# No Reception? No Forecast!

(This story is fictional)

Today was a very cold and snowy day.
I was texting my weird friend, here's my log:

<[Have you heard the news? Apparently, a famous puzzle was solved today.]

[Oh, I heard alright... I immediately read the article.]>

<[Typical of you.]

<[Anyways...]

<[David, what's the temperature today?]

<[Or more useful, what's the weather?]

<[Reception's pretty bad today. My TV is just static and I can't connect to the weather website, I'm lucky to even hold a chat with you]

[ 7( 0 - 0 )-7 ]>

<[I'm sorry?]

[Whoops, tried to send that expression but it didn't send. Had to send it again]>

[Anyways, I'll check it out...]>

<[Thanks.]

[Got it.]>

[It's snowy, and it'll only grow as the day goes on.]>

<[And the temperature?]

David has left the room due to bad ping

The bad weather cut off our conversation. Later on, when we met, I asked for the temperature again, but he told me that he already did. I didn't understand.

Can you tell what the exact temperature was and why? (Celsius)

Edit note: The edit history contains spoilers.

• Just to confirm, it's not 7 right – somebody Mar 12 '18 at 3:38
• @somebody 7 does not look like a valid answer though. It's snowy weather. – Laschet Jain Mar 12 '18 at 7:45
• @LashitJain Yeah, just making sure because someone said in chat that it was 7 – somebody Mar 12 '18 at 11:33
• Hey everybody. I made a fatal error in the puzzle and editing it will make it obvious what it is. Sorry for that. – IIRawCodeII Mar 12 '18 at 14:15
• @somebody mm i didn’t say it was 7, i just said that in the current state, that would have to be the answer – TrojanByAccident Mar 12 '18 at 15:25

## 2 Answers

I’m going to guess it’s

-7°C

Reasons:

“very cold and snowy” - snow forms only at or below 0°. The expression that David sent, “7(0 - 0)-7”, which looks like an emoticon, is probably a math expression, which would equal -7 ($0-0=0$, $7(0)=0$, $0-7=-7$

• Good job! Also, sorry for that mistake. That was embarrassing. – IIRawCodeII Mar 12 '18 at 15:28
• @IIRaw Thanks, and no worries, I’ve made mistakes before too – TrojanByAccident Mar 12 '18 at 15:34

Might it be

0 degrees Celcius?

Because of the bad ping only the last character of the first time he sent the expression gets send. Then he immediately sends it again and the data gets bundled into one expression. So the original expression would be -( 0 - 0 )7 which results in 0 degrees Celcius.