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I am organising a lottery and Springer have kindly agreed to donate two copies of LaTeX and Friends.

The lottery closes when the judge (I) announces the winners. 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 must guess a number in the range 1--200 and post it as an answer to this question. The first person who guesses the right number wins 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 post only two numbers.

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

Contestants must have been a member of TeX-SX before 1 December, 2016. (Without this restriction, people may start creating fake accounts and submit multiple guesses.)

Please post your guesses 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.

The winners must send me a delivery address for the book to my personal email address. I shall keep these addresses private. If a winner wants to have their book signed, I can do so at their request.

The following numbers have been taken (numbers marked with ●●● are already chosen):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|020|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|034|035|●●●|●●●|●●●|039|040|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|046|●●●|●●●|049|050|●●●|●●●|●●●|054|●●●|056|●●●|058|059|●●●|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|062|●●●|●●●|065|●●●|●●●|068|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|074|075|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|080|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|082|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|092|●●●|●●●|●●●|096|●●●|●●●|●●●|100|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|102|103|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|114|●●●|●●●|●●●|118|●●●|120|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|122|●●●|124|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|138|●●●|●●●|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|145|●●●|●●●|148|●●●|150|●●●|●●●|153|●●●|●●●|●●●|157|158|159|160|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|161|●●●|163|164|●●●|●●●|167|●●●|●●●|170|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|176|●●●|178|●●●|●●●|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|●●●|182|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|190|●●●|●●●|193|●●●|195|196|●●●|●●●|●●●|●●●|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: This is not getting anywhere. All guesses are wrong so far:( From 18 December, 21:14 GMT on, everybody is allowed to submit up to two guesses.

EDIT: 48 was one of the winning numbers. Congratulations to Torbjørn. One more number to go.

EDIT: We're almost there. Only one guess has been right so far:( From 22 December, 11:49 GMT, 2016 on, each (valid) contestant (see above for rules) is allowed to submit up to three guesses.

EDIT: 124 was the second winning number. Congratulations to Ryan. End of lottery.

13
  • Thanks for moving this to Meta to @JosephWright. I should have put it there in the first place.
    – user10274
    Dec 12, 2016 at 16:36
  • »Comments will be ignored.« ;(
    – Henri Menke
    Dec 12, 2016 at 20:35
  • Thanks to @paulocereda. Didn't understand the system. Makes much more sense this way as you don't have guess when crossing out a number.
    – user10274
    Dec 13, 2016 at 10:40
  • 1
    Do I have to punch out the number myself? - Ah, I even cannot click Edit.
    – mhchem
    Dec 13, 2016 at 12:57
  • @mhchem If you can't do it, somebody will do it for you. It depends how much reputation you have ;).
    – cfr
    Dec 13, 2016 at 17:54
  • 2
    How is it possible, that this question has 80 answers, but only 25 upvotes???
    – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
    Dec 16, 2016 at 10:51
  • @samcarter They were too busy in finding a random number to remember to upvote the question :)
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 8:21
  • 1
    @CarLaTeX Ah, that's a comforting explanation!
    – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
    Dec 18, 2016 at 11:03
  • 4
    @MarcvanDongen Many thanks to you and to Springer for the chance! :)
    – cxw
    Dec 20, 2016 at 15:31
  • Congratulations to the winners! Thank you Springer for sponsoring. Thanks everyone for your great work!
    – Jan
    Dec 21, 2016 at 8:31
  • @cwx Thanks and thanks to everybody for participating.
    – user10274
    Dec 21, 2016 at 13:09
  • 7
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because people won :)
    – percusse
    Dec 22, 2016 at 12:07
  • @percusse I second that motion.
    – user10274
    Dec 22, 2016 at 13:20

123 Answers 123

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1

I choose 156 because meh ......

82 and 158 are my two new numbers.

0

Onehundredandthirtyone (131)..

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  • The punched card squad says: number punched!
    – percusse
    Dec 13, 2016 at 11:14
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Maybe 97? I'm sure it is not...

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I'll go with the current lower extreme: 002

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  • numbers punched
    – Guilherme Zanotelli
    Dec 13, 2016 at 11:44
  • Yes!!!! Not seen that I'll Keep only the 002. Thanks for the warning (I'm embarassed). xD
    – Guilherme Zanotelli
    Dec 13, 2016 at 11:48
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108 .......... .......... .......

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152 .

0

85 Eighty-five. ...............

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121 (because it is 11^2, and a palindrom)

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I will go with 199 because its the largest prime (less than 200) which can be expressed as sum of squares.

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106, cause it's a number and < 200

0

Eleven (11) for reasons that are obvious in my head. :-)

Thanks for the lottery

0

137 is my guess. For some reason.

0

I'm going with 171! But that sentence is not long enough. May now...

0

I will guess 191.

Thank you!

0

63, because of Graham's number.

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3! My number, if I can reach the 30 characters, is the three.

0

107 (one hundred seven) .......

0

013­­­­­­­ ............... ............... ............... ............... ...............

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  • Hi Leonid, it looks like somebody has already taken that number here.
    – hbaderts
    Dec 13, 2016 at 22:32
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I am sure to contribute something new (hopefully, haha): I take the number 069! Would be great :)

0
  1. (adding characters here to reach the minimum!)
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188, for no particular reason.

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169, because it's 100 more than the maturest number.

0

123 - obviously the right choice ;)

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99 because if 6 turned out to be 9, then 69 (already taken) would be 99. Which I hope has not been taken.

1
  • It was not taken. Card punched (just to see if I've got enough reputation to do it: yes, I've got)!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 5:03
0

I take 127, because I just like it!

1
  • Number punched!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 9:45
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115, because of

expr 1 + $(tr -cd '0-9' < /dev/urandom|fold -w 3|grep -E '^[01]'|head -1)
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  • 1
    Number punched!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 9:44
0

007

James Bond asks you to donate the book to refugees from the war in Aleppo (I blame Putin for the ongoing fatalities there). Or simply to a library in need of support, maybe a university library in a struggling country.

1
  • Number punched!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 9:43
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I'm going to go with 162, because it looks so nice.

0

Can I take 095? It's nineteen times five.

1
  • Number punched!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 9:42
0

057

because it is equally good to any other number

1
  • Number punched!
    – CarLaTeX
    Dec 18, 2016 at 9:42
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