The Sphinx's Lair

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Rubio

1:45 AM

@OmegaKrypton (the new one was already posted)

Sphinx

2:07 AM

Q: Placing three sets of cards A to 9 in a row

From an ordinary deck of playing cards remove cards ace to nine of any three suits (27 cards in all), and place them in a row so that between any 2 consecutive aces there is precisely 1 card, between any 2 consecutive twos there are 2 cards, and so on, up to 9 cards between any two consecutive ni...

1 hour later…

Sphinx

3:28 AM

Q: Finding the hardest 5x5 grid for a blindfolded robot to solve

This puzzle is based on the framework described here: Controlling a robot blindfolded on a 9x9 grid Here is a quick summary. A robot is located somewhere on a grid, but you cannot see it. You can send commands to the robot to make it move one cell left, right, up or down. Some cells can be walls...

mathematics combinatorics

1 hour later…

Omega Krypton

4:50 AM

@Rubio oh yeah lol

5 hours later…

Sphinx

10:17 AM

Q: Perambulating ants 2

The ants from this puzzle have been placed into a new arena: a cross-shaped hallway with a pillar (black square) in the centre and four statues (numbered 1-4) set symmetrically. The ants, like last time, start off by trying to move East. If they encounter a boundary, the central pillar, a stat...

logical-deduction

jafe

10:32 AM

starting to think that "song from the king" as the def is a dead end

went through wikipedia's list of songs recorded by elvis... only six have 8 letters and none fit the hint given in the other room

("Britches", "Clambake", "Crawfish", "Memories", "Snowbird" and "Speedway")

msh210

11:14 AM

Yeah, I did the same research. :-)

And then I Googled for songs sung by Jesus, and apparently Mark and Matthew say he sang but don't say what he sang, and some Web page suggests certain psalms he would've sung, but that seems too far a stretch and anyway I don't know what word it would clue.

M Oehm

11:32 AM

I've followed the same dead end and I've now looked at the hint in OK's home.

jafe

there's of course BB king but i'm not sure if he's commonly called "the" king

M Oehm

THRENODE is another spelling of threnody, which is a song of lament that has a king (R = rex) in THE and then NODE, a reversal of EDO castle and N (endless (du)N(es))? If so, I think the reversal is a bit off.

jafe

surely endless doesn't mean "just the middle"? i think it's supposed to be either remove last letter or both the first and last

M Oehm

Yes, that's taking away too much. It's a stretch, I know.

The only useful synonym for dunes I can think of is "sand".

msh210

12:07 PM

@MOehm I dunno what you mean by "off". "About" can mean "reversed" (as in "about face"), but then the components are out of order: should be "endless dunes castle about", if you will. (Plus, as already mentioned, it uses "endless" for grabbing the middle letter of a five-letter word.)

@MOehm hills, desert, and their synonyms...

M Oehm

12:19 PM

I mean that if it is really NODE = (EDO + N)<, then the reversal indicator "about" is in the middle, which doesn't feel quite right. And I find those synonyms very loose, especially since the dunes don't have any relation to the rest of the surface.

But as I said, It's a stretch. I do like the "King in the" part, though.

(Perhaps I ike it so much that I try to make rest of the solution fit, no matter what.)

Sphinx

1:20 PM

Q: Replace "?" in a squence of numbers

Replace the "?" in the following sequence:$ $ 2 7 10 13 14 22 26 27 28 31 49 53 54 57 78 79 ? 90 101 106 109 110 111

knowledge number-sequence

Rubio

1:37 PM

I’ve made a small CCCC edit I fear is needed for fairness; sorry.

And a hint: the first letter is T.

Avi

2:19 PM

He's about to get a kiss (3) = REX?

I know kiss is "X" but not sure how the rest resolves

maybe a bad clue

personally, I'd say: Headless dinosaur king (3)

hexomino

"about" is sometimes used to clue "re" (regarding), see the second entry for "re" here: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/re

M Oehm

And "he" just refers to a man's name.

Deusovi

@Avi I wouldn't, because the "rex" in "T. Rex" literally means "king"

(but yes, this uses both "about" = RE, and "he" = [the answer is a man's name]"; I'm not a fan of the latter)

M Oehm

Neither am I.

Sphinx

2:42 PM

Q: Mostly One Way Travel : Says Grandpa

"You know these tiny travelers?" say Grandpa "Billions of them! Born to travel. They have travelled to all continents, nations, and towns." "But they always need help, a chaperone so to speak. And, it is almost always a one way ticket for them." Grandpa said. "They love their co...

riddle knowledge

Avi

2:56 PM

@Deusovi oh, that's unfortunate :(

Sphinx

Q: Two cards which product is not a square

There are 100 cards on a table numbered 1,2,...,100. What is the maximum number of cards, which can be selected such that no two cards have a product, which is a perfect square? Example: you cannot choose the cards with number 27 and 48, as $27*48=81*16=36^2$

mathematics calculation-puzzle

1 hour later…

Sphinx

4:03 PM

-2

Q: What number should replace the question mark?

Please reply with the answer. Thank you very much!

logical-deduction

Thomas Markov

4:52 PM

I added a hint to my cipher puzzle.

Gareth McCaughan

5:17 PM

Integral, eh?

3 hours later…

Sphinx

7:48 PM

-1

Q: A Bored Jailer and His Number Game

A bored jailer tells a prisoner that if he can guess a secret number he will be set free. The rules are given that the number will not be more than three digits in length and the prisoner may guess the number as many times as necessary, as long as his guesses meet the following requirements each ...

strategy

2 hours later…

Avi

9:58 PM

Ragamuffin's rag: "perhaps the Devil ate the greatest boxer" (14)

jafe

10:16 PM

TATTER+DEM(ALI)ON

Sphinx

11:15 PM

Q: What comes next in this sequence, and why?

I'm having the hardest time with this sequence puzzle. The mobile game I play (which asked me the question) doesn't provide answers or explanations for incorrect answers, and I'm searching online so I can better understand it. What comes next in this numeric sequence: 5, 13, 7.5, 9.5, 10, 6, 12...