The Sphinx's Lair

Volatility

00:00

@Rubio +1'd ;-)

Rubio

lol. thanks. someone got one in with mere seconds to spare - thanks whoever, and thanks for the other + whoever that was :)

Display name

Does anyone want a bounty on one of their questions?

boboquack

00:17

Why?

Oh, not the hats again

Display name

I have hats disabled, so it's not because of that.

boboquack

Then why?

Is this the first sincere offer since Winter Bash began?

Saiid

@Randal'Thor le link for the lazy

Display name

The only hat for bounties is to award a bounty on the last day of Winterbash (Jan 9th). There's no solid reason, I just feel like it. (and don't care about my rep dropping)

I'd like to lower my rep anyway :P

Oct 28 at 12:40, by Lukas Rotter

@BeastlyGerbil I don't care about rep (at least not on Puzzling). And I think it'd be funny if someone who doesn't know me visits my low-rep profile and sees how many posts I've already made :P

Saiid

lol

Rubio

00:28

If you want to rain free rep on someone deserving, the poor fellow who persisted to the end with my ill-fated halloween puzzle didn't get his efforts' worth.

4

A: Trick or Treating in Trutham-And-Ly

Trying again. Working through line by line... Deductions... So the cowgirl... Old answer below, leaving for posterity. So... Which comes to...

Display name

@Rubio How much more rep does he deserve in your opinion?

Rubio

Dunno. Deserve, probably 50; but awarding that little seems like damning with faint praise.

Neat. I just got Just Here for the Hat.

boboquack

Everyone on PSE with a hat would have

Rubio

Yeah I assumed as much

boboquack

To get it much earlier, all you had to do was upvote an SO meta post!

Display name

00:36

Hm... You don't know any answer that deserves >= 250 rep, right? (obviously excluding your own)

Rubio

Well. clearly all my answers deserve +250, so that goes without saying.

Sconibulus

What happens if you bounty a community wiki?

Rubio

But my puzzles tend not to be complicated enough to be worth more than the typical spate of up-votes generally give.

Display name

> Bounties are not affected by community wiki mode. When you award a bounty to an answer marked community wiki, the reputation bonus will be awarded to the user who posted the original revision of the answer.

Rubio

Interesting. I thought it just went poof.

Saiid

00:46

That would be kind of stupid

Rubio

Well, yes, I agree. But life doesn't safeguard us against doing stupid things.

That's why we let people smoke. :)

Display name

Hm... Maybe Deusovi's cryptic clue guide?

I'm pretty trigger-happy, so please tell me quick if you think there's something wrong with awarding that particular post :)

@Rubio Post a value between 250 and 500 please.

Rubio

333

And yes, that's a great suggestion.

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

01:07

30

Q: Cryptic Clue Guide

This post is not a puzzle. There is nothing puzzly hidden inside it or the self-answer, posted at the same time. What exactly is a cryptic crossword clue, and how do I write one?

Deusovi

01:17

Wait, why am I getting a bounty?

Will

hats probably

Deusovi

@Displayname?

Volatility

58 mins ago, by Display name

The only hat for bounties is to award a bounty on the last day of Winterbash (Jan 9th). There's no solid reason, I just feel like it. (and don't care about my rep dropping)

Deusovi

That's... really weird.

I mean, I'm not complaining.

Display name

@Deusovi Because the answer is worthy of a bounty IMO.

Volatility

01:22

btw, @Deusovi I applied for TSPI a few days ago. How long does it usually take to get in?

Saiid

@Deusovi That is quite an amazing post

Deusovi

@Volatility You didn't get an email invite to the Google group? It should've come in fairly quickly.

Volatility

No :-( maybe I entered my email wrong?

Saiid

lol

Deusovi

@Saiid Thank you! People were asking me a lot of questions and I figured that it'd be best to consolidate the basics into one post.

Huh, maybe it's in your spam folder?

Saiid

01:36

Yeah

Volatility

Nope, don't see it there. Can you see the applications, or should I just re-submit?

Alconja

geez @Volatility, can't you take a hint? :P

Deusovi

I can't, but I can ask about yours (and probably tell the team owner to add you manually)

Volatility

@Alconja huh?

Deusovi

@Alconja We accept pretty much anyone. Always happy to have more heads to throw at puzzles.

Alconja

01:42

Was just joking that they didn't actually want you to join and were pretending that they'd sent the invite.. have you tried checking spam?, etc

Volatility

oh right, ha :D

@Deusovi that'd be great, do you need some sort of way to check my email?

Saiid

@Deusovi What 'team' are you guys talking about?

Deusovi

Yeah - you can just send me an email if you don't want to reveal it here.

@Saiid Test Solution, Please Ignore - a team for the MIT Mystery Hunt, which is an annual puzzle competition happening mid-January.

Saiid

Ah

Deusovi

@Volatility - does this link work for you?

groups.google.com/forum/m/#!forum/test-solution-please-ignore

Volatility

01:50

No, it says I have to be a member to view

Deusovi

Huh, alright. That's really weird - you should've been added.

goo.gl/forms/D6fIQtQqbXG8FmYn1

(Here's the form for anyone else who wants to sign up.)

Saiid

Full name?

Deusovi

I don't think it's necessary for it to be your actual name - just a unique identifier.

Saiid

Alright

Saiid

02:07

What's with the dietary restrictions thing?

Deusovi

If you're going to be there in person, sometimes people bring food.

Saiid

Ah

Volatility

Oh ofc, lol, thought it was a joke

Deusovi

You don't have to actually be there, of course. Most of the puzzles are solvable online. But we have people there running around and doing physical puzzles.

Saiid

lol

Deusovi

02:10

I went for my first time last year - I loved it.

Alconja

It would be fun to be physically involved. Anyone going that can give me a lift from Australia?

Deusovi

I'm pretty sure people make the trip from other countries. It's probably pretty expensive and jetlag is a thing, but I think it's worth it.

LeppyR64

My wife got me the GCHQ Puzzle Book as a Christmas gift!

Saiid

Is it super wrong if you sign up and then don't end up being able to make it?

Deusovi

There's also the Sydney and Melbourne University puzzle hunts in September and... I think July? They're entirely online, but many of the prizes are only accessible to Australian residents.

@Saiid I don't think so! You can always just drop in for one or two puzzles if you don't have much time. And if you can't make it at all, that's fine too.

Saiid

02:17

Great! I'll just finish filling out the form, then :)

Deusovi

Even if you can't make it for this hunt, we'd be happy to have you for some of the smaller ones.

Saiid

Sure thing

:T I'm not sure what else to put in the strengths box

Alconja

02:34

...well don't put "form filling" then

Deusovi

You don't need to put anything in there. Like I said, we accept pretty much every application - it's mostly for calling specific people if we see a rare puzzle (like the one basd around My Little Pony characters and celebrity tattoos from last year)

Alconja

That's certainly a ...niche... speciality. :)

Saiid

lol

Alconja

How many people in your team?

Saiid

@Alconja I agree, I shouldn't put that

@Deusovi Hmm, I'll put in anime, then.

Deusovi

02:38

Yeah. We got pictures of My Little Pony characters and faces of celebrities and had to figure out that all the MLP characters' marks matched up with tattoos on the celebrities.

Alconja

:) I like it

Saiid

I sent it in

Deusovi

@Alconja 20-30 in person, 50-60 people who regularly solve with us, and about 90ish total members, I think.

Alconja

Wow. Quite sizeable then

(or is that normal for MIT teams?)

Saiid

lol

Deusovi

02:41

There are some teams with 150+ people, and I think one or two with over 200. 50-60 isn't that big in comparison, especially because a majority of them only show up for the Mystery Hunt (and not other hunts).

Saiid

hmm

@Deusovi I'm assuming you're managing the form?

Deusovi

Nope. That's up to the team leader, Emma.

Not sure how much she checks it, but I think it's pretty frequent.

Saiid

@Deusovi Oh

hmm

Deusovi

Worst case scenario, I can check it in person just before the Hunt starts.

Saiid

k

Rubio

02:46

New BBC Sherlock coming in just a couple weeks. cannot wait.

Saiid

nice

Rubio

03:02

Hm.

Saiid

03:50

Who here wants to work on the CCCC(or who is working on it)?

Sphinx

04:16

0

Q: We've gone hat-mad and can't solve the riddle of They Live

For those that haven't heard we are in the middle of Winter Bash 2016 and everyone's gone hat mad! Now there is a group trying to work out the trigger conditions for each secret hat. We are currently looking at the hat called They Live. What we know: It has something to do with reviewing sugge...

unsolved-mysteries

Sphinx

05:01

0

Q: Find 5 digits, which have the most numbers of prime numbers

If we have to use all available digits once, We can form 9 prime numbers from (2,5,6,7,8), they are : (25867,28657,56827,65287,65827,82567,82657,85627,86257) With the same rule, find another 5 digits, which have the most numbers of prime numbers. Then list all the prime numbers.

mathematics computer-puzzle

Jim

06:25

What's CCCC? I'll work on just about anything. Also, I'm new here.

Alconja

Welcome Jim.

CCCC = Cryptic Clue Chat Chain (or some variation thereof, depending on who you ask)

Whoever solves the current clue, poses a new one.

(If you're unfamiliar with cryptic clues, here's a good guide)

Jim

Ok, tell me more....

Rubio

06:43

The current CCCC is:

8 hours ago, by Sconibulus

CCCC: The start of your soul's fate lies behind Chatbot wagers... It's a pair of Queens! (9)

Jim

Found it: CCCC: The start of your soul's fate lies behind Chatbot wagers... It's a pair of Queens! (9)

Yes, thank you. I just want back fat enough to retrieve it.

Rubio

The current one is usually on the pinned star-board to the right of the chat window, by the way

It'll normally be the hollow star one at the top.

Jim

Got it

Rubio

(Sometimes it gets out of date, though, when one has pretty recently been solved and a new one posted, but not yet pinned)

Jim

So I'm assuming in this getting the answer just from the wordplay doesn't suffice.

I'm not the best at cryptic crossword, so here where you have the start of Your Soul's .... YS = wise

pair of queens is Royalties (9) presumably

Rubio

07:25

So a complete solution wouild explain how to derive the entire answer from both the wordplay and the definition (thus of necessity stating what piece is definition). generally, the setter won't confirm or deny the guess until it is a complete attempt.

Jim

Got it.

Is what I've done an attempt at that?

Rubio

Not really. The whole clue is important; you should show how each non-def word is used in the wordplay to form the answer

Sid

@Techidiot I wouldn't have fixed that typo..

Jim

Thanks. I'll wait to see how it plays out so I can understand a bit better. I appreciate the tutorial.

Rubio

It bears mentioning that the "!" very likely signals a &lit clue - where there won't be a separate definition, the whole clue is both wordplay and def

Techidiot

07:35

@Sid- It should be a typo because its inside the hint. Also there is no steganography involved which makes it unlikely to be useful. Though if OP wants he will remove it or if you say.. I will revert it again

Done

Rubio

Annnnd I am now the top of the PSE WB leaderboard. I wasn't even trying for that.

Jim

@Rubio so for the CCCC there's still something going on like wager = ante. Wise lies behind ante -> Ante can be Anti -> antiwise is a website with casino games. Is there logic and such like that?

Rubio

I'll be honest, I'm pretty lost on this one

Jim

07:50

Sure, I just meant in general

If I can grab words like wise and anti, does lies behind usually refer to reordering?

Rubio

Not sure where you're getting wise from; YS wouldn't be reinterpreted as "wise" normally, it would remain YS

Alconja

Every step should be clued, and every word should be important.

Rubio

indicator words are read like they're instructions; I don't think it's common to indicate (B)(A) by saying A lies behind B

Jim

Ah ok. I thought I could use phonetic sounds as words.

Rubio

so it's probably more likely that "lies behind" is used some other way, but not definitely so

Alconja

07:53

Only if there's a "sounds like" indicator

Rubio

yeah; homophones are cued by "We hear" or "sounds like" or such

@Alconja Any idea on this one? I've got no clue :)

Alconja

Nope. Me neither.

Rubio

chatbot=ob? obie? wagers=bets? pair of queens=ladies? QQ?!

Alconja

@Jim If you search in chat for cccc you'll find all the previous ones. Unfortunately answers will be a bit harder to find. :) (Though the answer to one will generally be close to the next clue if you follow the links to the transcripts)

Jim

I reread the post about CCs as well. I'm straightened out now. As I said, they definitely aren't my strong suit.

Alconja

07:58

We're all learning (well most of us)

IAmInPLS

Hello!

Rubio

@IAmInPLS Howdy

Jim

Understood. Well in that case can &lit also be an anagram?

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Diet Coke? Seriously :-)?

@MariaDeleva o/ Long time no see!

Rubio

Something wrong with Diet Coke? hehe

IAmInPLS

08:09

@Rubio The fact that it is Diet?

Rubio

It's actually Diet Coke with Lime. :)

Sumurai8

shudders

IAmInPLS

@Rubio A bit better, but still

Best I tasted, I don't know if it exists in other counrties, but it was decaffeinated Coke

Alconja

@Jim no, an anagram would be clued with an indicator like "confused" or "messy"

Rubio

08:28

Ah, random downvoters; how do I love thee?

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Again?

Damn, it's Christmas

Have some mercy

Rubio

14 hours after a puzzle is marked accepted, I get a random downvote on it. It's just kinda weird. No reason it should really still be on anyone's radar. oh well w/e

Sid

@IAmInPLS Mercy? I lost 38 rep yesterday because someone wanted to have some fun... I wouldn't count on mercy here.

IAmInPLS

@Sid If you're lucky enough, this will be undone; serial downvotes coming from 1 person are deleted

Sid

Yeah, I got them back...

IAmInPLS

08:41

Ah, you see :-)!

Mithrandir

08:54

@Sid Are you actually @BeastlyGerbil?

Sid

@Mithrandir Huh?

Mithrandir

He lost 39 rep from serial downvoting last night

@Rubio I believe that we are tied.

Rubio

You're at 15 now?

Mithrandir

Yep

Rubio

Grats

Mithrandir

08:56

And 20 overall, so now I'm in #4th overall

(I went down 2 spots overnight)

Sid

Rubio

yeah #1 is now like 27

Sid

@Mithrandir ^

Mithrandir

And if I get 4 more upvotes here then I believe that I overtake you, @Rubio.

IAmInPLS

@Mithrandir Take mine

Mithrandir

08:58

@IAmInPLS Thanks! :D

Rubio

You already have mine

Mithrandir

:P

Now I only need 1 more...

incesterror21

Hello all

Anyone here who has been on the site for some time ?

Mithrandir

I've been on SE for 2yrs+

But Puzzling for only 5 months

WHy?

incesterror21

I have a question about puzzles

Mithrandir

09:07

What's the question? Anybody might be able to help.

incesterror21

In my latest puzzle the solution was some letters without any meaning. Is it bad style? The solver wanted to go on from there but that wasn't intended

Mithrandir

Usually the ending will make some sort of sense.

IAmInPLS

@incesterror21 Oh, this one : puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/46938/…

incesterror21

Correct

Mithrandir

Oh, I approved your edit

IAmInPLS

09:08

Well, I would say that in general, puzzlers await for a solution that makes sense

incesterror21

It was hard enough to make all the 10 lines so I couldn't work out a proper password on top of that

Volatility

There should always be some sort of way to verify that an answer is the correct one without the OP saying so.

IAmInPLS

^this

Because here, the answerer just has some letters but don't know what to do with it, and if he has to do sth with it

Mithrandir

Exactly. SOmetimes the answer will be an imgur link, sometimes it will be text, sometimes a number... But it should clearly say that this is the answer.

IAmInPLS

You could have, in your puzzle, specified that the password was in alphabetical order for instance

incesterror21

09:10

Ok, thank you. Maybe I could've said sth along "looking for 6 letters without a meaning"

IAmInPLS

Not directly specified, but hinted discretly at least

incesterror21

I get the feeling that you all expect puzzles to have multiple steps of solving

Mithrandir

I need one more upvote here, still...

incesterror21

I will try to adept

Volatility

(btw, what was the significance of "I is" supposed to be?)

IAmInPLS

09:11

@incesterror21 Not necessarily

Volatility

^^^

Mithrandir

ANd yes, usually puzzles have more than one step, but it's not required

incesterror21

@Volatility (don't hate me for it but yes)

@Volatility look inside the thing

IAmInPLS

You can have 1 step of solving (here: find the password), but if you find 6 letters without meaning, it's still 120 possible combinations

incesterror21

I think I understand

I will try to keep that in mind

Mithrandir

09:13

You're welcome.

Volatility

@incesterror21 huh?

incesterror21

@Volatility using the 3D model and a little zooming you can look at the inside of the vessel

There is the "I" sitting trapped

Volatility

So that's just a red herring?

incesterror21

I = eye

Volatility

...or at least irrelevant to the solution?

incesterror21

09:16

I need to go now. See you all later I suppose

Volatility

Bye!

IAmInPLS

Cya

Mithrandir

Bye!

Sid

Is it fine to give cryptic clues without the enumeration?

Techidiot

@Sid- I was thinking to do it. But it will be bad practice.

^ if the clues are vague obviously.

If clues are right up to the mark, may be its fine then.

IAmInPLS

09:25

You're not forced to do it, but I believe this is very good practice to include the word count, yes

Volatility

Not, say, in a standard crossword, but if there's some sort of gimmick (like in Deusovi's fish cryptic), or if it's deliberately part of the challenge in some other way, then perhaps

And if it is part of the challenge, the solutions should be verifiable

Volatility

09:52

Tip for puzzle-creators (not that I count myself as an expert, but still): normally I try to make the solution somehow related to the puzzle itself (or vice versa); so e.g. for @incesterror's puzzle, I might have, say, the solution EYEOPENING (which, even though it's not perfect, is conveniently 10 letters; maybe you can come up with something better), and then figure out how the lock should encode it...

...Perhaps it will be along the diagonal. Maybe it'll be indexed by the rotations necessary to get to the correct combination. But, working with the "eye" = "I" idea in the original question, maybe I could work that in to the solving process as well? How about surrounding a letter 'I' in each line with the corresponding letter? That sort of reflects the "eye" being "trapped". But that would be tough (if not impossible!) to pull off using real words...

...What about replacing an 'I' in each line with the appropriate letter? Then you could say the password "hides" the "eye(s)", and it would be unambiguous to the solver what to do. That seems simple enough. Then all you'd need is to come up with an appropriate text, preferably obliquely cluing the extraction technique, and "eye"-thematic (I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader). That's an example of how you might make a short but interesting puzzle starting from a simple idea.

Volatility

10:06

(although now I realise EYEOPENING itself has an 'I' -- it's not ideal, but you could just assume that an absence of a replaced letter implies 'I' in the solution)

Techidiot

@Sconibulus Are you using a synonym in the CCCC for your soul's fate? :)

Rubio

Another alternative idea would be to use the leftover letters you already had as a literal key for some cipher that had an interesting word as its plaintext. for example, adding "eoinbu" somewhere to @incesterror21's puzzle, then would let you take the letters not used on the rotors (JKQVX) as a Vigenére cipher key on the letters EOINBU, decoding to "VESSEL" and you've thus actually unlocked the vessel. That at least lets the puzzle end in a place where the solver senses it's complete.

IAmInPLS

Another idea: imgur link! With the image you put in the accepted answer

Rubio

yeah I actually looked for one, but it's vastly harder to get an imgur tag you can do something useful with in that particular type of puzzle - the chances you can work around whatever it gives you and still have meaningful text on the rotors is, well, much more remote. :)

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Yes, I agree that it may not be for this type of puzzle, but it is just an example of what the OP could do for future ones!

Beastly Gerbil

10:39

Hmmm. The site bot only removed 3 of those downvotes...

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil This is because you deserved the others? :-P

Just kidding

Beastly Gerbil

The bots are useless :P

IAmInPLS

You mean you had a serial downvoting, and only 3 * 2 rep back?

Beastly Gerbil

yeah

Techidiot

@Sconibulus- Is it ELIZA(bot)BETH(May be the start of a word which represent soul's fate), Pair of Queens(Elizabeth I and II)

IAmInPLS

10:42

Strange indeed @BeastlyGerbil, maybe you'll get back the rep later

I wonder how do the bots works though

Beastly Gerbil

No because that happened a lot earlier today. I'm still owed about 10 downvotes back

IAmInPLS

Maybe it was not the same user

Beastly Gerbil

It was. It was Saiid

If you scroll back far enough you'll see

Short story - I asked for 1 person to unupvote a question so I could screenshot 12345 rep, and then Saiid thought it would be funny to start serially downvoting as a joke. Despite a lot of people nagging him to undo them, by the time he got round to it, they were locked in

So if the bots messed up I'll probably have to ask a mod to undo them

IAmInPLS

Oh dear ^^

Did you get your screenshot though :-)?

Beastly Gerbil

I didn't actually get it, Mithrandir got it for me

But right now, I'm on 12334 rep. :/

IAmInPLS

10:50

Feels bad man

No worries tho, I'm sure you're going to get that rep back

Beastly Gerbil

I'm more annoyed about the posts than the rep

Doesn't matter. I'll stop going on about it. It'll be undone eventually.

I see Rubio is now a diet coke....

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Yeah

Not sure why

Still thinking that regular Coke is tastier

Beastly Gerbil

Diet coke all the way :P

IAmInPLS

Daaamn

Not you :-P

Beastly Gerbil

Well zero sugar, basically coke...

Mithrandir

10:56

@Rubio I am now ahead :D I want to see if you can catch up...

Beastly Gerbil

what are you ahead of?

Mithrandir

I have 16 hats here, I overtook @Rubio

Beastly Gerbil

@IAmInPLS one bad thing is aspartame, but I'll worry about that when it gets banned in the UK :P

There should be a hat leaderboard

Rubio

I can probably get there soon, just not particularly busting my hump to do so

And there is a hat leaderboard.

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil +1

Beastly Gerbil

10:57

I've got 9 hats

Volatility

@BeastlyGerbil there is

IAmInPLS

@Volatility Link?

Volatility

winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/leaderboard

IAmInPLS

Nice

Beastly Gerbil

seriously. 121 thousand hats..

Volatility

10:58

And for Puzzling: winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/leaderboard/…

IAmInPLS

I've only got 7

I am a terrible hat lurker

Beastly Gerbil

Oh we are quite far down...

wa! I'm third!!???

IAmInPLS

@BeastlyGerbil Lol, I'm 5th

Didn't know that we were good lurkers on PSE

Beastly Gerbil

But I don't even go seeking hats!

IAmInPLS

I just went for the 24 hat

Just got an abominable one for closing a question

Beastly Gerbil

11:01

me too

IAmInPLS

Did not even know there was a hat for it

Rubio

@Sconibulus- ELIZABETH: Chatbot (ELIZA) wagers (BET); The start of your soul's fate lies behind all that (H eaven or H ell); Pair of Queens (def).

I think that's the full explain. Though "wagers" should have been "wager", I think.

IAmInPLS

@Rubio Techidiot had it, but not with the full explanation. GJ

Rubio

I'm not sure the "!" was strictly warranted either, as there is both wordplay and def, so it's not cueing &Lit

Volatility

It could just be for the surface reading (or to clue an alternate interpretation of "Queens")

Rubio

11:22

probably the former (the latter usually would be cued "?")

@BeastlyGerbil my puzzle and the description of mathematics do not intersect. :)

Beastly Gerbil

I'd say it does considering youre adding up coins

Rubio

Did you read that tag?

mathematics ≠ arithmetic

Beastly Gerbil

oh

I never actually read the mathematics tag until now :P

Rubio

:)

Beastly Gerbil

Rolled back

Rubio

11:31

rolled back

Sumurai8

does barrelroll

Rubio

Wheee!

that's one of my favorite Google easter eggs

Sumurai8

:P

Beastly Gerbil

I love that one :P

google.co.uk/…

Sphinx

0

Q: What's In Your Pocket?

You have in your pocket a set of U.S. coins.1 Using these coins you can count out a face-value total2 of exactly $96¢$, $97¢$, $98¢$, or $99¢$, using exactly the minimum number of coins possible for each of those respective amounts. Moreover, you have only the minimum number of coins in your pock...

knowledge optimization

Rubio

11:37

bfy.tw/3vM also fun.

Annnnd here's where I annoy all of you.

Beastly Gerbil

Am I wrong?

You can do better?

Volatility

Lol

(what are the U.S. coins?)

Beastly Gerbil

Volatility

oh, ok thanks

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio unless there is a 2 cent coin, I don't think you can do better.

Rubio

11:42

I can probably now set a timer for how long it takes for Matsmath to dv my question. hehe

Beastly Gerbil

Coins of the United States dollar

Coins of the United States dollar were first minted in 1792. New coins have been produced annually since then and they make up a valuable aspect of the United States currency system. Today, circulating coins exist in denominations of 1¢ (i.e. 1 cent or $0.01), 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1.00 Also minted are bullion (including gold, silver and platinum) and commemorative coins. All of these are produced by the United States Mint. The coins are then sold to Federal Reserve Banks which in turn are responsible for putting coins into circulation and withdrawing them as demanded by the country's economy...

TheGreatEscaper

Hullo!

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio you're sure 8 coins isn't optimal?

Rubio

Absolutely positive.

"There is more to it than the glaringly obvious, or it wouldn't be worth asking"

Beastly Gerbil

aah I think, I know what it might be...

TheGreatEscaper

11:46

Well mathematically it's easy to show that 8 is optimal

So then the solution is not exactly mathematical, i suppose

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio is it just a dollar, and we ask for change :P

TheGreatEscaper

I thought the US had 1 dollar bills

Oh wait, the US does have 1 dollar coins AS WELL

Rubio

Because of the nature of this puzzle I'm giving no hints or comments beyond what I have, until and unless a proper hint is needed after a suitable interval of not being solved. :)

Beastly Gerbil

Okay, not a hint I'm asking for, but I'm assuming the answer isn't mathematical

TheGreatEscaper

Unless it's something like

A 1 dollar coin and 4 pennies

But I don't really consider that an answer

@Rubio is the wording 'count out' important

It seems mildly ambiguous to me

Beastly Gerbil

11:50

@Rubio we don't count having foreign coins do we?

TheGreatEscaper

It says U.S. Coins

Beastly Gerbil

few

TheGreatEscaper

Is the 'or' in the question exclusive or inclusive :P

Rubio

what "or"?

oh. That "or".

TheGreatEscaper

you can count out a face-value total of exactly 96¢96¢, 97¢97¢, 98¢98¢, OR 99¢99¢

Oops, copy paste did strange things

But you get the idea

Well i'll assume that's a 'No it's not important'

Rubio

11:54

yeah I saw it. There's nothing devious going on there, nor with "counting out". they mean what they appear to.

TheGreatEscaper

Well there's obviously something devious going on somewhere...

Rubio

Now I'm going away. Have fun.

Volatility

I note the absence of a "lateral-thinking" tag

TheGreatEscaper

Yet the literal thinking obviously isn't correct...

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