A nice simple one this week! Which letter comes next in this series? The answer is neither ‘I’ nor ‘X”.
I, X, X, X, I, X, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, _
As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Solution on Monday.
I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.
I’m lost
Wow, I actually get to be one of the “less than 10 seconds” internet heroes this week
Errrrmm. You might want to be careful where you make that boast
Got it. Only took one minute
I shouldn’t have read the comments
Given the clue that it’s not ‘I’ or ‘X’, it took about a minute. But, while my answer makes logical sense, and meets the requirements, it is actually wrong in common practice.
That’s debatable. It’s not much of a practice anymore at all, except, dare I say, for pretentiousness and kitsch. That makes this a more tricky puzzle than it would’ve been a few decades ago.
Well, it’s traditional. Although, interestingly, one of the most famous examples does not follow with tradition.
Based on this comment, I presume we came up with the same answer, because I thought the same thing as soon as I realized what the pattern was.
I think I got it.
thanks for the hint
5 or 10 minutes, and nothing. Then I guessed an answer on heuristic grounds, but didn’t have a stringent reason. Turns out it was correct. JFGI.
Hmm, I’ve got the way of thinking, and I know what Richard thinks should the answer, however in many real-life cases I think the answer may be different from what Richard thinks, as he may have forgotten to check his model of the world with the real world
Ah, good point, I’d forgotten about the ‘special case’ for… y’know… *things*.
Finally, I got it
Yes!! Finally got one. Can’t believe its pi…
I can see the answer you’re looking for, but as others have said, it’s wrong. The answer you’re looking for would come after this sequence:
X, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, _
Or even a shorter sequence. But then nobody would get the answer.
I agree. I first heard about this from James Randi.
I think i had a similar idea, but i dont know how long it took, i did not look at the clock…
I think i have the answer. Took me about a minute, with some wrong possible answers coming to mind first ofcourse!
If the answer is what I think it is, then it’s a forgery
Guessed at the answer, then took a few minutes working out WHY that was the answer.
I have seen quite a few real-world examples where the answer is not correct, though.
A couple of seconds to work out what sort of letter should be there, a few more seconds to spot the sequence in the first part of the series, but several minutes to realise what the whole sequence represented.
The reason for the non-correct real-world examples reside in the way these elements have been manufactured…with the “uncorrect notation” it is possilbe to use 4 time the same mold/tool to manufacture all of them…
Easy! A few seconds, and even before determining the exact sequence, I had a pretty good idea what the missing letter would be given the requirements. Of course, there are far too many commas in the sequence, but then again removing all the surplus ones would make it even less of a puzzle than it already is
Very easy
Saw it right away
The very first thought was the right one. But spent another two minutes to verify…
Absolutely not a single clue on this one, other than first thinking ‘Roman Numerals’ and having that lead me nowhere :/
Me too. :-/ Looking forward to seeing the solution.
Hint: Richard went a bit overboard with his commas…
It took me less than 5 minutes, it was a little tricky. I loved it!
Anyone else got Jim Diamond in their heads now?
No?
I’m starting to think I have completely misunderstood the puzzle this week, I don’t understand any of the comments
Very clever clues this week.
Got this in seconds, but started reading comments and now I’m worried I dont
I dont see how anyones gets this, im totally confused
i feel dumb now haha
Like all these puzzels they require some pre existing knowledge and like crosswords some experience of how Mr. Wiseman’s (sic) mind has wired his brain. Yes, you guessed it I have no idea of any answer. No doubt when the answer is revealed it’ll be like Poirot unmasking the killer – “Well if I’d know that!” Fun nonetheless. I,X,X,X says nothing to my mind & I can’t get Roman Numerals to fit, maybe the commas are equally important. I’ll just wait it out until Monday.
Nice one! Took a while but it passed the time. Must be Friday.
Yeah I clocked the answer pretty quickly too,
To those who have not seen it, I would not worry, these things are like crosswords, the more of them you do the easier they are, you learn the patterns…in fact something like IQ tests!
Getting it quickly just proves you read things like this blog too much…
I love sci-fi.
Took quite a while this week–about seven hours to solve.
There’s an alternative answer if the answer was in I’s and X’s but it’s not…C’est la vie
That’s the sequence of stitches on my operation scar, but I’m no closer to guessing what’s next.
Is it a question mark ?
ok got it , thanks to the comment about overuse of commas.
I had to cheat. Very clever, I’m not sure I would have ever gotten it, although I suppose my guess was correct.
How did you cheat?
I used Google to search for the answer.
Curse you commas!
Ten mins in and I’m still clueless…
I have the answer. Took maybe 2 mins. The comments are largely ludicrous I’m afraid. It’s much simpler than people or making out and there is only one possible answer and it does not rely on obscure knowledge. I think some people may have over thunk this one!
I don’t believe there is any question in the entire world that has only one possible answer. If you think there is, it is only because you can’t see the others, not because they don’t exist.
Very zen, yes, I know
[...] It’s the Friday Puzzle! A nice simple one this week! Which letter comes next in this series? The answer is neither ‘I’ nor ‘X”. [...]
Posted this on facebook, somebody TOLD ME THE ANSWER and I still don’t get it.
Wow, finally got it. Love it.
Ah, I think I have it. Had to read a few comments first though.
In the end I arrived at an answer that I sort of guessed at originally without really understanding the sequence.
Good puzzle.
If you had it, you’d know it.
I suspect this is a puzzle in which the young’uns are SEVERELY hampered. Nice to see there’s SOME mileage in being an old fart…
i think i have it. seems easy enough
In my personal environment here and now it IS an ‘I’, but I’ve seen the answer Richard probably has in mind when visiting London. Or I’m completely on a wrong track after several minutes.
Hi Richard, the link to http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/101-friday-puzzles/ is giving a 404 error at the moment
KUTGW
D