# Number sequence with a clue

Spiderman's aunt walked back home

25,18,18,16,1,14,21,19,n

What's the value of n? Please let me know if the cryptic clue helped and any suggestions on how to improve it.

• All of these numbers are less than 26. Hmm.. – Ian MacDonald Aug 26 '16 at 16:03
• Yeah, but YRRPANUS_ doesn't seem very word-like :-). – Gareth McCaughan Aug 26 '16 at 16:07
• I'm wondering if these are issue numbers. – Kingrames Aug 26 '16 at 17:00
• could you please check your puzzLe again if this is correct or not? – Numberknot Aug 26 '16 at 17:37
• @Kingrames - I thought something similar... but I don't have the means to check. I also considered the fact that the aunts name is "May" so it could have something to do with months... but had no luck down that front either. – Shimizoki Aug 26 '16 at 18:17

The hint refers to

The months (Aunt May), and traversing letters backwards from the end ("walked back")

So,

For the $n^{th}$ month, take the value of the $n^{th}$ last letter. For $l$ = length of month name, wrap around (or take $n := n-l$) if $n > l$.
January, 1st last letter = Y = 25
February, 2nd last letter = R = 18
March, 3rd last letter = R = 18
April, 4th last letter = P = 16
May, 5th last letter = (5-3) 2nd last letter = A = 1
June, 6th last letter = (6-4) 2nd last letter = N = 14
July, 7th last letter = (7-4) 3rd last letter = U = 21
August, 8th last letter = (8-6) 2nd last letter = S = 19

So the solution is

September, 9th last letter = S = 19

• correct on all counts :) – Steve Aug 28 '16 at 16:57