Re: GCHQ Monday Puzzle

On 5/7/2025 1:24 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote:

On 07/05/2025 09:03, David Entwistle wrote:

(b) 8. The sequence is the number of letters in each word of 'To be or not
to be that is the question'. 'Question has 8 letters.

 Hypothesis confirmed. That's not a puzzle; it's an exercise in telepathy.
 

"This is why I usually don't even attempt this kind of puzzle."
(4, 2, 3, 1, 7, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 2, ?)*
In the future I plan to use the following sure-fire method to solve similar puzzles:
1. Make a list of all well-known quotes in all common languages.
2. Create number sequences based on the number of letters in each sequential word.
3. Check the puzzle's number sequence to the sequences in the list.
4. If a match is found, I've solved the puzzle!
5. If not, I'll try using the number of letters in every other word in the quote.
6. If that doesn't work, I'll try other patterns (like every third word, words in a Fibonacci sequence, alternating between two quotes, etc.).
7. If that still doesn't work, I'll convert Wikipedia's text into numbers and scan for correlations.
8. If that still doesn't work, I'll let someone else (like Ilan Mayer) post the solution, and pretend that I "Just about figured it out".
--
Carl G.
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