Each number, starting with one, has something done to it to get the next number...

 

What should the next number in the pattern be?

 

1, -1, 6, 29, 756, 570779,...

Each number' date=' starting with one, has something done to it to get the next number...

 

What should the next number in the pattern be?

 

1, -1, 6, 29, 756, 570779,...[/quote']

 

a guess

[hide]325,786,954,506[/hide]

i agree with the spoiler above but damn that was a tricky one!!

no...That's not right, at least not according to what I'm doing...

 

Out of curiosity, what did you do to get your answer?

 

Here's a hint

 

[hide] it involves a fairly simple function [/hide]

 

Even bigger hint

 

[hide] that function is.... x^2-2x-1 [/hide]

Out of curiosity' date=' what did you do to get your answer?

 

 

[/quote']

 

[hide] I saw that the function that gets you from one to the next ALTERNATES between x^2-x-1 and x^2 - 3x +2

 

To get from 1 to -1, you go by x^2-x-1 (the function you propose would not work at least if used directly)

 

Then to get from -1 to 6, you go by x^2 - 3x +2

 

and then to get from 6 to 29 you go by x^2-x-1 again

 

and so on, you just keep alternating and it works and generates the sequence you wrote for us. [/hide]

 

BTW thanks for the puzzle, Coli, enjoyed working on it! Maybe you should explain your method if nobody comes up with the answer you had in mind in a day or so.

Wow, Martin...you were a lot closer then I thought. Ok, well I see how your method would arrive with that answer. I did something else, a bit tricker then what you did.

 

I'll give it until friday, I think. Unless anybody gets really frustratesd...then I guess you can PM me.

Is this thing recursive?

I'm sorry, but I don't know what "recursive" means. Please explain!

Does the function to calculate the next number involve the number(s) before the desired number?

Coli,

 

I am completely stumped.

[hide] how about another hint, or giving us the answer but blacked-out?[/hide]

I sincerly apologize to everyone who was working on this thread, due to a simple math error on my part, the numbers in the pattern came out completely wrong. I am so sorry. I'm sure that's why no one was able to come up with the answer.

 

The pattern should have been 3, 5, 19, 341, 103380 ...

 

Please give me another chance!

The pattern should have been 3' date=' 5, 19, 341, 103380 ...

[/quote']

 

not to worry, a pattern with errors is just something more to puzzle over.

 

[hide] if it were 3, 5, 19, 341, 115939

then I would guess the rule was X^2 - X - 1

and I would say the next number is

13,441,735,781

 

but the 5th number in your patter is NOT the 115939 which I expected,

but is instead 103380

which stumps me. I do not see the pattern[/hide]