# Sequence Puzzle

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 15, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744 "2000-12-15T15:20:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/1 "2000-12-15T15:20:52Z")

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WARNING. I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS PUZZLE.  
I hope this doesn’t turn out to be another “gry” puzzle.  
Can anyone help? What is the next sequence in this puzzle? (6X6 GRID, ‘\_’ = empty square)  
Sequence one  
\_ O \_ O \_ \_  
O O O X X \_

- O X O X X  
O O \_ \_ X O  
X O X \_ X X  
\_ \_ O \_ \_ \_

Number 2  
\_ O \_ \_ X \_  
O O \_ X X \_  
\_ O \_ O X X  
O O O \_ X O  
\_ \_ \_ \_ X X

* * *

Number 3  
\_ O X \_ \_ \_  
O \_ \_ \_ \_ \_  
\_ \_ \_ O X X  
O O \_ \_ X O  
\_ \_ \_ \_ X X

* * *

Number 4  
???

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**Author:** ![Spritle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Spritle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spritle)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/2 "2000-12-15T15:36:19Z")

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I’d love to help, but I’m not sure if the Xs are offense or defense.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/3 "2000-12-15T23:45:24Z")

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Golly.

It would be stupid of me to assume that each block is identical, wouldn’t it? Because that would be stupid. And not even remotely puzzle-like.

\<\< courtesy bump anyway \>\>

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/4 "2000-12-16T00:01:46Z")

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With the x’s indicating new pieces of a certain number of turns in youth.  
It’s interesting to not that a new piece gets added, but overall, the pieces on the board are disappearing, extermities first.  
Fiddling around with it now to see if I can figure out the rules.

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/5 "2000-12-16T00:22:17Z")

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Seem to be a couple of errors though. Could be I’m not following it mentally right, or not doing the wrap-around write, or iterating through the board wrong (left-right? up-down? down-up? right-left? recursively applied squares?)  
Animating it seems to help.

```auto

#/usr/bin/perl
@1=qw(_O_O __OOOXX_ _OXOXX OO__ XO XOX_XX __O___ );
@2=qw(_O __X_ OO_XX_ _O_OXX OOO_XO____ XX ______ );
@3=qw(_OX ___O_____  ___OXX OO__ XO ____XX______ );
while (1)
{
	foreach (1..3)
	{
		system("clear");
		print join("
",@{$_});
		sleep 1;
	}
	sleep 5;
}

```

Writing a quickie tree of life to see if how a matrix of size 6x6 with the settings in the first one ends up. Going to trace through it in various directions too.  
Current guess at the rules:  
1- 2die  
3- create  
4- create? constant?  
5- constant  
6- 8die

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**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/6 "2000-12-16T00:24:39Z")

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Grr. Where’d those extra spaces in the “code” section come from?  
And where’d the ! after my # sign go? 🙂 Must’ve cut n pasted it incorrectly?

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**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequence-puzzle/45744/7 "2000-12-16T02:21:20Z")

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I too though it was tree of life. I haven’t figured anything out yet. I also want to check the ‘blank’ squares to, as my first impulse is to ignore them.