The Sphinx's Lair

riddle logical-deduction liars

2:19 AM

Q: Knights and Knaves

You are on a land inhabited by Knights and Knaves. Knights will always tell the truth and knaves always lie. Meeting with two inhabitants A and B, A says, "We are the same type, we are either both knights or both knaves." What are A and B ?

6 hours later…

Q: Who is the killer? Little game i created?

8:09 AM

-4

Can you solve the murder just by looking at the photo of the crime scene. https://newest-websites.com/murder-mystery-game/

mystery

1 hour later…

Q: Fun puzzle for genius to solve

9:26 AM

1, 1.4, ?, 1.5.0.6, ?, 1.5.0.8.8.6 I can’t figure out any clear and neat logic between these numbers... Hint: number of digits: 123456

calculation-puzzle number-sequence

1 hour later…

Gareth McCaughan

10:45 AM

CCCC hint: there is something a bit cheeky in this clue.

ugh, C4 explanation has fallen off the starwall. Hang on a sec...

CCCC is Cryptic Clue Chat Chains! Latest clue is ⤴/⤵ there! Join the fun! See Deusovi's Cryptic Clue Guide and GPR's Archive & Statistics of past clues.

There we go.

Q: Can a "select a missing 3rd symbol" puzzle made at least a bit difficult?

11:02 AM

Looking at all the Nensa IQ test puzzles, usually there are two rows with in total 6-8 symbols and where you need to choose the last one properly to match the pattern. I wonder whether at least a bit difficult puzzle of the same principle could be made just with 3 or 4 symbols, meaning you actua...

pattern visual puzzle-creation symbols progressive-matrix

3 hours later…

2:11 PM

@GarethMcCaughan I think it's LOCUST = COL< (pass over) + (l)UST. Locusts are small, I guess, but locust plagues aren't. (I'm not quite sure whether the def or the separation in Passover is the cheeky part. Perhaps I'm missing something here. Or I'm just wrong.)

Q: How to solve this alphabetical puzzle?

-3

III, IHA, ?, BII, IFE, ? I’ve tried converting all the alphabets into numbers but it doesn’t work...other than that I have no idea about this puzzle. Anyone could help me to solve this puzzle?

calculation-puzzle number-sequence alphametic

Q: France's Public Holidays' Puzzle

In France, there are 11 public holidays. As a French employee which enjoys public holidays on week days, you want to know if it is possible that all of the 11 public holidays during one year fall on week days. The puzzle is to answer this question, and more precisely, if the answer is no, to pro...

calculation-puzzle combinatorics

John Dvorak

I think the cheeky bit is calling each locust an individual plague. But even then, lice win by a landslide. And if we consider blood a collection of individual cells dissolved in liquid, then blood wins over even lice.

But I do think locusts could secure a second place among the plagues of Egypt given favorable enough interpretation.

Oh. I didn't think of picking the smallest of the Biblical plagues.

Q: Which company founder are we looking for?

2:34 PM

This is about solving this riddle in a group. I don't know the answer yet but I can provide you with the answer, if we find it together. The question is taken from a german online-quiz and I'll provide the link in the very end, if you want to play along. This is Question 40/49. Wit...

riddle cipher

Gareth McCaughan

@MOehm Exactly right. The bit that feels cheeky to me is "Passover" meaning COL< (two words into one, spurious capital letter). I don't mean that it's actually unsound and don't feel at all guilty about it, but it's just slightly cruel.

As for "smallest possible", I think the question-mark is enough to indicate that it's not based on a super-careful analysis of exactly which plague could be minimized exactly to what extent. I do concede that a single louse would be a smaller plague than a single locust, but clearly if we're being pedantic at that level we should also admit that neither would really deserve to be called a plague.

1 hour later…

4:03 PM

I have no problem with either construction. I just didn't know which of them, if any, were worthy of the "cheeky" attribute.

CCCC: More than some circumnavigating a time-consuming backstreet is required (9)

Gareth McCaughan

I have the solution but I've made too many of the C4s lately and will let someone else give it a go.

Fair enough. (I don't expect this to last long, really.)

2 hours later…

6:06 PM

@MOehm MAN(>DA(T)OR)Y (Not sure about the notation. MANY around backward ROAD around T for time.)

@GentlePurpleRain Exactly.

(Notation isn't really standardized and can be ad hoc, I think.)

CCCC: Not unusual to go in before captain and search first, in anticipation of unforeseen problems. (2, 11)

@GentlePurpleRain is it ON TENTERHOOKS? (NOT*) + ENTER + HOOK + S_

6:28 PM

@PiIsNot3 You got it.

CCCC: Can a rap battle lyric be about philosophy? (7)

Brandon_J

@PiIsNot3 thought I had it; then I realized that "yes" only has 3 letters... :(

Ha, I gotcha! Try harder next time :)

Brandon_J

For some reason, Cryptic clues are (I PROMISE no pun intended) my Kryptonite. I don't think that I have ever successfully solved a cryptic clue in my life. Other puzzles - fine; maybe a little above average, but CCs, man. they just don't work for me.

Yeah, CCs are quite puzzling (also no pun intended) for people in general

But don't worry! As they say, practice makes perfect, so just practice more :)

Q: What is ls Largest Number Formed by only moving two sticks in 508?

6:45 PM

Tilting the Image is not allowed. You can cannot change order of digits. Hint:Think different

mathematics matches

I used to feel the same way about CCs, but I've managed to solve a few of them here. It requires a "different" way of thinking, so it does take a lot of practice.

2 hours later…

Mithrandir

8:36 PM

Well that's new.

Someone actually listened to the lock and unlocked it that way instead of solving the clues to open it.

2 hours later…