… I was playing a game of puzzles and stumbled upon this.
I got really annoyed because I could not understand the tips on how to solve it.
Do you understand that this riddle is not solved only with math? It's a linguistics riddle, too (at least in part).
There are many different "math" solutions (they come from viewing the given list as a sequence of numbers generated entirely by mathematical operations). I'll show an example of two strictly-mathematical solutions, using a shorter riddle, in my next post. Because many solutions are available by mathematics alone, experienced folks know right away that this riddle requires something more than just math, to obtain the game's specific solution. The hint's example is meant to provide only a starting point, to get you thinking about patterns other than arithmetic.
You noted that the hint doesn't help you to solve the riddle. Are you saying that you don't understand the pattern described in the hint's example? Or, are you saying that you recognize a pattern but don't understand how to apply it to the riddle?
In case it's the latter, I'll say the solution uses the hint's pattern to form only one part of each number in the riddle. The remaining parts of each number come from different patterns (each of which IS a strictly-mathematical sequence). Looking at the numbers given in the riddle, do you notice anything about the first digits? The last digits? If you do, then consider filling in the middle part of each number using the pattern shown in the hint.
If you don't recognize any pattern in the hint's example, let us know.
By the way, the hint appears to contain a typo. It seems like line 6:
"one one and one two is 1211"
ought to say:
"one two and one one is 1211"
Agree? :cool: