Puzzles
Today I decided to relax my requirements for art and just make some puzzles. As mentioned here:
Puzzle 1
These are the first 21 numbers in a sequence:
1
6
7
4
5
26
27
24
25
30
31
28
29
18
19
16
17
22
23
20
21
What are the 22nd, millionth, and billionth numbers in the sequence?
Puzzle 2
Here is the first half of a set of words (selected according to some criteria from my /usr/share/dict/words file): Mystery Words. Which of the following words belong to the second half of this set, and which do not?
overfond
progress
radiator
rebirth
refrain
salamander
sublime
teaspoon
thatch
treaty
unwritten
usual
verity
whoosh
The first problem can be solved with careful thought and a reasonably good calculator or just pencil and paper. The second one may not be solvable in any practical way, and even if it is, that way might require using a computer to analyze and condense the data. I'll have to see laer if, starting from assuming that I know nothing, I can derive a plausible route to the solution for it.