I was playing around with sequences, and I thought I would screw around with the Shaw-Basho Polynomial:
![](https://personal.dougshaw.com/images/lost equation.gif)
I plugged 0 into the polynomial to get 4, and then I plugged in 1 to get 12, etc. I got the following infinite sequence of numbers:
4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 … (goes on forever)
Not too interesting, eh? Then I wrote out the differences of succeeding numbers in the sequence. For example, 12 – 4 = 8, 35 – 12 = 23, 89 – 35 = 54, etc.
8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 … (goes on forever)
I kept doing this process. The third sequence began 23 – 8 = 15, 54 – 23 = 31, etc. When you keep going, something completely unexpected happens! Here – I’ve done the work for you:
SEQUENCE 1: 4 12 35 89 213 511 1194 2622 5346 10150 18093 … (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 2: 8 23 54 124 298 683 1428 2624 4804 7943 12458… (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 3: 15 31 70 174 385 745 1296 2080 3139 4515 6250… (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 4: 16 39 104 211 360 551 784 1059 1376 1735 … (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 5: 23 65 107 149 191 233 275 317 359 … (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 6: 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42 42… (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 7: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 8: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 9: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
SEQUENCE 10: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (goes on forever)
And it stays at zero forever. The sequence destroys itself.
NOW: Look at the first element of each sequence, and you have the LOST numbers. Weird, eh?