After Andrew had been sick for a week, he asked his best friend Jesse to get his books out of his locker. Instead of telling Jesse the three number combination Andrew said he kept a small piece of paper with the combination under his locker door.
After school Jesse went to Andrew’s locker and pulled the paper. On the paper was written:
24 24 22 9 9 9 9 22 24 22 9 9.
Thinking this would be easy but a little tedious, Jesse entered in every arrangement of 24, 22, and 9 there was without the lock opening. Realizing there was something behind these numbers that he wasn’t noticing, Jesse sat down for a few minutes to think it out. After ten minutes of intense thinking, Jesse went to the locker, entered the combination into the lock and it opened.
What was the combination?
28, 4, 17.
Writing the 24th letter of the alphabet for each 24, the 22nd letter of the alphabet for each 22, and the 9th letter of the alphabet for each 9 reveals:
XXVIII IV XVII
It is now clear that the combination is written in Roman Numerals. The only set of 3 Roman Numerals that fits this arrangement is:
XXVIII IV XVII or 28, 4, 17.