[Hobbsicle] Recursion

[Hobbsicle]

When I saw the numbers [5, 9, 3, 2, 7], I became a bit concerned about my food. But then it dawned on me that the problem was a lot simpler than it appeared.

Should be a quickster.

[GalFisk]

Is a date relevant? Expiration date? Different ways of writing dates? Nutritional labeling? A test result?
Restaurant food? Store-bought? Market-bought? Homegrown? Are you concerned that your fold is unsafe? Unhealthy? Late? Forgotten? Tampered with? The wrong temperature? The wrong price?

[Hobbsicle]

Is a date relevant? Expiration date? Different ways of writing dates? No to these Nutritional labeling? No A test result? No
Restaurant food? Store-bought? Market-bought? Homegrown? More or less irrelevant, could have been any of these, I suppose, but in this case I believe it was something home-cooked. Are you concerned that your fold is unsafe? Maybe somewhat this Unhealthy? Late? Forgotten? Tampered with? The wrong temperature? Mostly this The wrong price?

[Westing1992]

Fahrenheit vs. Celsius? Thermometers?
Was the food meat? Pork, beef, poultry, fish? Dairy? Fruits? Vegetables? Breads, pasta, rice, grains?
Was it too hot? Too cold?

[Hobbsicle]

Fahrenheit vs. Celsius? No Thermometers? No
Was the food meat? Pork, beef, poultry, fish? Dairy? Fruits? Vegetables? Breads, pasta, rice, grains? Actually mostly irrelevant, though it was chicken and rice.
Was it too hot? Well, I THOUGHT it might be thisToo cold?

[Doriana]

Are settings on an oven relevant? On a microwave? On a stove?

Did you see the numbers all at once? One after another? Were they in brackets (as written in the puzzle statement)?

Were the numbers handwritten? printed? digital?

[Hobbsicle]

Are settings on an oven relevant? On a microwave? THIS, though not really settings On a stove?

Did you see the numbers all at once? One after another? This Were they in brackets (as written in the puzzle statement)? No, I was going for a sort of mathematical set notation, but realized that I technically used the wrong kind of brackets...

Were the numbers handwritten? printed? digital? This

[Doriana]

Did the numbers indicate time? If so, minutes? Seconds?

[Hobbsicle]

Did the numbers indicate time? Yes If so, minutes? Seconds? This

[Grip]

Had you set the timer thinking you had set the microwave to cook?

[Hobbsicle]

Had you set the timer thinking you had set the microwave to cook? No

[GalFisk]

Were you seeing one digit of several displayed at once? Did you see the digits with no break in between? With braks in between? Did you think you were looking at a different part of the display than you were actually seeing?

[Hobbsicle]

Were you seeing one digit of several displayed at once? Yes, in the sense that I was looking at the particular seconds place in the 4-digit time display Did you see the digits with no break in between? Yes With braks in between? No Did you think you were looking at a different part of the display than you were actually seeing? No

[biograd]

Did the numbers appear in the order you listed them? If so, was the top segment of the display permanently on? and the real digits being displayed were 5,4,3,2, and 1?

[Hobbsicle]

Did the numbers appear in the order you listed them? If so, was the top segment of the display permanently on? and the real digits being displayed were 5,4,3,2, and 1? All correct, well done.

*************SPOILER**************

I work on the road half the time, and one day I was heating up my lunch in a convenience store microwave. I set it to maybe a minute and a half or so, and didn't pay it much attention until towards the end, when I saw the right-most seconds display on the microwave appear to jump around erratically in the order listed in the puzzle statement above. At first, I was a little concerned that the microwave had a serious malfunction, and that it might be heating my food indefinitely, until I watched closer, and it became clear that the top-most line segment of the digital display was stuck on, turning a 4 into a 9, and a 1 into a 7. Only those digits are affected.

Thanks for playing, and congrats to Biograd for the solve. In case you're bored, here's some additional points to ponder. There is one other line segment that would have produced the same effect, also affecting only two digits, and turning them into other digits. Furthermore, there is a line segment that if stuck on, would only affect one digit, though it wouldn't turn it into another digit.

[Balin]

Figured out the two line segments. Nice puzzle!
(No idea why I italicized that.)