Calculating π by Will Nediger
Welcome to the “Calculating π” contest. There are 15 clues, labeled with Greek letters, the answers to which are all numbers (not necessarily rational!). As in “Ultimate Calculatrivia”, plug the 15 values into the 16th clue (π), to get the final answer (again, not necessarily rational). If Greek letters appear in a clue, the answer from the corresponding clue is to be used. Variables within clues are letters of the Roman alphabet, and are independent from other clues. Some of the clues can be solved without any research (θ, ν), but most will require more thought. As usual, if you find any ambiguities or have questions about any of the clues, post them. I will answer some questions, but for some I will simply post “No comment,” meaning any answer I give might give away something I don’t want given away. Gold, silver, and bronze will go to the first three entrants who send in the value of π along with the other 15 values. If you cannot finish it, send in the answers you have, because if nobody finds π (highly unlikely) I will award first, second, and third to the people who come closest. Third prize is glory, second glory and prestige, first glory, prestige, and any two (your choice) from the following list: distinction, renown, kudos, or honor. E-mail your answers to [email protected] with “pi” in the subject line.
α
Number associated with the poem which inspired the motto of the country which issued a stamp series depicting signs with the numbers N+1, 3N, and 4N, where N is a factor of the palindrome closest to the difference, in seconds, between a sidereal year and a tropical year.
β
Exact value of the cosine of the angle that is: The people behind the work with the same name as the book associated with a three-digit number, where the sum of the first two digits is α divided by the last digit, minus The credentials of the character whose name gave rise to the sobriquet of a WWII airplane, minus The amount of freedom enjoyed by circular priests and triangular soldiers.
γ
The date in the month of the author who made collections with the numbers 100, 200, and 300 in the titles, plus the date in the month of the birthday of a Florida-born surplusage-eschewing author, plus the date in the month of the birthday of the odd one out: Person depicted on the 5-yuan note issued in the twentieth-century year ending in α; Singer born in an oxymoronic town who received a chromatically oxymoronic award; Founder of a group which had a song which reached #1 on the UK charts twice--before and after his death; Scientist who worked at a 1234516 and developed a test for 1234578, where each number represents a different letter; Man who narrated a TV show which had a character named “Chinese Dragon”; Athlete with a middle name the same as the surname of another of the people mentioned in this clue, and another middle name which might suggest an Internet-adapted atlas; Enemy of Figaro; Supervillain whose name ends with the name of the group mentioned in .
δ
)?9‡12‡;4*?98(6-50¶50?8)1‡(;4816();06;8(50;(6‡‡1;48*598‡1;489?)6-18);6¶50480†6*5-6;: ‡*-8-‡*)6†8(8†;‡288?( ‡.8)38‡3(5.46-50-8*;(8
ε
Product of all the numbers in the names of these fictional characters: Main character of a novel that was written because of its author’s hunger; Shortened (but not completely shortened) name of a character born in 2348; Character in a British TV show who was never played by the same person more than three times; Character voiced by the same actor who voiced a dog named Frank; Proposed name for the first-born child of the TV character whose name is an anagram of ECTOZOA NAGGERS.
ζ
Sum of the zip codes (take the lowest one if there are multiple zip codes) of these cities, where the term ‘city’ refers to any populated place (one of the clues is a red herring, leading to a city with no zip code): Site of the ________ ________, where the blanks can be filled with the name (state followed by city) of the city with a zip code that is the cube of γ; City containing its state’s USPS abbreviation three times consecutively; City whose name is an anagram of both the name of a type of sword and a classification of fish containing what is called balık asalaği in a certain language. City with a name that might describe something you would find in the country which is the site of a city (the birthplace of a famous person whose name is the same as the original name of a famous actor), with a name the same as a city in the same state as the answer to this clue (hint: this city’s zip code differs from that of this clue’s answer by only one digit, and its name, with the last two letters switched, becomes half of the name of the ‘something’ described above).
η
Number of degrees it takes to connect the owner of a famous BMW dealership in Georgia to the Kevin Bacon of mathematics, plus the number of degrees it takes to connect person A with Kevin Bacon, where A, B, and C all share the same first name; A once portrayed B; B and C have surnames beginning with the same trigram, and the fourth letters of their surnames are alphabetical neighbours; A and B have surnames with the same vowel-consonant pattern, and the same consonants in different orders; A and C have surnames that, when put together, form (phonetically) the name of a beverage.
θ
Number of ways of filling the configuration of x circles on the stamp set in α with the integers from 1 to x so that the composite numbers are all in the same row.
ι
lu{tum / [(ofy + zac) / wej * kin]}, in three a priori languages and two a posteriori languages (where the only two-letter word is a constant in the same language as ofy).