First (?) contest
I've noticed a few bloggers running contests with prizes on their blogs -- in fact, I recently won one. Check the March 23 post on:
http://readmymanuscript.blogspot.com/
So I've decided to run one too. The prize is a $20 gift card good at Destinations Booksellers in New Albany.
Here's the question:
With the recent release of the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, millions of Americans have been enlightened about the literary significance of the number 42. Readers of the book will remember that the receivers of that answer to the Ultimate Question were utterly shocked. It was just too simple.
Well, there are complex numbers, and while Deep Thought couldn't honestly give one as its Ultimate Answer, at least one has appeared -- or at least been alluded to -- in the writings of a major literary figure.
The question, for a $20 gift card, is:
What is the literary significance of the number (-7/2) + (i(sqrt(445/3))/2)?
The complete answer must:
(1) indicate the author;
(2) give the title or first line of the work in which this number is alluded to; and
(3) explain how it is derived from the text of the work.
As you may have figured out already, the number is NOT actually written out in the work.
The only clues I will give (for now) is that the work is in English; that, while it is not among the author's best-known works, it appears in the standard editions of the author's complete works; that the author is indeed best known for her or his literary productions; and that the work in question is NOT a work of science fiction.
Please post your solutions or any questions you may have as comments. I will contact the first correct solver to inform her or him that (s)he has won and to get her or his address so I can send the gift card.
Happy solving!
(And, even if you don't win, visit Destinations. This area needed a fine local bookstore, and at last it has one. I wish Evansville did. They're on Spring Street, and they have a blog at
http://destinationsbooksellers.blogspot.com/ .)
http://readmymanuscript.blogspot.com/
So I've decided to run one too. The prize is a $20 gift card good at Destinations Booksellers in New Albany.
Here's the question:
With the recent release of the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, millions of Americans have been enlightened about the literary significance of the number 42. Readers of the book will remember that the receivers of that answer to the Ultimate Question were utterly shocked. It was just too simple.
Well, there are complex numbers, and while Deep Thought couldn't honestly give one as its Ultimate Answer, at least one has appeared -- or at least been alluded to -- in the writings of a major literary figure.
The question, for a $20 gift card, is:
What is the literary significance of the number (-7/2) + (i(sqrt(445/3))/2)?
The complete answer must:
(1) indicate the author;
(2) give the title or first line of the work in which this number is alluded to; and
(3) explain how it is derived from the text of the work.
As you may have figured out already, the number is NOT actually written out in the work.
The only clues I will give (for now) is that the work is in English; that, while it is not among the author's best-known works, it appears in the standard editions of the author's complete works; that the author is indeed best known for her or his literary productions; and that the work in question is NOT a work of science fiction.
Please post your solutions or any questions you may have as comments. I will contact the first correct solver to inform her or him that (s)he has won and to get her or his address so I can send the gift card.
Happy solving!
(And, even if you don't win, visit Destinations. This area needed a fine local bookstore, and at last it has one. I wish Evansville did. They're on Spring Street, and they have a blog at
http://destinationsbooksellers.blogspot.com/ .)
posted by Bill Kenney at 6:40 PM
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