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Thanks. The hint did it.
Sad to say, I think I've met this consultant on more than one occasion!
One fine day, there was a shepherd working in the fields. As he herded his sheep and enjoyed the sunshine he felt contented and pondered on just how fortunate he was. As he gained satisfaction from his work he was surprised to note the shiny BMW that had just driven into his field. To his bewilderment, out stepped a smartly dressed gentleman who greeted him with a warm enthusiastic tone:
Good morning, Farmer Giles! What a fine day it is!
Not wishing to appear impolite, Farmer Giles replied in kind Hello sir, what can I do for you?
Well replied the newly arrived stranger I thought there might be something I could do for you. It occurs to me that you might like me to help tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your field. In return, all that I ask is that I could have just one of those sheep for myself.
More out of curiosity than any genuine need, Farmer Giles agreed to this offer. He waited with interest to see how a city gent could possibly set about such a task.
The man proceeded to take a tiny laptop from his car, hook up via his satellite phone to a passing spy satellite, photograph the field from 100 miles above the planet, run a piece of image recognition software and, within minutes, return with the answer ..
Mr Giles, you have 1,586 sheep in this field. Is that correct?
Mildly impressed by the clever use of technology, he agreed that there were, indeed, 1,586 sheep. By now, Giles was feeling a little dazed and confused as he watched our mystery caller take his fee and place one of the animals in the back seat of the car. But, then, a flash of inspiration prompted him to propose the following:
Sir, may I have an opportunity to recover what I have just lost? If I can tell you what job you do, will you return it to me?
Certainly, what do you think I do?
You are a consultant said Giles triumphantly.
Crestfallen, our BMW man reluctantly admits that he is, in fact, a consultant. But how did you know? he challenges.
Easy! says Giles Firstly, you arrived here unannounced and without an appointment. Secondly, you answered a question that I didnt ask. Thirdly, it was a question to which I already knew the answer. Fourthly, you had the audacity to charge me for the privilege and, finally, you still know absolutely nothing about my business ..
Now, give me back my dog!
Ten days may be more useful! More to the point, did this sad individual have a practical purpose for putting numbers in boxes?
Now hidden. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
Almost exactly. The only minor difference is that the values £625 & £750 are at the bottom of the screen (as per the £500). I doubt it makes any difference to the answer, but given that we dont yet have a definitive methodology for the calculation, I have to assume that the physical position COULD be relevant!
Hi, guess I may be a little older than some of you (46 actually), but still behaving in ways that my mother disapproves of. An accountant for 25 years, now running my own hotel & restaurant in the English countryside. Stumbled on this site thanks to an infuriating problem set by a TV game show and thoroughly enjoying giving the grey cells a work out.
Above all else, hoping not to make a fool of myself, having forgotten all of my calculus!
Please excuse me, I am a new member. I have now read the thread about hide buttons and the benefit to other users of keeping the answers concealed. I will try using that next time!
Scrub that last post! That method actually creates 12 triangles!!
Trick question!
A pentagram already has 5 triangles within it. Joining any two pairs of alternate nodes on the inner pentagon will create 3 new triangles within the central pentagon and one more with one of the extarnal points. Total 9.
Insomnia:
Yes, that theory has been suggested, but adding the numbers making up each number on the last puzzle (answer 7894), this method would only have yielded 4243 or, if including the results of the calculations, way more than 7894.
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
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!
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!!