i finally finished a simulation and animated graphic of the physics problem TSLF posted, and went to submit and you put it on hold AS I WAS TYPING THE ANSWER IN. :)
huh. actually maybe not, that was a while ago, but i had a stale page that still had a Submit Answer button on it
Welcome to the sport of answering puzzles before they are closed, @Rubio.
I turned my answer into a community wiki in case you'd like to add your solution to it (for posterity, not points for either of us). If the puzzle gets reopened you can move your work to a personal post. It's a fascinating scenario and I haven't been able to reduce it to hand-solvable form.
Two identical balls are attached at the ends of inelastic and very light string. Hanging on a fixed
friction less pulley, one is pulled higher so that it is at right angle with the other ball. If then released
the ball being held is ought to hit or touch the lower ball below. (see figure)
M...
(saw your reply at the puzzle, hope this works as intended, also looking forward to seeing if my conjectures hold up)
(just saw your graphic in the comment, beautiful (and so counterintuitive)! Any chance of doing the case where ball X overshoots a few times while yanking Y closer each time?) Rubio's graphic:
i think some of the detail gets lost at this scale, but yeah - at first, there's equal pull straight leftward and straight downward, and the angle changes slowly enough at the start that that 45° acceleration tends to dominate for the first ⅓ of the trip. after that, downward acceleration gets increasingly greater than horizontal
Sometimes I am a cousin of a night in strong wind.
Sometimes I like a baseball stick man.
Sometimes I one of most controversial philanthropist.
Sometimes I am round. Now it is your turn.
Who/What am I?
This puzzle is based off the What is a Word™, What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and the likewise inspired What is a Number™ series.
If a number conforms to a certain rule, I call it an ES Number™. Otherwise, I call it an OS Number™ Use the following examples to find the rule:
Here is a...
Are puzzles that are posted after the technical start of the fortnight (i.e. 00:00 UTC) but posted before the fortnight is officially announced (i.e. when the meta question is posted) still allowed to be part of the fortnight puzzle list?
@LukasRotter go for it. It's all just in good fun anyway. And I know there's precedent already where someone chucked one in that happened to be still unsolved when a relevant fortnight rolled around even though it was posted days earlier.
This question is inspired by the game Quarto.
On a 2^k by 2^k grid, arrange the 2k-digit binary numbers. Are there any, and if so, how many, configurations are there such that there is no row, column, (optionally: also diagonal) where all numbers have the n:th bit in common, for any n?
For exa...
I asked my friend what he did last week and he gave me this note.
ivoesfe ivoesfe ivoesfe
hppe nfo hppe nfo
uif tjohjoh sbjo
pof gmfxdvdlppt oftu
qbbnfsjdbosjt
nvujozcpvouz
tbqmbdfvo
What was my friend doing?
pity. i'm tempted to hold off until the dude who really got this right posts an answer, but humn made a wiki answer that's pretty much as good as it gets
@Rubio If you want, you can also accept the CW and assign a bounty to the user you think made most of the effort, or contributed with some critical information.
it wasn't really a joint effort. FumbleFingers basically had it but quibbled about a word in the riddle that really didn't mean what he thought it did there, so he only posted his answer as a comment and never as an answer despite me prompting him to. at some point it's his own fault, but meh. i hate to see him get it right, then not get credit.
Where does the image come from?
How do I change my profile picture, or avatar?
How do I change my profile picture on all SE sites at once?
How can I use different avatars on different SE sites?
How do avatars work?
How do the SE sites know when I changed my Gravatar?
Why do SE sites show a differ...
i did a What is a [*] Word™ that i thought would be quite easy, and then both made it even easier and did the subtle-hint-in-title thing. apparently it isn't easy.
i still think Kevin Rock's friend was being a jerk. i mean really, writing all those rebus-esque movie hints and then ROT1ing them, instead of just saying "oh you know, movie marathon"? sounds like he needs a hobby.
Quick comment(s) to @Rubio: Sometimes a puzzle creates an unintended solution in search of its own puzzle. That's how I interpret the genesis of your "second" puzzle.
Good for welcoming FumbleFingers to linger more at Puzzlng. They might find the celebration of creativity and flexible thinking here a pleasant change from the other site mentioned, where I started too.
@humn yeah, in searching for a fitting answer to Rand's puzzle I had the thought to look at leap seconds. it obviously didn't fit his, but I thought it'd make a good puzzle of its own.
Help! My friend sent me an email but it was encrypted, ciphered, or maybe it just got scrambled! I'm really curious to what it is. Can you guys help me out, please?
To: hannah@******.***
From: josh@******.***
Subject:
Sf;!Ipx!bsf!zpv!gffmjoh@
Body:
Xfmm-!sfdfoumz!J(wf!cffo!fbujoh!tpnf!gjti...
Two identical balls are attached at the ends of inelastic and very light string. Hanging on a fixed
friction less pulley, one is pulled higher so that it is at right angle with the other ball. If then released
the ball being held is ought to hit or touch the lower ball below. (see figure)
M...
Sometimes I am a cousin of a night in strong wind.
Sometimes I like a baseball stick man.
Sometimes I one of most controversial philanthropist.
Sometimes I am round. Now it is your turn.
Who/What am I?
This puzzle is based off the What is a Word™, What is a Phrase™ series started by JLee and the likewise inspired What is a Number™ series.
If a number conforms to a certain rule, I call it an ES Number™. Otherwise, I call it an OS Number™ Use the following examples to find the rule:
Here is a...
This question is inspired by the game Quarto.
On a 2^k by 2^k grid, arrange the 2k-digit binary numbers. Are there any, and if so, how many, configurations are there such that there is no row, column, (optionally: also diagonal) where all numbers have the n:th bit in common, for any n?
For exa...
I asked my friend what he did last week and he gave me this note.
ivoesfe ivoesfe ivoesfe
hppe nfo hppe nfo
uif tjohjoh sbjo
pof gmfxdvdlppt oftu
qbbnfsjdbosjt
nvujozcpvouz
tbqmbdfvo
What was my friend doing?
Arecebo Message
0000001010101000000000000101000001010000000100100010001000100101100101010101010101010010010000000000000000000000000000000100000000000000100000000000000000000000000011100000000001110000001111100000000011110100110111000000000110111001110110000000000111110000010100000000010000100...
Help! My friend sent me an email but it was encrypted, ciphered, or maybe it just got scrambled! I'm really curious to what it is. Can you guys help me out, please?
To: hannah@******.***
From: josh@******.***
Subject:
Sf;!Ipx!bsf!zpv!gffmjoh@
Body:
Xfmm-!sfdfoumz!J(wf!cffo!fbujoh!tpnf!gjti...
