Almost Perfect
On page 19 in the first paragraph, Douglas talks about a possible solution for a pattern that he tried to figure out when he was around the age of 16. He says that while “Mathgod” prefers a perfect pattern to a non 100% perfect pattern.
I don’t agree with his idea of that in a pattern that if the first element doesn’t follow the rest of the pattern then you can just disregard the first element. He compares this by using a figure skater falling at the start of his/her routine but following that with a perfect routine. A judge wouldn’t ignore a skater falling in the beginning of a routine and neither should a pattern finder ignore an item in the beginning of a pattern if it doesn’t fit with the rest of the pattern.
2,3,5,7,9,11… is not a pattern, however if someone accepts Douglas’s allowance of a false start to a pattern then that sequence would be a pattern of odd numbers. That is not correct.
While he does say that this proposed solution to what this pattern is a little bit suspect due to the non-perfect start to it but he doesn’t rule it out completly as a possible solution.
