The Sphinx's Lair

Q: Which number replaces the question mark?

2:09 AM

0

I'm trying to solve puzzles to exercise my brain. I'm stuck on this. Can someone help me? Below is the test:

calculation-puzzle puzzle-identification

Puzzling Meta

2:48 AM

0

Q: Should/can we get more than 5 tags for questions?

Currently, everywhere on the SE network, communities are limited to 5 tags per question: However, puzzles can meet many different tag criteria and as such, 5 doesn't always seem right. For example, I'm currently writing a puzzle that technically qualifies for the lateral-thinking, knowledge, c...

discussion feature-request tags

Q: Divide a board into two pieces without cutting a domino

2:58 AM

0

Saw this question in the book, "A Moscow Math circle" by Dorichenko. Eighteen 2x1 dominoes cover a 6x6 board without overlapping each other or the sides of the board. Prove that, for any such arrangement, it is possible to cut the board into two pieces along a vertical or horizontal line without...

logical-deduction dominoes

5:02 AM

0

Q: The Happy Heptet

I have here a happy heptet of little riddles, or is it an octet? =============================== His eyes were plucked out by the tip of a knife, And his skin was shaved off with the blade. He was then left over a roaring flame, In a roiling cauldron to bathe. When this was done, they whisked him...

riddle word wordplay

5:20 AM

Night night time for me 😴🤣

word knowledge computer-science acrostic limerick

0

Q: A simple relationship test

I've spent way too much time on the computer today; but, at least you get a puzzle out of it! Boast all you want, I'll even give you the answers... I won't remain in the dark without you. Nothing compares to the light in I do. Answers are tested. Relationships vested. You'll find what you need,...

5:41 AM

that acrostic works with my mind. INARY to rainy... but then?

I guess you are looking at the 'crostic only. (I thought that the overabundance of tags would give some of it away too readily, but apparently not.) :)

i know

like i thought its easy apparently not but of course i want that imaginary internet points

5:57 AM

Well, if you incude the line before the limerick, you will find a word that goes well with one of the tags.

@AncientSwordRage I'm sorry, but what you say makes me think that you are on the wrong track there. :(

6:49 AM

@MOehm I'm slowly coming to that conclusion too

:)

I thought it was .... I might hold of in case I can use it later

Good idea. My current clue also uses my wrong attempts from solving Stive's C4.

Er, Stiv's even.

ok binary can be brainy

Anonymus 25

My guess is the wordplay could be "Singer" inside GREEN followed by "Black" before "string"

7:03 AM

but then computer science

Anonymus 25

@Stevo Nag a ram :p

lol

gtg

7:26 AM

@MOehm I've noticed that in my own cryptics group, and here as well

11:07 AM

I realised that I won't be any good at making cryptics if I don't know how to solve them

I'm doing one now, and I have a hunch ISOPOD would be the answer for "Crustacean is beginning to outgrow shell (6)" with an O already filled in (????O?)

I am not entirely sure how the first O would come in, though - feedback?

It's the "beginning to (of) outgrow".

So IS + O(utgrow) + POD

Q: Best puzzles of 2021 Q1 (January - March)?

Dear me, archaic English catching me up

(well, not really archaic, just not the style I write)

Puzzling Meta

11:25 AM

0

This question is part of the best-puzzle award series. What are your nominations for the best puzzles, here on Puzzling.SE, of the first quarter ( January / February / March) 2021? Suggested guidelines for nomination: Nominate each individual puzzle in a separate answer, so they can be upvot...

discussion best-of

0

Q: Best puzzles of 2021 Q2 (April - June)?

This question is part of the best-puzzle award series. What are your nominations for the best puzzles, here on Puzzling.SE, of the second quarter ( April / May / June) 2021? Suggested guidelines for nomination: Nominate each individual puzzle in a separate answer, so they can be upvoted/down...

discussion best-of

11:56 AM

For reference the specific puzzle I'm doing is Guardian Quiptic Crossword 1140

Q: Simple rebus, don't scold me

1

These are internet Tabs. Hint :

rebus

It seems like 29A (Fellow hiding close to boundary to damage country (7)) is MYANMAR but I can't figure out where the MYAN comes from

M.AN ("fellow") surrounds ("hiding") Y ("close to boundary"). Not very different from your earler example.

Anonymus 25

2:08 PM

Hotel In Inn In Inn (3)

Best cryptic I have ever made :P

3:01 PM

I want to create that Mobius Sudoku as a code golf challenge :) it was fun, and I'm interested to see what the golfing community can do with it.

@Stevo Not an anagram, though it almost was. 😊

@Stevo true.

😉

3:16 PM

Hrmmm, my comment on the Mobius Sudoku was removed. Is asking for permission to re-create a puzzle in a different format not allowed?

Oh, nevermind... I posted it on the wrong post lol

@Tacoタコス that sounds interesting

🤦‍♀️

@AncientSwordRage Very IMHO lol just want to get the author's permission first.

mathematics calculation-puzzle story

-1

Q: A Little Math Puzzle

A man entered a store and spent one-half of the money that was in his pocket. When he came out he found that he had just as many cents as he had dollars when he went in and half as many dollars as he had cents when he went in. How much money did he have on him when he entered?

I'm currently in support of VTC ^

@Tacoタコス feel free to post it there! I'm not 100% what the challenge would be but you definitely have more coding knowledge than me so I'm sure you could make somehow work it out

Nathan's set a benchmark of 2219 chars, so I'm sure that could be beaten

3:21 PM

@BeastlyGerbil oh thank you! If you're okay with it, I can update your post with a footnote that includes a link to the challenge once it goes live. I usually leave challenges in the sandbox for a week before posting.

Either that or I can ping you here with the link :)

Whichever you prefer

Or a comment

Wow, I need more caffeine today lol

@BeastlyGerbil Absolutely lol

I'm sure there are languages that solve sudoku in 9 characters or less lmao

Sure go ahead, a footnote would be fine. I've visited the site a few times but don't fully know how it works so I'm more than happy for you to take the reigns with it over there

I swear if someone writes a working solver in brainfuck, then I might have to leave the internet for the good though :P

Sounds good lol

@BeastlyGerbil lmao I'm sure someone will eventually

It's sure to be popular there too

I'll be watching with interest :)

Perhaps one of the extensions to HQ9+ can do it with just one character.

@MOehm for traditional sudoku or the mobius strip version?

I have no doubt on the traditional sudoku lol

3:29 PM

I don't know how you'd word the challenge but I guess you'd have to make it so the code could solve any version, not just print out the solution to the puzzle right?

Well, one for the Möbius would be very specialized. But there are niche languages for everything.

3:55 PM

@MOehm Right, I finally finished the cryptic correctly without cheating

@BeastlyGerbil You're absolutely correct. The phrasing starts with "You'll be given two n-dimensional arrays, representing each side of the strip (0 will represent empty squares)".

Your particular puzzle and its answer will be the test case.

Is it OK if I ask for the explanations behind a bunch of clues and ask to check if my explanations are correct on PSE?

I'll ping you with a link to the sandbox version when I'm done. Currently writing it up.

The community there will critique the challenge to a workable form, and about a week from now it'll go live. :)

I don't want to clutter this chat

@Tacoタコス sounds good!

@ParclyTaxel depends on how many clues you want to check, if theres lots might be a good idea to create a separate room with someone to go through with you

4:01 PM

@ParclyTaxel Congratulations! That was quite a toucgh quiptic in my (and many Guardian commenters') opinion. It is okay to ask for help with cryptic clues here, but if you are looking for help with "a bunch" of them, why not visit fifteensquared.net? They blog detail solution for the daily Guardian, FT Independent puzzles. Pan's Monday quiptic is discussed here.

@MOehm ah, that should save me the hassle of making a new question

4:16 PM

I thought at first that 10A there was LAMA but it got scrapped after filling 2D

I also thought the parsing for 11A was (americ(to + Rubbish)a)* rather than (americ(rot)<a)*

Maybe my parsing is the intended one

@MOehm That's one of the reasons I stopped on golf. Too many esolangs that are designed to be written, not read. I'd much rather see some clever C-style or Python that solves the problem efficiently. I'd also like scoring rules to change to accommodate c-style overhead.

@BeastlyGerbil codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2140/…

:)

@Tacoタコス looks good, lets see how its received :)

Sounds good, and thanks for the feedback! :) I also added a link to it on your original puzzle for future readers.

Battery is about to die lol

Back after a while :)

Hopefully someone finds an answer to my relationship puzzle while I'm away :D

4:52 PM

@ParclyTaxel I'm pretty sure that the parsing on 15² is the intended one. There's no indication that one whould take only the first letter of rubbish and, if anything, "rubbish back" would be H. Aln in your parsing, the "to" would hang loose - it isn't included in what should be kept.

Q: Is it normal to reach an unsolvable state in Minesweeper expert mode?

0

This Minesweeper looks unsolvable; is it normal to reach a state considered unsolvable in Minesweeper expert mode?

minesweeper

5:26 PM

@MOehm yeah I've got over it

6:14 PM

Hopefully the hint on my relationship puzzle helps.

Nope.

All I can come up with is ????ned and ?our (maybe a common a in the first one)

Did I phrase it wrong?

Oh

Wait

1 sec

Lemme rethink what I just asked with what you just said lol

I might be totally obtuse.

I think everyone got the acrostic part right away. It's the rest of it that baffles.

So two things

1: You're on the right track, but missing a letter.

2: I made a mistake. Drop the e.

AND?

Which fits the comp sci part

6:22 PM

Each line is intentional as is the acrostic.

Each line describes something needed to solve the puzzle

Except the B line

That was to complete the acrostic

The phrasing of "Nothing compares to the light in I do." struck me as significant. Was even onelooking i*do

But that line is disposable?

light

I think if I say anymore I'll give it away if I haven't already

I've looked only briefly at the puzzle, but to me, "binary" suggests that we are trying to construct some ones and zeros from the limerick, which can be converted to letters via A1Z26 or ASCII. I've tried to make something from the O's and I's, but couldn't find anything. The long lines in the limerick have eight words each and taking words with an even length as 1 and with an odd length as 0 gives "tel" in ASCII, which I'm not very confident about. Then I gave up. :)

I'm looking at dark, light, tested, vested and truth. But truth could be a hint for a truth table of some sort.

@MOehm Your approach was correct, but the focal content was not. The answers are given.

@ChrisCudmore 😊

6:33 PM

Back to work.

7:20 PM

I started thinking @Tacoタコス's puzzle is about different forms of testing? UNLIT -L = unit, I DO is an acceptance... Etc.

Too far

Oh?

:)

As in don't should spoil it by posting more in chat or in overthinking?

@AncientSwordRage the latter

:)

7:22 PM

Is it OK to post a maths optimisation puzzle for which I already know one answer, but am seeking to know if a better answer exists?

Chris was on point earlier

@ChrisCudmore here

If you're telling me not to overthink it, you're telling me not to do the one thing I know I'm good at 😅

@AncientSwordRage lol I am too :D

I'm gonna add another hint though

I fear I made it too niche

Added

Maybe that'll help

@Tacoタコス it probably isn't

0

Q: The Knight's Trial

You've most likely heard of the eight queens puzzle, right? Where you have to place n chess queens on an n * n board so that no queens attack each other (boy, those must be some very angry monarchs!)? Well...what if, instead of queens, you had to place chess knights on an n * n board? What's the ...

chess

7:25 PM

As I said before: I might be totally obtuse.

I just wanna see it solved lol

I'm eager

Already wrote the making of lol

This one was fun to make IMO

@Tacoタコス I'm even more confused

"New Hint" and "New Hint"

0&0=0,0&1=0,...

You're giving us a lot of pointers

I'm not getting the reference though

Did you see my question above?

7:29 PM

I'm literally willing to give this one away because it was fun to write and I made a mistake, so I don't want that mistake to distract from the fact that it was a well thought out puzzle

@ParclyTaxel I think it really depends on the maths puzzle, and I'm not well placed to answer that

@ParclyTaxel I'm not 100% certain on it. I know several users that aren't fans of "can you beat my answer" types of questions, but you could phrase it in a way that prevents that.

For example, pose the puzzle, give proper attribution, and just have the community solve it.

So I don't give my own answer?

It indirectly answers your question

@ParclyTaxel I don't think so, but be prepared to do so if someone with more knowledge of the topic chimes in.

@AncientSwordRage do you dabble in code by chance?

I think I've seen you on CodeGolf's chat too lol

@Tacoタコス yup

7:34 PM

Think about how those bits would evaluate when compared one to one.

Then relate those back to the puzzle.

Take note of my error when evaluating though

Then keep in mind that the answer is literally given in the puzzle.

@AncientSwordRage Maybe not so obtuse! I got that.

To be perfectly clear, it should be DRAINXD and PLANNED?

Drop both es.

DRAINxD and PLANNxD

It was mean to be one to one mapping by index.

But alas, due to lack of sleep I botched it.

Ok, I thought your bit clue was drAiNxD AND plAnNeD. Need to rethink.

@ChrisCudmore Now you know it is.

No need to rethink

drAiNxD AND plAnNxD.

So the second half is 0111.

7:43 PM

No, look at the words as "drain_d" and "plann_d" instead. Just empty that index. 0010101.

It wasn't meant to be there in the first place; somehow I missed the fact that they both ended in "ed".

I spent 50 minutes looking for words that not only fit the puzzle, but that didn't match at any index but the intended indices. Somehow missed that "e". 🤦‍♀️

@Tacoタコス I don't work with anything remotely to do with bits 😅 I've been a JavaScript Dev for about 6-7 years

@AncientSwordRage okay, so false & false, false & true.

0

Q: Supernumerariness

What word goes in the box with the question mark?

enigmatic-puzzle

@Tacoタコス ok, but what I'm struggling with is the actual bitwise operation not that 0 = false and 1 = true

I have absolutely no idea what's going on... Sure I'll enjoy it when it gets solved though

@AncientSwordRage I think I'm in the same boat.

7:53 PM

I just looked up bitwise and

I can only imagine we're meant to do something like d & p, r&l, a&a etc...

So a&a gives 1, the other two give 0

So if you compare each letter in "drain_d" and "plann_d", what do you have left over when only the truth remains?

AND

@Tacoタコス ones?

@ChrisCudmore this

7:55 PM

111?

OUR?

D & P = false

R & L = false

A & A = true

A is truth, A stays

And so on

The answer is a single word

Given in the puzzle (literally),

And is revealed with that operation

I had it worked out that far. I just don't know what to apply it to.

What do you think the answer is currently?

@ChrisCudmore I've just caught up

But I've got no further than you

7:57 PM

> The answer is drain_d and plann_d.

ESTED. But that makes no sense.

Binary AND?

Individual bits

But then the limerick is pointless

@ChrisCudmore Is it?

How does each line relate?

@ChrisCudmore I'm definitely not seeing how it all fits together

It's the answer ONES COMPLIMENT?

8:00 PM

If I and the first two lines I get IH

Taking literal stabs in the dark here

But the next two don't match length wise

> I'll even give you the answers

You're not performing operations on the limerick

The limerick provides clues on how to find the answer

Oh

The answer is given

You just have to prove the answer

8:02 PM

🤷🏻‍♂️

> I won't remain in the dark without you. Nothing compares to the light in I do.

^ contrast

> Answers are tested. Relationships vested.

^ Compare, one to one.

> You'll find what you need, in the truth.

Keep the truth.

> The answer is drain_d and plann_d.

Mithical

@AncientSwordRage Please be careful, knives are sharp.

@Mithical lol

@Mithical it's a good thing I'm in a well lit room

Is is simply "Binary and"

8:08 PM

@ChrisCudmore no it's drain_d and plann_d, but why?

@ChrisCudmore ✔️

It's the why that's interesting

@Tacoタコス where is binary and given in the question?

BINARY is the acrostic. But you've got to include the preamble line.

@ChrisCudmore right ok, I saw that, I didn't think to combine the two different parts

I thought the acrostic just told us how to think of the AND operation on those two words

0

Q: It sounds all good until

If 4 + 4 = 8 10 - 5 = 5 5 x 1 = 5 8 - 1 = 7 2 + 4 = 7 Then, 8 / 1 = ? Is it 6 or 7 ?

lateral-thinking

8:15 PM

@AncientSwordRage There many clues, direct and indirect in the puzzle.

@Tacoタコス it sounds pretty enigmatic to me

BINARY: acrostic, light and dark, truth.

I'm not getting the light and dark part.

Given: emboldened and in the final line, performing and on the words

I was definitely looking way too much into it, because multiple hints pointed in the same direction, I assumed each hint had to indicate something completely unique

8:17 PM

@ChrisCudmore light is to on and dark is to off.

It's an indirect clue

So rather than being a puzzle with 6-7 parts and a hint each, it's a puzzle with one lynchpin and several clues pointing at it

Bit that's its intent

@AncientSwordRage exactly

Everything pointed to binary comparison with the and operator.

@Tacoタコス that completely threw me off

I don't think there's been a lot of puzzles like this one recently (that I've noticed anyways).

Even the title hints at it with "relationship test"

Everything about it was intentional and it was hard to write it that way

After the acrostic I thought "ok so obviously something binary is going on here, what else could these lines mean, because I can't imagine they'd hint the same thing"

@Tacoタコス It looked super hard to compose

I just started off completely wrong footed

8:20 PM

It happens; I also wrote it late at night too

That didn't help

It was a big red herring. I kept looking for one final step that I couldn't find.

I tried to bitwise the limerick

@ChrisCudmore I'm sure others did too

Also, I think having explicit words you're ANDing made me think they'd been picked for more than just the fact they AND together to give AND.

@AncientSwordRage well, to be fair, I had hoped that would be an ah-ha! moment at the end of a solver's journey

@Tacoタコス completely fair

8:27 PM

@MOehm Female singer NIKITA dressed in G and B falls over = BATIKING<, which almost means "string". But I assume this is not the intended answer.

Goddamn the 4c's are getting obscure.

@ChrisCudmore Well, that particular incorrect guess was obscure. That doesn't mean the C4 is.

(Also "4 C's" makes me think of this.)

lol

But I like the Indonesian connection in your answer.

I was playing with (Synonym for dressed) IN G but then it all fell apart.

Female Singer as def could be almost anything, so you have to solve it by wordplay.

jumps here

8:37 PM

@ParclyTaxel well done

Upvoted

Q: Doubling the cube with rational Meccano strips

1

In three monographs published in 2006, 2008 and 2014 Gerard 't Hooft considered "Meccano mathematics": how to construct specified distances and regular polygons by a rigid system of ideal Meccano strips, where the distance between adjacent holes on a strip is 1. He showed in the first monograph t...

mathematics geometry optimization construction

@ParclyTaxel your username makes me think of "Procol Harum" and of "partly cloudy".

8:53 PM

@Tacoタコス this would have been a completely different question but could you have written "xyz is the answer, what are the 7 hints I've hidden in this post"

"string" could clue the name of a string instrument.

@msh210 it comes from the chemo drug paclitaxel. I came up with it in 2012, when I entered the MLP fandom and needed something nicer than the other username I had at the time, Freywa

@ParclyTaxel ah

At that time I was in secondary school and as interested in chemistry as I was in mathematics

@AncientSwordRage I think that would've made it fall under "guess what I'm thinking".

The concept was to have the puzzle hint at how to arrive at the answer

8:58 PM

@Tacoタコス I thought there might have been a hitch

Meanwhile the answer was given, though most likely think it's not

@Tacoタコス but as it was given... I'm guessing that it didn't count as guess what I'm thinking?

@AncientSwordRage I'm not so sure at this point. I surely hope not though. I tried very hard to avoid that.

Stiv

@ParclyTaxel I've been wondering why your name sounded so familiar - as a cancer researcher, now I finally realise! (sound of penny dropping) Two worlds strangely colliding...

@Tacoタコス I don't think it is tbf

Green Versace dress of Jennifer Lopez

10:35 PM

Female singer dressed in green = POLACHEK... which I doubt is the answer.

American entertainer Jennifer Lopez wore a green Versace silk chiffon dress to the 42nd Grammy Awards ceremony on February 23, 2000. The sheer fabric was printed with a tropical leaf and bamboo pattern, and cut with a very low neckline that extended well past Lopez's navel, while the waist of the dress was studded with citrines. This garment instantly received significant global media coverage, and it has been cited, along with Elizabeth Hurley's black Versace dress, as one of the most high-profile dresses that made the designer Versace a household name. In addition, this dress was described as...