Where are we supposed to submit our "answers" to? I didn't see any contact info on the site.
$10K for solving a math equation
21–30 of 38 posts
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#22Four equations, five unknowns, all linear. This isn't particularly difficult, just tedious. Because there are more unknowns than equations, your solution should itself be an equation expressing one of the unknowns as a linear function of the other four -- omega = a * beta + b * gamma + c * phi + d * mu, where a, b, c, and d are found by chugging away using your favorite linear solution technique (Gaussian elimination…
Even after doing all that the prize money is for getting the company name right.
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#23The disclaimer at the bottom suggests to me that perhaps there is a second part of the puzzle, which occurs after finding the "answer key" and signing an NDA. So I'm pretty sure no one will pick up $10K for solving a linear system.
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#24Is there an online OCR that can parse that? I suppose then one could feed it to Wolfram Alpha? I tried Google Docs, but it didn't convert anything at all.
Reduce it enough, and Wolfram Alpha generates a visual representation of a plane. But this is also a puzzle - I think the key isn't getting an equation out of it, it is figuring out where they want us to apply said equation.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=81+b-41+w%2B64+x%2B34+z...
β = 68, Δ = 553, φ = 158, μ = 231
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#25Four equations, five unknowns, all linear. This isn't particularly difficult, just tedious. Because there are more unknowns than equations, your solution should itself be an equation expressing one of the unknowns as a linear function of the other four -- omega = a * beta + b * gamma + c * phi + d * mu, where a, b, c, and d are found by chugging away using your favorite linear solution technique (Gaussian elimination…
The only tedious part is typing it out into a linear solver like this one:
http://wims.unice.fr/wims/en_tool~linear~linsolver.en.html
Solution: http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi?session=QW1E82D03B.1&...
Getting the numbers appears to be the easy part in figuring out the new company name.
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#26Is this part of the application process?! There is no easy to find contact information on how to submit the answer key. Obviously solving this is the easy part, but who would we contact?
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#27Mu = 231, Phi = 158, Delta = 553, Beta = 68, Omega=0
Well, none of the 24 combinations of those seems to give a valid IP address. Probably they screwed up. Of course a standard IP address wouldn't have values above 255 anyhow.
Perhaps delta is the port. How do you scan for validity of an IP address?
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#28I'm guessing the name of the company is "Relatively Prime"
Just sayin'
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, none of the 24 combinations of those seems to give a valid IP address. Probably they screwed up. Of course a standard IP address wouldn't have values above 255 anyhow.
Perhaps delta is the port. How do you scan for validity of an IP address?
You can just type the IP address into your browser.
But that is unlikely to be it. If the puzzle maker has even half a brain, those four numbers are only some part of the puzzle. If you look at the equations, they are way more complex than they need to be to give those four numbers. There must be additional data encoded there somehow. Of course if the puzzle maker is clever, there'll also be a clue there somewhere.
Of course these things tend to be done by marketing people who have no idea how to set puzzles. So the solution will probably end up being something really silly. And someone will somehow divine the answer, possibly because they were told ahead of time how to solve the puzzle.
It's rarely worth solving problems like these.
Re: $10K for solving a math equation
#30Mu = 231, Phi = 158, Delta = 553, Beta = 68, Omega=0
231 + 158 + 553 + 68 = 1010
Of course that leaves the infinite omega. 1010 appears to be base 2. So, "10 to infinity" maybe? Maybe? Maybe not. Alright, my 2 minutes of thinking about this are up!