hold on
you said
At a meeting of the society I asked a member how many members were in the society
how do u know the members of the secret society or was u asking a member of a different society

Question, are you one of the 10 members?

the secret number is 6
the first part says there is a ultra society and a secret society
that makes two socetys both with 10 members so 2 x10 is 20 just leaves the magic number 6 to be added

Sorry, I had to go out to try and catch the shop before they shut (even failed in that simple task )

Firstly,


I am not talking about different societies and your answer is wrong



I am a member of the society (for the purposes of the puzzle of course)

Edited at 22:36 Tue 22/03/11 (GMT)

So you're member #1 for the sake of it, ask the question to #2, the answer being 10, so he adds the secret number then says the next number to member #3 and so forth until you get to #10 who adds the secret number then says 26 out load. So using basic maths it comes with the equation:

10+9x=26

9x=26

x=26/9

Secret number 26/9?

Using Eemads...

10+9x=26

would mean 9x = 16

meaning the secret number is 16/9.

Missed this one sorry,

He didn't say the secret number, he said what he was told to say in answer to the question of how many members by the previous member (in a whisper ... and so on and so forth). I can assure you that all members are highly trustworthy and do not lie other than the adding of the secret number. One can presume that the odd method of replying is standard practice in order to try and conceal the secret number when asked a direct numerical question.

Sorry, both of your answers are wrong

so is it 16 as u said they must always add the secret number but u asked how many members were in the society so ten members and they had to add 16 giving 26

or they could all be addin 1.6 ont the 10 members


god i wont sleep tonight now

No, sorry, as he was told by the previous member to say a number (to which he would add the secret number) but the member that had told him would have been in a similar situation.

Edit: your second answer is also incorrect

*brain is hurtin

its hard to work out any kind of formula that would give one constant nuber if all members have to add a different number to the secret number i cant see how it works
i think im thinking too far out of the box bud

ok we have to take this down to the bare essentials. you have a number that is increasing linearly, so can therefore be considered like dame suggested like a straight line on a graph. we all know this has equation y = mx + c.

Now we know c is the correct answer to the question which is 10, this is given in the question. y is the final answer which we are told is 26. so we have 26 = mx + 10 => mx = 16.

Now given "I" in the question am a member, there can therefore be 10-1=9 members left.

I ask the question to 2
2 says 10+m to 3
3 says 10+2m to 4
4 says 10+ 3m to 5
n says 10 + (n-1)m to n+1 iteratively.
so given n is bounded above by 10...

either the 10th member says 26, or sneakily I am the last member so effectively the 11th member says 26. this gives the solution as 16/9 or 16/10 respectively.

given buddy said 16/9 was wrong, this leaves only 16/10 = 1.6 as the answer.

If that is wrong then there is either information missing in the question or there is a word trick somewhere as my maths is watertight.

Lol, phased, have a sleep on it and I'm sure the answer will become obvious in the morning and just between me and you (don't tell Damien) I'll let you into a little secret

Sorry, maths is watertight but the answer is wrong

then i think my answer is right.

ok they all just ad the secret number
so if he shouts 26 he knws theres 10 so he ads 16
but if a member is asking how many members are in they could not of included the one asking (as in how many other members) meaning 9 they would then of added 17
im confussed big time

in which case either not all the people whispered or some whispered more than once.

All the members (except the last member as stated) whispered and there were no repeats