Following on from the Oxford Mail’s brief article I covered here a few days ago, here’s yer akshual Wagamama press release, courtesy of those upstart challenger funsters at Talker Tailor Trouble Maker who put the competition together for their Japanese/Asian food-selling clients:
Mark Knowles has also sent me through A4 scans of the A3-sized entry form / paper placemat direct from Oxford (which was very kind of him): but given that we now have the proper press release to refer to (and hence know for sure that the string of numbers in the Oxford Mail was correct), and also know that Rene Z has figured the answer out, I think anyone wanting to enter will just have to drop by, fill in an entry form, and drop it in the box all on their own.
“Give Us A Clue” *sigh*
People keep asking me for clues to the mathematical bit: however, all I can reasonably say for that is that you should tighten your girdle, prime your weapons, and keep on marching through, you’ll get there in the end. It’s a fact! Or maybe not. 🙂
As for the anagram stage, I think that Wagamama may have been stretching the notion of what counts as “topical” a little further than you may at first think, so perhaps try to expand your view somewhat. 😉
Good luck! And if you do happen to win the £500 gift voucher, don’t forget to invite me round for some edamame beans. 😉
Anyone asking for clues to the maths part has clearly not yet come across The Online Encyclopaedia of Integer Series https://oeis.org/ …
prime factors – exponents – binary? Oh, I get lost in the Far East!
Nick:
“what counts as “topical” a little further than you may at first think”: May I ask you for a clue: Did you have something in mind that has to do with Kazakhstan?
Tbh I’m dying here! These sort of things make me feel so stupid T_T
Imogen: Don’t be disheartened. To solve it you need to have a good knowledge of Maths and Japanese cuisine. If you are not familar with either of these it is no reason for feeling stupid.
Specifically if you know what prime numbers are and how any number, like those in the list, can be written as the multiplication of prime numbers that would help. The count of how many times a given number appears in the multiplication is called its exponent; these will be useful to calculate. Also you need to be familar with binary sometimes called base 2, we normally represent numbers using decimals which is often referred to as base 10, so binary numbers are only represented using the digits “0” and “1”.
I hope my explanation is vaguely clear; I am not great at explaining things.
For the anagram: like Nick, the use of the word “topical” threw me as it was not used in its most common meaning, though I think a valid usage. I only know about the solution from Rene Zandbergen, whose food-related knowledge is greater than my own. 🙂
So unless you happen to be a Professor of Maths and an international chef, there is no reason to feel stupid at all. 🙂
Nick:
No, Kazakhstan was a wrong guess. But is the rest of the solution “a little further”? I think it is part of the [big fat clue removed by moderator], isn’t it?
330 32 2 = ( 3+30+32+2 = 67 ).
( 330) . 32+2+105 = 139 = anniversary of birth.
55+10+2 = 67. (67=76 jew). lived 76 years.
270 – 2 = 268 = 105 element Dubnium.( rel.atom.mass 268 ).
2+70+2 = 74 element Wolfram ( reletive atomic mass 183,84 = 4-83 =79. = 1879.
1879 * birth Albert Einstein
14+42+11 = 67. = jew 76. Lived 76 years.
2+10+1+5 = 18. 4. ( 18.4. he died A.E. )
🙂
Champolione: You demostrate perfectly a feature of so many solutions of the Voynich.
Ant’s. It has nothing to do with the voynich. 🙂
It is a shame that I don’t live in Oxford because then I would take all the money and run away with it, feeling completely awesome. The substitution part was very simple, indeed. The deadline is over and I think I can share my solution:
(Sorry, there was too much static on the line, please try again tomorrow. 🙂 b
I have submitted the competition form to Wagamama, under my name, though it does not have to be for my sole benefit should it win. However, being a bit of a sceptic, I doubt it will be the winning submission, though I get the impression that there have been relatively few submissions, so far.
Regarding my previous comment, where I omitted the “n” in demonstrate, I would say this question of “degrees of freedom” in a solution is an important one. If you allow for so many degrees of freedom in a solution you can make anything fit. However the question becomes when one has made this error and when not; this naturally is the hard thing to assess objectively. (When you find yourself reversing the digits of a number based on someone’s ethnicity you probably have fallen into that trap.)
Mark:
Wish you luck – six month savour the flavour of [spoiler soup and spoiler ramen] – yummy!
If anyone is still interested in the solution, Wagamama’s online menu is very appetising….
I’m fairly sure that they will have plenty of correct submissions.
After all, this is a publicity exercise, and it is not at all in their interest to make it really too difficult. It just has to appear difficult…
Rene: I fear you are probably correct; this is why I don’t generally enter competitions. Certainly if they have any more than one other correct entry then the odds are against us. I think many people will most likely figure the Maths out. I suppose if you are a regular customer you will probably get the anagram. Anyway I am pleased to move on from this as brain teasers are not really my kind of thing. But who knows there is always a chance that there is £500 worth of Japanese food waiting.
@ Nick: Where have you stashed the “Rohonc” mystery ? I was having such fun !
However, I was quite excited when , this morning, someone brought up that (my) favorite painting of a very famous man, Rudolph II. He obviously had a serious ‘sweet tooth’ . His preference for fruits and vegetables probably led him to a fairly long life.
Can anyone tell me where that famous painting is now on display?
bd
Thank you to prufax for the website! So for the number mapping, if I was trying to explain it to someone, I would say we are going to write a list of prime numbers, and every time we get to a new one we are going to times it by everything behind it in the list.
So 2, nothing behind it. Then 3, then 3×2. Then 5. Then 5×2, 5×3, 5x 6.
Etc. can someone explain how this is described as
a(n) = Product_{k in I} prime(k+1), where I are the indices of nonzero binary digits in n = Sum_{k in I} 2^k
What have non zero binary numbers got to do with anything?
@Jay
(since the competition is over)
It’s exactly how you describe
Think about how we convert decimal to binary, but suppose instead of powers of 10 you used the primes:
2,3,5,7,11
Then since (For example) E = 5 = 101 (using little-endian binary) = 2 (3) 5 = 2*5 (ignored number in brackets)
K = 11 = 1101 = 2 3 (5) 7 = 42
That is, we multiply the prime factors that line up with the non-zero binary digits – as you described.
That explanation is very clear and thank you! I hope you are a teacher! (and I did respond sooner but Nick’s spam filter wasn’t working so it didn’t send 🙂 )
But does this work? How about P? 11 in my awful explanation but 2 in yours? All the 100, 1000, 1100, 10000 would be 2 wouldn’t they?
Sorry typoed the 1100 – but that would be 6 just like 11 not 35…
For those interested it may be a little while before the results of the competition are published. Apparently the answers have been sent to head office in London, as they are responcible for the competition, and the Oxtord Professor responcible for posing the problem will then be invited to London to analyse the results. That’s bureaucracy! I guess one should be grateful that the results weren’t sent to a Head Office in California or Japan and the Professor doesn’t have to take a long-haul flight. Not that I anticipate victory, but I would like to be sure of the answer and know if/we have won.