The Sphinx's Lair

2:50 AM

Q: A Land Between Two Worlds

West of the Meridian, Opposite of the Indian. A Frozen Land, Its Discovery Unplanned. The Tomb of Cold, A Rift Taking Hold. Land of Flames and Ice, From Endless Night to Midnight Sun.

riddle geography poetry

Wen1now

3:37 AM

Hey!

Does anybody think there are positive integers k,y such that 10^k-10^(k/2)<=5^y<=10^k

I suspect yes but maybe not at the same time so I'm kinda stuck

(i.e does a power of five, say n, begin with so many nines that the whole first half of n is 9

or in other words, n=99999999...999...other digits with at least 1/2 length n 9s)

If so then log 5 / log 10 has a really good rational approximation if k,y are big. Are there theorems that rule that out?

something something Baker's theorem something linear forms in logarithms something

Wen1now

Yeah I was thinking something along those lines, but I don't actually know any high powered theorems

so according to Wikipedia, which is always right except when it's wrong, we have that if a,b are algebraic then |a log 5 + b log 10| >= h^-c where h is something like max(log a, log b) in the case we care about where they're integers and c is a constant

but it's nearly 4am local time and I need to go to sleep so I'm not going to try to get my head around it now

Wen1now

okay, thanks though :)

(in general h is max height of the coefficients)

anyway, it looks like in some possibly-useless asymptotic sense Baker rules out coincidences of the magnitude you describe, but (a) I could very well be getting it wrong because, y'know, 4am, and (b) I don't know what there is in the way of explicit bounds.

(gone)

2 hours later…

6:14 AM

Q: Easy Idenity The Movie

Source: gpuzzles Identify the movie name

riddle rebus

2 hours later…

8:30 AM

@Rubio 'nother one puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/44769/grammys-2018

4 hours later…

12:05 PM

@Mithrandir gone

ffao

@Wen1now this about the date question? I think you might be better off looking for powers of 2. For powers of 5, if there is a power of 5 this close to 10^k, it must be at least divisible by 5^k, so it is 10^k - x * 5^k, but 10^k - 5^k is already too small.

I also got to a similar "endgame", but couldn't find numbers of the form 2^x5^y that are close enough to a power of 10 (or show that there are none other than 8)

Q: What is it that comes once in a year, twice in a month, three times in a week and four times in a day?

12:45 PM

What is it that comes- Once in a year Twice in a month Three times in a week Four imes in a day?

lateral-thinking

ffao

1:00 PM

it's easy to show that it can't have both 2 and 5 at the same time, and I think my argument shows that it can't be 5^x, so that leaves only powers of 2

I'm interested in your bounding argument to show that only 2^3 works, it's not obvious to me

Just found some cottage cheese that expired in July 2017 in the fridge. Think it's still good?

@Mithrandir Might still be useful for biowarfare research.

Actually, it didn't look spoiled or anything at all.

John Dvorak

... you ate it?

I personally don't eat cottage cheese, actually...

...but nah, we threw it out; not worth risking it.

1:20 PM

@Mithrandir I would have recommended this regardless of expiration date.

2 hours later…

3:33 PM

@Mithrandir, care to unfreeze The troll? I'd like to receive your videos there. Rubio is right, this room is not the place.

Q: Not the only one

I am one, but not the only one. If you deify me, I leave. If you do something else to me, I give wisdom. If you take me, you are doing something that starts with me. What am I?

riddle word language

4:30 PM

@humn (Unfrozen)

@Rubio , kiitoksi paljon!!!!

And please visit there too. You introduced me to the Trololo video.

@Rub puzzling.stackexchange.com/users/44771/pro-bowl-2018

@humn Looks like Rubio got to it first ;)

@Mithrandir , Rubio walks the walk.

. . . off to The troll . . .

1 hour later…

ABcDexter

6:12 PM

howdy everyone

Come post a video at The troll, @AbcD. I'm confident that @manshu will abide.

Queen - In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited (Lyrics)

6:58 PM

Swan song:

Heathers Intro

►

Come join The troll and hang on for the ride.

Dear diary!

Apropos: how many ways to ask "whu?" Que. Quando. Quire. Ä.

Don't make me go cromo. It's a good question. How many ways to ask why or how?

Too abstract?

. . . weird deletes in progress . . . probably for the best . . .

in The troll, 57 secs ago, by humn

►

. . . almost disentangled . . .

1 hour later…

8:27 PM

@Rand al'ephemera, please expose yourself at The troll. I'm sure that @manshu won't mind. It's my online chantrou. (Chantrou = song hole. Am i the only here who speaks French?)

(And i don't even speak Francoise.)

1 hour later…

Q: When you find out what I am, you'll be very angry

9:34 PM

I am one step away from stealing your things, And two steps away from selling you out. I am one step away from judging you, And two steps away from killing you. When you find out what I am, You'll be very angry. What am I?

riddle word

ABcDexter

10:04 PM

anybody got any suggestions to help me sleep :(

10:26 PM

Do math homework?

eeze

anyone want to play spyfall?

You've got a lot of gall, suggesting that

Eric Tressler

Spygall, in which you reveal things to covert agents that offend their sensibilities

Spygall, in which the clue word you offer must differ, by one different letter, from the actual word you wanted to offer. The new word must still be a valid clue.

eeze

spyfall code is liivsy

if anyone actually wants to play

Eric Tressler

10:31 PM

@ABcDexter I have a list here of all of the 7-letter words that end with "n". You could read through it.

eeze

plz cmon just one game?