Friday puzzle -- sequence

First hint

Alex Y

There is no mathematical formula (at least to my knowledge) for deriving the next element of this sequence from those that have gone before.

Re: First hint

Jim Rutten

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear...and I will keep it for two score and one year and then return it.

Lizzie Borden took and ax and gave

Gary Smyth

her Mother forty wacks and when that job was nicely done gave her Father the correct number. Jeez w/o Jim's Shakespeare as a hint I'd have never made the association.

Solution *LINK*

Alex Y

Kudos to Jim. You are obviously a lot better at this than I; I expected to have to leave three or four clues before someone got on the right track.

The sequence in question is

III, VII, XII, XIV, XVI, XIX, XXI, XXV, XXX, XLI, XLV, LII, ...

numbers that when expressed in roman numerals take exactly three letters.

BTW, someone posted a link to a site that helps you cheat on these. But if you use it on one of these sequence puzzles, you are honor-bound not to spoil the fun for others, or claim that you have solved it.

Someone has way too much time on their hands!!


The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences�

Re: Solution

Dan Donaldson

I doubt that I would ever have gotten that one.