As regular readers and frustrated colleagues know, I circulated an innocent little numeric brainteaser a few days ago.
It provoked some people. Not, alas, to exercise their mathematical skills, but rather to wax wroth in my general direction.
Which I must say was not without entertainment value.
I enjoyed their irate hyperbole.
There there, slow people, there there!
I had mentioned, when posing the puzzle, that to a Dutchman the answer was obvious.
Likewise, Chinese people, Germans, Indians (especially Gujaratis), Jewish people, Hungarians, Scotts, Swiss individuals, plus Vulcans and Ferenghi would also quite likely spot the solution.
[Testing of schoolchildren under the auspices of the United Nations has shown that there are several countries whose students excel at math. For several years the Dutch and the Hungarians would trade places among the top three or four. Americans, of course, were not even in the top ten percent worldwide. Some languages are just more conducive to numeric thinking than English, I guess.]
SERIES OF NUMBERS
1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25.
The puzzle was this: What do these numbers represent?
Or, what is it that makes them a logical series?
When no-one spotted it, I offered a few other series which reflected the same pattern.
Second series:
1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 41, 42, 46, 50.
Third series:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 55, 59, 63, 67, 71, 75.
Fourth series:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 87, 88, 91, 92, 96, 100.
The number of possible series is in fact infinite.
The fifth series starts with 2, so does the sixth series. The seventh series starts with 3.
In Canada, the eighth series starts with 1, but in the United States it starts with 2.
A LITTLE STORY
Several years ago I worked at an Indian restaurant here in the city as bookkeeper / cashier.
You see, I'm pretty good with numbers, unlike most Americans. It's a skill which is probably more useful than knowing baseball statistics, though not so common.
At the end of the evening, the tip jar would be emptied, and the headwaiter (a Punjabi) would divide the loot for the rest of the staff, that being mostly Gujaratis..... plus myself..... and one horribly belligerent and argumentative Tamil woman.
That frightful churail became livid if the headwaiter gave me more than a dollar or two, insisting that her having personally insulted customers face to face merited a far greater share of the tips than any amount of brainwork and attention to detail from a gaura.
Whatever I got was diminishing her share!
After I expressed my irritation at her meddlesome yelping, the headwaiter and the Gujaratis came up with a marvelous solution:
I was not to change the coins in the tip jar on a busy evening. Instead, just leave them be - the frightful South-Indian she-camel paid no attention to loose change. At the end of the night, in addition to the few dollars that the foul-smelling daughter of an owl would allow the headwaiter to give me without screaming bloody murder, he would yield the coins.
Then, while he argued (fought) with her over who else should get how much, I would quietly change them for dollar bills.
The cash register could always use extra coins.
It was a marvelous arrangement. It lasted for several years.
I really do believe that that female ghoul learned how to count over here, rather than in India.
THE MAN WHO COUNTS
Now, why is all of this germane?
Simple. The solution to the puzzle is that the first series are the number of coins which equal one quarter.
The second series, two quarters.
The third series, three quarters.
Fourth series, a dollar.
And so on.
The reason why the eighth series starts with 1 in Canada should be obvious.
Visually one can easily count out coins in units of five, twenty five, four times twenty five........
If your fingers cannot recognize differences among coins, you may be "special".
Surely everyone dreams in numbers, tally sheets, percentages?
Cowrie shells?
Nuance? Detail? Fine distinctions?
You DO count your change at the store, don't you?!?!
Please stay tuned to this site for a disquisition on how to use an Abacus. It's easy.
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THEIR NATURAL HABITAT
There are more dogs in this neighborhood than children. One very rarely sees people walking their children outside when one is, hypothetical...
3 comments:
That's what I meant when I said I usually pay by credit card when I'm in America.
Oh.
I don't actually handle coins, except to empty out my pockets or purse into the tzedakah jar occasionally.
The result of being an office worker who pays for everything with a debit card.
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