A nice quick one this week…..What are the next four numbers in this sequence…..
12, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, ……..?
As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.
Oh, and if you have a few minutes spare, it would be great if you could help out with the quick survey being conducted by psychologist and friend Rob Jenkins. Details here.
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.
Richard Wiseman 
Solved ^-^
Took me about 10 seconds
<33
20 seconds 🙂
Brian not in gear this morning – need more coffee…5 minutes before it clicked.
Brain, even! That’s how bad it is. TFSMIF
Poor Brian
Answer “struck” on third reading.
lol
Took me a few minutes… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this one before, because once I “got it”, it felt awfully familiar.
You many geniuses here. No clue yet.
You’re not alone.
No clue either…
5-10 seconds, I think. I may have seen it before, though.
Yes; it rang a bell with me too.
About a minute. Not seen it before but think I see the process. Monday will tell…
Tempting to slip a 13 in there to gum up the works ;
That happens only in spy movies 😉
Haven’t this puzzle been here before? I got the puzzle as soon as I read the second number, and I was sure it was on this blog I saw it. However, when I searched for the answer + wiseman, I couldn’t find it. Found a few similar puzzles here, though.
weird…
About a minute (ahem, cough).
After that, googling told me the same answer, but for another reason. Folks will chime in with different ways. Monday is going to be interesting.
2 secs
10 seconds at first, then I re-read the sequence.
The puzzle’s sequence is:
12, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, …
Note that it is NOT:
12, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, …
as in another puzzle…
That other puzzle is the one that I know, and the one that blocks me away from this…
Took me at least half an hour!
Sure I’ve seen this before somewhere, it certainly rings a bell.
Got it in 1.7356875235676347 seconds.
had to google it. Glad I did, would have never gotten it. For thos that struggle there are some subtle hints in the above comments.
Took me about half an hour before it struck me.
It took me about one ‘interval’ to recognise the pattern, here’s another wind up….what are the next four numbers in this sequence? 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8,…..?
… it seems as if something uptight in the gear….
Got this one after 5 mins or so and a cup of coffee!
I got it in about 30 seconds, which is precisely the time it took me to read the ‘subtle’ clues in the comments.
By subtle, I obviously mean ‘glaringly obvious giveaways’. ;^)
Took half an hour, though I was expecting it to be a quarter!
I found the correct pattern without knowing why it was correct in like 15s. Had to google the reason for it. Now it seems amazing that I did not get the last part.
Got it but not immediately. Took me about 2 minutes. I’m impressed by those who got it in 10 seconds.
Got it in about 30 seconds; goggled it to be sure, and although correct, did not have that same reasoning!
Instantly. But I’ve got a piece of equipment which characterizes this sequence, and came up with a similar brainteaser on my own for my kids based upon it. (Let’s just say it has to do with the maximum number of 1’s before one can be certain of something.)
Not seen it before. Got an answer in about 3 mins. I’m sure its right Though keen to check on Monday.
Took me all day, well most of the day, but I did eventually figure it out.
Got it almost immediately (heard it before), but don’t like some of the puzzles lately. They aren’t really logical, but require some knowledge that isn’t available to everyone, or might be different.
My dad taught me the principle behind this puzzle 25+ years ago, but I doubt a lot of the younger kids today know this one.
Sigh, I must be feeling old this morning 🙂
It was on reading it the third time I clicked and the lightbulb flashed above my head.
This time I even recognised the pattern before reading the question
so recognition was less than a second, verification took then around 7 secs and writing this statement took the longest.
Greets, Chris
This one is too well known
i do not believe this one is capable of solution. please do not waste your time over the weekend, when me wiseman returns to the office he will correct the sequence to something solvable