Math quiz time!

Sorry TigerCrew, but she bribed me better than you did.

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Timness
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Timness »

Cirtur wrote:Listen if you don't like words don't use them. Clearly you're having trouble here. A pattern MEANS something repeating of significance. If the point you are trying to make is that you can put together sequences that work, good for you, I wish you all the best in your life*. However, by using the word pattern you asked for something subjective. And the best argument for what comes next is 49 in 3 different ways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern
Any sequence of numbers that may be modeled by a mathematical function is considered a pattern.
Any sequence of numbers that may be modeled by a mathematical function is considered a pattern.

y = 5x + 3 is a pattern.

You're pulling your entire definition of a pattern out of your arz. YOU are the one having trouble here. You have trouble accepting that your idea of a pattern is meaningless mathematically.
Define this "significance" of yours mathematically.

I should be able to look at y = 5x +3 and y = 5x + 5 and see what the significance rating is for the first and what it is for the second.
Is y=10x a better pattern than y=x^2? y=x is a much simpler formula than y=x^2, therefore y=x^2 is obviously not a real pattern by occam's razor.

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Cirtur
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Cirtur »

I believe the disagreement we're having is the result of the fact that you're only exploring the problem mathematically.

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Kimra
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Kimra »

Cirtur wrote:I believe the disagreement we're having is the result of the fact that you're only exploring the problem mathematically.
Here here!

Also. I live on a happy forum, where there aren't numbers and arguments about mathematical theorem. I want that forum back. /sulks/
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Snarky00
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Snarky00 »

Was this a math quiz or a semantics quiz?

The obvious answer is 49. Just adding the next highest odd number each time.

The semantics answer is that any ascending sequence of whole numbers follows a ray pattern so any number higher than 36 could follow. You could also say that since they are all numbers (ignoring their other relationships) so any other number could follow. If that was the case there wouldn't be a set next number so you can't answer it the way that its worded.

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Kimra
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Kimra »

I say if anything can follow than the next number in the sequence is 872ax/i9. If any number is acceptable I don't see why this isn't. Semantics are a bitch.
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Oldrac the Chitinous
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Oldrac the Chitinous »

Because 872ax/i9 killed my family.
Police said they spent some time working out if they could charge the man with being armed with a weapon, as technically he was armed with part of a fish.

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Edminster
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Edminster »

Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Because 872ax/i9 killed my family.
I know for a fact that most of your family escaped the 872ax/i9 attack relatively unscathed.
ol qwerty bastard wrote:bitcoin is backed by math, and math is intrinsically perfect and logically consistent always

gödel stop spreading fud

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Kimra
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Kimra »

Edminster wrote:
Oldrac the Chitinous wrote:Because 872ax/i9 killed my family.
I know for a fact that most of your family escaped the 872ax/i9 attack relatively unscathed.
Yeah but the next attack 49 will destroy all that remain.
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Lethal Interjection
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Lethal Interjection »

Seriously, Tim, where do you think you are? Did you get banned from the XKCD forum and so now you are coming to the forum of the next webcomic on your list? Take a look around man, we aren't exactly math contest people.

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Euclidthegreek
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Euclidthegreek »

. . . I like math contests*. . . :|

*not this one though.
Edminster wrote:I'm starting to think Euclid lives in the past.

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Kimra
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Kimra »

Lethal Interjection wrote:Seriously, Tim, where do you think you are? Did you get banned from the XKCD forum and so now you are coming to the forum of the next webcomic on your list? Take a look around man, we aren't exactly math contest people.
We must answer it all with wit* to show what we truly are good at!

*attempted in my case.
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LordRetard
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by LordRetard »

I guess I can come up with the linguistics answer and see how that works. Actually, I already tried that...

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Sahan
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Sahan »

I have seriously missed out on a whole lot of drama last night, wow.

Also, I'm probably flogging a dead horse, but to claim the answer could be any square number would not make this a pattern. A pattern should enable you to predict what comes next, and what comes after that, and so on. If you say the next value could be any square number, then the whole idea of predictability goes out the window, because there are infinite possible values that could come next.

It would be exactly the same as asking what comes next in this "pattern":
1, 68, 4, 89.6, 56788, -0.5, 0.0002, 79, ...
and giving the answer as being any real number.
Timness wrote:"Any sequence of numbers that may be modeled by a mathematical function is considered a pattern."
^~ I win, sorry. There's NOTHING to do with "significance." This is mathematics, not literary studies.
Actually you have misinterpreted the meaning here. What you have shown is indeed a sequence, and it IS modelled by a mathematic function, that function being: an = n^2, or an+1=an +2n +1
depending on how you want to go about it.
You came up with a function that contains all the values of the sequence, but is not actually the function of the sequence itself.

Hey Ed, can we please make it clear to new people from now on that arguing over stuff like this is not really what we're after? It's put me in a real bad mood today, and I know I'm not the only here who doesn't like dealing with hot-heads who think they know everything.
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Since when is chemistry not a science?

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Cirtur
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by Cirtur »

Maybe we need to promote Rule 11 a bit more vigorously.

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LordRetard
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Re: Math quiz time!

Post by LordRetard »

We have top men working on it right now.

That ought to do the trick!

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