I only heard the question...

.. and missed the answer.

It sounds easy at first, I guess, but I must've missed something. One of you out there will probably send the answer whilst I'm still typing this!
Ok... how far does one have to go, counting up from one, using the spelling of each number, until a letter 'a' is reached?

I would say "one thousand"

That is wierd... i never thought of it before.

One hundred and one.

Traditionally, the "and" doesn't count. Martin Gardner presents the problem this way:

10^3, 10^9, 10^100, 10^2, ?

The idea is that 10^3 is the first number containing A, 10^9 is the first containing B, etc. After the fifth term it gets less pretty, since the first one containing F is "four," i.e. 10^(log 4).

a one and a two and a three...

Originally posted by jvanhine
a one and a two and a three...