# Help with a quiz puzzle (warning, no answer available)...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 29, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641 "2004-09-29T07:36:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/1 "2004-09-29T07:36:16Z")
This is the final question of a postal quiz I am involved in each month. I am stuck and turn to fellow Dopers for assistance. Can anyone see the connection here?
Consider the following numbers:
9
17
21
45
51
65
85
93
153
219
Which of the following words has the most obvious link to the above numbers?
Morning
Noon
Afternoon
Evening
Night
Midnight
At first I thought it may be connected to Morning or Evening Prayer (hymn numbers) but can see no tangible link. Perhaps the names of numbered symphonies? I dunno. Any help would be much appreciated. Please note I do not have the answer, nor will have verification of it for a few weeks yet, so can’t confirm any guesses.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/2 "2004-09-29T09:30:55Z")
Are they degrees latitude?
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### Author:  [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/3 "2004-09-29T09:51:40Z")
following on from the prayer/hymn idea - could it be a reference to passages in a book of the Bible that contain those words?
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### Author:  [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/4 "2004-09-29T10:00:26Z")
difference in minutes for the moon to rise (or set) across various cities in (eg) America?
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### Author:  [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/5 "2004-09-29T10:12:35Z")
Is there any theme to the quiz that might give us a clue?
I want someone to come along with the answer! :mad:
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### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/6 "2004-09-29T10:17:55Z")
Sorry **Kat** , there’s no context that will help. The quiz is quite fiendishly difficult - so that you can’t just google all the answers.
The entire quiz is available [here](http://www.bollands.demon.co.uk/gbq/GBQ128qs.htm), this particular one is question 77.
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### Author:  [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/7 "2004-09-29T10:34:11Z")
Well if you simply add them, you get 758. Would that be 7:58 AM?
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/8 "2004-09-29T11:21:55Z")
93, 153, and 219 are too large to be degrees of latitude.
If longitude, 9 through 153 would be easterly (although I would not associate 9, 17, 21, or 153 with sunrise).
Given the British nature of the quiz, are they either Underground or London bus numbers or train numbers associated with morning or evening rush hour or with non-peak hours?
Given the bird association of the quiz, are they the picture or page numbers of a popular birding book (Roger Tory Peterson’s?) with birds associated with a time of day?
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### Author:  [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/9 "2004-09-29T11:24:14Z")
Presuming they represent hours, at 219 hours, presuming the time was 9am at the start, the time is 8pm… at least, by my working.
I am wondering if it is a coincidink that all numbers are odd?
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### Author:  [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/10 "2004-09-29T11:40:18Z")
> [@Go You Big Red Fire Engine](#):
>
> Presuming they represent hours, at 219 hours, presuming the time was 9am at the start, the time is 8pm… at least, by my working.
> I am wondering if it is a coincidink that all numbers are odd?
Yeh my working is wrong… I’m looking up hymns, but it oculd be anything.
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### Author:  [@Complex\_Conjugate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Complex_Conjugate)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/11 "2004-09-29T11:40:21Z")
It’s a wild stab but:
They are all odd numbers and I believe that the odd numbers have some association with witchcraft; midnight is called ‘the witching hour’.
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### Author:  [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/12 "2004-09-29T14:34:59Z")
Those are incredibly difficult.Even for someone like me who loves puzzles and quizzes this is hard 🙂 I shall battle on.I see there is a quiz thread but it doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere ☹
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/13 "2004-09-29T15:35:05Z")
Aha! I think I have it.
These numbers all appear to be palindromes when written in binary. Thus, go with the palindromic word: noon.
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### Author:  [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/14 "2004-09-29T15:38:58Z")
Gah, another thing to ruin any chance of me getting any work done today.
In the hope that this stirs something in someone else my first couple of thoughts were that they were degrees (as in angles) maybe around a clock face – but I can’t get anything from that.
Alternatively they could encode musical notes or something similar.
They could be bus numbers but that’d be really obscure.
Or it could be some obscure word/numbers code.
Maybe that helps someone.
SD
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### Author:  [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/15 "2004-09-29T15:41:50Z")
Double Gah, **Thudlow Boink** cracked it while I was composing that post.
That appears to be the answer, explains why they’re all odd too, well done.
SD
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### Author:  [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/16 "2004-09-29T15:42:49Z")
I have it!
(Explanation post to follow, I just wanted to be the first to post the true answer–night)
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### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/17 "2004-09-29T15:54:00Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#):
>
> Aha! I think I have it.
>
> These numbers all appear to be palindromes when written in binary. Thus, go with the palindromic word: noon.
That’s a great spot. Well done! Sounds very good to me. Thanks a lot!
Get yourself a drink to celebrate. 🙂
Kind of interested to hear what \*\*NPC \*\* has come up with though…
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### Author:  [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/18 "2004-09-29T15:58:02Z")
Oooh, this is good… 🙂
[spoiler]They are all night squadrons for the Royal Air force. Given the previously mentioned bird link, that would suggest flying of some sort, and given the britishness of it all, that would suggest, umm, that it would be british. Thus, the RAF.
For Example, the number 219. From [here](http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/h219.html): On 4 October 1939, No 219 was reformed… It soon became fully employed on night patrols and based detachments at various points for night defense…
Number 9. From [here](http://www.raf.mod.uk/squadrons/h9.html): No. 9 Sqn was disbanded in March 1915 when its various elements were absorbed…It wasn’t until 1 April 1924 that it was reformed, this time with Vickers Vimy night bombers…
Number 153. From [here](http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/h153.html): Formed on 1 November 1918 and was intended to be a night fighter unit but the war ended as the squadron began to assemble. It did not become operational and probably did not receive any aircraft, being disbanded on 13 June 1919.
And so on.[/spoiler]
Do I win?
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### Author:  [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-quiz-puzzle-warning-no-answer-available/266641/19 "2004-10-01T05:22:35Z")
[Jay London] Nothin’ [/JL]