The Sphinx's Lair

12:30 AM

nooooo

i keep reaching this contradiction in @msh210 's nonogram

and i-- ugh it's tiring to backtrack

What is a nonogram? I've never solved one before

it's also known as "picross"

you might know it under that name

Ahhhh, yup

another grid deduction genre/puzzle

ye

Bubbler

Nonogram = Picross = Griddlers

12:34 AM

also that

Bubbler

I think Conceptis calls it Pic-A-Pix

I'm familiar with it as Picross, never heard it called a nonogram before. The more you know :D

it has at least a dozen names

hahah

The Puzzle of Many Names

1:00 AM

I hath returned

1:42 AM

I found a typo in a scientific study I'm reading... do I earn a prize?

a bobblecrown-shaped medal?

hmm. @Sciborg, Doodle Request: a bobblecrown-shaped medal, possibly on a bobblie or other being.

@bobble usually if you mail the authors pointing it out you'd earn their gratitude

unless it's really trivial

the typo is an extra "r" in "corals", turning it into "corrals"

...yeah that's probably not worth bothering to mail

but you get to keep the extra R

collect enough of them and you can redeem those for actual words

1:47 AM

hah

MathJax used to make a list

... I'm not going to edit again, because Edit Wars Are Bad, but also don't use MathJax to make lists

oh they reverted your previous edit before...

and yes true to both statements

should I leave a comment, you think?

uhhh

yeah

Q: Find the next term of $\frac14,1,\frac94,2+\frac2{\sqrt{3}}, \frac{5}{2} + \frac{5}{2 \sqrt{2}}, 3 + 3 \sqrt{\frac{1}{10} (5 + \sqrt{5})}$

2:01 AM

1

You are given the sequence: $$\frac{1}{4}, 1, \frac{9}{4}, 2 + \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}, \frac{5}{2} + \frac{5}{2 \sqrt{2}}, 3 + 3 \sqrt{\frac{1}{10} (5 + \sqrt{5})}$$ Transcription: one fourth, then one, then nine fourths, then two plus the fraction two over the square root of three, then five halves ...

^ see text transcription I made. Did I leave any ambiguity, or make any mistakes?

(It's intended for screen readers that can't parse the MathJax)

it looks unambiguous and correct to me.

looks good to me too

(minor nitpick: is "sum of [x] plus [y]" correct? I'd say "sum of [x] and [y]" or just '[x] plus [y[")

"plus" is kinda redundant in the first-- yeah i'd use either of the latter two

2:32 AM

@bobble I've double-checked and it looks like my C4 is clear

that is good

I edited it to be "sum of [x] and [y]". It's nice to be able to fix stuff!

it sure is :)

@Sphinx I think I see a pattern, but it fails rather spectacularly for the first two terms

2:52 AM

can someone draw me a four dimensional bear

I am the 18th more prolific editor, of all time on Puzzling. That is unexpected.

indeed

meanwhile i am contemplating four-dimensional bears

3:05 AM

@bobble nice!

plus, I'm going to pass Gareth soon (he's 5 edits ahead)!

probably will never catch Rand, though - he has 1970 edits to my paltry 172

huh, wonder how many I have

...31

It says 53 for me?

12-edit gang

make sure you're looking under "all"

3:09 AM

um on my front page and badge progress tracker it says 31

that is...weird

it says this under Users -> Editors -> all

... huh, mine says 127 there

I am confused now

Maybe "posts edited" means that if you edit the same post multiple times it counts once, and the plain "edits" means that if you edit the same post multiple times it counts each time.

3:15 AM

ah, possible

btw anko since you're here

hm?

Q: I never knew my words could speak!

i ~~stalked you~~ looked at your earlier puzzles and i think i found my favorite so far

36

This is an entry to the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #25: wordplay. "These words! – they come falling free; / speech: daft here, deft there..." — Emrakul You know, I've kept some words. Words that work for me. No no, they aren't really my slaves; more like, my pets. They never said they don...

word wordplay enigmatic-puzzle

yes, that's my favorite too

(among mine)

yeahhh

3:17 AM

(maybe don't look at really early ones, they are mostly trashy)

hahah

What's your lowest-voted puzzle? Mine is a crossword that had very little crossing in far too many areas. (sitting at +4 as of now)

back in the day I posted a lateral-thinking number-formation "puzzle"

you can probably guess how that went

not good

...yeah, not good

3:21 AM

May 21 at 8:50, by oAlt

cuz i posted a cryptic clue puzzle ~9 months ago, asked for feedback, and turned out there were rules i broke in making the clues :P

the puzzle in question has net score +2

your lowest voted puzzle has non-negative score? pfft, amateur

heh

... let's not speak of lowest-voted answers.

(oh but it's tied with another one, although i think that one was way better than dysfunctional cryptic clues)

indeed

and belated hi @Avi

3:58 AM

@bobble You're like me in Lit SE

... you mean Lit?

@bobble Oh so each edit stuff is a bit weird depending on where you look

The edit count on the profile page doesn't count tag edits, I don't believe

It also doesn't count self-edits

The one on the user page counts tag edits though. I'm not a hundred percent sure on self edits, but I don't think so

It doesn't, I can confirm that

Okay

By the way, fun fact: if you go puzzling.stackexchange.com/reputation you can see a bunch of stuff about your reputation, including those earned from edits

Tsundoku hit the max cap at 1000

I got 10 from suggested edits

4:02 AM

I've earned 588 in Lit

Also, I know I have tag wikis to do, I'll get to them tomorrow, I need to sleep

22 in Lit for me

Good night!

(Have school tomorrow)

me too :)

same here

g'night! :)

Q: The tip of a colorful triangle

0

(Inspired by a problem I found on the Internet. I will reveal the source after the puzzle is solved.) You're given a bunch of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) balls. I arrange some balls on a line. Then I ask you to complete the triangle of balls under the following simple rules, and tell me the...

mathematics no-computers combinatorics

4:10 AM

night

gnight :)

logical-deduction grid-deduction

5:23 AM

0

Q: Four Cells: No Threes!

Four Cells is an area dividing puzzle. You may see an introduction to this puzzle here: Four Cells: An Introduction Rules of Four Cells: The grid is to be divided along the grid lines into areas containing exactly four cells. A number in a cell indicates how many of its four sides are segments...

@Sphinx argh, not enough time to solve + post solution

5:46 AM

I have another Pentikabe solution that reuses a pentomino. I've actually made 4 unique ones like that so far.

I guess at least I know I'm using the right size of board?

Q: Find the next two numbers in the sequence

9:09 AM

0

I found a number sequence puzzle that goes like this: Find the next number in the sequence: $1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, ?, ?$ Despite trying my best, I did not come to any conclusion. The only pattern that I managed to find was that the numbers in the sequence went something like this: odd, eve...

number-sequence

9:34 AM

0

Q: A magical thing?

I come in colours, I fall like raindrops. I will vanish if I am too many. Climb to the top and you will die. Who am I?

riddle

Q: Move 2 matchsticks to make the equation correct, and give 3 ways to do so

10:50 AM

0

I am trying to solve the following matchsticks puzzle: Move two matches to make the following correct: You also have to give 3 ways to do so. Despite trying my best to solve this, I wasn't able to give 3 ways to do so. I could only think of one. Can someone please help me? Thank you.

matches

11:08 AM

i saw some very-recently-made puzzles that became HNQ's. I cannot remember all of them but one of them was msh210's nonogram :D

ah, right now I'm seeing Stiv's Targui puzzle too

Q: Two sequences with more than one logic

2:11 PM

1

Find the missing terms in the sequences below $5, 7, 11, 15,...? $ $A)23\\ B)28\\ C)25\\ D)19\\\\$ $10,11,19,23, ?, 41... $ $A)24\\ B)38\\ C)31\\ D)37\\ $ Interestingly, the exercise presents alternatives. I believe that to force the identification of a specific logic. The first sequence appears ...

number-sequence sequence

Bubbler

2:32 PM

I'm tempted to define "crappy number sequence questions from other sources" as off-topic

or at least dupes of each other, since my response would be the same for all of them: "it's inherently ambiguous, throw it into fire"

and crappy IQ questions too

i wouldn't be opposed to that - if you can give a slightly more detailed categorization than "bad" i'd say go ahead and make a meta post with a proposal

2:49 PM

Do you think it's worth making a making-of answer for my nonogram? Not that it's a particularly complicated or clever puzzle -- I'd be writing it more to explain the incongruity of what appears to be a complicated puzzle (a nonogram followed by something else!) on the one hand and a very simple [something else] on the other.

Y'know what -- I'll just vent here instead of posting about it on the site. I'll even link to it in a comment on the question. Here goes:

up to you!

V unq gur vqrn bs znxvat n DE ababtenz (zl bja bevtvany vqrn, V guvax, gubhtu V frr abj, nsgre gur snpg, gung bguref unir qbar vg orsber) ohg qvqa'g xabj jung gur pbqr fubhyq yrnq gb. N cvpgher be zrffntr fnlvat "jryy qbar!" frrzrq n yvggyr jrnx. N chmmyr frrzrq gbb unefu: lbh gubhtug lbh jrer whfg tbvat gb qb bar chmmyr naq abj lbh unir gb qb gjb?

Fb V qrpvqrq ba n irel fvzcyr chmmyr, fb vg jbhyq freir zber nf n cevmr ("V tbg n fvzcyr chmmyr gb qb") guna nf n uheqyr gung zvtug naabl crbcyr. V perngrq gur pbaarpg jnyy naq hcybnqrq vg hfvat FR'f hcybnqre naq tbg n ybat HEY gung znqr sbe n ynetr DE pbqr; nygubhtu V gevrq guvf n srj gvzrf, V pbhyq abg trg n pbqr jubfr ababtenz pyhrf jbhyq pyhr vg hanzovthbhfyl. Fb V qrpvqrq gb hcybnq gb Vzthe qverpgyl (abg guebhtu FR) naq trg n fubegre HEY gung jnl.

Svanyyl V tbg n HEY gung jnf hanzovthbhfyl pyhrq -- nyzbfg. V fnvq, gur urpx jvgu vg, V'z tbvat jvgu vg nygubhtu vg'f n ab-ab, ohg url V pna hfr gung cha. (V qvq purpx gung gur bgure cbffvoyr fbyhgvba jnf abg n inyvq DE pbqr.)

3:04 PM

Good morning!

@PrinceNorthLæraðr looks outside What a dark morning. Must be very early yet.

morning!

@msh210 Hehe

@PrinceNorthLæraðr um, I mean -- Good morning to you!

It's 7:05 am, so I guess it's very, very late midnight :)

Hmm, 8 hours until the C4 hint

3:08 PM

Indeed timezones are fascinating

Indeed

@oAlt They're relatively new. As I understand, they were necessitated by the popularity of the train. Until then, no one really cared whether the clocks in city A and the clocks in city B showed the same time, so there were no time zones as we know them.

Yeah I think I remember that a bit

John Dvorak

Now imagine you'd have to convert between Earth time and Mars time

Geez

C4 Hint #1: "The" is mostly extraneous, and was added aid in the surface reading

3:20 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr That was a quick 8 hours. Did you travel a third of the way around the world very recently?

Actually, I did

For real though, I guess I tend to give C4 hints when I wake up, rather than the full 24 hours

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Was that in reply to chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/14524?m=56163380#56163380 perchance?

In that case, I guess "(the) auditor" is the definition.

(I'm not expecting an answer.)

Welcome to my candy storeeeee

@bobble C4 hint ;)

hehe you took my idea

Yuuuuup

3:30 PM

I think you're missing a word in your hint: "was added to aid in"

I was just wondering whether that was on purpose.

Guess not.

9-letter synonyms for auditor, according to wordhippo.com, none of which do I see wordplay for: appraiser assistant collector detective earwigger evaluator examinant financial informant inquistor inspector ombudsman operative paymaster penpusher receiving registrar scrivener secretary treasurer (I may've missed some.)

3:41 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Læraðr's Candy Store does have a bit of a ring to it

Indeed

logical-deduction grid-deduction minesweeper

2

Q: An altered MineSweeper

I've been searching for an old project I did in college about a computer program to create and solve a special variation of the popular game MineSweeper where, instead of always one, you could have multiple bombs on the same cell and all the numbered cells are displayed at the very beginning of t...

4:11 PM

Doot doot doot

?

I don't know :P

I'm bored

I'm in math

Dear goodness, I wish I had a math class

???

Hmph

I wish I didn't have to take math

Math is fun! Especially the homework

(yes, I am being serious here. I like math homework)

4:13 PM

Bobble, I like you, but you're weird

I'm going to make sure I never have to take math classes in college

Just this year and one more year :(....

For what it's worth, I never found high school math very fun

I am basically taking AP Calc AB, though, given that I'm tutoring several people in it. With one person, the sessions go longer than the actual class, and I end up essentially re-teaching all the material.

But teaching is fun, yes

Well, I'm thinking about taking Calc BC next year, because it gives me 8 credits for a college I'm planning to apply to

For either of my major, I only need 3 credits for math

I can tutor you :D

4:15 PM

Sure :D

Q: Progressive matrix - unshaded and shaded triangles on either side of a diagonal

-1

Which of the choices is the answer, and why?

pattern visual progressive-matrix

@bobble agreed

Weren't you complaining about factoring?

@PrinceNorthLæraðr *doot skeleton appears*

@PrinceNorthLæraðr "complaining"? i- hold on

nvm, too late to edit

@PrinceNorthLæraðr ok fine, i like math homework most of the time

surreeeee

I honestly shouldn't be in this chatroom. I'm such a not-made-for-stem-kid

4:25 PM

This isn't a made-for-stem chatroom

So I think you're good

Yeah, but most everyone here is a math geek :(

Or does something cool STEM related

well, North, if you ever need help with anything, you've got your Grove
:)

@PrinceNorthLæraðr this room is for people who like puzzles, not people who like STEM

True, but people who seem to like puzzles seem to like STEM

that's sometimes true but definitely not always

it's certainly not a requirement that you like STEM to like puzzles

4:38 PM

and of course, correlation does not imply causation (although it can sometimes)

(but only sometimes)

Oh also @Deus since you're here, Obra Dinn was incredible

it's so good

i've been looking for something else to scratch that itch - paradise killer was alright but not really the same

And it proves you can make quality detective puzzles without stupid minigames or hilarous multiple choice questions

oh absolutely

5:04 PM

econ teacher as he starts a tangent: "I know, guys, we're going off a little bit, but it's okay"

oh, you know that means you're in for a half-hour diversion

"okay, guys, why are the old people angry?"

John Dvorak

in before "I know we didn't get to what's actually in the curriculum, but it's still in tomorrow's exam. Pages 59-64 in my textbook"

reminds me of mathprofessorquotes.com, which has some great stuff

> “At least the order of magnitude of the order of magnitude is correct.”

> “The graph looks just like a Pringle. After class you should buy some Pringles. Observe it then eat it to understand.”

ah yes, math flavored pringles

Q: Explain this pattern of water spots in a parking space

5:33 PM

0

Today, I found this pattern of water spots in a parking space. Other parking spaces with cars in them also had similar patterns of water spots. What caused this pattern, and why are there more water spots on the right side of the photo than on the left side? It can all be explained by normal proc...

visual situation real

Unravel - Tokyo Ghoul OP [Piano]

6:27 PM

►

So I don't watch anime, but that's some pretty sick piano skills

Mithical

does A:TLA count as anime?

Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Mithical

yeah

Idk, don't ask me

Avi

7:02 PM

probably not

it's very similar in style but I'd classify it as a cartoon

7:28 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Solution to your CCCC is CONS + TRICT (homophone of TRICKED) meaning "contract". I think you're missing a preposition before the auditor.

@GarethMcCaughan Correct! A preposition?

What do you mean?

I mean you need something like "to the auditor" or "for the auditor".

Ohhh. My bad

Did you like the surface?

Yup.

Yay!

Q: Does any one know how to solve this math puzzle?

7:39 PM

-1

I came across this math puzzle today and I am completely stuck on it does anyone have an idea on how to solve it? Source: https://pin.it/53s8DNO

mathematics pattern

@GarethMcCaughan I wasn't sure if TRICKED---> TRICT was valid, because I thought that the homophone had to be a real word

Nah, that's fine (at least it doesn't bother me at all)

Hm, I'm not sure what preposition would've worked for this situation

"before"?

I would have to change "duped" to something else, probably

Can I just complain about regular "quick" crosswords?

They're so vague sometimes

sure

Like "Words in Newton's First Law", and is 6 letters long

It could be OBJECT, MOTION, or UNLESS rolls eyes

Or what is Core (4) supposed to be?

7:52 PM

I've made some "regular" crosswords were you don't get enumerations... hehe

point in case

I mean, they are kind of fun still, but sometimes its just so vague. That's what I appreciate about CCs. It could be sketchy, but I don't know

Everything is within the clue

I've been meaning to tackle that sometime

Really? That's cool! :D

Yeah. Haven't had time to look at it though

The CCs that you get at the end have sketchy surfaces, but their wordplay is perfectly fair. It's just that it was difficult to get a proper surface and wordplay and make it work in the grid.

@PrinceNorthLæraðr the whole point is that crosses disambiguate

they're intended to have somewhat ambiguous clues at times

7:56 PM

Yeah. Don't really like that much though

CCCC: Very stable genius in former communist state's on vacation (10)

do I sense a political reference?

Former communist state USSR?

US___SR is what I'm thinking

U(EINSTEIN)S, obviously

:P

wow, you got it very quickly

US is actually a former communist state, little known fact

7:59 PM

depends what part you're talking about

The entire US is a former state of communism

:-)

US({genius})SR+{vacation} is my thinking for the parsing

"Very stable" being the definition

Definition could also be "on vacation" though

wait "state's on vacation"? Hm

oh state is

Oh, actually, USSR might be kind of awkward. Don't know very many words that end in _SR

a quick search brings up mostly acronyms

Voldemort's Wrath

I just reached my vote limit and I have one vote left before I get the electorate badge

grrrr

Maybe it's soviet union? SU?

Seems unlikely

Russia? RU?

R___U? seems also unlikely

could be one of the satellite nations? or maybe "former communist state" isn't one block, perhaps "former" + "communist state"?

8:08 PM

Maybe

Looking for opinions: is the MathJax here neede?

Czechoslovakia= CZ

C_Z? I find it unlikely

Poland seems promising with PL

@bobble *case in point :)

@bobble CA(P)SE? :P

i don't think so
you can just replace the `\equiv`s with = and it would still probably make sense

8:17 PM

it's technically math, but it's math that can be represented with common keyboard symbols

do you want the edit, or I can?

you can if you want to

on it

or, North, opinion?

although it would give me a nice even 370 rep lol

probably should get more than one other person's input

@bobble Not familiar enough with MathJax to comment, sorry

8:19 PM

As in, is the fancy math formatting worth the lack of accessibility & the increase in load itme?

Avi

@Deusovi best one I've found after some browsing was "This is a proof by hand-waving, because writing is long.”

@bobble If that's the case, it's just pretty straightforward equations, so I'd say no

editing now, then

you can just copy the ≡ character in there

thanks!

8:22 PM

but... at the same time i'm not sure it's worth editing

it's a joke answer on a 6-year-old question

It just got bumped by a new answer

so the question is already on the front page

ah fair enough then

Avi

"Proof by postponement"
Proof:
> Later. ∎

not sure how to insert spaces, oh well

formatting is hard

multiline markdown is not rendered in chat

for example,
**this is not bold**

Mithical

8:50 PM

unless it's starred in which case it'll format and ignore the newlines

right but like in the main chat thingy

(also, how's button-pushing going?)

Q: Who dances what musical genre and with whom?

0

The puzzle is as follows: 4 couples attended a magazine opening celebration party. These couples danced among themselves and at the same time a disco suite, a pop ballad, a jazz tune and a waltz. Upon leaving the party the girls commented: Natalie: I enjoyed dancing to a pop ballad with Rudy tha...

logical-deduction logic-grid