The Curious Incident of the Dog
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story ‘Silver Blaze’, we find:
‘Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?’
‘To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.’
‘The dog did nothing in the night-time.’
‘That was the curious incident,’ remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Here is a sequence: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 29, 41, 44
Having taken Holmes’s point on board: what is the next number in the sequence?
Eleanor Lovell
23 Nov 2009 09:40
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Tags: Mathschallenge
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Comments (3)
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Simon Whitehouse
This has got me a bit stumped. But.
In Mark Haddon’s, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time, there is a lovely description of prime numbers:
Which lead me to noting the numbers that aren’t in the sequence listed. I came up with the following
0, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42
From which the 3s and 5s jumped out at me. There are certainly no multiples of either in the sequence in the question. That still leaves me with
13, 23, 31, 32, 34, 37, 38
so I’m guessing that the sequence in the question also has any number with the digit 3 or 5 in it stripped out as well. By which logic, the next numbers in the sequence will be
46, 47, 49, 61, 62, 64, 67 . . . . .
I’m not convinced that it’s the right answer though
23 Nov 2009, 11:00
Samuel Boulby
I’m with you on that Simon – no multiples of 3 and 5, no numbers containing the digits 3 and 5, that’s the pattern.
23 Nov 2009, 11:09
Eleanor Lovell
Your answer is spot on Simon!!
25 Nov 2009, 14:26
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