Puzzle Fantastica #2: Numbers-Mirror-Instruments

I want to say about 13 billion mirror tubes?

nanotech Nanotech NANOTECH!

(erm...think Simpsons episode: "Monorail!")

I don't know. Reflections? Numbers of them?

Am I crazy, or is it...

36?

The sum of the sequence of numbers: 36

The sum of the large roman numerals (11, 12, 13): 36

The sums of the split halves of the "mirrored" roman numerals appearing on the dial and the bow-looking thing(15+21 - twice): 36 and 36

The sum of all the letters which appear on the schematic when numerical values are assigned in ascending order (i.e.; a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5):

3 A's = 3
3 B's = 6
3 C's = 9 (third c mirrored backwards in second beaker)
2 D's = 8
2 E's = 10

You guessed it. 36.

So my answer is: 14.

Kidding.

The mirror correlation is a stretch in this answer, so it's probably incorrect, or maybe incomplete. Still, that's a crapload of 36's, you gotta admit.

Eric--

Nice response. But, I contend that you are off by a magnitude of 10.

360 must the answer. As in degree of vision.

"How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?"

Observe. All around. Test what you find. Then draw conclusions.

The first number, a phone number with area code that begins with 1-(327) would be in the state of Kentucky. One theory (see, for example, in Wikipedia) is that Kentucky is the Wyandot Indian name meaning "land of tomorrow;" involving foresight.

The second image, is the embodiment of hindsight, looking into the rear view mirror.

And, the third image, involves reversing the view, both from the left and the right, for example.

So, how does one go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to one? Through observation all around -- finding truth by testing a hypothesis from every angle.

And, ultimately a view through the lens of the imagination...

Thoughts.

A series of numbers. Note: the elipses, a repeating number perhaps.

A reflexion

What apears to be schematics for various devices used to measure atmospheric pressure, perhaps.

Could it be Mercury?

I had figured the instruments were barometers, and mercury is used to make some modern-day barometers.

Mercury was also used to make early mirrors.

I'm not sure about the numbers. They look like random numbers, and 'random' is similar in meaning to 'mercurial.' The density of the element mercury is 13.27566... g/cm3 at a certain high temperature (around 129 degrees c). The stock of Mercury Computer Corporation has been hovering around 13.27.

Mercury is also used to make thermometers. The lowest recorded temperature on earth was -129 degrees, and the highest temperature in 2005 was 129 degrees. But these are Fahrenheit, and now I'm really reaching. :-)

symmetry or balance

1. The Queen is in reference to some aspect to Royalty, especially one that often holds itself up to examination.

2. The pictures of the instrument are old, and with a connection to measurement,and therefore the empirical nature of science.

3. The number is a mystery to me. Athough is it my imagination but is "32" kind of purposely smaller?

Anyway, maybe the answer is related to the Royal Society (link)?

Actually the Royal Society was formed in 1660, and the digits 1660 are found in the mystery number... Did I solve it?

wait, wait, that's the Queen, that's what you mean?

The answer is the notion of things "Empirical" which according to the Oxford dictionary is defined as:

adjective based on observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.

The numbers represent a way to express these observations. The metaphoric connotations of such nomenclature are depicted in the apparent randomness of the numbers shown.

The Queen in the mirror is closely linked to the act of observation, and it's relationship to "Empires" such as the British Empire.

The schematic depicts instrument that appear to measuring some aspect of fluid - equipment again crucial in the act of recording observations, as well as several references to numbers and scales. The fact that it is a "schematic" of a device also fits with my answer.

Anyway, also works in the "science" context like many of the other guesses above.

The series of numbers has all the numerals between 0 and 7 except 4.

Is that the Queen? If so, Elizabeth II. (But a Google image search convinces me maybe it's not the Queen.)

The schematic diagram includes 4 flasks and 2 arrows (as well as 2 pairs of weights -- 4 altogether.)

4 is 2+2
4 is also 2^2

And Douglas Adams fans know that "the answer" is 42.

As it is.

I still contest it's a jackal.

wait, wait, that's the Queen, that's what you mean?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the Queen.

In keeping with the tenor of the blog posts for the past few weeks, I'd have to venture that the answer to the puzzle is:
The Scientific Method.

As for clue one, the numbers appear random, but also appear endless (hence the ellipses), which suggests not a specific number per se, but the idea of "numbers" or quantification, which historically was what scientists sought to do, developing a method to understand the book of nature - quantify results about what the world really was.

Which brings us to clue two - the woman in the reflection, I think, is a red herring. The key here is "reflection", or even "mirror," which is what the scientific method was supposed to enable - a reflection of the true nature of the universe. Also, coyly, the mirror is a car mirror, which could be suggestive of progress or at least motion.

Clue three - the sketch of the scientific instruments - connects up with the other two, suggestive of the means of understanding (which reinforces that we are talking about the scientific method here, and not simply science). These tools were the means of seeing and quantifying nature, combined with the method with which to wield them. There's also the historical motif of the drawings, which connects to the birth of the method, per se.

So, "The Scientific Method"

Laboratory. It�s laboratory.

Some of the others above look good too, with scientific method and empiricism but I think its more physical. In a roundabout way.

If you read the first Puzzle, the clues all lead to something else, and then the something else they lead to leads to the answer (right?). So in this one, there's those numbers. And the mirror with the Queen. And then the instruments.

The numbers tell us its quantitative. Have no idea what the actual number sequence itself means, but I'm sticking with "numbers" as the clue.

The mirror is a reflection, like someone said above, and shows us looking into things and seeing what we find looking back. The Royal Society where these things first got started (I looked at the link jenjen had above) and the Queen tip gets us there.

The instruments are all lab equipment, whatever they are. They are the things you use to do the studying.

And this all happens in labs. You look, the blog has all those buildings or rooms, and so maybe the answer is another one of those rooms? And if its gonna be that, then it makes sense that it would be a lab. And there you have it -- laboratory. Maybe a bit sideways to get there, but it makes sense.

How about the numbers stand in for Numbers, like a biblical reference. They just had that post on Nature is a Book, and Numbers is the Book of Numbers. The Queen rules by divine right. That's religious. Can't figure the instruments, but maybe they're religious somehow, or biblical or maybe they're the book of nature readers! That's it, the instruments are the things that read the book. So it's a science and religion thing!

Seriously doubt that's Queen Elizabeth II for two reasons:

1. In the picture, the woman is in the passenger seat of the car (assuming no photo reversal was used). It's a stretch to assume that a Queen would ride in the passenger seat of a normal automobile. More likely in the back of a limo or armored town car, right? But let's just assume she did. It would likely be in England, in which case she'd then be in the driver's seat. Anyone here think the Queen of England drives herself around?

2. It doesn't look like her.

Numbers - Mirror - Instruments

Validating a theory through repeated experimentation? (another way of saying Scientific method)

Curse you and your vague, venn diagrams.

oops wrong thread