The Sphinx's Lair

Sphinx

00:59

1

Q: My suffix is a common girl's name, My whole is a chocolaty shame

My prefix is small and round in form My suffix is a common girl's name My infix is a way to inform My whole is a chocolaty shame

matt

02:58

@bobble how did no one star this before? <3

Sphinx

05:38

0

Q: What does 459 means?

Ok so a guy texted 459 and then sent his lockscreen with the numbers and the letters below like abc below the no.1 and idk what that means so can anyone help?

riddle

oAlt

@bobble how exactly does one subject not give homework.. HAHAH

from my point of view it's impossible cuz right now all of my subjects give requirements ;_;

Sphinx

08:10

0

Q: Among Us: Fixing Wires

In this game Among Us, there is this task called Fixing Wires. Some important information for this question is in the hyperlink. So, I was thinking, How many ways could be wires be lay out? One way (each array represents a column): [[y, y],[r,r],[p,p],[b,b]]. Another way: [[r, r], [p, p], [b, b...

arithmetic algorithm

jafe

@Avi _cus Tom s_

bobble

15:08

@oAlt the non-homework class is supposed to be "do fun experiments and learn about how science works". Due to the pandemic, it's just "learn about how science works", but they still don't assign homework

Avi

15:30

@jafe yep!

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

@Avi What's the def?

Avi

[They make folks hate travel]

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

Oh, that kind of customs

Avi

as customs can be 1. The taxes 2. The people who take forever to get on with the luggage

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

I was looking for the "traditions" kind of customs

I thought customs meant the immigration/visitors people

you know, what you have to go through when going to another country, even if just for vacation?

Avi

15:33

o could be them as well

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

any ideas on Lukas's NPG puzzle?

Avi

i'm not entirely clear on airport security as my area of expertise is more making random computer programs

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

15

Q: Tubariphobia - The fear of pickles

There are many topics that polarize. But not a single topic comes close to the one and only, age-old question that some claim is the root of all division between people: "Are pickles disgusting or not?" I'm not taking sides at all here. But since I assume you, the reader, is an intelligent and mo...

enigmatic-puzzle story

Avi

No ideas, therefore I upvote

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

clearly the capital X in "sexual" is important

but what about the two punctuation characters he mentioned

Avi

15:36

good idea or bad idea?

bobble

only you can determine if it's worth your rep

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

what she said

Avi

yeah but is it a good idea to put a bounty on it

or has it gotten the attention it deserved

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

Maybe not yet

I don't even have that much rep

because I ran out of puzzle ideas around Memorial Day of last year

all I can do are riddles

also Gareth's comment is the reason this puzzle exists

I just want someone who likes pickles to solve the anti-pickle puzzle

then if mith posts a pro-pickle one, someone from the NPG could solve it

I like pickles, but not as much as you guys hate them

or as much as mith likes them

Avi

I'm neutral - I'd eat a pickle in a sandwich, or alone, but not with ketchup on top

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

15:40

who eats them that way?

Avi

coughs and looks around suspiciously

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

if there's ketchup on a pickle, you'd better be eating a burger or something

Avi

ok that was a joke

but in reality I think it's only been posted for 5 days

if it lasts too much longer then it might not be an intuitive puzzle

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

what, Lukas's?

He gave a starting point

Avi

if it lasts less then it's probably not that challenging

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

15:42

and pointed out that you only need the second quote

Avi

yeah

since the question is still active

it's not worth throwing a bounty atm

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

My only idea is the conspicuous capital X in the word "sexual"

that's definitely part of it

Avi

my only idea is that the - character probably indicates subtracting the right side from the left side

and that the X in seXual might be multiplication

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

but we're looking for an imgur url

then again those numbers have to mean something

also what hyphen? the one after cardinal sin

Avi

yeah

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

15:48

maybe there's something in the initial image

also "larger visible spectrum"

For one time, we operate in a larger visible spectrum, with Pickle in front of everything else. The base range isn't the standard, but it's still standard.

base range

that has to clue what those numbers mean

Sphinx

0

Q: Raindrops revisited

I made a big mistake with my last post, and the puzzle I presented did not have a unique solution...many thanks to Deusovi for pointing it out, and many apologies to Deusovi and any others who spent time on a failed effort. However, I have been able to fix it, and I believe the puzzle below is un...

grid-deduction

Avi

alright, I gotta run though

best of luck

ThePuzzlingPlatypus

I don't know if im going to try

but thank you

Think i'll go too

Sphinx

16:14

1

Q: Riddle me this. Help please

I couldn't find a band of gold as I go to the right of the cross I tracked my vision to the middle Find a crack and some rocks, don't piddle.

riddle

Sphinx

16:39

0

Q: Create the freest arrangement of white chess pieces on board by consequently moving your pieces

You start with this board. You're the White. Freedom Index of initial arrangment of your chess pieces is equal to 20 (each pawn has two moves, each knight has two moves) Your goal is to have as much freedom of movement for your chess pieces as possible, i.e. do your best to get high Freedom Inde...

chess optimization checkerboard

oAlt

16:50

@bobble ah

Sphinx

17:30

0

Q: Prime number puzzle

Here I can formulate a conjecture on prime numbers: Let Un and Vn be two increasing sequences of integers and $Vn> U_n$ which are defined on the pdf sent. http://www.les-mathematiques.net/phorum/file.php?43,file=110458,filename=Savoir_si_un_Nombre_premiers.pdf,download=1 And up and vp the sum of ...

primes

msh210

18:00

@Avi nice one

bobble

On the starboard I can see, I have 3 messages with a total of 6 stars, Gareth has 2 for a total of 20 (20!) stars, and Avi has 1 with 4 stars. So... who's winning?

Sphinx

18:22

1

Q: I am wondering how to solve this number sequence

I am not here to spam. I have been trying to solve this sequence but I cannot. This is from the nse website: https://free.ultimaiq.net/nse.htm 011010, 100010, 100010, 100010, 000010, ?, 100010 I have found the answer by a guess to be: But I have no idea why. Can someone please help me?

number-sequence

Puzzling Meta

19:04

1

Q: Flag immediately accepted?

I just flagged a comment as being "rude or disrespectful," and as soon as I pressed "OK" to flag it, the comment disappeared. When I checked my flags, I saw that it had been marked as "helpful," but this was immediately after I had flagged it. Is there some mechanic that would make it so if enoug...

support flagging

Sphinx

19:38

0

Q: A meaningful sequence of numbers

The following sequence of numbers is related to a famous Conjecture. 17, 188, 94, 47, 518, 259, 37, 408, 204, 102, ? Could you find the next number in the sequence?

number-sequence

Avi

19:51

@msh210 thanks!

Avi

20:02

@bobble Clearly, it's you

2

... or is it?

Apparently, this clues DOUBLE TROUBLE:

Jacket ready for Putin in twice as much hot water? (6, 7)

i have no idea how it works, though :/

msh210

@Avi Jacket = DOUBLET; ready (cash) for Putin = ROUBLE. in = connector, I guess. twice as… = definition.

Sphinx

20:54

0

Q: Infection (Information Disemmination) Puzzle

There are 2020 people in a room. One person has a COVID. After each minute, each person $\mathrm{P}$ is paired with some other person $\mathrm{Q}$ who was never paired with $\mathrm{P}$ before, and coughs to each other. If one of $\mathrm{P}$ and $\mathrm{Q}$ has COVID and other does not, the oth...

mathematics graph-theory algorithm

bobble

@Avi I do have a crown :)

bobble

22:53

I saw the word "preëxisting", with little dotties, in a news article. Is that normal?

Mithical

no

but some people do that for compound words with two vowels next to each other

like noöne

bobble

I write it no-one, after I read it written like that in a book

Mithical

Pretty sure no-one is how Brits generally write it and 'Muricans do no one, but I could be misremembering

bobble

According to Grammarly, "no one" is correct, "no-one" is uncommon, and "noone" is wrong: grammarly.com/blog/no-one-noone

EL&U agrees: english.stackexchange.com/questions/8741/noone-no-one-or-no-one

North Læraðr

23:10

If the degree of q(x)=m and the degree of r(x)=n, what is the degree of p(x) for p(q(x))=r(x) and m<n?

I think that was the question

I put the answer as n/m

bobble

is that p(q(x)) = r(x)?

North Læraðr

yeah

How do you even solve this?

bobble

well, you only care about the highest-degree term

North Læraðr

Yes

Isn't p(q(x))= p(x)^m?

If m is the degree of q(x)

bobble

and disregarding coefficients, you could say that q(x) = x^m, r(x) = x^n, and p(x) = x^(n/m) because plugging q(x) into p(x) would give p(x^m) = (x^m)^n/m = x^n = r(x)

not sure what "p(q(x)) = p(x) ^ m" means

North Læraðr

23:16

Nothing nvm

bobble

to "solve" I guess you could do p(x) = x^a, p(q(x)) = (x^a)^m = r(x) = x^n

x^am = x^n

log both sides

am = n

North Læraðr

So the degree of x is n/m

bobble

a = n/m

yes

North Læraðr

Yessssss

bobble

does all of that make sense?

North Læraðr

23:17

Kind of. Let me process this

I think so

bobble

Since all you care about is degree, you're free to generalize away all of the non-highest-power terms and the coefficients, because they don't change degree

North Læraðr

yea

We only need three more stars on that word creation comment by Gareth and that would make that post the highest starred comment

*In the Sphinx's Lair

bobble

23:35

sockpuppet time! /s

Deusovi

(that answer looks good to me, and bobble's explanation is perfect)

North Læraðr

Is the C4 on the starboard updated?

Deusovi

as for "preëxisting", that use of the diaresis to "unlink" two vowels in a row is generally considered very old-fashioned. the New Yorker uses it specifically like that, but as far as I know it's not very common anywhere else

jafe solved the CCCC, but hasn't made a new one yet

North Læraðr

I know in French the umlaut is used to denote that the vowel over the umlaut is pronounced

Basically what you said

Well, I guess it's not an umlaut

just the dots

bobble

It was actually from a New Yorker article. Well, a Washington Post article that was quoting a New Yorker article, but - same difference.

North Læraðr

23:48

@bobble Why does that seem ironic for absolutely no reason?

merrybot

@NorthLæraðr officially called a diaeresis "dee-AIR-a-sis"

if you want to be language-neutral; it's only called an umlaut in German

North Læraðr

@merrybot And Hungarian, apparently

bobble

I just call them dotties

2

merrybot

well ok bobble

bobble

very language-neutral

North Læraðr

23:51

I think it's the most language-neutral

merrybot

h-how exactly?

North Læraðr

It just is

merrybot

fine, fine. on the subject of linguistics, google has removed the "pear programming" and doctor who memes.

Deusovi

@merrybot apparently "umlaut" is meant to be specifically for the symbol when it indicates the phonetic process of "umlaut" (where a certain vowel in a word shifts to be closer to a later vowel)

merrybot

from the "tubariphobia" search

Deusovi

23:52

and "diaresis" and "trema" are the technical names for the actual symbol

merrybot

@Deusovi interesting

North Læraðr

Huh

merrybot

@Deusovi "trema" sounds way easier to pronounce might start using that tbh

Deusovi

I've heard "umlaut" for the mark often enough though

North Læraðr

I think dotties should be the official name

merrybot

23:53

@Deusovi whoever does that should really go in r/confidentlyincorrect

North Læraðr

What is up with the US

merrybot

@NorthLæraðr n- no.

Deusovi

@merrybot not sure why? it's perfectly fine, in common usage, and I wouldn't think twice about hearing that

maybe in a technical discussion the distinction is necessary but otherwise, eh who cares

merrybot

@NorthLæraðr well um Trump got covid but this isn't a politics chat room, now, it it?

Deusovi

@NorthLæraðr always a very good question

North Læraðr

23:54

@merrybot I'm not trying to make anything political, I'm just saying HOO I'm worried about this country

Deusovi

anyway, personally I just say ¨ out loud when I need to describe the symbol

much easier

merrybot

@Deusovi i like my diacritics to be named according to international standard

North Læraðr

And my mom wonders why I'm looking into international colleges

merrybot

@NorthLæraðr aren't we all

@NorthLæraðr um

North Læraðr

@merrybot So you say all the clickity-clicks and the swirly-swirls?

And the squiggly-squigs?

merrybot

23:56

what exactly does that mean?

bobble

Sep 29 at 21:02, by Mithical

ah yes, I too pronounce things squiggle squiggle squiggle

and with that I make my exit. whooshing noise

merrybot

@NorthLæraðr when referring to the symbols themselves yes, but when i know the source language i pronounce them as defined by the language in question

@bobble yes

North Læraðr

@merrybot And you're telling me you hate Spanish? XD

Geez linguist

merrybot

ok fine but at least i know that cumpleaños isn't read as "come plea nose"

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