The Sphinx's Lair

msh210

6:39 AM

@GarethMcCaughan This seems unlikely but maybe FOR FREE double definition (one of the "free"s being this one)?

Oh, no, of course it's PRO BONO!

jafe

7:50 AM

bono is "a younger singer"?

ah nvm, it means younger than Cash

Sphinx

9:56 AM

0

Q: What is a CirKle Word™?

This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a CirKle Word™. Use the following examples below to find the rule. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE imp...

Gareth McCaughan

10:27 AM

Yup, PRO BONO is of course correct. Well done! (I had some trouble constructing the clue in a way that didn't make it way too easy. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.)

Omega Krypton

10:57 AM

wait but is cash double duty here? younger than (cash) and turning down cash @GarethMcCaughan thanks

and i wonder if this is starting to get too broad... v

19

Q: Sun setting in East!

It was a bright and sunny day during April- May(can say, peak of summer) in a country in the northern hemisphere, near to the equator. I was wandering(on foot) through this country's vast and open land - harsh desert - and in the evening seen a strange thing - the sun was setting in the East - ...

knowledge story situation

msh210

11:25 AM

@GarethMcCaughan Yeah, nicely done.

CCCC: Follower of Jesus with operalike bit: solos at the starts of "Emmanuel" and Rorate! (9)

Omega Krypton

11:36 AM

@msh210 rorate? typo of rotate?

M Oehm

@OmegaKrypton Vide Wikiae. (Or something ...)

msh210

@OmegaKrypton Nope.

Omega Krypton

ok thanks

trying to get CHRISTIAN to be the answer

Sphinx

11:54 AM

0

Q: How many cubes is this tringle made of?

can you guess? i know its a simple puzzle but lest just have fun

triangle

Gareth McCaughan

12:15 PM

@MOehm I think you mean la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorate

M Oehm

Yes, that would have been the better link. (But I didn't want to go out even farther on the limb I was already on. My Latin is restricted to some popular aphorisms and I even get those wrong when quoting. I mean, Wiki with a W, what was I thinking?)

msh210

1:24 PM

@OmegaKrypton I think the hardest aspect of solving a cryptic clue usually is figuring out where the demarcation is between the definition and the cryptic part. There's one type of cryptic clue for which that aspect is much easier.

jafe

as indicated by the exclamation point

i have a feeling this one requires some knowledge that i don't have (wouldn't be the first time)

Omega Krypton

@msh210 the ddef!??

hi mith and jafe

and msh if you're still here

jafe

@OmegaKrypton crosswordunclued.com/2008/08/and-literally-so.html?m=1

Omega Krypton

such a long [redacted] clue then!

msh210

2:08 PM

@jafe That page doesn't match the "rules" of cryptics as I understand them. AFAIK an &lit must always have ! at the end; that page says otherwise. What say you all?

@OmegaKrypton Yes. I'm no professional. :-)

Omega Krypton

neither am i @msh210

Sphinx

2:31 PM

0

Q: Find the next two numbers in this series

Find the next two numbers in this series $ 5, 9, 4, 5, 7, 1,...$

number-sequence sequence number-property

Deusovi

2:51 PM

@msh210 &lits are often unindicated in British cryptics, IIRC - I think most American setters require them to always be indicated that way, though

Gareth McCaughan

CHORISTER. On mobile device; explanation in a few minutes though it's not complicated.

So it's O (OPERALIKE bit) in CHRIST (Jesus) plus first letters (solos from the starts) of E(mmanuel) and R(orate).

I confess that I hadn't noticed the exclamation mark or thought of it being an &lit until @msh210 gave it away :-).

CCCC: Follower of Judas is a singer and a childish character (9)

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan Yes, of course.

@GarethMcCaughan Actually, it's CHRIST (follower of the word "Jesus").

@Deusovi Ah. Does this chain follow American rules?

Deusovi

3:13 PM

It follows the preferences of whoever's setting at the time.

Gareth McCaughan

3:26 PM

@msh210 Duh, sorry, yes. I'd actually wondered whether "follower of Jesus" might yield H for similar reasons :-).

(the H, of course, stands for haploid.)

Sphinx

0

Q: What is number one hundred and one?

It's been a while since I've posted, and in the spirit of my recent works, I've got a simple riddle to get back into the swing of things. As always, I hope you enjoy it, and best of luck! I'm thinking about adding another row to my display, but I can't remember what the next number is... Perha...

knowledge enigmatic-puzzle number-property

Erik the Outgolfer

3:46 PM

@Sphinx rot13(gur gvgyr unf fvapr orra punatrq gb "Oenirgneg: Vpbavp Nzrevpn"... frnepuvat sbe gung grez yrnqf gb n obbx) (TL;DR: possible paywall)

Sphinx

1

Q: Alphametic puzzle, involving square and prime numbers

I have been trying puzzle solving recently and came across this problem. Any hints on how to do this? So far, I have found that N, R and F must be odd (as they are the last digit in a 5 digit prime number), and that N must be specifically either 1,5 or 9, because all square numbers end in eit...

alphametic

0

Q: Heyacrazy: Careening

This is a Heyacrazy puzzle, designed at request of testsolvers of previous puzzles who wanted to see how longer diagonals would work. Rules of Heyacrazy: Shade some cells of the grid. Shaded cells cannot be orthogonally adjacent; unshaded cells must be orthogonally connected. When the...

logical-deduction grid-deduction

Sphinx

4:09 PM

0

Q: Sleeping Beauty Study at the Institute of Mad Science

You've been approached to assist in the furtherance of SCIENCE as a research subject at the Institute of Mad Science (local branch)! The experiment you'll be involved with is called the Sleeping Beauty Study. The informational pamphlet you were given explains that, on Sunday, you'll be given a d...

strategy probability

Gareth McCaughan

4:37 PM

Before I post my answer to this ^ ... is it too routinely arithmetical to be an actual puzzle, in others' opinions?

(It gestures towards a tricky philosophy / decision theory question, but the actual question here is pretty much just a straightforward probability exercise.)

Erik the Outgolfer

tbf I can't even see how there might be a strategy to that...

Gareth McCaughan

"Strategy" is a rather grand word for it, yes. (Though I think a fairly standard one for this sort of question.)

Erik the Outgolfer

I mean... just guessing randomly is probably the best you can do since you have no other information

Sphinx

2

Q: Make $2471$ out of first seven powers of two

Can you make $2471$ using first seven powers of two: $1,2,4,8,16,32,64$, each exactly once? Only the basic operations are allowed: $+,-,\times,\div$, and parentheses $(\space)$. Concatenation, exponentiation,... or any other trickery is not allowed. Hint: Similar Example: ...

formation-of-numbers

Erik the Outgolfer

not even arithmetical imo, just very trivial

Gareth McCaughan

4:50 PM

Well, there is a definite answer to the question and although you say "trivial" the answer isn't quite what you say, so it's not that trivial. But it is a fairly routine calculation.

Erik the Outgolfer

ninja'd

(unless you have an actually cleverer method than guessing randomly apart from the calculations)

Gareth McCaughan

his answer is wrong

also, I'm not sure it counts as getting ninjaed when I have a complete answer written and am just soliciting opinions on whether I should post it or close the question as Not A Puzzle :-).

Erik the Outgolfer

unfortunately only the post time matters in this regard ;-D

Gareth McCaughan

Bleh. It's too late to stop it having answers so I'll post mine.

(Conclusion: you can do whatever you like; if all you care about is your expected winnings then it's $500 unconditionally.)

It would be tactless of me to mod-hammer the question having answered it, but I would encourage anyone reading this to take a look and see whether they think it warrants closing as "mathematics problem rather than puzzle".

Erik the Outgolfer

eh, tbf it does have a non-math part that needs to be converted to maths, although that part is the amnesia, so I'd say let's not strictly close as that

Deusovi

5:17 PM

yeah, I was considering answering that one, but held off because I thought it should be closed as pure math

Gareth McCaughan

5:33 PM

Feel free to close it.

Sphinx

6:27 PM

0

Q: 12 balls 1 scale with 4 groups

So, we all know the famous 12 balls 1 scale riddle. It has been here repeated many times, however, the provided solutions always start with splitting the twelve balls into three groups of four. This made me wonder whether it would also be possible to solve the riddle in another starting combinati...

strategy combinatorics weighing

Sphinx

6:47 PM

1

Q: lightest ball among 8 balls by 2 tries using a balance scales

I have 8 balls and one of them is lighter than others. How could I find that ball by 2 tries? Also I have a balance scales.

no-computers computer-science

Sphinx

7:26 PM

2

Q: What is a Motley Word™?

In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles. If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Motley Word™. Use the following examples below to find the rule. And, if you want to analyze, here is a CSV version: Motley ...

pattern word-property

Sphinx

7:46 PM

0

Q: Find pattern for new equatin in number sequence

I saw this puzzle on this addres https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3332160/find-the-missing-number-357-152181-456-202461-347-122172-945 3+5+7=152181 4+5+6=202461 3+4+7=122172 9+4+5=364518 8+6+8=? I know that first 4 digits are 4864 . How could I find last 2 digits?

number-sequence formation-of-numbers

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