The Sphinx's Lair

humn

15:04

(by the way, @Ankoganit, do you know yet another solution to Measuring Water with a Holey Cube? Must say, Jaap Scherphuis' answer is the best so far (it wasn't getting the votes it deserved,though, before having a picture)

Ankoganit

@TheGreatEscaper Here's one from our homework: 'A real polynomial of odd degree has all positive coefficients. Prove that there is a (possibly trivial) permutation of the coefficients such that the resulting polynomial has exactly one real zero.'

This one took me looooong

@humn Nope, nothing else.

humn

what was the original answer? can't believe the puzzle almost got closed!

Rand al'Thor

@Ankoganit Wow, that sounds like a cool problem!

I heard a couple of nice maths puzzles at dinner last night. Thinking of posting them on the site, although I don't know the original sources ...

Ankoganit

@humn I didn't have one actually (as I mentioned in the question):(

@Randal'Thor yeah, it's pretty cute

humn

oh, next time i'll read the question before answering

Sid

15:09

Good evening/afternoon/morning all

Ankoganit

good evening @Sid

Sphinx

1

Q: Time to Hit the Bricks!

An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #24: Grid-Deduction... It's 2am. The phone rings. You answer it and are immediately met with an onslaught of franticness from your (in?)famous uncle—a games and puzzles creator of dubious skill and legendary absentmindedness. You realize that, other t...

humn

(checking out, just came by to greet my former and future format (manshu)):

3

A: Formatting Sandbox

Q: Transmute all humans on this planet into Manshu Two solutions. (Alchemists had to discover the second after accidentally regressing Manshu to humanoid form.) Spoiler 1: Spoiler 2:

Sid

@Randal'Thor The source is important. Otherwise, you-know-who would flood your comment section with accusations of plagiarism.

Rand al'Thor

@Sid Well, if I say that I didn't invent it myself, then it's not plagiarism.

And if I get wrongly accused of plagiarism again, I'll flag the comments for deletion again.

manshu

15:18

@Randal'Thor I thought flagging is not your style. I mean, you will banish that person forever. Right my mod?

Rand al'Thor

@manshu :-P

I'm not a mod on Puzzling.

manshu

Phew... I can answer puzzles without expecting my 'haha' converted to 'hehe'

Ankoganit

or 'sheshe'

Rand al'Thor

Or 'wewe'.

Ankoganit

or 'meme'

actually, this is close to becoming a 'meme'

Sid

15:24

0

Q: He who isn't a he, she, or a it

He can look up to the skies and dream. He is bestowed with the greatest title of all, which nothing can claim to deserve. He is not necessarily a he. Neither is he necessarily a she. But definitely not an it. He exists in diversity He has many forms. But truly, He is one and the same. Who is thi...

riddle lateral-thinking

Anyone got this?

manshu

Nooooo! That's not True! That's impossible!

Sid

I still think it should be "GOD".

Ankoganit

seems plausible

but the OP says manshu is quite close

manshu

That's one of the reasons I didn't change it back.

I mean...I am not God...My mom never told me even if I ever was

Sid

Yeah, and they have put He in Bold every line.

@manshu Lol. :P

manshu

15:27

yeah...we use He for Him instead of 'he'

Go on Sid...post the answer...it might be the right answer

Sid

Nope, TGE posted that. The OP denied.

I still don't know why God is not a valid answer.

It fits

manshu

Yeah..probably one of the cases when a puzzle have multiple unintended answers

Now I am thinking about the Periodic Table...He = Helium

Ankoganit

But that can be 'it'

manshu

yeah

@Alconja Is it "pubescence"?

Ankoganit

15:45

@manshu explanation?

manshu

In public surrounds = it means that it is related to public or as it is a CC, may some part of the word public.

I speak of change = now my dictionary tells me that 'essence' means 'The central meaning or theme of a speech'.

And pubescence means puberty which is definitely some kind of change in human body

In public surrounds = it means that it is related to public or as it is a CC, may some part of the word public will be used.*

That's the reasoning.

TrojanByAccident

16:09

That's not it

Sp3000

16:37

@Deusovi Interestingly, we've previously run into each other before here. On a side note, just finished Danganronpa 2 and almost wishing I had a Vita/PS4 to play 3. Almost.

Rubio

17:20

Oi. Finally, my grid-deduction puzzle is posted. That was a killer time-sink to build, test, and put all the images and text together - I hope to God I didn't screw anything up.

Beastly Gerbil

Looks good!

Rubio

17:31

@BeastlyGerbil Did I sufficiently address your question btw? I think you just misread it :)

Puzzling — BOUNTY!

17:45

6

Q: Mystery on the trail to Dutch Flat

On a recent amble, I happened upon a sign $\small \raise2mu ( {\normalsize\sf\color{#d90} A} \raise2mu )$ that seemed to indicate a mistake — or— a mystery. Really, sign $\normalsize\sf\color{#d90} A$, really? Dutch Flat Trail is in both directions and on the way to itself? This turned out...

enigmatic-puzzle graph-theory real

Beastly Gerbil

@Rubio (I was joking) :P

Sphinx

0

Q: Wedding invitation card riddle

I'm looking for a riddle to put on my wedding invitation card. Ideally it's short (3 lines max) and not english-specific, as my guests are arabic - speakers. Any suggestions?

riddle

Rubio

18:00

@BeastlyGerbil Oh. heh :)

Deusovi

@Sp3000 Oh huh, cool!

Beastly Gerbil

I'm assuming that the puzzle like the one above, the puzzle-search puzzles are on-topic

TrojanByAccident

@BeastlyGerbil puzzle-search?

ah

Beastly Gerbil

click the tag :) I think there are three puzzles so far. Were the poster is looking for a puzzle

TrojanByAccident

mhmm :)

now, off to write an essay due in 4 days

and a song due in 4 days

Deusovi

18:10

@BeastlyGerbil Honestly, I don't think they should be. Many of them are too broad.

TrojanByAccident

and 38 other assignments rip :/

Deusovi

whoa, good luck

Beastly Gerbil

@Deusovi I can't remember which one it was, but one of them seemed pretty good as it had a lot of restrictions which meant it was asking for something pretty specific, but without restrictions they are pretty broad

Rand al'Thor

19:57

@Beastly @Rubio @Gareth or any other 10k-ers: one, two, three questions for the daily delete-vote rounds.

Beastly Gerbil

sure

2 questions deleted, 1 with 1 vote needed

Rand al'Thor

Gerbil to the rescue!

Deusovi

20:43

I got the last one.

Oh, @BeastlyGerbil, congrats on 14k!

Mike Q

@Deusovi Is it okay to post an idea dump / partial solution as an answer to a question?

Deusovi

@MikeQ Typically, only if you've made any actual progress. Also, make sure to explicitly label it "partial answer" at the top.

("Actual progress" can be just noticing things in the text that stand out. It's not that strict. We just don't want bad idea dumps in the answers.)

Mike Q

Hm, alright. I will hold off for now.

Beastly Gerbil

21:10

@Deusovi I got 14k?

Deusovi

Unless I've suddenly forgotten how to read (which is always possible).

Beastly Gerbil

Oh cool! It's displayed 14k for ages as I've been over 13.95k and have been taking it Rep easy

Plus I'm on mobile right now

Thanks for pointing out my achievement :P

Alconja

21:44

@manshu Nope. Definitely follows the rules better than that. It's also a more common word.

Let me think of a hint...

CCCC Hint: If I google the definition word/phrase (as in "define <definition word/phrase>"), then the solution word isn't listed at all, but if I google "define <solution word>", the the definition is listed as the very first synonym.

TrojanByAccident

22:11

@Alconja Did you give cross letters? I forgot.

Beastly Gerbil

@Alconja are you working on any puzzles? You haven't posted one in a while. I hope you are :)

incesterror21

Maybe he's working on a new CCCC

Alconja

@TrojanByAccident Nope this is the first clue I've given

@BeastlyGerbil I've been pretty busy, and had a bit of puzzlers block, but an idea is germinating as we speak... though on alconja time scales, that probably means it's still a month or two away...)

incesterror21

I wish bosses had Alconja time scales...

TrojanByAccident

@Alconja Ah

Alconja

22:22

@incesterror21 You can work for me. The only thing lower than my expectations is the pay!

6

incesterror21

I see, the time scales correlate with the salary scales. Time is money after all!

Volatility

@humn That's not the intended hint, although at this point I'm willing to accept your answer anyway, because I'm worried that the detail is a little guess-what-I'm-thinking (although I still think not entirely).

incesterror21

It's actually funny to read the starred messages from top to bottom as if they were connected!

Sphinx

22:59

0

Q: It's all Greek to me

Something doesn't add up... Plus this is barely a puzzle. How can everything be so important? There must be an alternate way to find the answer... What is this OP craving? Apparently the puzzle above was too short to be posted.. I believe it's a bit clever, let me know what you think? Everyt...

enigmatic-puzzle

0

Q: Word-making game

I like to play a game with my family and friends. It goes like this: The players take turns to say a letter. The letters taken in order must be the start of some word, and the person who finishes a word without there being a continuation on the word loses. If you are challenged on the letter you...

combinatorics game

Transcript for