Panic in the Year Zero Zero

Jim's Sequence

Urbane-Ichabod Puzzle

Yossi's Sequence

The Mist-Buff Word Puzzle

Welcome to my puzzle page. This page has nothing to do with the Year 2000 bugs, or programming or that I'm a highly paid programmer who would like to be higher paid or my Filk Songs or Haiku or computers at all. This page is just for fun. Last update 1999-07-28. I update this page once or twice each week (and when I don't, it's your job to nag me).

FOUR Puzzles

Our newest puzzle is Jim Reed's ABACB-BACAB Sequence. Be first on your planet to solve it, other than the puzzlemeister. Three more puzzles still running: Jim Reed's Urbane-Ichabod Word Puzzle, Yossi's 2-3-4-7 Sequence, and The Mist-Buff Word Puzzle. Older puzzles have been retired to their own solution pages.

Future Puzzles

I would like to have one current sequence, current word puzzle, and sometimes an old sequence or an old word puzzle hanging around (though now I have both). My current plan (subject to change without me noticing) is to start one new puzzle every month. I have one new sequence of my own "in the can", but I would appreciate more puzzles, especially word puzzles. If you would like to make a puzzle, please read the submission guidelines.

Email

As always, if you think you see the pattern to any of these puzzles, let me know. The first ten people to solve each puzzle will have their names and email addresses immortalized right here, or if you'ld rather I'll use your URL, or if you're shy like Davis I won't tell your email or your URL or even your whole name. I will assume the right to publish any email received about these puzzles, unless you specifically state otherwise.

Email is not perfect. I reply to every guess, right or wrong. If you submit an answer and I update this page and you don't get a reply, either I never got your email, or I accidentally deleted or misfiled it. In such a case, resubmit your answer. If I find it in my backup email archives, you will receive credit for the original date.

Jim Reed's ABACB-BACAB Sequence

In the tradition of my 1-2-3-4-25 Sequence, my BBA-CAB Sequence, Derek's 35-66 Sequence, and Yossi's 2-3-4-7 Sequence, Panic in the Year Zero Zero proudly presents Jim Reed's ABACB-BACAB Sequence. Determine the next three terms in this sequence, or more broadly the gimmick behind the sequence.

ABACB, BACAB, BDACA, CBBAD, BBCCA, CAEBB, BDABB, DACAC, CBAEB, ...

1) Randall Bart solved this on 1999-04-24 using nine terms (thru CBAEB).
Click here if you've solved it.

Hints:

The sequence is infinitely long.
No mundane (Earthly) knowledge is required.
Like all the sequences presented on this page, nothing more advanced than elementary school math is used in this puzzle.
A reader who has solved a few of my puzzles laments that this sequence uses letters, like The BBA-CAB Sequence which he couldn't solve. Though these two puzzles resemble each other in the reason why letters are used instead of digits, they have nothing else in common.

Jim Reed's Urbane-Ichabod Word Puzzle

Thanks to Jim Reed for submitting this puzzle. What do these words have in common?

Urbane, Ichabod, Timon, Jemima, Gomer, Rufus, Felix, Hermes, Rhoda, Chloe, Anna, Jethro, Jason, Bernice, Alexander

1) Congratulations to Alaa Aboul Khair who solved this on 1999-05-19 using four words (thru Jemima).
2) Yugal Sharma solved this on 1999-05-19 using four words (thru Jemima).
3) Alan Russell solved this on 1999-06-01 using six words (thru Rufus).
4) Ray Pearce solved this on 1999-06-08 using eight words (thru Hermes).
5) Russell Waddington solved this on 1999-06-10 using eight words (thru Hermes).
6) Randall Bart solved this on 1999-02-11 using nine words (thru Rhoda).
7) Alison Lindsay solved this on 1999-06-22 using ten words (thru Chloe).
Click here if you've solved it.

Hints:

This is a word puzzle not a logic or math puzzle. The fact that "d" is the fourth letter of the alphabet is not relevant. The answer does not involve number of letters, number of syllables, etc.
The list is unordered, e g, the fact that "Urbane" comes before "Ichabod" is not relevant.

Yossi's 2-3-4-7 Sequence

First there was my 1-2-3-4-25 Sequence. Second was my BBA-CAB Sequence. Third was Derek's 35-66 Sequence. Now Panic in the Year Zero Zero proudly presents Yossi's 2-3-4-7 Sequence. Determine the next three terms in this sequence, or more broadly the gimmick behind the sequence.

2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 15, 24, 60, 168, 480, 1512, 4800, 15748, 28672, 65528, 122880, 393192, 1098240, 4124736, 15605760, 50328576, 149873152, 371226240, 1710858240, 7926750720, ...

This is the last number I'm giving in this puzzle. The numbers are getting pretty, I only have three more and I don't have the menas to calculate more. You don't need calculate the next three terms. Save yourself some work and just tell me the gimmick.)

1) Congratulations to Yugal Sharma who solved this on 1999-03-24 using seven terms (thru 24).
2) Alaa Aboul Khair solved this on 1999-04-01 using eight terms (thru 60).
3) Jim Reed solved this on 1999-04-01 using eight terms (thru 60).
4) Randall Bart solved this on 1998-12-07 using eight terms (thru 60).
5) Denis Borris solved this on 1999-04-18 using eleven terms (thru 1512).
6) Sam Ret solved this on 1999-04-18 using seventeen terms (thru 393192). Sam used an unusual solving technique, which I can't reveal until the puzzle is over.
Click here if you've solved it.

Hints:

The sequence is infinitely long.
No mundane (Earthly) knowledge is required.
The sequence is infinitely increasing.
When Yossi revealed the number 60, I protested that this broke the odd even alternation, and also seemed too high. But 60 is correct.

Mist-Buff Word Puzzle

What do these words have in common?

mist, buff, tow, tape, found, add, tend, bat, count, badge, lath, butt, jab, lathe, poke, ban, show, tamp, glow, lay, sew, skip, form, gaff, crate, scat, tell, putt, group, jump

1) Congratulations to Jim Reed who solved this on 1999-02-01 using eight words (thru bat).
2) Mark K. Mammel solved this on 1999-04-05 using fifteen words (thru poke).
3) Alan Russell solved this on 1999-05-10 using seventeen words (thru show).
4) Alaa Aboul Khair solved this on 1999-06-05 using twenty-two words (thru skip).
Click here if you've solved it.

Hints:

This is a word puzzle not a logic or math puzzle. The fact that "d" is the fourth letter of the alphabet is not relevant. The answer does not involve number of letters, number of syllables, etc.
The list is unordered, e g, the fact that "Mist" comes before "Buff" is not relevant.
On previous puzzles I have allowed some relatively vague answers, or I have told people they were close. On this puzzle I will insist that you precisely specify the rules for inclusion in or exclusion from this list. If your answer is wrong in even the slightest detail, I will not tell you that you're close, I will only tell you that you're wrong. I'm being picky, it may take you three or four tries.
Okay, I have gotten so many close or partial answers, that I will give the beginning of it: All of the words are verbs. There are still two more parts to the answer, which should be joined by "and" (or possibly "also").

Solutions to Previous Logic Puzzles

Solutions to Previous Word Puzzles

What Have You Done For Your Puzzle Page

I don't have an unlimited supply of puzzles. If I had an English dictionary on my harddrive, I might write a program to look for words with some characteristic, but right now I don't. If you really like my puzzles, why don't you make one?

Derek, Yossi and Jim played the game just the way I do on this page. They sent me a few terms of a sequence, and sent me a couple more each week, and threw in the occaisional hint.

Derek didn't understand why I asked him for more terms of the sequence, when he was sure they wouldn't help (they didn't). The idea is that the additional terms serve as a time penalty for not solving the puzzle at first glance. Since I got to play this one, my score of 14 terms counted against the other people who get to solve it.

But if you wan't to send me a whole bunch of terms at once, go ahead. I would like new puzzles for this page even if I don't get to compete. I have to solve the puzzle (or be told the solution) before I put it on the page, so that I know it is a worthy successor to my earlier sequences (which Derek's and Yossi's and Jim's are).

If your puzzle is from another source, or closely based on another source, please state that up front, so that you don't get the both of us in trouble.

This Puzzle Ring site is owned by Randall Bart.
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Panic in the Year Zero Zero