One Away (Posted on 2005-12-30)

	Submitted by Gamer
Rating: 4.3333 (3 votes)
Solution:	(Hide)
The real method to solve this is to convert all the letters into binary, add a 0 to the front and subtract the last 1, and then covert back to letters. However, this can be simplified because every 0 changes to 0 or A, every A changes to B or C... If there was a 5 it would have changed to 4 or 5. The first letter is used if the next letter comes O or before, and the second letter is used if P or after. Doing that gives: BOINGAMOEBASCOWSADDITIONPRIMEPAIRSPARTYPEOPLE100HERBIVORESFATCATSNUMBERQUIZCOUNTINGEXERCISE Which might look strange until you realize all of those are problems on perplexus. When they are looked up, all are from the catergory "numbers" which gives a clue as to what to look for -- each problem's number (its pid) gives more information: 1160 Boing! 0123 Amoebas! 0051 Cows 0149 Addition 0186 Prime Pairs 1021 Party People 0101 100 Herbivores 0067 Fat Cats 1184 Number Quiz 1157 Counting Excercise It is also interesting that the first two numbers of each pid are either 0 or 1, thus continuing with the binary theme. Putting them together in order gives 11010001011001001111, and this translated into letters gives ZERO, the answer to this problem.

	Subject	Author	Date
	No Subject	Hayden Franki	2024-05-22 17:02:13
	Auckland Concrete	Whia1967	2022-09-17 03:20:23
	Answer	K Sengupta	2008-03-19 11:16:08
	re(2): additional observation #2	Hugo	2006-02-18 14:25:20
	re: additional observation #2	Mindrod	2006-02-17 21:34:49
	re: Shampoo?	Hugo	2006-02-12 11:45:10
	Shampoo?	Hugo	2006-02-11 10:36:46
	re: Useless idea's #173	Gamer	2006-02-06 23:04:26
	re(2): Useless idea's #173	Hugo	2006-02-06 17:34:48
	re: Useless idea's #173	Justin	2006-02-06 12:22:34
	Useless idea's #173	Hugo	2006-02-06 11:59:08
	re: yet another coincidence -- hint	Gamer	2006-02-05 14:11:02
	yet another coincidence	Mindrod	2006-02-04 20:39:47
	re(2): useless observations -- useless analysis	Hugo	2006-02-04 06:45:31
	re(2): useless observations -- useless	Hugo	2006-02-03 14:32:16
	re: useless observations -- useless	Gamer	2006-02-03 13:50:37
	useless observation #4	Mindrod	2006-02-03 00:36:01
	additional observation #3	Hugo	2006-02-02 07:02:20
	re: additional observation #2	Gamer	2006-01-31 17:19:57
	additional observation #2	Hugo	2006-01-29 07:11:23
	additional observation	Mindrod	2006-01-28 17:00:55
	re: Incomplete solution: need to check for errors	Mindrod	2006-01-28 16:35:00
	Incomplete solution: need to check for errors	Mindrod	2006-01-28 16:09:18
	re(3): attention	Gamer	2006-01-28 14:26:39
	re(2): attention	Bob Smith	2006-01-17 16:45:18
	re: attention	Gamer	2005-12-31 17:08:29
	attention	MindRod	2005-12-31 13:23:00
	Hints	Gamer	2005-12-30 18:09:00