ERJ Brainteaser: December

Question 4: Next number

23,  57, 1113, _?

Answer: For our final teaser of 2022, we went for a (hidden) series comprising consecutive, coupled prime numbers, making 1719 the next number. Very well done to: Jacques Guillaume, materials R&D project manager, Aptar Pharma, Val de Reuil, France; John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands; Jose Padron, laboratory analyst, Toyoda Gosei, Waterville, QC, Canada; Mark Horsfield, Tyre Spot Ltd, Chester Le Street, Co. Durham, UK; Michele Girardi, quality manager, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy; Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Mehmet Koral, Erhardt-Leimer representative for Turkey, managing director, C&C Endüstriyel Dan??manl?k, E?itim ve Mümessillik Ltd, Göztepe, Istanbul, Turkey; and everyone else who had a go.

Next teaser in early January, when we will also announce the winners in the highly prestigious Brainiac of the Year Awards.

Wishing all our readers, Brainiacs and non-Brainiacs, a very Happy Christmas and a great New Year! 

Question 3: Word search

Can you find any word, or words, containing four adjacent consecutive letters of the alphabet?

Answer: As with our World Cup question a couple of weeks ago, we are pooling the answers to reflect all the excellent effort gone into finding one or (many) more words that meet the criteria. And extra special mentions for: Jose Padron and Mark Horsfield who provided most of the words below; Andrew Knox who also chipped in German word ‘Bierstube’; Michele Girardi’s clever location-based answers Ghijasa de Sus, Romania, Hijken, The Nederlands and Stuvenborn, Germany; and Stephan Paischer for ingeniously suggesting ‘spring-fed’.

So it is very well done – this time in alphabetical order – to everyone who replied to this and/or last week’s carried over bonus question: Donald Blair, managing director, Aquablast Ltd, Beccles, Suffolk, UK; John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Michele Girardi, quality manager, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy; Mark Horsfield, Tyre Spot Ltd, Chester Le Street, Co. Durham, UK; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands; Jose Padron, laboratory analyst, Toyoda Gosei, Waterville, QC, Canada: Stephan Paischer, head of product management and market intelligence, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; and everyone else who had a go.

Word search:

Apotemnophobia, chimnophilous, cremnophile, cremnophilous, cremnophily, cremophobia, cremnophobias, gymnopaedia, gymnopaedias, gymnopaedic, gymnopaedium, gymnopedia, gymnopedias, gymnopedic, gymnopedium, gymnophilies, gymnophily, gymnophobia, gymnophoria, gymnophorias, gymnoplast, gymnoplasts, gymnopterous, limnophil, limnophile, limnophilous, limnophily, limnophobia, limnophyte, limnoplankton, overstudious, overstudy, overstuffed, somnophilia, somnophilias, somnophilist, somnophilists, superstud, thamnophile, thamnophilic, thamnophily, somnoplasty, understudied; understudies, understudy, understudying.

Question 2 (Bonus question): Next generation

What comes next in the following sequence?

... / three, 11 / three, 13 / four, 17 / four, 19 / ...

Taking out that initial rogue ‘15’, this is a sequence of prime numbers with the number of vowels written before each. So the answer is three, 23.

Question 1: Find the link

Beethoven’s 1st, Centre of orbit, Third of February, Ballet beginning  

Answer: Usually, we try to avoid sending readers on a ‘wild goose chase’ but this might not quite have been the case with this week’s teaser. The answer here is the letter ‘B’, as in Beethoven’s 1st, Centre of orbit, Third of February, Ballet beginning. Extremely well done, so, to: David Mann, key account manager, SPC Rubber Compounding, UK; and Jose Padron, laboratory analyst, Toyoda Gosei, Waterville, QC, Canada – who both answered before any clues were issued – followed closely by John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands; and Stephan Paischer, head of product management and market intelligence, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria. Of course, well done also to everyone else who had a go.