Here's an interesting puzzle.
This is called "Rudenko's Disk" (Brainwright) — finding information or solves for it online isn't all that challenging, which would largely ruin the fun here, so don't go looking it up. Here's what the puzzle looks like:
The puzzle consists of 7 movable Dots, co...
@Brandon_J I'm not really. I just thought this was an interesting personal case in point where even when you're sure, and have someone's "proof", it might not actually be a best case proof, so ... hehe
Nah, I think we're in general agreement here now? - Optimization puzzles must have a provably best answer. - You can also ask questions *about* puzzles of the form "Does this have a provably best answer?", where the answer is "yes" or "no" (with reasoning). - And regular questions about puzzle design that are open-ended (but not [tag:open-ended]) are perfectly fine.
Well looking at the tag description for open-ended, the description for open-ended is "Used when the tagged puzzle is open ended to all solvers and could be "bested" at any point, if a given solver has a better solution that fulfills the askers requirements." I think we can agree that is too broad for community requirements
Elsewhere in SE, it's pretty much always possible for people to come to a question later and, seeing an existing answer that is deficient due to new knowledge, changes in society, whatever - to find that there is now a better answer
That tag description kinda reads like that concept applied to puzzles
Of course, for puzzles, changing times shouldn't change the answer
"Elsewhere in SE, it's pretty much always possible for people to come to a question later and, seeing an existing answer that is deficient due to new knowledge, changes in society, whatever - to find that there is now a better answer" I don't think that this is the same as open-ended puzzles here.
Finding something nobody found before, that happens to have a better score, is probably possible just because there's so much space to look in to find it, and dictionaries get bigger and computers get faster all the time
The danger - and I think we're correct to avoid it, and it's something Deus alluded to in an earlier comment - is that instead of a puzzle what we really have is a game: find the best thing you can come up with. (Ive even seen some that are: best solution in <n> days is the winner)
That's not a puzzle, it's a game, and I do think that's out of place here
but like in our last conversation on this topic, I could think of (literally) a couple examples of stuff that felt open ended, that I'd not like to lose.
there once was a man with seven sons one of his sons was very smart four of his sons are of average intelligence the four sons that were average intelligence but much smarter than the one but there were two that were smarter than the one and then there was the other two that weren't smarter than ...
Fold this net into a cube and solve this 3D Masyu.
The original Masyu rules apply. In addition, question mark '?' should be replaced by either a black or white circle.
Side note: Yeah, it's almost a die... I'm adding '?' to make sure that the solution is unique. ><
I have tried to solve this sequence which, I suppose has been created from the combination of a,b,c,d,e. I've reposted the correct sequence
The sequence:
(a,c), ?, ?, ?, (a,e), ?, ?, (c,d), ?, (b,a)
My logic: We just try to do all the possible combinations :
(A,B) (A,C) (A,D) (A,E)
(B,A)...
... Is "happy" the right word there? Maybe it is, but it feels odd somehow. Something something bitter herbs something something tears something something angel of death something. I dunno, I'm not Jewish myself and don't really know what the typical mood is, but I had the idea there was a bit of bittersweetness to it.
Incidentally, I haven't forgotten that I owe all you fine folks a new C4. I had an idea for a clue but haven't been able to make it work, but can't quite bring myself to abandon it...
it is a festival, and a commemoration of liberation from slavery. The circumstances were pretty grim, but the thing being remembered seems like a reason for some celebration
Oh, for sure there's happiness there. It just feels like there's more going on there and "happy" isn't necessarily the right word to use. (The Christians are a bit more straightforward in this respect; there's a kinda-similar contrast of emotions but they separate the two, with Good Friday and Easter Sunday. "Happy Easter" seems fine, at least if you're saying it specifically on Easter Sunday.)
@GarethMcCaughan There is. During the Seder, there's a part where we remove part of our wine / grape juice while we talk about the plagues, so as not to take joy in the suffering of others.
Not sure if this is where this belongs, but hoping to solve this. I need to find six names of dinosaurs, and there's no word bank. So far, I've already found archaeopteryx, stegosaurus, velociraptor, and triceratops.
Once I find those last two words, I then need to randomly choose a letter fro...
Here's an interesting puzzle.
This is called "Rudenko's Disk" (Brainwright) — finding information or solves for it online isn't all that challenging, which would largely ruin the fun here, so don't go looking it up. Here's what the puzzle looks like:
The puzzle consists of 7 movable Dots, co...
Fold this net into a cube and solve this 3D Masyu.
The original Masyu rules apply. In addition, question mark '?' should be replaced by either a black or white circle.
Side note: Yeah, it's almost a die... I'm adding '?' to make sure that the solution is unique. ><
I have tried to solve this sequence which, I suppose has been created from the combination of a,b,c,d,e. I've reposted the correct sequence
The sequence:
(a,c), ?, ?, ?, (a,e), ?, ?, (c,d), ?, (b,a)
My logic: We just try to do all the possible combinations :
(A,B) (A,C) (A,D) (A,E)
(B,A)...
Not sure if this is where this belongs, but hoping to solve this. I need to find six names of dinosaurs, and there's no word bank. So far, I've already found archaeopteryx, stegosaurus, velociraptor, and triceratops.
Once I find those last two words, I then need to randomly choose a letter fro...
