Riddles and solution

[lyorn]

I posted some riddles at a blog, and have been asked for spoiler-less answers. So here's the riddles, the way I posted them. The answers are in the comments.


Not arithmetic at all:

20 1 18 4
M N B V ...
10 6 13 1 ...
1783 1848 1871 1947 ... (Only one number follows).

Double number sequence:

4 19 7 15 11 10 ...

Arithmetics on a hillside:

1 1 3 4 ...
0 2 2 2 ...
1 2 1 4 ...

Comments

Solutions

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

Not arithmetic at all:

The dart board: 20 1 18 4 13 6 10
The key board: M N B V C X Z (or Y)
The months of the year, first letter in numbers: 10 6 13 1 13 10 10
The French republics: 1783 1848 1871 1947 1958

Double number sequence:
4 19 7 15 11 10 16 4 22 -3

(that's
A: 4 [+3] 7 [+4] 11 [+5] 16 [+6] 22
B: 19 [-4] 15 [-5] 10 [-6] 4 [-7] -3
in a ABAB... pattern)

Arithmetics on a hillside:
1 1 3 4 3 6
0 2 2 2 5 32
1 2 1 4 8 5

(Thats three easy sequences,

A: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (+1)
B: 0 1 1 2 3 5 (add previous two)
C: 1 2 2 4 8 32 (multiply previous two)

arranged into a pattern:

C B A C B A
B A C B A C
A C B A C B
)

I hope I made no stupid error or typo.

Re: Solutions

[(Anonymous)]

Bugmaster here.

This was my riddle, which does not utilize any arithmetic:

125 637 902 861 ...

Re: Solutions

[(Anonymous)]

The solution is to count the number of circles in the symbols as written:

125 : 0 circles
637 : 1 circle
902: 2 circles
861: 3 circles

So, any answer such as "881" or "668" or "989" would work as the next item in the sequence.

Re: Solutions

[(Anonymous)]

X (aka alexela)

Crazy insight problems. I could tell your french republic ones were years, and I guessed they were years for a series of events, but I didn't know what event. i guessed some countries wars. I wasn't so far off I suppose, especially given I was lacking the cultural knowledge of the years of the french republics.

I failed at your other ones because I didn't realize that you would alternate between two patterns in the same problem. Without that clue I could only establish that they seemed not to be following any one pattern. I intuited from there that the potential problem space I would have to shift through by trial and error would be so enormous I could stare at the problem for hours and never hit on the right answer, so I just gave up :)

Re: Solutions

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

I have actually encountered the alternated patterns in online intelligence tests, and that was a case of, understand one, solve three, gain five points in the results. The two-dimensional pattern was something I came up with, haven't yet seen it anywhere else.

I wanted something with historical events, because that's a typical quiz (as opposed to puzzle) question.