What's your favourite quiz question?

ohnonotgmail

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

In the "Twelve Days of Christmas" Song, how many gifts did her/his true love send?

the mathematical answer is

1 + 2(2+1)/2 + 3(3+1)/2 ... 12(12+1)/2

the calculation is left as an exercise for the eager reader

chooseusername

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

364, from memory, and also I just calculated it to make sure...

How many legs though?

ohnonotgmail

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

In the "Twelve Days of Christmas" Song, how many gifts did her/his true love send?

Follow up question: Which gift did they send the most of?

Quantum Erasure

chooseusername wrote: »

How many legs though?

Well, 364 - 8*5 rings =324, by 2 legs = 648. and 5 times 8 cows the ladies are milking, times four legs is...808?

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Follow up question: Which gift did they send the most of?

Geese, or swans?

Edit:
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking
Seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five gold rings
Four calling birds, three French hens
Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree

ohnonotgmail

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

Well, 364 - 8*5 rings =324, by 2 legs = 648. and 5 times 8 cows the ladies are milking, times four legs is...808?

Geese, or swans?

Edit:
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking
Seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five gold rings
Four calling birds, three French hens
Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree

both tied first with 42

chooseusername

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

both tied first with 42

What about the cows?

ohnonotgmail

chooseusername wrote: »

What about the cows?

there are no cows

Speedsie

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

there are no cows

Then what are the 8 milkmaids milking? Goats?

chooseusername

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

there are no cows

The maids must be milking the 'lords a leaping' then.
edit;
They could be milking themselves I suppose, you know, expressing.

Edgware

chooseusername wrote: »

The maids must be milking the 'lords a leaping' then.
edit;
They could be milking themselves I suppose, you know, expressing.

Maybe Gobnait O Lunacy was milking them

Capt'n Midnight

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

In the "Twelve Days of Christmas" Song, how many gifts did her/his true love send?

Add up all the numbers from one to a hundred inclusive.

Back in 1786 or thereabouts a teacher named Büttner set that task to keep his pupils busy for half an hour or so while he nipped out for a cigarette or whatever they did back then. The story goes that he didn't even make it to the door before nine year old Carl Friedrich Gauss gave the correct answer.

chooseusername

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Add up all the numbers from one to a hundred inclusive.

Back in 1786 or thereabouts a teacher named Büttner set that task to keep his pupils busy for half an hour or so while he nipped out for a cigarette or whatever they did back then. The story goes that he didn't even make it to the door before nine year old Carl Friedrich Gauss gave the correct answer.

Isn't it just the first and last number added and then multiplied by the middle number?

ohnonotgmail

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Add up all the numbers from one to a hundred inclusive.

Back in 1786 or thereabouts a teacher named Büttner set that task to keep his pupils busy for half an hour or so while he nipped out for a cigarette or whatever they did back then. The story goes that he didn't even make it to the door before nine year old Carl Friedrich Gauss gave the correct answer.

chooseusername wrote: »

Isn't it just the first and last number added and then multiplied by the middle number?

the sum of natural numbers from 1 to n is n(n+1)/2 so for 100 that is 5050.

eta your way looks right at first blush but for odd numbers it doesn't work. so it works for 100 but the same method doesn't work for 99. the sum for the first 99 numbers is 4950. 1 + 99 x ?? = 4950. solving for ?? gives 49.5 which isn't a natural number.

wally79

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

the sum of natural numbers from 1 to n is n(n+1)/2 so for 100 that is 5050.

eta your way looks right at first blush but for odd numbers it doesn't work. so it works for 100 but the same method doesn't work for 99. the sum for the first 99 numbers is 4950. 1 + 99 x ?? = 4950. solving for ?? gives 49.5 which isn't a natural number.

But 49.5 would be midway between 1 and 99 so it does hold true

Does it need to be a natural number?

(n+1)*(n/2) is the same as your formula essentially

Terence Rattigan

Who can turn the world on with a smile, who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile ?

(hoping this is a hard one, no googling!!)

ohnonotgmail

wally79 wrote: »

But 49.5 would be midway between 1 and 99 so it does hold true

Does it need to be a natural number?

not really i suppose. prefer my way though because it can be proven mathematically.

wally79

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

not really i suppose. prefer my way though because it can be proven mathematically.

I added to my post

(n+1)*(n/2) is the same as your formula essentially

ohnonotgmail

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

Who can turn the world on with a smile, who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile ?

(hoping this is a hard one, no googling!!)

only hard if you are not really really old. Mary Tyler Moore

Terence Rattigan

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

only hard if you are not really really old. Mary Tyler Moore

Mary Richards to be more pedantic, but yes, Old Fogeys only!

And good old Lou (Asner) Grant is still with us.

ohnonotgmail

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

Mary Richards to be more pedantic, but yes, Old Fogeys only!

And good old Lou (Asner) Grant is still with us.

92 and still working. It helps that he has always looked ancient.

Terence Rattigan

What famous movies might be known as this as Gaeilge?

Imithe leis on Gaoth
Cogadh na Réaltaí
Tá Sé Beatha Go Hálainn
An Fuaim de Ceoil
Scéal na Bréagán

with apologies to any fluent Irish speakers out there!

ohnonotgmail

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

What famous movies might be known as this as Gaeilge?

Imithe leis on Gaoth Gone with the Wind?
Cogadh na Réaltaí
Tá Sé Beatha Go Hálainn
An Fuaim de Ceoil The Sound of Music?
Scéal na Bréagán

with apologies to any fluent Irish speakers out there!

a couple of guesses above.

Uncle Pierre

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

What famous movies might be known as this as Gaeilge?

Imithe leis on Gaoth
Cogadh na Réaltaí - Star Wars
Tá Sé Beatha Go Hálainn
An Fuaim de Ceoil
Scéal na Bréagán - Toy Story

with apologies to any fluent Irish speakers out there!

Guesses for two of the others here. No idea about the middle one, apart from it's a lovely something!

wally79

Terence Rattigan wrote: »

What famous movies might be known as this as Gaeilge?

Imithe leis on Gaoth
Cogadh na Réaltaí
Tá Sé Beatha Go Hálainn - it’s a wonderful life
An Fuaim de Ceoil
Scéal na Bréagán

with apologies to any fluent Irish speakers out there!

Guess the last one

Uncle Pierre

Ah. Beatha as in "uisce beatha", or water of life, so therefore something about a lovely life. I'm guessing the movie title might be It's a Wonderful Life?

Edited to add: Good man Wally. Got there at the same time as me!

chooseusername

What direction would you be traveling from
Detroit Michigan U.S. to Windsor Ontario Canada?

El Weirdo

chooseusername wrote: »

What direction would you be traveling from
Detroit Michigan U.S. to Windsor Ontario Canada?

South.

3DataModem

Similar: what direction would you be travelling if you took the fastest route from the pacific to the Atlantic?

dulpit

3DataModem wrote: »

Similar: what direction would you be travelling if you took the fastest route from the pacific to the Atlantic?

North or south? Great circle route...

Fionn1952

3DataModem wrote: »

Similar: what direction would you be travelling if you took the fastest route from the pacific to the Atlantic?

North-West through the Panama Canal?