The Sphinx's Lair

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oAlt

12:19 AM

@Stiv Camp David = C (caught, cricket iirc) + a + M (Frenchman, abbr. for Monsieur) + (u)p (ba)d + avid (keen)

Sphinx

Q: Minimum function optimization puzzle #4: Using negative numbers?

Previous puzzle Take this puzzle of mine that I created around a week ago: Take these 3 functions: $f(x):=x+8,g(x):=x^2-3,h(x):=\sqrt x$ Starting from $x=0$,$$\color{black}{\text{How many times will you need to apply }f,g,\text{ and }h\text{ to get }78}?$$or is the puzzle simply impossible? My ...

3 hours later…

Sphinx

3:08 AM

Q: Three 8-letter words with at least 23 letters

I have literally dozens of wordsets containing 22 letters, but haven't been able to crack 23, and DEFINITELY not 24. Can you do it? Here are as many of mine as I feel like posting, to get you motivated (when more than 3 words are in a group, ANY of the initial, similarly spelt words can be combin...

wordplay letters wordle

2 hours later…

Sphinx

5:28 AM

Q: Numbers given: 2, 3, 6, 15, choice of answers: 24, 25, 36, 64?

Math question, numbers are 2. 3. 6. 15 Choice of answers given are A.24 B.25 C.36 D.64 What is the correct choice please?

mathematics

2 hours later…

Jafe

7:41 AM

i like the idea of descriptive names... e.g. someone who makes pottery being named potter

in fact, i think that concept could be expanded to cover first names as well

for example, the name john smith could mean something like "smith by day, john by night"

Stiv

@oAlt Yup!

Stiv

8:15 AM

Q: Monthly Topic Challenge #16: Restricted Title: xkcd 2000-2500

This is the sixteenth installment of the Monthly Topic Challenges with topics suggested and voted on here. This month's topic is "Restricted Title: xkcd 2000-2500" (suggested by Lukas Rotter) and will span from the 1st of November to the 30th of November. During this period, we will compile the l...

discussion topic-challenge

^ One final plug! Still a little over a day to squeeze in a contribution :)

Jafe

just try to avoid the Wikipedia Caltrops one, you might end up realising 12 hours have passed and you now have 40 tabs open

oAlt

CCCC: True things about ring with zero divisors (7)

Despite me being traumatized by my previous exam which was probably failing, here's a clue whose surface is related to the subject of that exam

Jafe

well FACT(O+R)S are divisors, but i don't see how R = zero...

maybe it's OR = ring with zero somehow

apparently R is a bell-ringing abbreviation for "ring" so i guess just O+R could be "ring with zero"

(sense 4)

Sphinx

8:33 AM

Q: Explain why A Fate who didn’t finish the material (5) is Cloth

This is a cryptic clue from The Post (NZ) and appeared on the 22nd Jun 2023

cryptic-clues

oAlt

9:00 AM

@Jafe Yeah, that's correct. I don't know how common it is but R is used as a placeholder name for a ring in linear algebra, just like x, y, z for unknown variables. And just a tiny side note but I guess my parsing would be [[facts about R] with O], not [facts about [R with O]]

Jafe

oh right

CCCC: Fool of a Took? Quite the opposite (3)

Dannyu NDos

Uhh I don't get why the answer is 3 letters.

ddef of LIE?

TakingNotes

what are the definitions?

Dannyu NDos

9:15 AM

Fool of a Took = Pippin = Frank, and an antonym of that.

TakingNotes

i don't think that quite works - you only have one definition, and jumping from fool of a took to pippin to frank to lie is one too many logical leaps for an answer. additionally i don't see why pippin = frank and how frank is an antonym of lie - synonyms should always match the same word type (verb, adjective, etc.)

Dannyu NDos

Nevermind, The Google search was a hallucinatory one.

It said Pippin was the first king of some lineage of the Frank kingdom; actually, it's "Pepin".

1 hour later…

msh210

10:32 AM

Wiktionary defines put as "A fellow, especially an eccentric or elderly one; a duffer", and certainly put is "took: quite the opposite", so I guess it's a ddef. @Jafe

1 hour later…

Jafe

12:02 PM

not my intention, i'm afraid

msh210

12:30 PM

Hm, when Mr. Pippin T. was called a fool of a Took, did he say he pities himself?

1 hour later…

juicifer

1:30 PM

@Stiv still working on mine! it's gotten a bit more complicated than I initially thought but I'm hoping to have it posted later today (usa time)

@Jafe is this O(A)F, where instead of A taking OF, OF is taking A?

Jafe

2:13 PM

@juicifer that's right

juicifer

2:25 PM

CCCC: State bursting with cash sums (13)

Stiv

2:36 PM

@juicifer MASSACHUSETTS = *STATECASHSUMS &lit! (since it features highly on various wealth scales)

juicifer

@Stiv yes indeed!

Stiv

Convenient anagram there :)

juicifer

definitely

oAlt

Wow, I didn't know an &lit could be done out of that

Stiv

2:57 PM

CCCC: Bride-to-be holds orgy, having fun, with a little bit of drink inside: "It's #1!" (8)

MrClarinico

3:24 PM

@Stiv is this HYDROGEN (it's #1) = (HEN (bride-to-be, like in hen party) + orgy)* with D_ inside ?

Stiv

@MrClarinico That's the right answer, yes! Although (for CCCC archivists' benefit) technically it's H(*ORGY)EN with D_ inside, because (HEN+ORGY)* would be an indirect anagram (which is a no no) - 'holds' here was meant as a container indicator. Over to you :)

MrClarinico

3:49 PM

CCCC: Music about a Star Wars' protagonist with 50 I, perhaps ? (4,2,5)

This is my first cryptic clue, so I'm open to feedback.

3 hours later…

Sphinx

6:35 PM

Q: Irregularly Deposited Compound Interest

Suppose you have a very peculiar bank account that obeys the following rules: The account pays 10% interest per year, generated continuously. Interest from the account does not compound automatically; it is instead deposited into a second account which does not generate interest. There is a $1 t...

mathematics optimization

Stiv

7:31 PM

@MrClarinico Is this maybe LIFE OF RILEY by the Lightning Seeds? Clued by 'Music' and using R(I)(L)EY (although I'm not sure 'LIFE OF' is explicitly clued anyhow...?)

MrClarinico

7:50 PM

@Stiv Not my intention

Stiv

8:37 PM

@MrClarinico Good, good - just checking :)

1 hour later…

Dannyu NDos

10:03 PM

Can a logical-deduction puzzle work under a non-classical logic?

Last night's dream, I saw myself solving one under paraconsistent logic, and it was scary.

It was a murder mystery set by demons. There were two suspects, and it was foolish that I chose "neither". Game over, man.

Stiv

10:41 PM

@MrClarinico Oh wait, I've got it! CALL ME MAYBE (Music, by Carly Rae Jepsen) = CAL (Star Wars' protagonist) + L (50) + ME (I) + MAYBE (perhaps)

I'm relieved to spot this because I couldn't get 'Riley' out of my head, being connected to Rey from Star Wars and I (unfairly) feared it was a really chaotic clue. This one, however, makes much more sense structurally.

Feedback-wise: I'm not entirely sure that 'about' is a solid connecting word between definition and wordplay - 'for' or 'from' might be better? However, I love the misdirection of 'perhaps' actually being vital to a word in the answer, and structurally all of the parts of the clue work, although maybe '50 I' doesn't make for the best surface reading (does it mean something by itself?). Solid first effort overall, well done :)