replaced http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/ with https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:50

1

Because these have been so successful in the past, I had to bring up my own. In fact, this puzzle was inspired by Find the next number Find the next number even though I (and I guess everybody but the author) still don't know the intended solution yet. Anyway, here it is:

The puzzle

The British inventor Jackemias Muff invented (and build) a number-evolving machine in 1817. (It was a cold, windy winter's day in Manchester, the Sunday before boxing-day.) You could feed it with any number, and it would produce an unambiguously determined, endless series of follow-up numbers.

For example, if you feed it with "8" you would get

8,5,10,14,23,36,47,59,70,78,84,96,...

If you feed it with "28" instead, you would get

28,12,19,28,41,51,61,71,83,96,...

Can you explain how his machine works and build a copy?

Victory condition: A correct answer is able to reproduce both series starting from the same seed values and can successfully predict the next number in each series.

I do not have proof that Muff's machine is unique, although I believe it is.

I will add hints over time, one is given as a starter:

In 1817, computers have not yet been invented. (Well, 'computer' was still a job-description those days..)

Because these have been so successful in the past, I had to bring up my own. In fact, this puzzle was inspired by Find the next number even though I (and I guess everybody but the author) still don't know the intended solution yet. Anyway, here it is:

The puzzle

The British inventor Jackemias Muff invented (and build) a number-evolving machine in 1817. (It was a cold, windy winter's day in Manchester, the Sunday before boxing-day.) You could feed it with any number, and it would produce an unambiguously determined, endless series of follow-up numbers.

For example, if you feed it with "8" you would get

8,5,10,14,23,36,47,59,70,78,84,96,...

If you feed it with "28" instead, you would get

28,12,19,28,41,51,61,71,83,96,...

Can you explain how his machine works and build a copy?

Victory condition: A correct answer is able to reproduce both series starting from the same seed values and can successfully predict the next number in each series.

I do not have proof that Muff's machine is unique, although I believe it is.

I will add hints over time, one is given as a starter:

In 1817, computers have not yet been invented. (Well, 'computer' was still a job-description those days..)

Because these have been so successful in the past, I had to bring up my own. In fact, this puzzle was inspired by Find the next number even though I (and I guess everybody but the author) still don't know the intended solution yet. Anyway, here it is:

The puzzle

The British inventor Jackemias Muff invented (and build) a number-evolving machine in 1817. (It was a cold, windy winter's day in Manchester, the Sunday before boxing-day.) You could feed it with any number, and it would produce an unambiguously determined, endless series of follow-up numbers.

For example, if you feed it with "8" you would get

8,5,10,14,23,36,47,59,70,78,84,96,...

If you feed it with "28" instead, you would get

28,12,19,28,41,51,61,71,83,96,...

Can you explain how his machine works and build a copy?

Victory condition: A correct answer is able to reproduce both series starting from the same seed values and can successfully predict the next number in each series.

I do not have proof that Muff's machine is unique, although I believe it is.

I will add hints over time, one is given as a starter: