Were we supposed to think/assume that the librarian was in on the "game" somehow since she basically gave him the asnwer to the initial puzzle invitation? I kept waiting for her to come back into the story and she never did. Maybe it was just to illustrate the point that Pascal couldn't figure it out without help? Then again, myabe I'm just overthinking something that doesn't require any thinking ...
She was only paid to give him the hint.
shareYes she was working for the old guy. But I just dont get the answer "the number are in alphabetical order"...but do they form a word, then?
shareThe question was simply: "in what order are the following numbers?"
Since he was a mathematician, he assumed it was a sequence and the solution would be a recurrence relation.
------------------------------------------------------------
E.g. the following sequence
2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17
has a difference of 3 between each number, so its formula would be
a(n) = a(n-1) + 3
with a(0)=2
Which means: "every number after the first one (which is called a(0)) is created if you take the number before and add 3"
------------------------------------------------------------
But in the case of the numbers in the movie, there was no formula to be found. Hence his difficulty solving the riddle.
(not a native speaker so I'm not sure if I'm using the proper terminology here)
__________________
A year is a long time.
Not so long. Just once around the sun.
They don't form a word. If you write the numbers in full (in spanish) they're in alphabetical order.
5 Cinco
4 Cuatro
2 Dos
9 Nueve
8 Ocho
6 Seis
7 Siete
3 Tres
1 Uno