The Sphinx's Lair

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12:14 AM

@bobble @bobble I believe it is completely possible to get to the answer without the hints. The question, the picture, the strong hint regarding ‘brief’ and language is enough to get to the solution.

@AncientSwordRage This isn’t the case of ‘what number am I thinking of?’ In UCAT, SAT, generic NVR and VR there are often multiple reasonable answers - but there is always one compelling answer. As I said elsewhere, if you are asked to complete the sequence 1,2,4,8…. there is a compelling answer despite the fact that OEIS offers 2,436 possible answers.

AncientSwordRage

12:55 AM

@Konchog by your own analogy, the only thing we're saying makes your question too broad are the "2,436 possible answers."

bobble

@Konchog I will not dispute that there is a path from question to answer. I will dispute that having such a path is enough to make a good question. If you are at a crossroads and one path leads to your destination, but all look plausible from the crossroads, then that is still a problem because people will go down the wrong paths. What is necessary is giving directions which clearly make some paths wrong.

Konchog

1:40 AM

@bobble I accept that and this is why we are here. What I am wondering is just how I would go about doing that.

@AncientSwordRage Frankly, I disagree. Given zero context I would agree. But with context that just isn't the case. For instance, if the 1,2,4,8... sequence is to be found in an exercise for 8-year-olds, the answer is 16. Not any of the other 2,435 answers. I really attempted to supply ample context. The complaint I am hearing is that the context was missed. I am looking for suggestions on how I could have provided more context that would have still made the puzzle interesting and fun.

@bobble But I am still not completely unconvinced. The title, in accordance with PSE, has a hint to the answer (albeit remote). The question clearly points out (in my mind) that one needs to think of the brief, NOT look at the picture. It also makes it clear that language is a serious consideration. etc.. What more could I do?

bobble

2:50 AM

@Konchog for one thing, you've offered hints which direct people more firmly towards the intended answer. Having them not spoilered would be enough, and indeed was the aim of my first comment

1 hour later…

Sphinx

4:15 AM

Q: How do I create a sliding-blocks puzzle (specifically like the "Rush Hour" ones) which requires an "ah-hah!" moment?

Background My grandma gave me a set of Rush Hour puzzles as a small child, ever since I could be trusted to not eat the pieces. I still enjoy playing these today and would like to try my hand at making some like it. They are a kind of sliding-blocks puzzle. The set-up is: 6-by-6 gameboard, compl...

oAlt

5:06 AM

I completely have no idea as to which side of the current cryptic clue is the definition

oAlt

5:16 AM

Well I mean I have an inkling that it's a synonym of "after" breaking into synonym of "fellow" + synonym of "sailors", then with an R ("right") removed ("to remain silent"), but I haven't found a way to support that yet

In this case it doesn't help that "fellow" has a lot of synonyms lol

3 hours later…

Stiv

8:30 AM

@oAlt I've been working on 'celebrations' being the clue, and 'right' suggesting everything needs to be reversed. I've been stuck trying to make BAR MITZVAH work for a while (though I confess that may not be plural), as reversed it would end in AB (sailor) and involve H_IM (fellow), but it's not turning up any gold for me yet.

AncientSwordRage

9:21 AM

@Stiv is it right to bear ARMs ? In BIT (what's left by breaking)?

Right to remain as a refugee?

oAlt

9:54 AM

@Stiv interesting

AncientSwordRage

10:06 AM

@Stiv Sailors' could also be TARS

Rand al'Thor

10:27 AM

TARS, The Tesseract

3.1k 3 30 50

the-witcher the-dark-tower the-prestige dc dr-manhattan half-life harry-potter

Sphinx

10:38 AM

Q: Can't solve "BIT MEX MORTY SYN" the answer should be a word/phrase

Can't solve "BIT MEX MORTY SYN" the answer should be a word/phrase....

riddle cipher

AncientSwordRage

@Randal'Thor could be

2 hours later…

Jafe

12:56 PM

CCCC hint: "After breaking" is a bit weirdly worded. Better would be "having broken".

Sphinx

1:36 PM

Q: The End of the Rainbow

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx "And there we are, the end of the rainbow!" You glance around, the scenery looks...actually just like any other grassy field around a lake, but the surface of the lake itself harbors many beautiful colo(u)rs. You ...

word-search

Sphinx

2:27 PM

Q: Largest set of factorials whose product is a perfect cube

Just one number must be removed from the set of integers between 1 and 100 (inclusive) so that the product of the factorials of the remaining numbers is a perfect square. What is the least number of integers that must be removed from the same set of numbers so that the product of the factorials o...

mathematics optimization

Sphinx

2:53 PM

Q: An equation with infinite nested square roots

Find all values of $x$ that satisfy the following equation: $\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\sqrt{x+\ldots}}} =x\sqrt{x-\sqrt{x-\sqrt{x-\ldots}}}$

mathematics

2 hours later…

Sphinx

4:36 PM

-1

Q: I need to decrypt this sentence and a tip is "It has 2 layers of simple encryption and another small change and It is not some insane fancy stuff

This is the thing to decrypt into a sentence and i dont know what to use and nothing is given to help solve it D62B429606D80542FF47760DC4FE90885C019EA577AB

cipher

1 hour later…

Lukas Rotter

5:38 PM

Breaking News: Stingy me finally bought a VPS now. By no later than next week will the monthly topic challenge entry list be automatically updated in real-time.

3 hours later…

Puzzling Meta

8:39 PM

Q: Recurring posts about cryptic crosswords

I have a couple of books of cryptic crosswords from the Times (of London) that I've been working through. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly good at them, and I don't know a lot of UK-specific references, so I often have to resort to looking at the answers in the back. But all that's provided in t...

discussion

1 hour later…

Sphinx

10:09 PM

Q: Fewest weights to balance

Suppose you want to create a set of weights so that any object with an integer weight from 1 to N pounds can be balanced on a two-sided scale by placing a certain combination of these weights onto that scale. What is the fewest number of weights you need? I know this question has been answered at...