So my 5th grade daughter comes home last night with a whole page full of number patterns to "solve". She sits down and solves every one of them... but one. We're talking some serious patterns here, I was quite impressed with her thought process in coming up with the answers to some of them.

Now, the big questions is asked...Mom will you help me with this one problem? Three hours later, many pieces of scrap paper, until I could barely keep my eyes open any longer, I still couldn't figure out the pattern. (I even tried to cheat and find a webpage to help me...no luck.)

So I give it over to you, my dear MATH1 friends. It, I'm sure, will be so obvious to you all (I'm not from the South y'all) and I will feel like a total moron, loser, but I will not rest if I don't have the answer. (And if there is a website that will calculate patterns, please let me know, so my daughter will, again, think I'm the smartest person on earth)

Here...the devil's pattern 64 ( ) 100 ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 225

Godspeed - Barb

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Answers

It's 8 through 15 multipled by itself.

8 X8 = 64 9 X 9 = 81 10 X 10 = 100

so on to 15 X 15 = 225.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

We could make this the Sewing/Knitting/Crafts topic, though, to keep it alive.

For starters, here's what I'm currently working on, hopefully to get this.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Oh, and the MOC has the mad math skillz, of course.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

DO YOU SEE WHY I LOVE THE MAN?!?!?!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Damn, Al, what's your new job? Publicist, MOC Co.? Take it to the Pimp Your SO thread. Don't make me bring in my mad-math-skillz (well, mad-if-slightly-rusty-medieval-history-skillz) boy for a Online Journal Writer's SO Deathmatch.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Allison - A man with Iron Chef Trivia Wizadry and mad math skills??? Sent from heaven....bet he's cute, too.

Chris - You are my new secret boyfriend - don't tell Allison. Thanks so much. I will again reign supreme in the eyes of my children. (I'll, of course, give credit to you!)

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

First of all, the MOC doesn't need a publicist. He prefers to remain hidden in the cheesy shadows, coiled to strike (possibly with his master's degree in history, so don't step) at unexpected moments.

Barb, I would have never gotten that.

More patterns!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Okay, Al. Here are some:

What are the next three numbers?

1.) 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66, 78, 91, 105...

2.) 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144....

3.) 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500....

4.) 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 6, 8....

They get consecutively harder, and I don't know the answers, so...go to town!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Wait... is this Test Al's Math Knowledge? Because I had Ms. Holt for Algebra and she explained things in metaphors. For example:

AL: "Ms. Holt, I still don't understand how x equals 2 minus y in this problem."

Ms.Holt: "Allison, chile... you got your basic black skirt... now... you don' just wear that skirt with one thing! No! You mix and match!!"

That last part was said in a mysterious tone like it held the answer to all the world's theorems of math, combined.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

1.) 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66, 78, 91, 105... next is 120 (adding consecutive numbers: 1 +2=3 +3=6 +4=10 +5=15 +6=21 and so until +15)

2.) 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144.... next is 169 (adding consecutive odd numbers: 1 +3=4 +5=9 +7=16 +9=25 and so until +25)

3.) 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500.... no idea

4.) 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 6, 8.... again no idea

dig me solving the easy ones with my sad math skillz

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

See, I got the first and second ones as well, but I'll never get the last two. Especially #4.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Also, on the craft tip, aw at the little stuffed mousies!

I'm currently crocheting a baby afghan; it's a simple double crochet pattern done with two thread of variagated white&baby pastels yarn. (It's supposed to be one thred of white and one of thread of variagated but my variaged is mostly white so I was getting a 95% white baby blanket.) It's my first crochet project and it's going, eh, okay.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Al, I'm just sayin', you don't have to rub it in for all of us who don't have MOCs of our own. 'Cause I could talk about how my man can make a Linux box out of thin air and buys me beautiful fountain pens and produces fudge now famous in the RCW offices. But that is not the thread for such things.

So I am not known for my math skillz either: 2.) 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144 are squares. 1x1=1, 2x2=4, 3x3=9, 4x4=16, and so on. Slickery's statement is also true. Next would be 169 (13x13), 196 (14x14), and 225 (15x15).

3.) 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 -- I'm stumped, for now.

4.) 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 6, 8 -- okay, it's not adding, which is what I first thought. My second thought was that it's "Ode to Joy" written out in Your First Casio style, but that doesn't work either.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Wait! AB, #3 could be denominations of U.S. bills.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Heeeeee. If it was Ode to Joy, it would be 3,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1,1,2,2,3,2,2.

That is hilarious.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Um, ok, so I am trying and trying to figure out the pattern of number 4, and I have finally figured out some fucked up pattern that I like to think works. But it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so probably that's not it.

But if my pattern were correct, then this is what would come after the first part of #4: 6,6,9,7,5,5...

It kinda *looks* good, doesn't it?

You won't like it as much when you hear my convoluted calculations. See, it's a pattern where each section of the pattern has 8 parts! First you multiply by 1, then add a number (let's call it 2+) which begins with two and increases by 1 in section of the pattern. Then you subtract a number which begins with 1 (let's call it 1-) and increases by 1 in each section of the pattern. Then you subtract that number again. THEN you add the 2+ number, multiply by 1, then subtract your 1-. Then you subtract it again.

Following this pattern, if you start with three (another problem with my pattern - it doesn't take into account why the hell you'd start with 3), the following numbers are those in the problem.

Good lord. Even I don't believe it's the real pattern. But still, I killed a good ten minutes of work time playing with it!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

I did the same thing, Jessie, but in a different way--but I came up with your answers.

I checked to see if it was right, though, and it's not. Y'all want a hint?

Still working on #3...

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Oh, man, I cheated and googled an answer for #4. Damn, there is NO way I would have gotten that answer, with my thinking cap on the way it was on!

I think you should give a hint, Anna Beth!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Okay, here's the hint for #4:

Think numbers of letters.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

There's math in MATH.

Too much. Brain eating itself.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Hello, my name is Barbara and I am a Patterns Idiot.

What? Oh, sorry, wrong room. I thought I was in Math Idiots Anonymous.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, 3, 6, 6, 8. . . . I think the next three numbers are 7,7,3. But I have no idea why. And that has nothing to do with letters.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

I take that back. I forgot about the 4,3 part of it. My little fake answer doesn't work. Stupid!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

One (3), two (3), three (5), four (4) ...

It's the number of letters in every number, in numerical order.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Yes!

Mike is GENIUS!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Oh, duh.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

And I am, apparently,

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Nah.

I vaguely recalled getting that pattern in high school, but forgot what the trick was. But as soon as AB said "letters", I remembered.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

WG! He makes fudge? I am sooo jealous. My sister doesn't send me fudge anymore and mine always turns rock hard. *Sigh*

Oh yeah, something on topic: Go Mike! YOU THE MAN!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Good god. I am having the WORST junior high math flashbacks.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Amen, T. This is like the kind of crap they used to make you do on the last day before Christmas vacation.

No offense to you math geniuses, of course.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I'm so sad that I missed out on all the math fun!

I really liked one of the patterns from the spark IQ test:

1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, 312211, ...

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2001

i was told there would be no actual math with this forum

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

i was told there would be no actual math with this forum

Not if I can help it. Come on, folks, humor me. My pattern is *so* easy once you know it.

Also, did we ever figure out this one: 3.) 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500.... no idea

Somebody suggested that it was denominations of US currency. I think this is probably right... which makes the next 3: 1000, 5000, 10000.

However, those last three bills haven't been printed since 1961...

What bothers me is that there's obviously another pattern. Why did the US government originally choose those denominations? The pattern is pretty complex, but makes a lot of sense.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Why did the US government originally choose those denominations?

I'm not sure, but I think it's to cut down on the number of notes or coins needed to make up any given amount. (Australia has the same denominations for notes, starting with $5; in coins we have 5c/10c/20c/50c/$1/$2. We only got them in 1966 though.) For example, if you have $27, you would need at least 3 notes; if there were no $2 or $20 notes, you would need at least 5.

There's not much point issuing $3 or $4 bills because their convenience is outweighed by the confusion of having too many denominations.

As I say, I'm not entirely sure about all this. Primary school was a long time ago...

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Also:

My pattern is *so* easy once you know it.

It's bloody difficult when you *don't* know it. I thought it was binary or base 3, but then that 3 popped up and threw me right off.

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001