104
votes

I am organising yet another lottery and Springer have kindly agreed to donate two copies of LaTeX and Friends (see also).

This year I decided to be the judge of the lottery. The lottery closes when the judge has announced the last winner. The judge's decision is final and there shall be no discussion and/or correspondence about the outcome of the lottery.

To win the book you may guess two numbers in the range 1--250. The first two people that guess the right number win a copy of the book. Please note that the time of arrival in TeX-SX is what counts, not the time of sending.

To give everybody a fair chance, you may submit only one number.

There is one exception to the previous rule. If several contestants submit the same number, the contestant whose submission arrived first is valid. The other contestants may resubmit a new number.

Contestants must have been a member of TeX-SX before 10 December, 2014. (Without this restriction, people may start creating fake accounts and submit multiple guesses.)

Please post your guess as an answer to this meta question; not as a comment. Comments will be ignored. Please only put your guess in the body of the answer.

Guesses will be checked every couple of days and the winner will be announced within a few days after.

I can sign the book at your request. Please note that I won't sign by default because I know some people want to keep their books pencil and ink free.

At the time of writing there were no winners yet. To speed things up, contestants may choose two numbers in total.

** OK It's two days before Christmas and the remaining number still hasn't been guessed. I'm giving you one more try, so everybody may guess three numbers in total. **

Update: the numbers were 126 and 197 have been guessed by mrf and phollox respectively.

Congratulations to Winners !. Thanks all for participating. More luck next year.

    -----------------------------------------    ----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|129|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|140|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|148|149|◖■◗| 
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |151|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|155|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|160|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|164|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗| 
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |191|◖■◗|◖■◗|194|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|207|◖■◗|209|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|095|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|230| 
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------
    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|    |◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|◖■◗|
    -----------------------------------------    -----------------------------------------

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                        -----------------------------------------

Copy/paste card punch : |◖■◗|

Having difficulty getting by the trivial answer checker (due to including an internal site link, perhaps)? Include this 2x2 pixel image at the end of your guess:

![trivial answer checker avoidance](https://i.stack.imgur.com/nRgZB.png)
8
  • 12
    People, I don't understand you I think. We've got 14 people wanting a book, and only 6 of them grateful to Marc for organizing this little TeX.SX Xmas? ...
    – yo'
    Dec 10, 2014 at 20:28
  • 6
    @tohecz To be fair, the customary way of saying 'thanks' on this site is to vote posts up and, by that reckoning, 35 people have said 'thanks', while 52 have answered. Assuming that only those who have answered have voted up, that's slightly better...
    – cfr
    Dec 11, 2014 at 23:09
  • 2
    And people – please stop shaming the 'uninteresting' numbers. All numbers are interesting! Dec 21, 2014 at 3:06
  • 2
    @SeanAllred Isn't there even one uninteresting number? Seems a shame - I'd be interested to know which one it was.
    – cfr
    Dec 21, 2014 at 22:17
  • 2
    I have the book Marc. I want to give others an opportunity hence would pass on this. Thanks for every year lottery at tex.sx. Dec 23, 2014 at 0:59
  • 1
    @texenthusiast Thanks for that.
    – user10274
    Dec 23, 2014 at 13:23
  • Thanks again for this generous donation to the community. I'm sure we all appreciate it!
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Dec 29, 2014 at 16:21
  • I'm going to lock here to 'preserve' the question/answers as-is. If anyone needs to edit, ping me in the chat room.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Dec 29, 2014 at 16:22

137 Answers 137

1
2 3 4 5
13
votes
  1. Because:

    • It's prime!
    • It's your body temperature in degrees Celsius.
    • 37 * 2 - 1 = 73 (and this is the only number that does this in base 10)

      (and btw, 73 is prime as well)

    • AND it's a centered hexagonal number (take sides of 4 dots):

      enter image description here

    • AND it's a star number (take sides of 3 dots):

      enter image description here

Oh, and it has its own website as well: http://thirty-seven.org/

1
  • 4
    This answer is great!
    – Astrinus
    Dec 12, 2014 at 10:37
9
votes

My choice is 247 because tex.se has a 24/7 service!
My another two guesses are 60 and 195.

enter image description here trivial answer checker avoidance

8
votes

041 197 trivial answer checker avoidance

picture of pie

7
  • 8
    Congratulations: 197 is one of the two numbers I picked. Please give me your snail mail details and I'll send the book as soon as I have it (it's still on its way from the publisher). Do you want me to sign the book.
    – user10274
    Dec 19, 2014 at 13:47
  • Amazing!!! Merry Christmas to me. Can I post my address here? I meant, is it safe?
    – phollox
    Dec 20, 2014 at 0:23
  • I sent you an email to the address in your website. Thanks again
    – phollox
    Dec 20, 2014 at 0:46
  • 2
    @phollox For future reference, your address would be as safe here as it would be if posted simultaneously on the bulletin board of every grocery store in the world :) The great majority of people would pay no mind, but… Dec 22, 2014 at 6:39
  • Oh! And congrats! Dec 22, 2014 at 6:39
  • 1
    Nothing can beat the power of a pie! :) Congrats and merry Christmas! :) Dec 22, 2014 at 9:50
  • @sean yes, I realized that after I asked. But anyway, what's the worst thing that could happen? Don't answer... A "friend" wanted to sent me a box with 1000 live crickets. And that's not even close to a really bad thing. Thanks !!
    – phollox
    Dec 22, 2014 at 11:09
7
votes

I'll take 154 because the ISBN for the hardcover version of LaTeX and Friends ends with these digits.

6
votes

42, the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

6
votes

251

I was going to re-use the number from last year but I see you changed the rules, you don't trick me that easily, so it's a new number this year.

502

Second number is twice the first and has exactly twice the chance of winning.

1004

because it's twice my last guess.

1
5
votes

My choice is 123, for the same reason I like vanilla ice cream. And 202. And 044.

5
votes

119, because that's what LaTeX told me to.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
    The random number I chose is
    \tikz{\pgfmathsetmacro\x{round(rnd*249+1)}\node at (0,0) {\x}}
\end{document}

As a second guess, I take 138 - same reason as before.

As third guess I'll try 102 for no specific reason.

PS: thanks to @percusse for your suggestion, i wasn't aware of this possibility.

1
  • 2
    The random number I chose is \pgfmathparse{round(rnd*249+1)}\pgfmathresult ;)
    – percusse
    Dec 16, 2014 at 18:30
4
votes

009 Peer pressured into thinking of a reason. Identifier of the simulations I'm analysing.

4
votes

147, a maximum break in snooker.

1
  • +1 for snooker!
    – yo'
    Dec 11, 2014 at 19:44
4
votes

239

(the largest prime still available)

4
votes

My Guess: 135. Because it's one more than 134.

Second choice: 199. Because it's 65 more than 134.

4
votes
  1. that's 2^6, a good binary power.

and i'd welcome a signed copy, should the unlikely happen.

edit thank you for the extension. 227 for a second number.

edit 2 another extension! 107.

3
votes

I choose 24, because why not :) !

3
votes
  1. Because it's just as good as any other.
3
votes

004

It's random, so if you pick anything but the first available number you are not a mathematician ;) trivial answer checker avoidance

1
  • +1 for snark :) Dec 22, 2014 at 21:08
3
votes

216, because it's 6 cubed. Lots of small factors.

3
votes

173 is mine! Simply because I threw a dart at my screen and that is where it landed. Also, awesome event! Oh, if I would be the lucky one, I would love a signature!

3
votes

184, because I have a strong intuition.

3
votes

163, as per my wife's suggestion.

3
votes

81

I am going for 81 = 9 x 9

3
votes

How about 192, because my birthday falls on the 192nd day of the year.

Edit: since a second number is allowed, I was going to choose 158 (since that's the number of days since my birthday to today), but somebody else seems to have chosen that. So how about 159, since nobody has that yet.

3
votes

157 and 203

Because these were first two non-taken results from

$ python

import random
print random.randint(0, 251)
3
votes

020 because I hope to have a first version of my thesis ready by the 20th :-)

And 218, for no special reason.

2
3
votes

I go for 63, the only Mersenne number whose prime divisors all appear in the factorization of previous Mersenne numbers.

...and for the 32: number of faces of the truncated icosahedron. Soccer rules! :)

3
votes

229, because it is 1729 modulo 250. And 1729 is SO famous and beautiful number...

Edit

And the second is 172, because it is 1729 divided by 10 (in TeX counters sense).

2
  • 1
    It only takes a Ramanujan to see that in a flash.
    – user10274
    Dec 12, 2014 at 5:58
  • Interestingly linked to by the interesting number article I posted to the Q far before I knew why 1729 was "SO famous" :) Dec 21, 2014 at 4:01
3
votes

136, because the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom is -13.6 eV.

3
votes

I will go with 233, that's the largest Fibonacci number in the sheet. PS: If it's me, then signed please :)

Second guess: ◖■◗ I mean, 093 :)

Third guess: 211

3
votes

87 (my current rep modulo 1000)

Second number: 16 (the smallest free one)

Third number: 240 (the highest free one)

trivial answer checker avoidance

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