Can you fill in the blanks in the following sequence?

1,1,4,2,7,3,17,4,20,?,37,6,47,5,51,?,61,3,70,3,9?,2,100,1

Guess Me Three is about Roman numerals.

The Answer to this is also Roman numerals. Pairing off all the numbers - ie (1,1), (4,2), (7,3), etc - the second number is the number of figures needed to write the first number in Roman numerals...

1=I 1 character
4=IV 2 characters
7=VII 3 characters
17=XVII 4 characters
20=XX 2 characters (so the first ? is 2)
37=XXXVII 6 characters
47=XLVII 5 characters
51=LI 2 characters (so the second ? is 2)
61=LXI 3 characters
70=LXX 3 characters
90=XC 2 characters (so the third ? is 0)
100=C 1 character

Excellent problem, I'd never have got it without the big hint - nice one Cory!

Posted by fwaff on 2003-02-20 23:44:54