# Enigma between Colleagues (Part1)

With a colleague, we tried to create enigma to challenge ourselves.

Here is our first try, hope you will enjoy it.

4 = 2

12 = 3

19 = 3

24 = 4

47 = 5

50 = ?

Hint 1 :

1987 = 10

Don't hesitate to comment some advice for the following enigma :)

I'll go with

50 = 1.

Surely the number on the right must be

the length of the number in Roman numerals.

Double checking everything:

 4  = IV    = 2
12 = XII   = 3
19 = XIX   = 3
24 = XXIV  = 4
47 = XLVII = 5 

And finally

1987 = MCMLXXXVII = 10.

Yup, seems to match nicely.

• Was it too easy ? How to improve it ? Did you use the hint ? – TinyDoowy Aug 12 at 14:40
• It was pretty much in the sweet spot of "easy, but rewarding to solve", well done! Yes, I took a peek at the hint, which gave a pretty good idea of how large the numbers were going to get. On this site, it's usual to withhold any actual hints (that aren't really a part of the question) until the next day, so any hints posted along with the question kind of get read automatically. Maybe I should try to get rid of that habit, come to think of it :-) – Bass Aug 12 at 14:46