Ummm...Steve, it's all in the apostrophe...or lack thereof.

"When do RABBITS have 8 feet?"

NB: RABBITS, not RABBIT'S

smp

Steve...c'mon brother...the answer is right before your bloodshot eyes! Consecutive number sequences are sequences constructed by concatenating numbers of a given type. Many of these sequences were considered by Smarandache, so they are sometimes known as Smarandache sequences.

The nth term of the consecutive integer sequence consists of the concatenation of the first n positive integers: 1, 12, 123, 1234, ... (Sloane's A007908; Smarandache 1993, Dumitrescu and Seleacu 1994, sequence 1; Mudge 1995; Stephan 1998; Wolfram 2002, p. 913). This sequence gives the digits of the Champernowne constant.

Fleuren (1999) verified the absence of primes up to n = 200, a result extended to the first terms by Weisstein (Apr. 17, 2005). This is roughly consistent with simple arguments based on the distribution of primes which suggest that only a single prime is expected in the first or so terms.

Subsequently, I have absolutely no freakin' idea of what any of this means and must humbly point out the obvious answer -- ask the teacher!

Yep, no idea. Here is a fun one that should make you feel better. Add up this series of numbers as you go. It helps to do so aloud.

1000

40

1000

30

1000

20

1000

10

So, you got 5,000, right? Right. Now, add them up with pencil and paper.

I have a math degree. So does my wife, and she is a math teacher. But I had never seen this before.

Look at the first number and say what you see., then write down what you said.

You say "one 1" so the next number is 11.

Look at 11, say "two 1s", write 21.

Look at 21, say "one 2, one 1", write 1211.

Now it gets tricky.

One way to do this would have you look at 1211, say "one 1, one 2, two 1s" - but this puzzle requires you to scan the whole number left-to-right one digit at a time:
Look at 1211, say "three 1s, one 2" = 3112

Then look at 3112 the same way,
say "one 3, two 1s, one 2" = 132112

Then say "three 1s, one 3, two 2s" to get 311322 as the next number.

These are called "inventory puzzles" because the answer involves some form of counting how many items you are looking at. They are nasty.

p.s. Steve Neruda: no, I got 4,100.

Steve,
Thanks for reminding me why I hated math and went into writing.

Whoa! You are the man Tim.

Tim - Well of course you did, since that is correct. It is the rare individual, indeed, who can resist saying 5000. It is of course ALSO the rare individual who has a math degree and posts to this very blog!

In fact, I was furiously trying to have a coworker post a note so I could follow up my own note with the answer - although I cheated mercilessly to find it (just google 132112 series puzzle). Had a snarky comment all ready to go too...

SN

So it appears that the key to solving the puzzle is to have the mind oif a 5-year-old. Wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of that.

Next puzzle: why are there so many of us Canadians here?

Because the weather has turned you into borderline alcoholics.

DATE: 04/27/2005 10:71:7P AM
Tim is cool.

DATE: 04/27/2005 10:83:9P AM
Whoever thought this up likes numbers way too much and has a sick sense of humour. (that's the canadian spelling of humor by the way - I'm crappy with numbers but words are easy). All I can say is I'm glad I'm not in kindegarten anymore.

DATE: 04/27/2005 01:34:8P PM
Is that the Canadian spelling of Kindergarten as well?

A thousand pardons Kelly - I had to get the snarky comment out one way or the other...

SN

DATE: 04/27/2005 02:83:6P PM
I'm going to go WAY out on a limb here and guess that it's repeating, growing pattern, and looked at it vertically and horizontally. Without looking up the answer on Google, I'm going to guess:
411321

This is probably incredibly, embarrassingly, wrong, but I'm feeling inclined to gamble today.

DATE: 04/27/2005 03:55:7P PM
Tee hee Steve. Maybe I never went to kindergarten - and I have a mental block in regarding the spelling because it was was such a traumatic experience watching all my little friends trot off to school while I stayed home in my igloo eating seal fat. You should really be careful about dissing Canadians, or I'll send the RCMP after you (that's the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - our national police force that is unfortunately best known for something called The Musical Ride - eeek). By the way, now that you've posted your snarky comment, do you feel better?

DATE: 04/27/2005 08:54:7P PM
Much, thanks. In fact, I work with a resident of Moncton, New Brunswick (stand up and take abow, Monique!), who is taken to great fits of righteous indignation whenever Canada (or, as I like to call it, Northern Wisconsin) suffers an insult. Which is usually all the encouragement I need.

SN

DATE: 04/27/2005 09:21:3P PM
I'm actually in western Canada (also known as northern Montana) but I think I'd like Monique. Canadians rock and everyone around the world loves us - which is more than I can say for our friends south of the border who apparently try to pass themselves off as Canadians when they travel by posting a maple leaf on their clothing/luggage. It never works though, when someone asks them where they are from and they say Toronto because it's the only Canadian city they know, other people know they're lying because no one admits to being from Toronto.

And now that we're totally off the subject of numbers, (thank goodness), I think I might actually go back to work. Good day, eh!

DATE: 04/27/2005 10:71:3P PM
Hello -- This is Monique from Moncton, and Steve has been intent on pulling me into this discussion on Canada (furiously instant mssging & emailing).

Kelly -- Steve N. is every bit as snarky in person as he is on this blog. He doesn't get Canada -- the politeness, civility, the universal focus on the greater good, etc.

Since I live in Illinois, I miss Tim Horton coffee (Starbucks has nothing on Tim Horton), Harvey's hamburgers, and Fundy lobster -- yum. And the beer is infinitely superior. One thing about the U.S. though -- you can't beat the entertainment value of the political landscape. Although I know that Canada's Liberal Party is trying real hard (the Americans reading this will no doubt wonder what the hell I'm talking about; raise your hand if you do).

DATE: 04/27/2005 11:22:0P PM
What is all this stuff about Northern Wisconsin/ Northern Montana? I thought it was all just Southern Alaska!

DATE: 04/27/2005 22:75:0P PM
this hurts my head :(

DATE: 04/27/2005 28:61:2P PM
Please tell me no five-year-old could really solve that puzzle.

DATE: 04/27/2005 33:44:5P PM
I'm going to run this puzzle by my wife, who is an assistant principal at a K-3 elementary school. Maybe the little darlings just look at life differently than us grown-ups, but I strongly suspect everyone will be saying, "Huh?"

DATE: 04/28/2005 02:80:2P PM
Ok, a few short thoughts on this very entertaining blog:

1. Math bites.

2. Tim rocks for understanding the math.

3. What kind of crazy-*ss Montessori-college prep-Kindergarten is this you have your son in, Steve?

4. Canadians, in general, rock. I should know...I am married to one. And he is currently struggling with the fact that our new street address has the word "Harbor" in it and he REALLY wants to spell it "Harbour"!

Sonya

DATE: 04/28/2005 29:93:0P PM
To Sonya's first point above, I would highly recommend a little ditty by another functional alcoholic, James Buffett, Esquire. Tune is called "Math Suks" and its on his album Beach House on the Moon.

A selection:
"Let's start with something simple, like one and one ain't three
Any two plus two will never get you five.
There are fractions in my subtraction and x don't equal y
But my homework is bound to multiply.
Math suks"

SN

DATE: 04/28/2005 80:13:8A PM
Wow. There are some really smart people out here . . . which is nice to know, since, as someone at Ragan said to me last week: "You're entire blog community is made up of borderline alcoholics."

I, of course, took offense to the namby pamby qualifier, "borderline," preferring the more accurate, "functional."

Anyway, Tim . . . you ARE the man. So now that I had the solution, I finally sat down with Zach and showed him the puzzle. I explained the concept, gave him the series of numbers, and after studying it for about 45 seconds, had the only response that I could have been proud of. He said:

"Dad, can we play baseball now?"

RIGHT ANSWER!!!!!!

Steve C.

DATE: 04/28/2005 81:01:8A PM
Teachers are giving 5-year olds puzzles like this, yet so many are graduating from high school not knowing how to read or write at a 5-year old level. It makes perfect sense!

DATE: 04/28/2005 81:91:5A PM
Sorry for the You're instead of the required Your, group. Sometimes, neither side of my brain seems to work very well.

Steve C.

DATE: 04/29/2005 23:44:6P PM
First off - I have been so busy working I missed this whole thing until just now and I'm so sad. I, too, in addition to being IT geek am a math geek. Actually I was a math geek before a computer geek, having changed majors when I realized there was no money in teaching high school math.

Anyway -

1. Steve Neruda is totally snarkilicious and makes me laugh.
2. Math does NOT suck. I *heart* math
3. My name is Rebecca, and I'm a borderline alcoholic.
4. What kind of crazy-*ss Montessori-college prep-Kindergarten is this you have your son in, Steve? ( I really liked Sonya's question)
5. If a person blog's in the forest, and there's no wi-fi signal there for someone to read it...pour yourself a martini and study math by adding the olives you've used.

It's Friday, there are martini's in my future.

Rebecca OUT.

The answer is simple.
111111
Respectively, if the answer above is the last number in the sequence.

By the way, let me explain...
If you go vertical in sequence, 1, 1, 2... the next number would be 1 again. Next number sequence... 1, 3, 1, the next number would be 1. Do this through the whole problem left to right and tell me otherwise =P