I’m up and down and round about, yet all the world can’t find me out. Though thousands have employed their leisure, they never yet could find my measure. I’m found in almost every garden, In a compass or a farden. There’s neither chariot coach nor mill may move one inch except I will.
Last winter I found myself locked out of my house because I couldn’t remember the 5-digit code to open the garage door. I used the following facts to get inside.
1. The second and third digits add up to 9. 2. The first digit is equal to the second digit cubed. 3. The sum of the third and fifth digits is the smallest number with exactly five divisors. 4. The fourth digit is equal to 6 times the second-to-last digit. 5. None of the digits repeat.
If we label each digit a, b, c, d and e, we get the following equations. 1. b + c = 9 2. a = b3 3. c + e = 16 (since 16 is the smallest number with five divisors – 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16). 4. d = 6 * d (The fourth and second-to-last digits are the same number, meaning d must be zero to satisfy the equation) 5. b must be zero, one or two (b can’t be three because that makes a=27, which isn’t a single digit). Zero and one result in duplicate digits (00907 and 11808 respectively) so the only remaining value for b is 2, giving us 82709 and warmth.
The thunder comes before the lightning, And the lightning comes before the cloud, The rain dries all the land it touches, Wrapping the earth in a blood red shroud.
On the sixth of May in the year 1978 at exactly thirty-four minutes past noon, a most extraordinary event occurred. This singular occasion will probably never be witnessed by anyone who was alive at that time. What happened?
The time and date was 12:34 5/6/78, counting from one to eight. The next time this event will occur is 12:34 6 May 2078. Unless someone alive in 1978 lives to be over a hundred, they won’t be alive when it happens again.