The Sphinx's Lair

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Sphinx

04:22

Q: Are circles required on the edge of the grid? Part 2

This question is a follow up to a previous question: Are circles required on the edge of the grid? The image below is a puzzle from the FlowFree app. Notice there are no colored circles on the edge of the grid AND surprisingly there are no colored circles in the two rightmost columns of the grid....

Jafe

05:09

hah i was considering the same bounty @oAlt

oAlt

05:22

4 hours later…

Sphinx

09:44

Q: Keys and Locks Puzzle

Let $a,b,n$ be positive integers in which $a,b\le n$. You are locked in a room, with $n$ distinguishable keys and $n$ distinguishable locks in it. You know that each lock can be unlocked by a unique key, but you don't know which key unlocks which lock. You also know each key initially has a durab...

mathematics no-computers combinatorics strategy

1 hour later…

Sphinx

10:48

Q: Torus Flow Free

Rules: this is a flow free warp puzzle with a 9x9 grid. connect the respective letters together with lines that travel orthogonally through the centers of grid cells. additionally, the sides of the puzzle and the center column of the puzzle are warps; you can enter from one side and exit the oth...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

oAlt

11:12

@Jafe visit (frequent, verb) = V (character in Alan Moore's comics) is it (must try to catch others, i.e. is "it" in a game of tag)

Wow, that took a while to spot

Definitely did not help that I was thinking of "frequent" as an adjective

Also "must try to catch others" was not an easy one to parse

Thank you Oxford Thesaurus

1 hour later…

msh210

12:40

@oAlt wow, well solved

there's no way I would have gotten that in a million years

(especially because, by then, I'd have been dead for almost a million years)

oAlt

12:56

@msh210 thanks

yeah that was a tough one

msh210

& yet perfectly fair. Well done, Jafe

oAlt

13:10

Indeed

2 hours later…

Ankoganit

15:08

@oAlt that's incredible, nicely set @jafe and solved @oAlt

oAlt

15:23

thanks

Ankoganit

Mar 13, 2017 at 15:36, by Ankoganit

I was planning on something like "A trip...or is it?(5)"

7 years ago I tried and failed to make a legit clue with the V+Is it split

Glad to see someone did it way better

oAlt

15:49

Loll

Mar 13, 2017 at 15:37, by Gareth McCaughan

@Ankoganit I would strongly disapprove of "or" meaning "V". The logical-or symbol is not a letter V, even though it looks like one.

Mar 17 at 2:41, by msh210

@oAlt wanders (diverges), as w/ (with) and ('n') ϵℝ (belonging to the set of real numbers) S (series)

Oops :P

juicifer

wow, nicely done, both to jafe and oalt

I was pretty sure I knew what it needed to be but I was nowhere near getting "is it"

oAlt

thanks part 3 :D

Ankoganit

16:04

@oAlt v walked so ϵℝ could run

oAlt

Hehe

4 hours later…

Sphinx

20:02

Q: Can you "spot" the pattern?

Below are 15 words and 14 patterns of coloured spots. Each of the listed words can be matched to one of the spot patterns via a systematic rule - but two of the listed words match to the same spot pattern. For the checkmark, (i) identify which words match to which spot pattern (and which two word...

visual pattern

Jafe

20:53

correct!

2 hours later…

Jafe

22:29

oh and thanks guys, i was pretty happy with that one hehe

making good progress with the next gladys entry so it should be coming out fridayish

it's a nonogram plus four mini-crosswords

you'd think four 6x6 grids would result in the same number of clues as one 12x12 grid... not the case though

Sphinx

22:51

Q: Digging tunnels in a crossword?

The puzzle below seems like a normal crossword puzzle. However, there is an important thing to notice: The black squares aren't solid, it is possible to dig tunnels through them! Rules + example Let's say the answer to the first clue is "tunnel". You may then fill in this word in the crossword, ...