clues.

But my tortuous answer needs more posts.

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Re: Missing

#293852

Postby UncleEbenezer » March 24th, 2020, 10:46 pm

Just looked.

Originally posted here by jfgw on May 24th, 2017, with attribution. The first to post a cryptic clue was Gengulphus, just an hour and a half later. Took a bit longer before most of us joined the fun.

cinelli
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Re: Missing

#294779

Postby cinelli » March 27th, 2020, 12:31 pm

I didn't realise this had been posted previously. But it is a marvellous puzzle and I urge all to try for a solution without following UncleEbenezer's link. I will give full attribution with the solution. I tend not to give the source with the problem as it is a temptation to google for an answer.

Cinelli

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Re: Missing

#294792

Postby UncleEbenezer » March 27th, 2020, 1:10 pm

cinelli wrote:I didn't realise this had been posted previously. But it is a marvellous puzzle and I urge all to try for a solution without following UncleEbenezer's link. I will give full attribution with the solution. I tend not to give the source with the problem as it is a temptation to google for an answer.

Cinelli

I agree, it's a fine puzzle, with that splendid red herring to distract you from an answer that should be more obvious.

I suspect the lack of takers here may be because those of us who might bite remember it from first time round. Or already knew it back then. For myself, I don't think I can improve on my convoluted post number [solution] in that thread.

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Re: Missing

#294851

Postby modellingman » March 27th, 2020, 4:17 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:I agree, it's a fine puzzle, with that splendid red herring to distract you from an answer that should be more obvious.


Thank you for that remark. Got me looking at it differently. The required rule then became quite obvious quite quickly.

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Re: Missing

#295072

Postby jfgw » March 28th, 2020, 11:40 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:Just looked.

Originally posted here by jfgw on May 24th, 2017, with attribution. The first to post a cryptic clue was Gengulphus, just an hour and a half later. Took a bit longer before most of us joined the fun.


I had completely forgotten that I had posted this. I have just worked it out - nothing too complicated.

Julian F. G. W.

cinelli
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Re: Missing

#300653

Postby cinelli » April 14th, 2020, 2:45 pm

For completeness it is high time I gave the solution to this problem, and to give full acknowledgement to its creator, Japanese Nob Yoshigahara who considered it his masterpiece.

It all looks straightforward – each number is the difference of the two above. Except for that pesky 7 at the bottom. Surely that is a mistake? But no. The numbers have been ingeniously chosen so that most satisfy two rules. It is only at the final step that one of the rules fails. The rule which satisfies all steps is to add the digits of the two numbers above. For example 21 = 1 + 8 + 3 + 9. Then x = 2 + 1 + 3 + 6 = 12 and sure enough 1 + 2 + 2 + 8 = 13.

Cinelli


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