Riddle Minute

Segovia · Postby **Segovia** » Thu May 14, 2009 12:21 pm

Correct Doc!

Here's my reasoning.

If you figured out the name for purgatory, then you would be given the name Limbo. THe TV reference was from Futurerama, Hermes Conrade is a Limbo Player, and in the episode when they are on that doom cruise ship Hermes wife says Look at that fine piece of Jamaican Bacon. Now if you knew Mythology then you would know the Greek god Hermes is the messanger of the gods and is said to be the fastest being. Hence why he could beat Sonic.

Doc Sigma · Postby **Doc Sigma** » Thu May 14, 2009 2:00 pm

That's exactly how I got it.

When you said "mythology" I knew I was on the wrong track before but quickly got back on the right one. Excellent riddle!

D-puff · Postby **D-puff** » Thu May 14, 2009 6:37 pm

Sadly enough, that was my guess in the first place, but I instantly thought "Naw, thats stupid."

nickspoon · Postby **nickspoon** » Thu May 14, 2009 7:01 pm

Substitute each of the letters X,C,V,I,L with a different decimal digit from 0 to 9 to satisfy this cryptarithmetic equation. None of the four numbers can contain any leading zeroes.

(XV)/(XXXV)=(XLII)/(XCVIII)

Doc Sigma · Postby **Doc Sigma** » Thu May 14, 2009 8:33 pm

x: 2
c: 0
v: 7
i: 1
l: 5

nickspoon · Postby **nickspoon** » Thu May 14, 2009 8:45 pm

Correct.

The square of 38 is 1444, which ends with three fours. What is the smallest positive integer greater than 38 with this property? Brute force checking is cheating.

Doc Sigma · Postby **Doc Sigma** » Fri May 15, 2009 11:37 am

This is a good one! Several times I thought I had come up with a solution, only to discover that my "answer" was just negative 38...

Segovia · Postby **Segovia** » Fri May 15, 2009 11:47 pm

Is it the square root of 2444?

nickspoon · Postby **nickspoon** » Sat May 16, 2009 12:14 am

The square root of 2444 is not an integer.

Segovia · Postby **Segovia** » Sat May 16, 2009 12:15 am

I'm a little rusty with my match vocab, is an integer a whole number?

Dr. Sticks · Postby **Dr. Sticks** » Sat May 16, 2009 1:25 am

technically no; but yes.

Hyperion · Postby **Hyperion** » Sat May 16, 2009 4:14 am

Integers are any non-imaginary and non-fractional numbers (And probably some stuff I've forgotten), which is most "normal" numbers, so the smallest integer after 38 that ends in '444' is 444.

Edit: Unless the question is "Which [number]-squared is the lowest that ends in 444?" In which case I don't know.

nickspoon · Postby **nickspoon** » Sat May 16, 2009 11:14 am

Yes, the question is, more mathematically, "What is the smallest number x such that x^2 ends in the digits '444', x > 38, x ∈ ℤ?"

It'd be far too easy otherwise

Hyperion · Postby **Hyperion** » Sun May 17, 2009 4:05 am

According to one of my math-capable friends the answer is 462.

nickspoon · Postby **nickspoon** » Sun May 17, 2009 11:35 am

That is correct, although I would prefer it if someone offered a method.

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