Unfair? What do think "fair" means? Anyway, this was interesting:

https://oeis.org/A082977
"Key-numbers of the pitches of a Hypophrygian mode scale on a standard chromatic 
keyboard, with root = 0. A Hypophrygian mode scale can, for example, be played on 
consecutive white keys of a standard keyboard, starting on the root tone B. - James 
Ingram (j.ingram(AT)t-online.de), Jun 01 2003"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypophrygian_mode

On 9/10/25 7:39 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Yes. Thank you. I was beginning to fear i had asked an unfair q.  Gpt got it on 
the first pass and then went on to say some interesting things about 
mathematics and semantics
Sent from my Dumb Phone

On Sep 10, 2025, at 10:25 AM, Matteo Morini <[email protected]> wrote:



(Western) music involved? A C major and a mystery, possibly minor, scale 
respectively?

On 9/10/25 4:10 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
Next number in both series is one.
Sent from my Dumb Phone

On Sep 10, 2025, at 9:42 AM, Roger Frye <[email protected]> wrote:

 Von Neuman warned against high degree polynomial fitting. He said "With four 
parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.”
Von Neumann's elephant <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann's_elephant>
en.wikipedia.org <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann's_elephant>
        
<wikipedia.png>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann's_elephant>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann's_elephant>


On Sep 10, 2025, at 7:08 AM, glen <[email protected]> wrote:

I figured it was one of these:

https://oeis.org/search?q=1%2C3%2C4%2C6%2C8%2C9%2C10%2C13%2C15&language=english&go=Search
https://oeis.org/search?q=1%2C3%2C5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C12%2C13%2C15&language=english&go=Search

Were it so, we'd need the next number {16,17} to tell the difference. But like 
many of Nick's riddles, I have no idea what he intended.


On 9/9/25 8:40 PM, Jon Zingale wrote:
Sorry, 22. I needed to constrain the two systems. Too much linear algebra to 
want to explain, but yeah, Vandermonde and all that.
On Tue, Sep 9, 2025 at 9:22 PM Jon Zingale <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
   It's 29.
   I am assuming you are thinking of a polynomial that generates each sequence. 
Unfortunately, it's a 6th degree polynomial and so solving for the coefficients 
is a pain. You construct a Vandermonde matrix (V) a vector of dummy 
coefficients a = [a0, a1, ..., a6]. Then you solve for the coefficients 
relative to your sequence (S), V * a = S.
   Python helped nicely:
   import numpy as np
   n1 = np.array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
   y1 = np.array([1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12])
   coeffs1 = np.polyfit(n1, y1, 6)
   sol1 = np.polyval(coeffs, 7)
   n2 = np.array([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
   y2 = np.array([1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10])
   coeffs2 = np.polyfit(n2, y2, 6)
   sol2 = np.polyval(coeffs, 7)
   =>29
   On Tue, Sep 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM Nicholas Thompson <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
       Sry. Should be all commas.
       Sent from my Dumb Phone
       On Sep 9, 2025, at 1:19 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
       
       Here are two mathematical series
       1,3,5,6,8,10.12, __
       1.3.4,6,8,9,10, __
       Both have the same next number.
       Why, and what are we talking about here?
       I predict  that only Jon will guess the answer.
       Please dont trouble yourself with this if you have anything better to do.


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