The Sphinx's Lair

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1:27 AM

Q: One-thousand-four-hundred-seventy-four numbers get valued

Rows A through P, below, categorize the spellings of one-thousand-four-hundred-seventy-four numbers that have a straightforward numerical property to be deduced. Spelled numbers of each row share a value for that property, by which the rows are listed in increasing order. The numbers of each row ...

word-property

2 hours later…

Sphinx

3:21 AM

Q: Project Projection

The Project You and a co-worker have been assigned to complete a web application. The client wants to know how many hours the project will take to complete - the minimum. Your Puzzle Task You need to figure out how many hours the project will take. Supporting Data The project consists of ...

mathematics logical-deduction

2 hours later…

Alconja

5:24 AM

Alconja Reviews Stuff #1: So, I just finished solving The Librarian's Almanaq and thought I'd drop a review here for those interested. It's effectively a puzzle hunt in a book, where the "book" is really just a storage vessel, since the very first thing you'll do is tear out half the pages. Consists of a large opening puzzle, eight smaller puzzles and a final meta puzzle.

Positives: A) Each puzzle is unique and fun, with some clever new ideas (as well as a few more "classic" puzzle types). B) There's a great sense of "enigma" in working through the book since you don't know where you're going or what you'll be doing next.

Negatives: C) The "enigma" is fairly skin deep... Since the book is standalone, it is necessarily very direct with its instructions, basically telling you exactly what to do each time - I feel like it would have been a point better if they found a way to maintain more of the enigmatic-puzzle in the puzzles themselves (but I get that's a bit of an impossible ask given the format). D) There's a bit too much red herring filler. E) A few bits are somewhat USA-centric.

Uniqueness/Fun: A++. Puzzles: Ranging from "pretty good" to "excellent!". Difficulty: Easy-ish (and very doable in a group or with non-puzzlers). Overall: 7.5/10.

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^ For anyone stuck in quarantine... (I have no affiliation, etc. and the link is just to the author's Amazon page for convenience, not a recommendation of shop-front, etc.)

Sphinx

Q: Circle puzzle critical startegy

Answer it with the formula.three circle puzzle solve this faster as you can

riddle

Deusovi

5:53 AM

I've heard it's good! Been meaning to pick up both it and Conjurer's Almanaq (the sequel) for a while now.

Alconja

6:04 AM

@Deusovi yeah, just ordered the Conjurer's Almanaq too. Will report back on it when I get to it.

2 hours later…

Sphinx

8:07 AM

Q: The Big Cube Puzzle

The following logical puzzle is mainly inspired by a mathematical contest I went to. Part A You are given a cube. How many plans cross this cube by at least 3 vertices? This number will be named $n_{A}$. Part B You are given a cube. Here is one of its face. $n_{B}$ will be its surface. P...

mathematics logical-deduction optimization

Sphinx

9:04 AM

Q: Four $e$'s to make a Prime Number

Inspired from the Four $\pi$'s puzzle and the "Four fours", this challenge is to represent any prime number using $e$,$e$,$e$,$e$ (uses $e$ exactly $4$ times). $\DeclareMathOperator{\arcsec}{arcsec}$ $\DeclareMathOperator{\arccot}{arccot}$ $\DeclareMathOperator{\arccsc}{arccsc}$ You can use all ...

mathematics formation-of-numbers

2 hours later…

Sphinx

10:39 AM

Q: Maximum number of legal moves after n moves in a chess game

Given the chess start position : What is the maximum number of legal moves white can play after n full moves ? We will assume black is helping white in this task. I want the best answer you could find with n varying from 2 to 20 (too high and it becomes too long to solve, too low and it will ...

chess optimization

Sphinx

10:57 AM

Q: Missing elements of this 32-length list

The following list has 32 elements. Element 8 and elements 22 to 32 are missing. Can you find why element 8 has been chosen to be missing? And can you find what are the missing elements? RTKW EHKB NPKB PBKW NPKW NQKB NPKB ???? NPKW PBKB NPKB EHKW NPKW NPEW RTKB PNKB PNEB RTEB PNKW PNEW EHEW to ...

letter-sequence sequence

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

11:44 AM

My first instinct about the CCCC is that "old, finally" indicates the letter D; either that, or hexomino is tricking us with the indicator and "finally" is the definition

1 hour later…

jafe

1:02 PM

"to grow old" = AGE seems potentially useful but i'm not sure what to do with the "finally" in that case

3 hours later…

Sphinx

3:41 PM

Q: Can you guess the lock's passcode?

A lock's passcode is composed of three digits. Five incorrect passcodes are given below, each with a hint to the correct passcode. 2-0-6: Two of the digits are correct but are in the wrong places. 6-1-4: One of the digits is correct but is in the wrong place. 6-8-2: One of the digits is correc...