Looking for a job Carl?

[moonshadow]

engineers.jpg

[denimini]

They certainly won't be excluding primary school students

[moonshadow]

Carl's not responding until he's finished working the problem.

[crfriend]

Carl's not responding until he's finished working the problem.

I couldn't read the problem properly other than to know it's fairly simple. I need a magnifying-glass. (one of the joys of getting old)

[Tor]

I couldn't read it well either. Someone made the mistake of shrinking it to the point where there are no longer sufficient pixels to reliably distinguish the exponents. That said, my best guess as to what it reads is:

x=24, y=30
Phone=01.(y^2-x).(y^2-10^2)x10

Simple enough for mental arithmetic, but I suspect whoever put that together is not in the US.

[hoborob]

Well then by my calculations the number is 01.852.8000

Or it could be 01.852.269.000 if the last part of the equation is (y^3-10^2)*10

[crfriend]

Since we don't know where the problem originated we don't know the format of the resulting telephone number, which would yield clues.

Neither of hoborob's solutions look like NANP numbers, but then again we may not be talking North America.

[moonshadow]

Perhaps that's part of the mystery....

You gotta want it!

[hoborob]

the 01. at the beginning is a country code. I believe from what I remember that is for Great Britain. I maybe incorrect about the country code though.

[crfriend]

Nah, the 01 at the front isn't a country code it's an access number of some sort. "1" (usually expressed as "+1") is the United States (the "+" is whatever the international-dialling prefix is, "011" here in the States). If memory serves, the UK is "44", commonly written "+44".

Tor nailed it in noting that given the scaling involved the exponents can not be clearly made out and that invalidates the "test" due to legibility. It's also not a mathematical expression, but rather one of concatenating strings with a bit of arithmetic thrown in.

'Twas fun for a poser, though. Even with a magnifying-glass I couldn't read the thing properly.

My personal suspicion, and that's based on several wild-arsed guesses, is that the thing originated in the UK as I seem to recall from someplace several instances where UK numbers I've dialled in the past started off with "+1.44.01." (0114401). (If memory serves, the UK has the concept of "city codes" in its numbering scheme. Any denizens of the UK care to clear that one up?)

[Sinned]

Looks like a UK number with 01 being London. UK numbers are 5 digits for the area code and 6 digits for the number with first two numbers 01 and 02 being London.

[Tor]

Given Dennis' information, it looks like hoborob's suggestion that the second arithmetic segment is y^3, not y^2 is very likely correct, yielding a final London number of 01.876.269000. Guess you'd better visit the embassy if you want the job, Carl

I wonder if someone was playing jokes and not paying attention to the final number, or if that is a valid number for some firm.

[Disaffected.citizen]

Looks like a UK number with 01 being London. UK numbers are 5 digits for the area code and 6 digits for the number with first two numbers 01 and 02 being London.

Sorry but London numbers are 020-7xxx-xxxx and 020-8xxx-xxx. I think they are also now using 020-3xxx-xxxx; somebody more knowledgeable than I will know.

01 hasn't been used in many years; the age of the teaser may or may not yield a valid phone number. If the result is a eleven digit number, it could be a UK number. More that that, I cannot say.

[Stevie D]

....My personal suspicion, and that's based on several wild-arsed guesses, is that the thing originated in the UK as I seem to recall from someplace several instances where UK numbers I've dialled in the past started off with "+1.44.01." (0114401). (If memory serves, the UK has the concept of "city codes" in its numbering scheme. Any denizens of the UK care to clear that one up?)

UK telephone dialling codes are largely geographically/city/town based. Originally they started with a zero and then the second digit corresponded approximately alphabetically to the nearby town/city in the area. E.g. formerly 0226 was Barnsley, 0484 was Huddersfield, 0602 Nottingham, 0742 Sheffield, 0993 Witney, etc. London numbers were 01, later 071 and 081.

This changed somewhat in the 1990s when the leading 0 digit was changed to 01, so the Barnsley code became 01226, Huddersfield 01484, etc. At the same time new large city codes were introduced for some places, so Leeds became 0113, Sheffield 0114, Edinburgh 0131, etc. London is now exclusively 020.

Despite many changes over the years, there is a considerable element of numeric-alphabetic relationships still in existence except in the major cities, as noted above.

This is all much simplified, but for more detail have a look here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_d ... ed_Kingdom

[moonshadow]

This is all much simplified, but for more detail have a look here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_d ... ed_Kingdom

Wow, so much to see over there. A look at the phone list also includes hyperlinks to the associated Wikipedia articles for the various areas. Interesting stuff to look through.

Fascinating architecture and planning. Quite foreign compared to over here where typically older communities are built in the Colonial style, or sometimes Victorian. It's interesting looking at photos of cities and small villages that are older than the oldest settlement here in the U.S.

If I should visit over there, I'd say I'd be a bit overwhelmed at the vast variety of history to explore.

Suffice it to say I think it's beautiful. Quite different from the strip malls and suburbia that seems to be all the favorite of zoning boards here state side.