Math Is Fun Forum

Zeroface

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 11

process of elimination

here is a puzzle:

18, 7, 3, 9, 56, 12, 350, 67, 831, 36, 645, 34, 78, 13

No it's not a sequence that you finish. Eliminate all numbers that are not connected to a certain other number in the list.

---

0 can be nothing and something.
                        0

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: process of elimination

I could find perfectly valid reasons which differ from yours.  Heck, I say that all the evens are connected.  Perhaps you need to specify a little more about what you mean by "connected".

---

"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,713

Re: process of elimination

So, there is a "master" number somewhere in the list, and we should eliminate all numbers not connected to it?

---

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

Toast

Real Member

Registered: 2006-10-08

Posts: 1,321

Re: process of elimination

Well, so far I think the master number is 67, because it is neither a multiple or factor of any other number. What do you think?

Zeroface

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 11

Re: process of elimination

Alright then, let me make it a little more clear. Study every single number in the list indepentely. This is the the way to come to your answer.

---

0 can be nothing and something.
                        0

rida

Real Member

Registered: 2006-09-25

Posts: 839

Re: process of elimination

I think the master number is 3 because a lot of them are multiples of 3 so you eliminate the numbers that aren't multiples of 3.

---

Dreams don't come true, you gotta make them come true.

Simon

Member

Registered: 2006-06-06

Posts: 41

Re: process of elimination

For the record, I beleive the there are two numbers to eliminate - 67 & 34.

All the rest are divisable - or can be divided by - one or more of the others.