Thursday, September 18, 2008

4 Fives Game

AAAAAHHHH!!

Okay, so about 10 days ago, I started doing the "4 Fives" Game again. I've also gotten Vinh infected, so he's doing it too, but slower and not as obsessively. Anyway, I started with the numbers 1-100, and then I increased to 1-200, and to make a long story short, I'm now trying to get up to 500.

It's... amazing. First, I was stuck on 6 numbers between 1-100, and then I figure out a formula and I get those 6 numbers. Then later I was stuck on another few numbers, and then I figure something out and I get those numbers! And it's still working! Well, number of formulae are not increasing much, but the application of them is still increasing.

Yesterday night, I counted, and I was missing 52 out of the 500 numbers. Then I worked a bit more during the night, and a little bit more this morning, and now I've reduced it to 33 out of 500. I'm still getting some! I think some of these are impossible, but every now and then I surprise myself, because I find a new application or I overlooked something simple, and I get more numbers!

Amazing, amazing. First, the discovery that you can change a number x (like, 9) into 90-x, so 81, all using one simple formula. And then the discovery of 3 using two fives, and 17 using two fives... wow. And then a few days ago I discovered making 0, 1, 45, 89, and 90 using just 1 five. Great discovery, definitely useful.

Okay, so as it stands, from 1:30pm, September 18th:

001 - 100: All done
101 - 200: All done
201 - 300: Missing 277 and 281
301 - 400: Missing 307, 308, 313, 321, 322, 334, 368, 371, 382, 383, 394, 396, 397, 398
401 - 500: Missing 407, 411, 412, 458, 461, 463, 464, 466, 468, 472, 473, 478, 488, 492, 493, 497, 499