Series Puzzlers

By Bill Bultas
Up for a little brain teasing? These series puzzles should do the trick! See how many you can solve, and click here when you are ready to see the answers. Series puzzles are often mathematical, but sometimes play on letters of the alphabet, and other things from everyday life that can be broken down into numbers or letters. Be warned that some of these puzzles are a bit devious! You've definitely got your thinking cap on if you can solve 7 of these, you're quite exceptional if you can answer 10 correctly, and beyond that, well, you may not be a rocket scientist in fact, but I'm sure many people mistake you for one! :-)

Think numbers... er, letters... and numbers...
1. 3 3 5 4 4 3 5 ?

Skipping through the week, do the same thing with this series:
2. 6 9 6 6 7 ?

We simply travel forward through time, but numbers...
3. 1 2 13 0 3 03 ?

The same can be said for letters...
4. A F AM P M UJ ?

If you've solved all of those, this should be easy:
5. 7 5 3 4 9 ?

This is where I live, and yes, it often appears to be mixed up. But there is a logic to it:
6. n t d s a e . f a e i a u i e ?

A patriotic series:
7. w a j m m a ?

What number is missing from this series?
8. 2 3 5 7 13 17

If you saw what I was up to in the last problem, it should help you now:
9. 15 11 9 5 3 1 ?

It's elementary, my dear puzzler
10. h l b n f n a p ?

Series puzzles can come in different shapes and sizes:
11. 5   8       7   13       2   6  

    2   15      3   20       4   ?

12. 5 5 5         1     ?????????    
    5            1 1        ?   
    5 5 5       11111       ?    
    5          1     1      ?
    5 5 5     1       1     ?

13.    60          90  90         ?    ?
                              ?             ?
  60        60     90  90         ?    ?

14.    5           45  45         720    720            ?
                              720            720      
  5         5      45  45         720    720       ?         ?


ANSWERS