The Sphinx's Lair

12:00 AM

@GarethMcCaughan Nope, comment flags are pretty much completely harmless.

@TheBitByte Anyway, let us treat it as subjective for the moment. Are you saying that for you -- according to your value system -- it is not problematic to edit a comment in such a way as to make someone else's response look stupid? If so, would you like to explain why you think that?

TheBitByte

@GarethMcCaughan "looks like they're an idiot" is in and of itself subjective. And I think you cannot call something "not subjective" until you define an objective framework for what you're talking about. In other words, if you could define an objective set of rules for what should be deleted and what shouldn't, then fine, but until and unless you do so it's very hard for you to call something "not subjective" with sufficient proof of this claim.

Rand al'Thor

You don't get flag-banned for having comment flags declined; you don't get any kind of consequence at all for having comments flagged or deleted.

I suggest that we move on from this topic :-)

Gareth McCaughan

@TheBitByte If you want a serious philosophical argument about morality, then I suggest that this isn't the best venue for it. (Though I am in general up for serious philosophical arguments about morality with interesting people.)

Rand al'Thor

I still need to find one or two more historical events for this puzzle ...

Gareth McCaughan

12:02 AM

@TheBitByte But I suggest that if someone criticizes your behaviour and the best response you can make is "well, these things are subjective, aren't they?" then you should give serious consideration to the possibility that you should have behaved differently.

Rand al'Thor

Damn, missed the repcap by a mere 5 points :-/

Gareth McCaughan

diddums

I'm sure your rate of rep accumulation is very unsatisfactory to you.

Rand al'Thor

rofl

I guess I was asking for that :-)

TheBitByte

@GarethMcCaughan That's not what I want. Are you sure we are on the same page?

Rand al'Thor

Especially given this rather interesting tie: puzzling.stackexchange.com/…

TheBitByte

12:06 AM

@Randal'Thor I would love to. @GarethMcCaughan shouldn't take things personally, this is just a puzzling site for fun.

Deusovi

@TheBitByte Please don't try to "call out" other users.

Rand al'Thor

@TheBitByte Then do, rather than continuing the argument with comments like this.

TheBitByte

@Deusovi That is not "calling out", I was just giving some advice.

@Randal'Thor I'm not sure how this comment is offensive. I apologize if you interpreted it this way, but, I did not mean it to be as such. However, I would love if we all could just move on right now. :)

Rand al'Thor

I never said it was offensive.

Anyway ... moving on ...

Gareth McCaughan

@TheBitByte Transparently self-interested advice of the form "other people shouldn't object when they think I have treated them badly" is not generally good advice. Of course, you probably don't think you've treated me badly here, but I think it's interesting that you have ignored my request to explain why you don't.

But now I am going to drop the subject

and make a mental note to avoid interaction with @TheBitByte in fugure

*future

Rand al'Thor

12:12 AM

We still need a fifth historical event for this puzzle.

Maybe a fourth too, since I'm not totally confident of some of the ones I've got so far.

TheBitByte

@GarethMcCaughan I have made a note to not continue this argument anymore. If you wish to do so, then I am not going to respond. I apologize for any arguments between us, and I hope this will not happen the next time.

Lukas Rotter

Let me help to move on with a morale booster: It's monday! (Yay...)

Rand al'Thor

@LukasRotter Only in the eastern hemisphere ;-)

Lukas Rotter

@Randal'Thor I'm very tempted to edit my comment now. :P

Gareth McCaughan

@TheBitByte, I would just like to mention that I saw that and noted the contrast with what you said above about moving on and not continuing the argument.

Deusovi

12:17 AM

As did I.

TheBitByte

@GarethMcCaughan Do you want to restart the argumentation again? I am done here and I think we should stop already.

Deusovi

(You know, edit and deletion history is visible.)

It seems like you do.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Only to mods.

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor Nope, to everyone.

Gareth McCaughan

@TheBitByte No. I just think it is kinda weird to make passive-aggressive remarks about how you're not going to continue the argument ... and then continue it by taking potshots at the other guy.

TheBitByte

12:18 AM

@GarethMcCaughan I'm not sure what you're trying to do here, but this is weird.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Deletion history (or edit history once the post has been deleted) only to mods.

Deusovi

@Randal'Thor Ah, that's it. Regular edit history to everyone, though.

TBB, please stop trying to provoke other users. This is your final warning.

Gareth McCaughan

@TheBitByte ok, so now my estimation of your behaviour here is switching from "strange" to "outright malicious". I will, I repeat, be avoiding further interaction with you. Bye.

so anyway, that historical riddle thing

the lines that have only been used once appear to be (assuming the four riddles in Rand's answer are correct, and ignoring the fact that some of them may want an extra line)

An Empire was born

Against Teutonic foes

Ignoring an order

And I crossed the river

... which don't seem like they obviously fit together, but I don't know a damn thing about military history.

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi Is the Norman invasion of England seen as a major historical event from an American point of view (since the OP is from the US)?

Or is it just the Brits who all learn about it as kids?

Gareth McCaughan

What other famous cases of order-ignoring are there?

Deusovi

12:22 AM

Sorry, I know nearly nothing about history. It sounds vaguely familiar, but... :/

Does the puzzle say that all of them are used twice?

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi Does the date 1066 sound familiar to you?

Rand al'Thor

@GarethMcCaughan There was one at Trafalgar, I think?

Gareth McCaughan

Nope, the puzzle doesn't at all rule out the possibility that some are used only once

Deusovi

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, but I don't remember learning about it in school.

Gareth McCaughan

but if I were constructing a puzzle of this sort then I would be inclined to try to reuse as much as possible

so looking for "under-reused" things seems like a useful heuristic

Rand al'Thor

12:22 AM

Nelson was ordered to retreat, put the telescope to his blind eye, and said "I do not see the signal".

Gareth McCaughan

@Rand yup, that's a famous one indeed. Not sure it fits much else, alas.

@Deusovi I think the relevant question is what's likely to be familiar to readers rather than what readers are likely to have learned about in school.

Deusovi

I only know it from another P.SE post.

Rand al'Thor

@GarethMcCaughan Well, I was already thinking about the Napoleonic Wars. The "somewhere in France" line might fit somehow. Maybe "Teutonic foes". Were there any Prussians at Trafalgar, or was it just the Brits and the French?

@GarethMcCaughan Or maybe not, since the puzzle setup is about exams for students.

Gareth McCaughan

No idea -- as I say, I'm entirely the wrong person to talk to about military history...

Good point about the setup being student-specific.

According to Wikipedia (which is always right except when it's wrong) Trafalgar was just Brits versus French and Spanish.

Rand al'Thor

Hmm, well, where else can we find Teutonic foes?

Maybe the First World War as well as the Second?

TheBitByte

12:27 AM

@Randal'Thor It seems to actually be, "Really, I do not see the signal.", assuming you want to be super precise, otherwise you can ignore this.

Rand al'Thor

@TheBitByte So he did say "I do not see the signal" then ;-) (But thanks - I normally appreciate pedantry!)

TheBitByte

@Randal'Thor That, I am not sure.

Gareth McCaughan

So many of the lines seem rather ... generic. I mean, how many battles could be (very partially) described by "I crossed the salt waters / In a large wooden construct / Then the battle was won".

Of course that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the puzzle; the challenge is to find convincing not-so-generic ways to combine these lines, and many of the others are more specific.

Rand al'Thor

@GarethMcCaughan Yes, and that's part of what makes me doubtful about the "Norman invasion" riddle.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

5:17 AM

13

Q: What is a RAP Number™?

Taking inspiration from "What is the word™" series, here the numbers conforms to a special rule, I call it a RAP number™. Use the following examples below to find the rule. Note : This is my first crack at this type of puzzle, so suggestions and edits are welcome. I don't think the CSV is ne...

user189275

10:53 AM

@Ankoganit: I didn't assume RGB is similar to R'GB

Ankoganit

Okay, you are claiming two similar triangles with one common side must be congruent, which is false.

user189275

@Ankoganit: Oh Yeah, that's where I missed it.

user189275

I actually overlooked that.

Ankoganit

Here is a figure (not required anymore since you realized anyway, but still posting since I searched it up painstakingly :P)

user189275

Yeah, it forms a very elegant proof of Pyth theorem.

user189275

11:00 AM

(Not by similarity; but by using the fact that area increases prop to k^2 )

Ankoganit

I remember reading a proof by infinite geometric series.

user189275

Yeah, zigzag into infinity. Just like a fractal; you zoom; and you can't see any change. It's wonderful

user189275

(In some points only; it doesn't happen everywhere)

user189275

@Ankoganit: No wait, pyth theorem by infinte series ? Really ?

Ankoganit

Wait, let me find it...

user189275

11:04 AM

Don't post.

Ankoganit

Just a link: cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/Proof100.shtml

user189275

Let it be found, independently.

Ankoganit

Okay, don't click on the link if you want to try it.

user189275

Just saying, you checked the pww of taylor expansion of trigs ?

Ankoganit

pww?

user189275

11:10 AM

Proof without words. Well, a demonstration actually, but the proof's key idea is then seen without baloney, and it is somehow more beautiful (to me atleast; some like the equation-al beauty)

user189275

Roger Nelsons books are great on this. They are not available in paper, so I downloaded it.

user189275

You wouldn't belive how amazingly the inequalities are proved with pww. Most are, honestly, a bit nonsense, but some aren't - they are the gems.

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Wow, really? Sounds cool!

user189275

Honestly, I only enjoyed that, and producing that, and really nothing else, when I read math, . But I stopped reading for various reasons. Some good places to start enjoying it is the MSE question, then MO question, then visual math blogspot, and there were some goods one I forgot.

user189275

@Sid: Will you add any clue to the stenography puzzle ?

Ankoganit

11:29 AM

@ArbitraryKangaroo Didn't quite get it. Can you elaborate ? (or you may post an answer if you want)

user189275

@Ankoganit: After 1 minute, I just realized I started to write things which even I don't understand. But I may have get it.

Ankoganit

@ArbitraryKangaroo Okay, good luck!

:)

user189275

Nah. Red herring. I thought that atleast one of the two points joining would also contain the smallest line; but it's obviously not that.

user189275

I will try that later.

Ankoganit

Oh, okay.

user189275

11:57 AM

@Ankoganit: I am sure it is not equilateral, or isoscles, and I guess the answer is no.

user189275

Well, just a random guess. If it's scalene, then they might be like what's is in the pww of the AM-GM.

user189275

Oh wait!

user189275

I GUESS I HAVE FOUND IT !

user189275

It is that.

user189275

I might be wrong too, but I am pretty sure if any configuration exists, then the sides increases by a constant multiplicative factor. But I am most probably wrong, as I am not finding any beautiful solution.

user189275

12:04 PM

But the solution is seeming bit natural, so it is probable that it works.

user189275

I can't justify my answer, as it is very probably wrong, but its just intuition. Scaling makes the shape same ... might be red herring. I don't know.