The Sphinx's Lair

Deusovi

12:06 AM

in Contact, 52 secs ago, by Deusovi

Deusovi defending P

Rubio

12:41 AM

@Sid Nuked, thank you

@feelinferrety (and though there was no doubt, I'll formally confirm CONDOMINIUM just the same)

Sphinx

1:14 AM

0

Q: Another simple matchstick puzzle

Seems like there's been lots of matchstick puzzles lately, so here's my take on it Move one matchstick to make the equality right.

matches

micsthepick

I only just now made the connection that Sphinx posts in the Sphinx's Lair.

4

feelinferrety

@micsthepick gold star for you

Alconja

1:36 AM

@Sp3000 B[-all]ET

stacksfiller

noo

I just got it

Alconja

:) sorry

stacksfiller

It's ok, now I just have to get yours

Rubio

btw we don't usually use Down-clue reversal indicators for CCCCs, so "up" was probably not a good choice

Alconja

CCCC: I decimated Romania and America. Exhausting. (7)

(won't be around a huge amount today, so I'm just posting without waiting for confirmation to avoid delays)

stacksfiller

1:42 AM

ONE + RO + US = ONEROUS

Alconja

Well that was quick, and you got your turn after all. :)

ffao

I wanted to say that, but what is "decimated" indicating?

stacksfiller

I thought it's "part of Romania"

...kind of

Alconja

Decimated (v): "remove a large proportion of"

stacksfiller

Yup

Alconja

1:44 AM

Figured America = US was fair, but wasn't sure if Romania = Ro was, so "shortened" it

(though of course if you interpret decimated as shortening/abbreviating, then it could apply to both Ro & US)

stacksfiller

ok it's a little silly, but

CCCC: Stop spinning... (4)

Alconja

@stacksfiller DOTS

(or more specifically "dots")

Yeah ok

:)

?

1:49 AM

spin stop

stacksfiller

it's "Stop" flipped 180

rotate "stop" 180

180 degrees

where is the def?

Oooh

1:49 AM

@micsthepick "..."

stacksfiller

I just thought of it but I should have done something with stop sign / U-turn

Yeah definition is the dots

micsthepick

okay, now I see it

Wen1now

2:13 AM

Is the next clue coming?

Alconja

Sorry, had to build a new one (whilst being distracted by other things)...

so it's a bit rough around the edges, but:

CCCC: Alternatively, English basics is measured in the first metre (or foot)? (6)

Sp3000

2:37 AM

@Alconja I think it's fine to just continue when the answer is sufficiently obviously correct :) (and yes that's confirmation)

Rand al'Thor

10:01 AM

I still think this question should be migrated to meta (it even has 4 votes to do so) instead of being deleted. Asking for support with one's user accounts is exactly one of the things meta is for (I've answered several questions of this type on SFF meta), and mod-deleted questions probably help to count towards a question ban for the user, which doesn't seem fair in this case.

Sphinx

0

Q: Floor arrangement based puzzle with two variables

I am trying to solve a mathematical arrangement based puzzle and not able to do it, need help of you guys. Question is relevant to competitive exams in India. Here is the puzzle:- M, N, O, P, Q, R and Sare seven people live on seven different floors of a building but not necessarily in the sam...

mathematics

Rand al'Thor

@Deusovi ^^

Darn interrupting Sphinx.

Sp3000

10:29 AM

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting Sphinx.
Interrupting Sphinx wh-
WHAT WALKS ON FOUR LEGS IN THE MORNING...

ASCII-only

@Sp3000 Better answer quickly or you might get eaten :/

Sid

10:46 AM

@Wen1now Impressed by some of your Blitz games in lichess. :-)

Wen1now

hmm?

Sid

I was just seeing a few of your games. They are good by Blitz time controls

Wen1now

Okay, thanks

Sp3000

11:06 AM

@Alconja I feel like this is ABC ("English basics") interweaved with I[s] M[easured] I[n] to give IAMBIC ("metre or foot?")

Not sure though

Rubio

@Randal'Thor I declined your flag after the fact. What actually happened there was both more complicated and less interesting than it might appear, and would have ultimately been either totally anticlimactic (Q: "I want to X, I know I'm supposed to A,B,C; I did that and nothing - now what?" A: "Wait for it...") or totally edited apart to reflect what actually happened, making it so localized it'd be useless to anyone else as Q&A.

Sid

@Sp3000 I get metre. Why foot should be a def?

M Oehm

@Sp3000 Yes, that's probably it. I had also thought about iambic or iambus, but couldn't parse it. In partcular, I didn't see English basics = ABC.

Sid

Oh, got it. metrical foot?

Rubio

oh.

I got IAMBIC but couldn't figure out the English basics.

Sp3000

11:12 AM

Yeah I thought of IAMBIC but shelved it as a non-fit, then later considered ABCs (plural) for "English basics" to realise that IAMBIC contains all three letters

Rubio

Yeah well spotted

Rand al'Thor

Wait, isn't the poetry thing spelled meter even in European English?

Rubio

heh. probably is, at that

metre
n [...]
2: (prosody) the accent in a metrical foot of verse [syn:
{meter}, {metre}, {measure}, {beat}, {cadence}]

apparently not

Sp3000

Yeah I thought the same but apparently not - although I feel like "pentameter" is a thing where "pentametre" is not.

So, er, on a scale of 1 to "let's post the next one" how convinced are we that that's the answer?

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio since you're here: spam

Sid

11:18 AM

@Sp3000 I dunno. I would say wait for a little bit but Alconja hardly ever comes on at this time of the day...

Rubio

@Randal'Thor thanks. still waking up. ;)

@Sid nah, that pretty much has to be right

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio It's past midday, you dozy sod ;-)

Wen1now

I would say that that's fine

Rubio

it's 6:19am for me, pbbbt

Wen1now

I think 'metre (or foot)' indicates the fact that or foot is iambic (is that even right?)

Sp3000

11:22 AM

Well... I guess the worst that can happen is I'll have to re-solve the clue to resolve the error

CCCC: Bloke's first ultimate fun party (5)

Is it B+LAST?

Ooh, nice

It is indeed B+LAST

+1

Okay.

I can do a clue that can be unfair or nice, depending on how you look at it...

CCCC: Smoke is monster(6)

Rubio

11:39 AM

hm

@Sid SPIRIT maybe?

Sphinx

0

Q: Combinations of pentagons on a 3 by 3 dot grid - how to use Burnside's lemma?

In the accepted answer to How many different pentagons in this grid?, Jaap Scherphuis says: After reducing for symmetry, only 23 are left, which you can check using Burnside's lemma. How did they get 23 using Burnside's lemma?

mathematics geometry

Alconja

12:12 PM

@Sp3000 'tis IAMBIC. A bit of a rush job so a little awkward in places (ABC vs ABCs, metre vs metre, etc), but all backed up by technicalities. :)

Sp3000

Yeah I don't blame you - IAMBIC is a tough word to clue off the cuff :P

Rand al'Thor

@Alconja metre vs metre?

Alconja

...need sleep :)

@Sp3000 I wouldn't have persisted but I liked the foot/metre ambiguity

Sphinx

12:29 PM

0

Q: Help with numeric cipher

I'm trying to solve a cipher but cannot figure out what type it is. I've got a five letter key from the first set of clues. Then there are 2 paragraphs of numbers. Each paragraph has several rows consisting of approx 16-18 numbers eg: 4236754327975425 467325678963456789 34526786435784627 Etc etc...

cipher

Sphinx

12:55 PM

0

Q: How many different non congruent polygons can you make on a 4 by 4 dot grid?

Since this is a even n by n, it is difficult to me to just draw it one by one. How can i solve this problem?

geometry

Sphinx

1:09 PM

0

Q: Find the maximum number of all-one rows

We've got an $N \times M$ matrix whose elements are either zero or one: $\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1\\ 1 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 1\\ 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1\\ 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1\\ \end{bmatrix}$ You are allowed to toggle the values of any given column in the matrix. If you toggle a column,...

logic-grid

Sphinx

1:43 PM

1

Q: Is there a recursive formula of solving for the number of combination of pentagon on a n by n dot grid?

is there someone who can help regarding to this problem? This is our mathematical investigation. I really need your help guys.

geometry

Rubio

1:56 PM

when did this become MathPuzzles.SE ?

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio Spot the sore non-mathematician :-P

Rubio

Bah. I'm not sore, I'm just amused at the influx of mathsy questions in the last couple of days. It's kinda weird.

n_palum

^

Rand al'Thor

Maybe the site is getting promoted somewhere with a lot of mathsy people?

Also, +1 to @Rubio for saying "mathsy" with an S.

Rubio

(That was entirely for your benefit. hehe)

Rand al'Thor

2:06 PM

I only need to answer one more mathematics question to make sure I have one of every silver tag badge that's been awarded here.

It's a bit odd that I've been lagging in that tag, given that it's what I do IRL.

But I guess I'm using those skills to answer logical-deduction puzzles too.

Sid

@Rubio No. Not spirit

Rubio

@Sid VTC: too broad. ;)

Rand al'Thor

@Sid It's hard to see any room for wordplay in that clue. Maybe "monster" = M on STER?

M
STER

Apep

I'm guessing the wordplay involves concatenating "is" onto the beginning or end, depending on which is the definition.

Rand al'Thor

Or it's a ddef with "smoke" and "monster" both being synonyms of the same word, but that seems a bit too simple.

Rubio

2:11 PM

That's what I'm assuming it is, but honestly, "SPIRIT" was the closest word I could find to a ddef. There really aren't many good synonyms for both.

Sid

Like, I said, this could be a tad unfair.

If people say, I could strike it down.

Rubio

That, for this kind of clue, is going to be a problem - if it's intended to be a ddef but one (or both) is a really poor fit, there's no wordplay to solve independently of the definition-clues

plus I have a sneaking suspicion it's Pokemon related. hehe

n_palum

There was a smoke monster in LOST

Sid

I don't know Pokemon if that helps

Sp3000

The only room for wordplay I see is the "is", e.g. ii for i's

Rubio

2:16 PM

huh.

Sp3000

Or at least, given what Sid's been saying, that seems like the type of thing that could be neat or border on unfair (like Deus' HA'S clue)

Rubio

required apostrophe-or-capitalization, in that case, is required

(and it doesn't help me anyway hehe)

Sp3000

(neither, but food for thought)

Sid

Okay, whoever is in favour of striking this down, say now. I need at least 5 yes.

Rand al'Thor

@Sid Just like votes to close? :-D

Does Rubio's vote count as a hammer here too?

Sp3000

2:18 PM

Just to check, is the lack of space before the enumeration intentional?

Sid

Nope. Unintended

@Randal'Thor nope. He is a regular solver. :P

n_palum

Spirit, Horror, Savage only things coming to mind for 6 letters

Rubio

oh.

good lord.

DRAG ON

Deusovi

oh?

Sid

Yes!

Sp3000

2:21 PM

... smoke?

Deusovi

smoke?

Rubio

Take a "drag on" is to smoke

Sid

So, you did get it, after all.

Deusovi

never heard that before

Rand al'Thor

Heh.

Rubio

2:22 PM

I actually like that - nice job Sid :)

Rand al'Thor

So the lack of space before the enumeration really WAS a clue!

Sid

Glad it turned out well. :-)

n_palum

Heh

Rubio

CCCC: Young lady left without concealing graph's partition. (9)

n_palum

I think that's fair XD

Rubio

2:23 PM

Yah, totally fair

Sp3000

Hard but fair yeah (just never heard of the phrase in that sense)

Rubio

idioms.thefreedictionary.com/take+a+drag+(on+something)

M Oehm

I'm glad you didn't have to resort to Urban Dictionary.

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio A combinatorics CCCC? :-o

Rubio

@MOehm As infrequently as humanly possible.

@Randal'Thor In keeping with the current PSE trend? ;)

Rand al'Thor

2:26 PM

As frequently as inhumanly possible?

M Oehm

Yes, good rule. But it does crop up occasionally in Google searches.

Deusovi

2:37 PM

@Randal'Thor As frequently as humanly impossible.

Mithrandir

It's starting to sound like the Humbug in The Phantom Tollbooth...

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir Seventeen!

feelinferrety

2:59 PM

I know I read that, but I don't remember anything from it.

Sphinx

3:13 PM

0

Q: Tom's mysterious alphanumeric character

Tom: I drew a mysterious alphanumeric character and showed it to Harry. Dick: Harry, was it a letter or a number? Harry: I'm not sure! Dick: Assuming it was a letter, was it uppercase or lowercase? Harry: It could have been either. Dick: Assuming it was a number, was it odd or even? ...

riddle enigmatic-puzzle no-computers

Rubio

3:33 PM

Combinations of pentagons on a 3 by 3 dot grid - how to use Burnside's lemma?

Why is this here, not on Math.SE? ^

Rand al'Thor

@Rubio It's asking for help with one of the steps in solving a puzzle, which has always been part of what this site is about.

Could have been on Maths.SE too, in this case. I guess they posted here because it's relevant to an existing post here.

Rubio

Is it? It read to me as "how did applying this lemma get that answer?" - I'm not sufficiently versed to tell, hence the question here

Rand al'Thor

Yes, but it's not just "why does Burnside's lemma for this group action give the answer 23"; it's "how is Burnside's lemma used in the solution of this puzzle".

The operative word being "puzzle" :-) I did have to think for a minute whether to VTC or answer it, but I'm pretty sure it's puzzle-relevant enough not to count as just a maths problem.

Deusovi

The question asks "How did they get 23 using Burnside's lemma?". That doesn't necessarily have to be puzzle-related.

Puzzles are incidental to the question in that they're the context where it came up.

But I wouldn't ask a question about the Futurama Theorem on Movies & TV just because it came up in a TV show.

Rand al'Thor

But in context it's asking for help solving a puzzle.

Deusovi

3:41 PM

No, it's asking about how a solution to a puzzle works.

Sierra Sorongon

sorry

Deusovi

No need to apologize!

feelinferrety

@Rubio you familiar with Hot Doug's?

Rubio

The place that closed a while back?

feelinferrety

Yup. They made a documentary, and it's screening tonight.

Rubio

3:47 PM

huh. neat, didn't know that

feelinferrety

Interested?

Rubio

I'd probably watch it online if it makes it there, but not something I could see today

Rand al'Thor

@SierraSorongon Hey, welcome to chat! :-)

Sierra Sorongon

:)

actually im not genius in math, i really cant understand it. XOX

feelinferrety

I'll let you know if they say anything about a release

Rubio

3:56 PM

Cool yah thanks

feelinferrety

4:07 PM

I've been pretty good about going to the gym since the most recent time I joined, but after being away for GenCon, it's hard to start back up!

And I was all set and ready to do it tonight before remembering the movie ><

ffao

5:05 PM

The recent xkcds about the eclipse were very much on point

One saying that partial eclipses are much worse to see

And one ending with "if you're going to be on the road, bring water"

feelinferrety

@ffao We stupidly forgot to refill the "car bottle" before leaving my folks' house

I had a dehydration headache all day

ffao

5:31 PM

...ouch

Sphinx

5:53 PM

0

Q: Connecting the unconnected

What connects/links all the following: Green Wednesday 2nd July of a normal year La Part of a type of software attack ? Also explain how each are connected with the found word / concept.

enigmatic-puzzle wordplay

Rubio

@ffao Yeah we had a ton of water with us just for that reason. It was hot out Monday afternoon and we knew we'd be outside for a few hours, and (of course) in the car for many more. (But we weren't expecting it to be quite as many hours in the car as it turned out to be hehe!)

Sphinx

6:09 PM

0

Q: Neither here nor there

I am neither here nor there perhaps I belong to nowhere I am just a part of a day if you analyze anyway I am a part of yesterday and also a part of today I am a part of today and I would be part of tomorrow I would be of prominent with a celebration for many during an annual transition ...

word wordplay

Gareth McCaughan

6:31 PM

@MOehm Looks like we were pretty much exactly simultaneous on the "connecting the unconnected" puzzle. We both pointed out Mittwoch, too :-). I claim victory not only because I think I was a few seconds quicker but also because I have a halfway-plausible explanation (though it does involve an error on the part of the questioner) for "La"...

Sid

Ha! Oehm and Gareth strike at the same time. :P

Wow. Those answers are so similar. It is as if the same guy wrote it twice...

Rubio

We've finally found the elusive Gareth sockpuppet?!

Rand al'Thor

Has Oehm posted any questions?

Sid

Nope.

M Oehm

@GarethMcCaughan Yes, the similarity of the answers is astonishing. I'm not in a quarreling mood, so I'll let you have your victory. But striking so suddenly after we all thought you were in a near-hiatus ...

Rand al'Thor

6:38 PM

Gareth McOehman

M Oehm

Sockpuppet? What happened to "Great minds" and all that?

Rand al'Thor

"Great" is almost an anagram of Gareth.

And "minds" alliterates with MOehm.

I think you've just confirmed our theory :-P

M Oehm

And Gareth is the music man, of course. My knowledge of music is very basic, plus I find the English music vocabulary to be so different from the German words that I can't talk even about the basics with confidence.

Mithrandir

@moehm forgot a right parenthesis; -1

M Oehm

That would never happen to the real Gareth. Convinced now?

Sid

6:44 PM

You guys are so slow...

Nov 19 '16 at 17:20, by Sid

Gareth McCaughan- You are a sock puppet of M Oehm(Or vice versa). See the similarities- Both of these users haven't posted a single question but have over a hundred answers and they also give pretty high quality answers. And now, Gareth fumbles and writes in German. Yes!! I was right.... (No offence to any of the two subjects, but you are caught now...) :P

I got that months ago... :P

Rand al'Thor

:-D

Rubio

Twice confirmed then. Sorry Gareth McOehman, you've been rumbled!

2

Call to arms: Rubio is defending in Contact

Sphinx

8:12 PM

0

Q: Which word will be the next?

What is the next word? Jewellery Fragrancy Matriarch Archangel Matrimony Jessamine Janissary Assistant ? a) Sunflower b) Doomsayer c) Overpower d) Navigator

logical-deduction

n_palum

@Sphinx This has been so overdone

Deusovi

yeahhh

Rand al'Thor

9:39 PM

@Sphinx Self-deleted? :-o

stacksfiller

Huh

I might have been too dense with my matchstick puzzle

there were some creative answers, including one with antimatter, to it, but nobody got "what I was thinking of"

5

Q: Another simple matchstick puzzle

Seems like there's been lots of matchstick puzzles lately, so here's my take on it Move one matchstick to make the equality right.

matches

ffao

now you know why we want less matchsticks puzzles, not more

stacksfiller

I can't just see everybody else making a type of puzzle and not join in on the fun

Rand al'Thor

10:43 PM

@ffao Eh, there'll always be these fads coming and going.

I've been here since the spaghetti days.

I might be more worried if there wasn't a surge in some particular type of puzzle every so often. It shows that our content is inspiring people to make more.

Many of the people who start off by getting in on a popular fad then go on to create original puzzles of their own and become prolific contributors.

n_palum

11:04 PM

I've been in a SE slump

feelinferrety

11:30 PM

Good to see ya, Plum