Sandy Wood
Brain Game: Legal Twice Over
by Sandy Wood - March 30, 2009 - 7:30 AM

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Your intrepid Brain Games composer turned 42 years old on Sunday. You Douglas Adams fans tell me – does that mean I should understand the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? Anyway, I went looking for a puzzle that included “42″ in the mix, and I found one that’s perfect for Math Monday. Good luck!

What’s the next number in this sequence?

1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, …?

Here is the SOLUTION.

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Comments (9)

  1. This one was fairly quick, but still gotta love Math Monday. Happy Birthday!

    EDITORIAL NOTE: Thanks, Ed – and we fixed the typo!

    posted by Ed on 3-30-2009 at 8:01 am

  2. I saw the second pattern, not the first. I also love Math Monday. Happy Birthday!

    posted by Diana on 3-30-2009 at 8:45 am

  3. Also saw it the second way. Yay Math Monday!

    posted by ErinInHouston on 3-30-2009 at 8:58 am

  4. Holy crap, a Math Monday about math, and not counting syllables or vowels or some other non-mathematically related subject.

    posted by Shocked on 3-30-2009 at 9:05 am

  5. Fairly easy for a Monday. Happy Birthday!!

    posted by CreepN on 3-30-2009 at 9:25 am

  6. Love Math Monday, especially when I get them right. 42 is when you get to go around telling the “unenlightened” why it’s so cool to be 42.

    posted by Jan on 3-30-2009 at 12:32 pm

  7. I got it because as soon as I see a 42, I automatically think 6×7. When I quickly noticed that 6=2×3, I had it.

    When I was clicking through to the answer page, I wondered whether Sandy would have the answer as n^2+n or n(n+1). :-)

    Happy Birthday, Quizman!

    posted by Hodge on 3-30-2009 at 3:15 pm

  8. I came up with another answer: 3,270,666. The pattern was the number itself times the next prime number.
    1 x 2 (next prime after 1) = 2
    2 x 3 (next prime after 2) = 6
    6 x 7 (next prime after 6) = 42
    42 x 43 (next prime after 42) = 1806
    1806 x 1811 (next prime after 1806) = 3,270,666.

    posted by bradj on 3-30-2009 at 3:34 pm

  9. Nailed it. The 2nd way.

    posted by Will on 3-30-2009 at 6:16 pm

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