Puzzles Etc. - 2016-05-12

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12:42 AM

0

Q: Hey, they are all under 4

222123013102101232202311300000000000 That is a cipher. It's semi-decently hard. Hint:

seems a bit

45

Q: Code Puzzles: What (Not) To Do?

Here's a code. Can you crack it? fw8904730983kf89023ncweamnfiope20tmi9b6m89ny327nery895mbi9tm0ei09x2e1m3y8n2 Good luck! When a puzzle looks like this… AUGH. I believe that the main purpose of this site, apart from entertainment and sharpening our puzzle-solving skills, is learning...

unless being under 4 is a huge clue?

converting them from base 4 to base 16 gets you 18 hex characters

you can get three colors out of that! although they don't look too significant to me. you get a lavender, aqua green, and red

Hello

It's me

I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet

:)

1:08 AM

translating the colours to XYZ gives 43.7172 44.5324 67.2642 39.7229 62.3515 53.6575 21.7382 11.2065 1.0173 which dont seem like relevant earth locations

1st&2nd or 2nd&3rd

or 1st&4th or 2nd&4th

5 hours later…

6:21 AM

@question_asker facebook.com/296456777064879/videos/1067748143269068

2 hours later…

8:45 AM

Added a hint

2 hours later…

10:55 AM

puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31188/… uggghhh the new hint seems... I dunno. We already understand the answer has something to do with songs, and the capital thing makes me think that capital letters are involved, but there's no consistent standard for which capital letters, since sometimes we're dealing with a street, sometimes a lake, sometimes within a US state, sometimes not.

11:46 AM

re: this puzzle: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/32440/…

user image

is anything about that meaningful to anyone?

do the angles modulo 26 are spelling some letters, by chance ?

well

I don't know how that would bring us closer to a "city"

the one answer there (invalidated by OP), while not technically correct (the lines cross significantly southwest of Montgomery) seems like it's probably within the same ballpark, reasoningwise, as the answer

also I'm wary of trying to do anything with those angles since I'm just plunking down points at arbitrary spots in those cities

I also don't exactly have a protractor I can put up against my computer screen to measure the angles, so if somebody does want to do that, knock yourself out

@KoA I like your puzzle but I'm preemptively giving up on it

I'll see if I can measure the angles on geogebra or something using an overlay because lazy af

Also my puzzle isn't that hard I don't think :p

I got like 2.5 lines in and was like "welp. I'm not equipped for this" hahaha

12:01 PM

The first paragraph is much harder than the second imo

Angle at top left seems to be ~19.96

@KoA I have an idea for 2nd para. but I can't fit the third line.

Let's Call It Twenty

(if we're doing letters, T)

The one near chicago ~ 145.25

so O

North Carolina 59.39

these are all internal angles btw

12:07 PM

G, maybe H

(I'm liking @Anton's idea more and more)

maybe it's a relative angle, when the said plane turns.

between alabama and south carolina, 203.95

V

but hey, here goes nothing :)

at Alabama 110.96

that's all of the angles

12:09 PM

I think I have a tiny issue with the angle idea in that I feel like it's probably very difficult to engineer a path that just happens to perfectly intersect with cities like that

indeed

F or G

VO(G|H)T(F|G)

well it was worth a shot

it seems like I'm supposed to see a logical line that hasn't been drawn yet somewhere, based on his clues

I procrastinated working on my large puzzle by making my newest puzzle

#life

but obviously all the existing lines connect cities that are already in the puzzle. whatever city would have to be a new endpoint

I honestly don't know what to do with the cities puzzle

12:14 PM

yeah sorry

I might at some point draw stuff on a map with those points to see if I can do some black magic and make something appear

Is there any any reason for visual tag in that puzzle?

that puzzle with cities

Dunno yet, manshu!

probably because it has to do with a map and those points rather than the words or names of the places

http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31757/a-table-filled-with-greatest-common-divisors

This is what I was talking about with migrating to Math.SE - with a bit of reformatting into the format of that site, it would be a great question there

Where is atlanta? GA? LA? or TX?

12:18 PM

"Reformatting into the format" wow I'm great at English

3

@manshu GA

the answer is purely mathematical, I don't see how it belongs on Puzzling

ok thanks.

I was trying to look at founding dates for those cities but there's too much ambiguity between "settled", "founded", and "incorporated"

plus, it's not visual

going afk for a bit

12:20 PM

@KoA puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/31757/…

lol

Upvoted the question before I read it :) I always love your puzzles and I've been waiting for the next one since it's been a while — Ivo Beckers May 3 at 9:01

There is the answer in the city puzzle

@manshu hmm, that's probably the answer

hmm

man OK so I'm not trying to be a jerk here but: when people are like "I can't put an image behind a spoiler"... what are they trying? Because it works for me, in what seems like the intuitive way, every time.

@KoA first and second paragraphs can be solved individually..right?

12:32 PM

if that is the answer to the city puzzle I will downvote the question LOL

yeah I will change my vote on it if a number of things happen

that GCD Halfbrain question is definitely math, not a puzzle in the sense of this site

@Deusovi yes, if there is no puzzlesque solution for sure.

^ like new word?

IMO you shouldn't need any mathematical knowledge for puzzles besides algebra, geometry, and the basics of calculus and number theory

I love math (hoping to become a math teacher or mathematician) but they're not really puzzles

@manshu yup, the first two paragraphs don't relate to each other in any way (but aren't complete puzzles on their own)

12:41 PM

@KoA Thanks. I expected that's how the puzzle is. :)

I'm gonna actually add that as a short hint since I might go to bed soon, and I don't want people to focus on something completely irrelevant

1:24 PM

About the US map, I think I've found a triple intersection.

@question_asker If A is the bottom right point, B the top left point, and C, D, E, and F following along the line traced on this picture

AB, CF, and DE seem to converge.

(sry, not familiar at all with the cities names, I'm european)

1:40 PM

I geogebra'd the lines

they don't quite converge but the triangle they form is pretty small

user image

IMO It seems to be it.

It seems just as convincing as puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/32464/21503 though

and OP commented on this, telling that all lines can meet in one point.

Last I heard triangles were 3 points, but that could also just be my terrible line drawing skills

A city is not a point from which you can start a line. It's a region.

1:55 PM

hey so

yea but you can use the coordinates for the centre of the city I guess

The possibility of lines to meet at a point is lower than you think.

my only issue with this answer is that it seems only exactly as plausible as the other answer, since we're extending lines between non-consecutive cities

This makes me think about the funny answers of this question puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/2066/…

and @manshu is saying pretty much what I said above

I'm sure if we connected each city in the list to every other city in the list, we'd probably have more convergence points

OK so I read all the new additions to the question and comments - sigh

1:59 PM

how do I get a monospace block of several lines to work inside a spoiler?

backticks maybe?

I tried backticks

triple backticks

different things for newlines

and pre tags

some don't show as monospace, and some break the spoiler

ok backticks seem to work for me

and what are you doing for new lines?

user image

2:03 PM

ah yes

for newlines, in this case, I'm not doing the double-space thing

but it doesn't preserve leading whitespace

hm, true

I need that

in that case, I don't know what to do :/

2:04 PM

D:

do a picture at last resort

Type it up as you want without the spoiler, screenshot it, and use an image inside a spoiler :P

^

I didn't think it would be so difficult to get a 7 segment display inside a spoiler

user image

here's the problem with the other answers, IMO

Ironically, I forgot to include the line that @KoA made the triangle with, but I think the point still stands

2:20 PM

Since the puzzle I'm writing has so many little bits to it, do you think having a few "pretty easy" bits in there a good idea? Idk, for a sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep going and figure out the rest

probably, yeah. always hard to tell for sure without knowing the whole thing, but I don't see why not

the only issue I could see is if they misled people into believing they had solved the whole thing

nah nah it's one of those "each line is a small clue"

they range from cryptic-styled gibberish (without following cryptic clues rules ;) ) to google a synonym

I just don't want too many easy ones because then backsolving becomes an issue

my only (again, potential, and again, this is just me, others may disagree) issue with that is that I sometimes get annoyed at puzzles where solving them involves doing a bunch of different things with seemingly no rhyme or reason

that said, if those are only hints, and the puzzle can be solved without them, then I don't mind

They're clues, not hints

definitely necessary

OK well

2:26 PM

It's like, lots of mini puzzles together that form another puzzle

Strung together through a common theme

as long as it's not like "well if you anagram [arbitrary word], and then XOR the binary value of [different arbitrary word] with the non-alpha digits of the hex value of [third arbitrary word] it's a clue"

There's only one encrypted part, at the very end

anagrams and the like are definitely clued at with word choice

no XORs or 'steganography' type stuff

well I just mean like

it shouldn't just be a bunch of different ways of figuring out the clues, unless there's a pattern to it or something that someone could reasonably assume or deduce from the puzzle

I'm not trying to be nitpicky here or anything so if anyone disagrees with me, by all means, this is just my opinion

That's actually exactly what it is oopsies

I'm just talking about what I, personally, hate when it comes to puzzles

2:32 PM

but every clue is definitely very guided when it comes to telling you how to solve it

I don't want to obscure the method, only the solution

well that sounds doable then

Some are less guided than others, just for a bit of extra difficulty, but if I see no one gets them I'll definitely add a few hints

I feel like @Deusovi probably has an opinion on this, and is probably better at explaining it than I am

I totally get what you're trying to get at (I think)

basically I think it's fine to have multiple "types" of disguised information in the puzzle as long as it's semi-obvious how they're disguised, if that makes sense. obviously you don't want to draw people a map, but you don't want it to be totally opaque either.

2:38 PM

the puzzles where like you get a jumble of letters and you're like "wtf do I do" and then the OP is suddenly like "actually just anagram and then rot7 every letter because there was 7 letters in the first sentence and then you use the key 'plastic bag' because I talked about shopping and you get the solution 'fate' get it??"

lol yeah

mine's more like "Here's a visual puzzle! If you don't like that, maybe try working on a different riddle part instead!" sort of thing

or like, "well, the third word in this line is a synonym. the first word of the next line in a mirror looks like [next clue]. the last word of the third line is also the name of a famous scientist, whose first name rhymes with [third clue]"

yeah

I mean, obviously some parts are gonna be much harder than others, but I think that's part of the fun

and ultimately, like I say, this is all just like, "stuff that annoys me, personally" and shouldn't be taken as hard advice for puzzlemaking

2:43 PM

Definitely still something to think about though, since I'm sure plenty of other people feel the same

it's a good thing it's taking me so long to make, since when I finish I'll have to go over it again and I won't remember all the bits, so if I can't figure out the right solution to something I'll know I have to scrap it hahah

roflmao at that map question's accepted answer

just got a notification, i have opinions about lots of things

3

classic deusovi

user image

aahhhh yes... crystal clear

3:05 PM

kek

Ooo it's Friday the 13th how spooky 👻

yeah, maybe in antipodia

I've still got more than 12 hours until shit gets spooky around here

1:14am AEST :p

I've got class at 8 so I better get to sleep tho, laters

3:23 PM

oh lol apparently the accepted answer on the map one isn't even the right answer (surprise!)

dun dun duuunnn!!!!

4:02 PM

q_a, did you see the link I sent you?

oh ha, I didn't see it until I was on my way to work, so I haven't had time to listen yet, but it looks dope, thank you :)

Yeah, it's pretty phenominal

4:57 PM

In a world gone mad, one person will have the courage to fight back.

user image

2

going sane in an insane world

what question was that

oh, it's an answer. it's clearly written right there!

I'm in love with that screenshot

5:13 PM

><clue1>Peta</clue1> <clue2>cat</clue2> on the sidewalk when when they do this<br>
>The <clue3>A's</clue3> never did this <clue3>back when I sold 'em</clue3><br>
>I could be a startup that <clue4>wasn't good at business</clue4><br>
>When you see the <clue5>three</clue5>, you'd better <clue5>hold 'em</clue5><br>

5:43 PM

people are still upvoting the map puzzle

why

5:53 PM

easily entertained?

1 hour later…

7:19 PM

@fondor I'll be honest. I can't fathom what the second half of your hint is attempting to say, no matter how many times I re-read it.

yo for that egg timer puzzle... I only just really looked at it and realized that 'theighm' looks like "time" to me anyway

'ugh theighmolo' just looks like "ugg time-olo" to me, which isn't far off of the intended answer

the silence answer is the best

1

Q: How many vegetarians?

At a school 100 people are being served.They are asked to do a survey. In the survey, 50 students say they do not prefer the vegetarian option. 60 say they prefer the non-vegetarian option. 10 say they do not prefer either the vegetarian option or the non-vegetarian option. How many prefer ...

^^^ I feel like it's math question

Anyone else share the same thoughts?

@Matt yeah, exactly - the whole point of the ghoti joke in the first place is that it looks nothing like what it "sounds like"

3

@manshu it's puzzling for people that aren't familiar with unions and intersections... maybe

7:28 PM

@manshu the answer is right there in the question

@WesleySitu But if they are not familiar with these things then maybe they aren't familiar with maths. And math is no puzzle.

I mean

I get why it's confusing

@question_asker just saw it... I need some sleep maybe.

someone upvoted it?

I was being kind of a smartass about it

7:30 PM

@question_asker You are. No need to prove it again and again. :p

but I don't hate it as a puzzle, but if someone wanted to close it for being too mathy I probably don't have a leg to stand on

oh hey, is everybody familiar with the two-coins-totaling-thirty-cents puzzle?

because the vegetarians puzzle reminded me of it and it drove me INSANE as a child.

@manshu mmmm i feel like it could be the same kind of situation as the missing dollar riddle

@WesleySitu which one? I never saw it.

@question_asker ^^^

OK so there's a riddle that goes like this:

@manshu en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_dollar_riddle

7:35 PM

Three people check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10.
Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 as a tip for himself. Each guest got $1 back: so now each guest only paid $9; bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. And $27 + $2 = $29 so, if the guests originally han…

"I have two coins in my pocket, totaling thirty cents, and one of them is not a nickel" (US coins, for our non-American readers, are in denominations of 1 (penny), 5 (nickel), 10 (dime), 25 (quarter), (very rarely) 50 (half-dollar), (slightly less rare) 1 dollar)

the answer was that you have a nickel and a quarter

a quarter isn't a nickel!

this drove me insane because it seems obvious

well, the question, as read, says "one of them is not a nickel", which, apparently, is supposed to be understood as "not one of them is a nickel", i.e., none of the coins are nickels, giving us an impossible total

but literally no one talks like that

reading that question, the answer is obviously "well one is a quarter and the other one is a nickel, you fucking dummy"

one of the earliest puzzle I heard that I can recall is "There are 2 ducks ahead of a duck and two ducks behind that duck. How many ducks are there in total?"

3

7:37 PM

:/

5 is the answer.

oh sorry

^

I'm used to the normal version of that puzzle, which is "There are 2 ducks ahead of a duck and two ducks behind a duck. How many ducks are there in total?

I didn't see that this one was worded differently

and... like the puzzle I posted... not really a puzzle.

@question_asker Does US currency have notes to these cents? Or just coins?

No; Yes

7:40 PM

Each coin of the same metal?

(Except the 1)

nope

That's nice. This thing really might be useful for blind people.

ahoy

There was a period when there was fractional currency in the US

I still have a 50 cent note somewhere, I think

I also have a two- and three-cent piece

7:45 PM

when do those date from?

I really really really really wanted a 20 cent piece when I was a kid, but those are rare enough to be worth more than I could afford

1864-1872/3

National Numismatic Collection

The National Numismatic Collection is the national coin cabinet of the United States. The collection is part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. == Overview == The National Numismatic Collection is one of the world's largest collections of coins, paper currency, exonumia and related items. In total the collection contains over 1.6 million objects, including 450,000 coins, medals and decorations and 1.1 million pieces of paper money. == History == As of 2004, the exhibit housing the Collection was the last surviving exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum of American...

@question_asker are you like 150 years old??

oh yeah I have some silver certificates too

I used to suffer from numismatism

7:47 PM

maybe a gold certificate?

nah I just was a fucking nerd as hell when I was a kid

That's @Deusovi while answering puzzles

I was also into any and all foreign coins I could find, especially non-circular coins and coins with holes in them

@question_asker Me too. Isn't it fun to be a nerd?

@You very much so

oh lol nm @manshu

I didn't realize that was a message-long link; I thought you just managed to turn a regular message blue

:D

Now I really need to go to sleep. :0

bye guys.

Gordon Allocman

7:52 PM

Would it be mean if I incorporated mare, fate, troll, and plastic bag in a puzzle?

i don't get it

@paste Deusovi is fast, like The Flash.

i meant @GordonAllocman, but if those are related to The Flash as well, that's beyond me

Uhh... There's plastic bags in The Flash! :P

Gordon Allocman

8:11 PM

After some nudging they finally got my puzzle yay!

2 hours later…

10:00 PM

puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/32288/21503 This was reopened for the reason that there's a good answer

But this answer would be just as acceptable in Math.SE

I think the community needs to agree to whether or not purely mathematical questions should be allowed on here, since right now there's obviously some very different opinions

anyway I'm off

OH MY GOD how did that get reopened

h o w

puzzling.stackexchange.com/posts/32288/revisions

10:15 PM

ah, it was reopened by the creator. naturally.

with literally no changes to the question

awesome. good look, mods.

"new people, go fuck yourself. people who have been here a while? post literally whatever you want"

10:29 PM

lol pretty much all of that user's puzzles are math textbook questions

like gamow

super cool policy we selectively enforce

4

1 hour later…

11:56 PM

Serious question... how do you differentiate a textbook maths "problem" from a maths "puzzle"? Because that one (based on the upvoted solution) seems pretty puzzley to me...

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May '1612

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