A math teaser I just came up with. May be easy, may be hard. I dunno. I have a propane burner that can output between 5K and 30K BTUs. I can set it for 1 of 5 possible levels of output, corresponding to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. The device is operating as designed, yet it was not designed to have 5 settings. It is not faulty, nor am I using it improperly. Why no 5th setting?
Those are five settings, but the #5 is skipped over. For some reason I can't begin to imagine, the furnace goes from 20 to 30 K. Or, if it's not designed to have more than four settings, the #6 is the off switch.
Correct. Correct. What assumptions are you making that would result in such a conclusion? Correct. No. Zero is not one of the settings.
Woud it make a difference to the answr of you'r Teaser if the burner output was between say... 2K and 35K BTUs.??? Is the spot whare "5" woud be the on or off position.???
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Fair enough. I was talking about 'ON' settings; not counting 'OFF" as a setting. Alternately, I could say there are six settings: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6.
Okay, but you still skip over #5. presumably, this is significant, but I have no information as to why it should be. So i give up.
In case you want to keep trying, here's a hint. Otherwise, I'll post the answer tomorrow. There's an apparently obvious pattern there, sure, but that leads to an inconsistency. What about other, more consistent, patterns?
Arbitrary mathematical ones, presumably, rather than practical ones relating to the function of a furnace? I'm no good at those.
It was on the tip of my tongue but the diagram is much clearer than any word-explanation that I could have given.
Full Disclosure::: I have 2 propane heaters an thats what helped me out Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Well, I can't swear to the exact numbers but there are two elements, one small one and one big one, so it's one or the other or both.
Ok... complete Full Disclosure::: I have no idea how Daves diagram explains the answr to the Brain Teaser Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Look at the table on the right. The settings are: Lo Medium High (outputs 1, 2 and 3) and - independently - one or two burners (so, double that to 2, 4 and 6.) The way the ouputs are described in the teaser, you assume a single factor pattern: 1,2,3,4, ..., 6 - leading one to wonder - erroneously - where the 5 is. But the actual pattern is two factored, making a table: 1 2 3 2 4 6 As soon as you see this pattern, you realize there's no reason for a 5 at all.