Project Euler Forum

Why is this note

"Note: You can assume that all the Roman numerals in the file contain no more than four consecutive identical units."

included in the problem statement? Why can't we have more than four consecutive identical units?

Some "rules" for Roman Numerals even state -- A numeral can be repeated in succession up to three times only.

Allowing only four repetitions at least avoids the conflation "VIIIII" = Ten vs "X" = Ten...

Just some random thoughts...

kenbrooker wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 6:34 pm Some "rules" for Roman Numerals even state -- A numeral can be repeated in succession up to three times only.

Allowing only four repetitions at least avoids the conflation "VIIIII" = Ten vs "X" = Ten...

Just some random thoughts...

True. Although allowing more than 4 would prevent clever people from solving it by hand.

Is there something... Evil about cleverness that I am not aware of?
That needs to be "prevent"ed?!

Surely you jest?

kenbrooker wrote: Thu May 21, 2020 11:05 pm Is there something... Evil about cleverness that I am not aware of?
That needs to be "prevent"ed?!

Surely you jest?

Nothing wrong with cleverness, but I do think that one of the qualifications for a problem to make it to PE is that it should be a true combination of math and programming, so a problem shouldn't be solvable without a computer doing at least some computation.

I guess that's the strict interpretation of--

A website dedicated to the puzzling world of mathematics AND programming

Clever hand-solutions no doubt include mathematics or pure logic but, not programming...

A website dedicated to the puzzling WORLDS of mathematics and programming
would be a Superset, welcoming hand solutions,
I guess...

Junglemath wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 12:31 am Nothing wrong with cleverness, but I do think that one of the qualifications for a problem to make it to PE is that it should be a true combination of math and programming, so a problem shouldn't be solvable without a computer doing at least some computation.

The compromise position is to include the traditional meaning of the word "computer", which would include Euler himself. This Roman numerals problem requires processing a text file, and is worth automating, but there's a later Roman numerals problem which can be solved on one sheet of A4 or US Letter paper if you're tidy.

And if Euler was married, I guess he was subordinated to "programming"...