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What's the next number in this finite sequence?

3, 3, 3, 3, 5, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 4, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 5, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 3, 5, 4, 5, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 3, 1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 2, 3, ?

Hint added later:

The sequence, though finite, does not terminate with the sought number.

Hint added even later:

The "knowledge" tag is relevant here. (I'm not adding it so that people who don't want to peek at the hints don't see it.)

Hint added even later:

Instead of "A sequence to continue, if you know how", I could've titled this "A sequence to continue, but you have to know how". (I'm not changing it so that people who don't want to peek at the hints don't see it.)

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  • $\begingroup$ If that is a "finite sequence" is there just one number missing, which completes the sequence? $\endgroup$ – Weather Vane Sep 9 '19 at 10:57
  • $\begingroup$ @WeatherVane, it doesn't imply that. Are you asking for an additional hint? I'll add one eventually if needed. $\endgroup$ – msh210 Sep 9 '19 at 11:21
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    $\begingroup$ @msh210 puzzles like this are too broad $\endgroup$ – Jan Ivan Sep 10 '19 at 10:44
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    $\begingroup$ @Jan, you mean number-sequence questions? If not, please clarify what it is about this one that makes it too broad where most such are not. $\endgroup$ – msh210 Sep 10 '19 at 11:02
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    $\begingroup$ @msh210 so I can assume that when there is no "knowledge" tag, I can ignore real world. Also it is in Base10 and "finite sequence" means there are no numbers before or after what is here. But this way it is too general. It can be something like "lenght of words in Bible" or something like that. $\endgroup$ – Jan Ivan Sep 10 '19 at 11:08
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The next number is

9

The values represent

The number of letters in each word of "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss

It starts with "The sun did not shine", which becomes 3, 3, 3, 3, 5 and the sequence runs up until "how I wish we had..." (3, 1, 4, 2, 3). The next word is "something" which is 9 letters long

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  • $\begingroup$ Is the book well-known or has no revision? Means the sequence might could change also to the answer. $\endgroup$ – Conifers Sep 17 '19 at 10:20
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    $\begingroup$ It's a fairly well-known children's book, I can't imagine they'd publish many/any revisions to the text $\endgroup$ – Dmihawk Sep 17 '19 at 10:30
  • $\begingroup$ OK Roger that~~ $\endgroup$ – Conifers Sep 17 '19 at 10:32
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    $\begingroup$ How on earth does one puzzle this out? $\endgroup$ – Somebody Sep 17 '19 at 16:53
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    $\begingroup$ rot13(Gur guveq pyhr jnf gur tvirnjnl, "ohg lbh unir gb xabj ubj" nccrnef va gur grkg juvpu vf jung tnir zr gur fbyhgvba) $\endgroup$ – Dmihawk Sep 18 '19 at 0:33

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