[Guest]

Gotta think outside the box a little... well, a lot.

What is the next number in this series, and why?

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, ...

I liken this to Penn and Teller's "Useless magic" where he uses slight of hand, but uses it to put the object back to where you thought it'd be anyways.

Just try to explain the series.

The answer most definitely is 10, but why?

The numbers above could be added together to get 35

The numbers above could be added together to get 35 base-10

The numbers above could be added together to get 10 base-35

Edited February 28, 2008 by toddpeak

[Guest]

Man... I thought I'd at least get JKyle to respond to this one.

[Guest]

Man... I thought I'd at least get JKyle to respond to this one.

The easiest thing I can see to do is make the first number 2 base 1, then 3 base 2, ... until the final one is 8 base 9 or 10 as you put it. Thus according to your hint the sum would be 35.

[Guest]

I've never been called out before. I feel honored...I think. And stumped.

[unreality]

10 in base 2 is 2

10 in base 3 is 3

10 in base 4 is 4

etc (duh, thats the definiton of bases)

so 2+3+4+5+6+7+8=35

next number makes it 46

then 56 with the 10 in base 10

Though that's just one solution of many for why a series could be infinitely 10's... it could just be infinitely tens. Know what I mean?

[Guest]

10 in base 2 is 2

10 in base 3 is 3

10 in base 4 is 4

etc (duh, thats the definiton of bases)

so 2+3+4+5+6+7+8=35

next number makes it 46

then 56 with the 10 in base 10

Though that's just one solution of many for why a series could be infinitely 10's... it could just be infinitely tens. Know what I mean?

Yeah, that's why I said it was like Penn and Teller's useless magic. I'm doing things behind the scenes for no good reason.

The only solution (taking into consideration the hints) that I could think of is that each number is written in its own base. I guess I could've made it more ironic by specifying one more 10 then the next one in the series would've been 10 base-10.

And the title was intended to be a hint.

Guess I should've just put the "hints" as part of the question. But as I am labeled "newbie," I'll take my lumps.

[Guest]

I've never been called out before. I feel honored...I think. And stumped.

Oh, and I called JKyle out because he usually takes a crack at them and comes up with some, albeit strange, but usually somewhat reasonable, explanations.

As an aside, I also know that calling someone out by name will get other people involved. My second grade teacher used that technique all the time. "Jimmy, do you know what 6*6 is?" and Tommy would answer.