

$10K for solving a math equation - paraschopra
http://joshjames.com/NewGig

======
lotharbot
Four equations, five unknowns, all linear. This isn't particularly difficult,
just tedious.

Because there are more unknowns than equations, your solution should itself be
an equation expressing one of the unknowns as a linear function of the other
four -- omega = a * beta + b * gamma + c * phi + d * mu, where a, b, c, and d
are found by chugging away using your favorite linear solution technique
(Gaussian elimination, perhaps.)

I leave the actual solution as an exercise for the reader ;)

~~~
ansy
The only tedious part is typing it out into a linear solver like this one:

<http://wims.unice.fr/wims/en_tool~linear~linsolver.en.html>

Solution:
[http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi?session=QW1E82D03B.1&...](http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi?session=QW1E82D03B.1&lang=en&cmd=reply&module=tool%2Flinear%2Flinsolver.en&system=4%289u+%2B+16p+%2B+6m+-+200%29+%2B+3m+-+1+%2B+2%282d+-+u%29+%2B+9%289b+-+5d+-+3m%29+%3D+0%0D%0A10%284b+-+4d+%2B+3m%29+-+d+%2B+u+%2B+b+-+3+-+8m+%2B+11%285u+-+2m+%2B+4p%29+%3D+0%0D%0A9%282m+-+4d+%2B+6p%29+-+15m+-+3%28m+%2B+1+-+d%29+%2B+5%287u+%2B+5b+-+13%29+%3D+0%0D%0A10%282m+-+600+%2B+5p+%2B+6b%29+%2B+3%28b+-+u%29+%2B+p+%2B+u+-+4%286d+-+8u+%2B+5m%29+%3D0&parms=)

Getting the numbers appears to be the easy part in figuring out the new
company name.

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diiq
The disclaimer at the bottom suggests to me that perhaps there is a second
part of the puzzle, which occurs _after_ finding the "answer key" and signing
an NDA. So I'm pretty sure no one will pick up $10K for solving a linear
system.

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wbhart
The competition is apparently suspended. I don't understand how part of the
solution could "become public" unless someone at his company leaked the info.

I guess you combine the four numbers Mu = 231, Phi = 158, Delta = 553, Beta =
68 to get a phone number, which you call to get the next clue. Though which
order is anyone's guess. Useless if you live outside the US too.

I don't think this was a well thought out puzzle.

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Tichy
Is there an online OCR that can parse that? I suppose then one could feed it
to Wolfram Alpha? I tried Google Docs, but it didn't convert anything at all.

~~~
synnik
Reduce it enough, and Wolfram Alpha generates a visual representation of a
plane. But this is also a puzzle - I think the key isn't getting an equation
out of it, it is figuring out where they want us to apply said equation.

~~~
username3
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=81+b-41+w%2B64+x%2B34+z...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=81+b-41+w%2B64+x%2B34+z-801+%3D+0%2C+41+b-41+w%2B44+x%2B56+z-3+%3D+0%2C+25+b-33+w%2B54+x%2B35+z-68+%3D+0%2C+63+b-24+w%2B51+x%2B30+z-6000+%3D+0)

β = 68, Δ = 553, φ = 158, μ = 231

------
iwwr
Back of a piece of paper calculation and a hand calculator:

beta = 131376/19147

gamma = - 485151/95735

phi = 271932/95735

mu = 617333/95735

omega = anything, it's zero everywhere (?)

~~~
sp332
I don't think you can solve for 5 variables with only 4 equations. Your answer
would have to be a relation of variables to each other (beta = _n_ gamma)
instead of a number.

~~~
Mgccl
He did not solve for 5 variables, he solved 4 and the last one can be
anything.

It doesn't have to be in that relation. Example, 2 variable, 1 equation. x + y
- y = 0.

Here x must be 0.

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kayzee
Is this part of the application process?! There is no easy to find contact
information on how to submit the answer key. Obviously solving this is the
easy part, but who would we contact?

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robert1211
If they wrote how long that has been live and if anyone submit the correct
answer, then I would try. But not worth my time, for all i know they already
chose their friend.

------
james1982
Mu = 231, Phi = 158, Delta = 553, Beta = 68, Omega=0

~~~
wbhart
Well, none of the 24 combinations of those seems to give a valid IP address.
Probably they screwed up. Of course a standard IP address wouldn't have values
above 255 anyhow.

~~~
Tichy
Perhaps delta is the port. How do you scan for validity of an IP address?

~~~
wbhart
You can just type the IP address into your browser.

But that is unlikely to be it. If the puzzle maker has even half a brain,
those four numbers are only some part of the puzzle. If you look at the
equations, they are way more complex than they need to be to give those four
numbers. There must be additional data encoded there somehow. Of course if the
puzzle maker is clever, there'll also be a clue there somewhere.

Of course these things tend to be done by marketing people who have no idea
how to set puzzles. So the solution will probably end up being something
really silly. And someone will somehow divine the answer, possibly because
they were told ahead of time how to solve the puzzle.

It's rarely worth solving problems like these.

~~~
Tichy
But wouldn't the browser only check for port 80?

Agreed that it's probably not the solution, just wondering.

------
summitpush
The careers link jumps to corda.com. Does this mean the company name has
already been solved?

~~~
lurker14
Corda is an old company with an old enterprisey XML product.

Josh James bought Corda [http://allthingsd.com/20110427/exclusive-whats-
former-omnitu...](http://allthingsd.com/20110427/exclusive-whats-former-
omniture-ceo-josh-james-doing-since-leaving-adobe-raising-money/)

Looks like he's trying to remake Corda into something useful.

Of note, both Omniture and Corda are based in Utah. When he went shopping, he
didn't look far.

It's interesting that he doesn't have any non-compete agreements in place
stopping him from competing with the $1.8B analytics company he just sold and
resigned from.

~~~
vyrotek
[http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50864867-76/adobe-james-
co...](http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50864867-76/adobe-james-corda-
lawsuit.html.csp)

------
vdondeti
Where are we supposed to submit our "answers" to? I didn't see any contact
info on the site.

------
ChuckMcM
I'm guessing the name of the company is "Relatively Prime"

Just sayin'

------
pewpew
i give up <http://math.bd.psu.edu/~jpp4/finitemath/4x4solver.html>

------
dagobert
the answer is damdollar

