Before
you
accuse
me
of
clickbait,
hear
me
out.
If
you
scroll
the
same
corners
of
social
media
that
I
do,
then
you’re
sick
of
seeing
meme
puzzle
accounts
abuse
the
caption
“Only
1%
of
people
can
solve!”
over
some
lightweight
teasers.
Are
we
really
supposed
to
believe
that
only
1
in
100
people
can
count
the
triangles
in
an
image?
Or
that
“Only
GENIUSES”
remember
basic
arithmetic?
The
headlines
are
insulting.
But
it’s
different
when
I
do
it.
This week’s puzzles come from a British game show called The 1% Club, in which contestants compete for money by solving increasingly difficult brainteasers. The show ranks the puzzles based on real public surveys, and each episode culminates with a challenge that only 1% of the population could solve. Two seasons have aired with a third on the way, as well as an upcoming American adaptation hosted by Patton Oswalt. I’m not getting paid for these plugs; I’m just a fan of the show, and if you follow The Gizmodo Monday Puzzle then you’ll probably like it too.
I’ll
give
you
some
example
questions
from
the
show
to
give
you
a
sense
of
their
style.
I’ve
put
the
answers
below
the
main
puzzle,
so
beware
of
scrolling
if
you’d
like
to
solve
these
first.
Example 1 (35% Question): What number do you get if you multiply all the numbers on a telephone keypad together?
Example 2 (15% Question): Which animal is half goat and one third cow?
Example 3 (10% Question): Which is the odd one out? TROJAN, DISMAY, TRANSEPT, CONCOCT, JUSTIFY
Did you miss last week’s puzzle? Check it out here, and find its solution at the bottom of today’s article. Be careful not to read too far ahead if you haven’t solved last week’s yet!
Puzzle #40: 1% Questions
Bonus
challenge:
Players
on
the
show
only
get
30
seconds
to
solve
each
puzzle,
so
pull
out
a
stopwatch
if
you
want
to
simulate
the
real
experience.
I
expect
most
people
will
need
more
time
than
that.
Question 1: In the following sequence, what do the letters V and C stand for?
V C C C V C C C V C C C C C V C C C C C V C C C C C
Question 2: On a digital 24-hour clock (military time) that displays hours, minutes, and seconds, how many times in each 24-hour period do all six digits change simultaneously?
Question 3:
Jamaica + Japan = 124
Argentina + Armenia = 1245
France + Brazil = 23
England + Germany = ?
I’ll
be
back
next
Monday
with
the
answers
to
the
1%
questions
and
a
new
puzzle.
Do
you
know
a
cool
puzzle
that
you
think
should
be
featured
here?
Message
me
on
X
@JackPMurtagh
or
email
me
at
Answers to the example questions below.
Example 1 (35% Question): What number do you get if you multiply all the numbers on a telephone keypad together?
Zero. Recall that phone keypads have zeroes on them!
Example 2 (15% Question): Which animal is half goat and one third cow?
Cat. The word “cat” uses half of the letters in “goat” (“at”) and one third of the letters in “cow” (“c”).
Example 3 (10% Question): Which is the odd one out? TROJAN, DISMAY, TRANSEPT, CONCOCT, JUSTIFY
JUSTIFY
is
the
odd
one
out.
All
of
the
others
end
in
a
month
abbreviation
(JAN,
MAY,
SEPT,
OCT).
Solution to Puzzle #39: A Self-Referential Number
Last
week’s
puzzle
asked
you
to
find
a
number
that
describes
itself.
Shout-out
to
Kelly
who
submitted
the
correct
answer
to
this
and
the
bonus
puzzle
by
email.
Only one 10-digit number has the following property. Its left-most digit is the number of 0s in the number, the next digit is the number of 1s in the number, the next is the number of 2s, and so on until the right-most digit, which is the number of 9s in the number. Find the number.
The answer is 6210001000. It contains six 0s, two 1s, one 2, and one 6. This is the largest self-referential number by our definition and the only 10-digit one. The full list is: 1210, 2020, 21200, 3211000, 42101000, 521001000.
Thanks to Enfy for pointing out that I didn’t need to stipulate that numbers cannot begin with zero. The first digit of a self-referential number can never be zero because that would cause an immediate contradiction: it would imply that the number contained zero 0s and yet we would have just started with a zero.
The
bonus
puzzle
was
to
find
the
only
starting
number
for
the
look-and-say
sequence
that
does
not
cause
it
to
diverge
to
infinity.
The
answer
is
22.
The
next
number
would
describe
22
as
“two
2s,”
which
would
just
be
another
22,
so
the
whole
sequence
would
be
22,
22,
22,
22,
…