From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2007-09-07T10:22:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Count and Say (#138)

On Sep 6, 2007, at 2:40 PM, Phrogz wrote:

> Ruby Quiz wrote:
>> 	0. LOOK AND SAY
>> 	1. TWO A ONE D ONE K ONE L ONE N TWO O ONE S ONE Y
>> 	2. ONE A ONE D SIX E ONE K ONE L SEVEN N NINE O ONE S TWO T TWO W  
>> ONE Y
>> 	3. ONE A ONE D TEN E TWO I ONE K ONE L TEN N NINE O THREE S THREE  
>> T ONE V
>> 	   THREE W ONE X ONE Y
>>
>> and so on. (Note the difference between this and the L&S sequence-- 
>> the letters
>> are counted rather than read in order). Eric wants to know when  
>> the sequence
>> enters a cycle, and how long that cycle is. Well?
>
> In case the string gets quite long, what is the canonical English
> representation (for this quiz) of:
> 101 - "One hundred one" or "One hundred and one"? (Not "One Oh One", I
> suppose.)
>
> (From that answer I suppose I can extrapolate the answer for similar
> edge cases, largely involving the presence of absence of the word
> 'and'.)

This has come up in past quizzes.  Here's a line of thought from and  
oldy but goody:

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/135449

James Edward Gray II