Number of keys on a phone keypad: 12

214.

245 give it a go

Hi the answer turned out to be 10,864.These puzzles are doing my head in .They have just started a new one.

NINETY DIVIDED BY
FIVE MULTIPLIED BY
TEN MINUS TWELVE

ADD ALL THE NUMBERS

I think they do these because nobody can figure out how they get their answer so they never have to give the prize away.

Will you send me an example by email .Thanks

I'd really love to win this comp as the prize is up at £2,000.

Does anyone have any ideas what the total would be.

angeleyes, e-mail me: - [snip]  so that I can get your e-mail address.  I will then forward you a spreadsheet to see my solution.

If you can get through and it's correct we can share the prize £.

Cheers

Last edited by MathsIsFun (2006-02-27 18:04:31)

welshy: sorry, had to remove your email address because of our under-13 protection policy (I don't know your age so have to assume)

angeleyes: can you tell us more about the competition? and the reasoning behind the answer so that we can do a better job next time.

The puzzle that has just finished (answer 7894) is, of course, designed to make money for the organisers, so it isnt going to be simple! It is designed to be extremely cryptic.

Working on this and the other recent examples, I have been able to get extremely close to the answer on 4 occasions now, so I think I have the general basis (if not entirely correct). It seems to be made up of:

1) the answer to the obvious calculation
2) the summation of the arabic numbers as displayed (and possibly including such things as adding the "nine" from the word "ninety")
3) the summation of all roman numerals (including technically erroneous ones like ID and VID)
4) the answer to all partial calculations (eg, 5*10=50; 5*10-12=38)

Using this method, I have arrived at 7857 and 7869 (the difference being whether or not to include "-12" as a stand-alone calculation. Still either 25 or 37 short of the correct answer.

I honestly don't believe that they have included hex numbers as they would also have to include combinations, as they do for Roman. In this instance, the occurence of the string "ded" in the word "divided" would yield 3565 on its own.

Although most people think that the organisers change the rules for each competition, I actually think that they may be consistent, given that I am consistently very close to the correct answers with this methodology. This would certainly explain why they don't reveal the logic and, to be honest, I prefer to crack it myself rather than be told by the puzzle composer!!

AngelEyes, if my logic is anywhere near correct, the answer is 10,305 or somewhere close to that. This is based on all of the roman numerals as they stand individually plus:

MI, IL, MIL from "MILE"
LI, IV, LIV from "LIVELY"
IX from "SIX"

Then all of the english numbers (6,12,5,22,625,750,500)

Somebody did give an answer of 10,605 last night. Can't see how they got the extra 300 - poss just addition error - but it was wrong anyway!

BTW, for other users:

Thanks Angeleyes for trying to put a graphic representation on here - it almost worked. Anyone who hasn't seen the original on TV may like to know that the image is supposed to be a section of a Monopoly board with 3 properties:

CARLTON MANOR 22 Acres £625. The picture of the house has "12" on the door
WATER COMPANY £750
LIVELY PLACE 5 Bedrooms £500. The picture of the house has "SIX" on the door

Together, these propertiescomprise THE MONEY MILE