Mensa logic

[thorstaffie]

This is a Greatfun quiz question which I don't understand. Any clue would be appreciated.
If it's 170km to Venice, 208km to Trieste, 288 km to Rimini. How far is Padua?

[BlueToffee]

you're in Padua, at least that's my logic.

[Mamyalynne]

Padua to Venice is 29 miles so unlikely

[plautus]

It may be the distance between Rome and other cities, so how far is Padua from Rome? Just a guess.

[Flyhalf]

I got as far as adding 113 km to the letter totals of the first two, which worked..
Still working out next move.

[Flyhalf]

Sorry, missed by 1, should have read 114km.

[kayakamina]

330

[plautus]

Don't stop there Kaya; please explain for those of us who are not fit to join Mensa.

[Graham-W]

The answer is here but I must admit to fully understanding the logic.
http://www.crosswordsolver.org/forum/299675/offset/20

[Graham-W]

^^NOT fully etc.

[bibblebub]

i suspect it's not down to first or second order differences

[kayakamina]

I think the distance between the places in alphabetical order is to reduce by a factor of 42.
P 330
q.....>42
R 288
s...80
T 208
u ..38
V 170

[bibblebub]

well, k, that's just as it has been posted in that link given by Graham-W - how does Q give rise to 38 whereas S is 80 and U is 38?

[bibblebub]

meant Q gives rise to 42 ...

[kayakamina]

I should have credited the other poster with the maths - apologies.

[MarkRae]

1) Order the cities in terms of distance, e.g.

Venice
Trieste
Rimini

2) Assign each an incrementing value, e.g.

1 Venice
2 Trieste
3 Rimini

3) Multiply these values by 42, and add to the distance to the previous city and subtract 4, e.g.

170 + (1 * 42) - 4 = 208
208 + (2 * 42) - 4 = 288
288 + (3 * 42) - 4 = 410

So the answer is 410.

[plautus]

Quite scary, actually.

[grumpy01]

Mark,where does the subtract 4 come from?

[grumpy01]

Hi Mark
Can you explain where the"-4" comes from in each sum please