The Sphinx's Lair

2:50 AM

0

Credit: Brandon X. Once you enter the door labeled “3”, the door immediately shuts behind you. You are immediately in a room of darkness. The intercom picks up again: “Congratulations on getting into the next chamber, whether by chance or by skill. You have proceeded to the next challenge that a...

Sphinx

4:12 AM

0

Q: 5x5 Rubiks Cube edge algorithm

I'm following the tutorial on Ruwix, and either they're making a mistake or I am. When solving the edges they give the image: This is my first attempt at a 5x5 and this step confused me for a long time, as it kept messing up my solved edges. I finally realised that the edge they have marked p...

rubiks-cube

Alconja

4:38 AM

Based on msh's comments, I'm guessing the C4 is musical in nature. In which case, Forced could refer to some variation of (s)forza[nd|t]o => SF/FZ/SFZ. From there, I guess you could get to FizZ or SiFt as shake, but it doesn't look great... (another alternative is that shake => trill => TR)

jafe

7:56 AM

maybe F(A)Z+_E?

forced = FZ as per alconja, "with A", and _E is the lance's tip

to faze someone is to (emotionally) shake them

@msh210 ^

Sphinx

9:11 AM

1

Q: Geisterbahn 2.0

This puzzle was inspired by the ruleset of Round 3 of the German Logic Masters 2019: Geisterbahn 2.0 Place the numbers 2 or 3 in some cells such that all the numbers are connected orthogonally, no two identical numbers are diagonally touching and if it exists, the small number in the top left of...

grid-deduction

msh210

11:19 AM

@jafe yes indeed!

(and @Alconja was right about one intended hint, with other being that that (initial) end of "lance" was the wrong one to look at)

Sphinx

11:51 AM

0

Q: Vacation duration puzzle

I was faced with the problem, that I don't think has a solution. Whether someone can confirm my guesses or prove otherwise. Following problem : Joe and Tony take a vacation at Summer camp. During the vacation, they both either played tennis in the evening or practiced Yoga in the morning, ensur...

logical-deduction

jafe

cool

took me a while to notice the sneaky "a" there

Omega Krypton

@jafe hello ;)

@jafe congrats!

jafe

CCCC: Prime example of president leading former kingdom (7)

hi @OmegaKrypton

Sphinx

12:11 PM

3

Q: Piece de Resistance - Seven Images Are Worth Digits

Seven Images Are Worth Digits This puzzle is part of the "Piece de Resistance" series. Go back to Part 1 (Ace) for the story.Ace Two Three Four Five Six Seven ... Another colourful piece of work, this time on a white background, a bit more stretchy...

word enigmatic-puzzle visual rebus

msh210

@jafe sneaky? it was right in the open! :-D

msh210

12:42 PM

@jafe prime example = p(=of president, leading [letter]) + aragon(=former kingdom)

jafe

1:01 PM

@msh210 that's correct!

msh210

@jafe woohoo!

CCCC: The immigration department is where I work remotely (4,6)

jafe

not (4,6)?

msh210

@jafe yes, 4,6, sorry! I'll edit.

. . . which I assume means you know the solution

jafe

1:21 PM

yeah but i have nothing prepared and need to go, so i'll leave it to someone else :)

Gareth McCaughan

1:43 PM

I also have nothing prepared but I've seldom let that stop me in the past. HOME OFFICE, double definition.

Sphinx

1

Q: Awesomism and its awesome gods

Recently, I dived into a nice religion of Awesomism. It is pantheic, with a lot of difficult relations between gods. Twelve gods of Awesomism are split between four pantheons: Gods of cunning: Liar, Disdain, Deceitralic Gods of sun: Pyros, Solar, Taehwasi Gods of life: Icyayou, Leevah, Stummo...

logical-deduction enigmatic-puzzle humor

Gareth McCaughan

I'll do something a little unconventional with the CCCC: I have a pair of clues which, at least as far as surface reading goes, belong together. (This sort of thing is fairly common in e.g. newspaper cryptics. Usually there is no connection between the clues other than the surface reading. I make no comment on whether that's true here.) They're both fairly easy, so you need to solve both :-).

CCCC: When removing hundreds from realm of talking lion ... (5) / ... distress of talking trees is an inevitable consequence (10)

Incidentally, if this is considered improper and the Will of the People is that I not do it again, I will of course obey the Will of the People.

Basicpract

2:07 PM

CCCC: the clue was "Cross seen in clear light" and the answer NETTLED; but I have no clue how the world-play works. "TTL" is an abbreviation for a camera term (through-the-lens), but still not clear what is going on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sphinx

2

Q: What is a Companion Score™?

This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with Score version puzzles. If a word could be calculated score with a specific metric, I call the score as a Companion Score™. Use the following examples below to find the metric. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around t...

pattern word-property

msh210

@GarethMcCaughan yes, of course

Sphinx

2:30 PM

3

Q: Improbable Inequalities

I'm making a work decision, and in my as I weigh the digits {0-9} as they pertain to this particular situation, I find: In one case, this is true: 1 < 7 < 4 < {2=3=5} < {0=6=9} < 8 In another, similar case, this is true: 1 < 7 < 4 < 3 < {2=5=6=9} < {0=8} What speci...

knowledge lateral-thinking

3

Q: What is an Unlucky 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 an Unlucky Word™. Use the examples below to find the rule. $$ % set Title text. (spaces around the text ARE important; ...

pattern word-property

North

3:08 PM

hi

Mithrandir

👀

Deusovi

@Basicpract no need to call this a CCCC -- that's a specific game we play in this chat where there's always one "active" clue, and whoever solves the "active' clue sets the next one

but "clear" apparently means "clear [profit]", a synonym for "net[ted] [profit]". so it's "seen in clear[,] light" --> "seen in NETTED, L" -> NETTLED, with def "cross"

Sphinx

0

Q: Starring Samurais - Several Scribbled Short Stories

Flipping through my notebook, I found several stories I scribbled. What do they mean? First one Samurai nagging, "Elixir agent, typewriter iamb, ultraviolet emitters..." Second one Grenadier always shoots Evenki @Zulu range. Third one Woo reedbuck in Gandhi opposition. ...

word wordplay enigmatic-puzzle anagram acrostic

North

3:20 PM

how stuff people

Deusovi

stuff good

making thing

North

dat good too here

Deusovi

how your stuff?

North

my stuff meh

making meh

I'm in marching band so kinda stressed bc we have a parade in two weeks

Also school started in like early August so pretty busy

Deusovi

Yeah, I haven't been too busy with my classes so far but it's only been a few weeks - hopefully the workload doesn't get too severe

North

3:29 PM

You're a senior right?

(Casually makes said statement vague)

Deusovi

Yep, last year of college (university). A bit nervous about what I'm going to do after this

North

oof

I mean, you're an amazingly smart individual

So you should be fine, whatever you put your mind to

Adam

For all we know Deusovi is a secret agent, currently infiltrating the bad guy's base

North

Maybe you could go into like game designing?

Actually yeah, that's more accurate @Adam

Deusovi

Thanks! I'm thinking about going into teaching or tutoring? Not sure, but I do enjoy figuring out the best way to explain concepts to people (especially in math)

@Adam ~~i am legally not allowed to comment on this statement~~

Adam

3:34 PM

̶r̶e̶d̶a̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶t̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶

North

~~Deusovi you can help me next year when I'm dying in Pre-calc then~~

Deusovi

(sure! I'd be happy to)

North

gotta get through trig lol

I love physics but I hate math. I'm not sure why. And the thing is, I don't mind math in physics

Deusovi

ah, trig isn't that bad, just a lot to memorize a lot of the time. if you understand what sine and cosine actually mean, you'll be fine (and you can derive all the identities from scratch if you're comfortable with complex exponentiation)

North

Well it's trig and Algebra 2, algebra isn't bad

I just didn't like geometry

Deusovi

3:42 PM

I remember my geometry class being pretty bad, yeah - the "two-column proof" format is really annoying, especially as someone who now knows what actual proofs are like

North

I like proofs but two column doesn’t seem like proofing

Adam

(from a British education) Sometimes maths sucks because you get told the "what" and not the "why". The "why" for the year clicks during the next year. I think that is a very big problem because I've found that maths is easier to learn etc. when you know the "why"

Deusovi

It's definitely not reflective of what any proofs done either in higher math classes or by actual mathematicians are like

And yeah, that's a huge problem in the US too

I had a friend I was helping out say "isn't math class about rote memorization, though? learning the steps to complete a problem and when to use them"

and it hurt so much to read that

Adam

@Deusovi my teachers said that many times and I died inside

Deusovi

Yeah, that attitude is so painful to see - it's like the curiosity has been beaten out of them

Adam

3:54 PM

tbh I think my maths teachers were really annoyed at me since I didn't do any of that and got good results. Proof that understanding is more powerful than memorization

North

Maybe that's why I like physics

It explains stuff

Most of my past math teahers just gave me stuff to memorize

Though this year my teacher cares more about understanding than memoriziing so he always throws trick questions to get us to think

Deusovi

yeah - one of my favorite memories of high school math was actually not in my math class, but in physics. I forgot the formula for the surface area of a sphere during an exam, so I re-derived it by finding the volume of a semicircle revolved around an axis, and then differentiating by the radius

North

I can't wait to take AP Physics next year

Adam

I had the time of my life in my last physics exam because I made a joke the whole year about the "Hall Effect" aka the thing no one understood in my class, everyone forgot about and it wasn't even apart of the curriculum. A disguised question about it randomly came up as a question

To be honest, Scottish physics education consists of nonstop memes

Gareth McCaughan

@North Lots of mathematicians around here, so you can probably get useful help even if Deusovi isn't available.

North

4:09 PM

thx @GarethMcCaughan

Gareth McCaughan

I agree that the Right Way (tm) to think about most trig things is in terms of complex exponentials. The other Right Way (tm) to do a lot of 'em is in terms of the half-angle formulae, which basically turn everything into polynomials.

One thing that's sad about how trig is approached in schools is that (true to the etymology of the name) it's all in terms of triangles. It's too bad they aren't called cyclometric functions instead of trigonometric, because e.g. the right definition of cos and sin is that the point at angle t on the unit circle is (cos t, sin t).

Deusovi

ooh, "cyclometric" - I like that a lot better

Gareth McCaughan

@Deusovi If you're going to find the area of a sphere by integrating, it's much easier to do it more directly. A "strip" at angle t (measured from the radius to the south pole) is at distance r sin t from the axis, so its area is 2 pi r sin t . r dt, so integrate from 0 to pi to get 4 pi r^2.

(But if you happen to have done a lot of volume-of-revolution stuff, as one does at the end of high school, it's eminently sensible to use what you can do most fluently.)

Deusovi

4:38 PM

Yeah, that's definitely an easier method. But as you said, we had studied volume-of-revolution stuff (and not studied surface area), and I was under time pressure. And hey, it worked, so I'm not complaining.

Gareth McCaughan

allegedly Einstein once gave a lecture in which he presented some straightforward but laborious way of proving or calculating something and said "This has been done more elegantly by Minkowski, but chalk is cheaper than grey matter".

incidentally, the way to avoid forgetting the surface area of a sphere is to remember Archimedes's amazing discovery: it's the same as the (curved) surface area of the cylinder the sphere is inscribed in.

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