The Sphinx's Lair

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Sphinx

1:17 AM

Q: A 3 digit perfect square and its reverse are both perfect squares. What is the number?

A three-digit perfect square number is such that if its digits are reversed, then the number obtained is also a perfect square. What is the number? For example, if 450 were a perfect square then 045 would also have been be a perfect square. Similarly, if 326 were a perfect square then 623 would a...

6 hours later…

M Oehm

7:09 AM

@DanielS I think this is HYPERSPHERE = HYPER (over-enthusiastic) + SP (starting price, odds) + HERE (present)

Sphinx

7:41 AM

Q: Filling a rectangular grid with holes using tetrominoes

There is a rectangular grid of $R$ rows and $C$ columns. $R \times C \bmod 4$ of the cells are painted black, and all other cells are white. In other words, there are at least 0 and at most 3 black cells, and the number of white cells is divisible by 4. I want to cover the white cells using exact...

mathematics combinatorics tiling

msh210

@MOehm oh nice

M Oehm

8:07 AM

Thanks. (Not so sure about the "hyper" part, but what else could it be?)

Sphinx

8:47 AM

Q: Psychology Today Culture Fair IQ test question

I took an IQ test at Psychology Today(https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/tests/iq/culture-fair-iq-test) and encountered this question which I wasn't able to solve:

logical-deduction

Sphinx

9:08 AM

Q: IQ Test Puzzle Question

I took an IQ test and encountered some questions which I wasn't able to solve: . Can anyone share their explanation for the above questions. Thanks.

logical-deduction visual pattern progressive-matrix

Sphinx

9:50 AM

Q: Puzzle to unlock Easter Egg, hint: Douglas Adams fans will know this one

I just installed DevByte app, and there is a Easter Egg. I tried following prompts, but did not work! What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? Create a function which takes number as input, and if that number is 42, return a message "The Hitchhiker's Gu...

computer-puzzle

1 hour later…

Daniel S

11:05 AM

@MOehm That’s right! Is “hyper” meaning overstimulatednot common usage?

M Oehm

Could be. Merriam-Webster says so. It's probably just me being uncomfortable with real-life English as she is spoken outside novels and technical manuals. :)

(And crossword clues, obviously.)

CCCC: Half-diameter circles reach extremes in local change (6)

Jafe

11:27 AM

di(r_h)am, local change in morocco and the UAE

M Oehm

Yep.

Jafe

CCCC: Where the radius is constant, and the diameter is packing heat (5)

when you just can't make a surface reading make sense, going full dada is always an option

M Oehm

Hehe

msh210

12:24 PM

@Jafe armed (packing heat) = arm (=where the radius is) e (=constant) and d (=the diameter)

Jafe

that's right

msh210

nice clue

Jafe

thanks

msh210

12:38 PM

CCCC: Shot a tangent on both sides, packing heat (7)

1 hour later…

Ankoganit

1:54 PM

@msh210 A+T(angen)T packing TEMP (temperature, heat) = ATTEMPT

msh210

@Ankoganit aye

Sphinx

2:05 PM

Q: 66: Luftballons

This is part 66 of the puzzle series Around the World in Many Days. Each part is solvable on its own. Dear Puzzling, This is a Dosun-Fuwari puzzle. Place some balloons (white circles) and anvils (black circles) into the grid so that every area marked with bolded lines contains exactly one balloo...

logical-deduction knowledge grid-deduction geography cryptic-crosswords

msh210

@Sphinx seems upside-down…

Jafe

what do you mean

msh210

the "66"

Jafe

ahh right

fun fact: any dosun-fuwari upside down is a valid dosun-fuwari

Ankoganit

CCCC: Grant O'Brien could become a symbol of shock and confusion (11)

Mithical

2:21 PM

Oh, he already is.

Ankoganit

very true

Mithical

...I'd link some true facts, but it's a bit too NSFW...

Ankoganit

is that a fellow dropout enjoyer I see?

Mithical

Only the stuff freely available, I'm afraid, the subscription isn't in my budget right now

Ankoganit

ah, very understandable

Mithical

2:24 PM

but when it is, Neverafter, A Court of Fey and Flowers, and Escape the Green Room are all on my to-watch list

Ankoganit

nice! I haven't seen a lot of dimension20, but game changer (especially the last season) has been fire

msh210

@Ankoganit interrobang*

Ankoganit

@msh210 correct!

msh210

Is that his real name?

Ankoganit

yes!

Jafe

2:28 PM

hah that's a nice clue

msh210

interesting. Maybe his parents were very punctilious people

@Jafe 'tis

CCCC: A do-gooder isn't a criminal (5)

Ankoganit

@Jafe thanks! can't take credit for the very neat anagram: I saw that on the dropout subreddit, but once I did I had to make a clue about it

Jafe

@msh210 saint*

msh210

@Jafe yep yep

Jafe

CCCC: Radiohead recording American piano tracks (5)

juicifer

2:45 PM

@Ankoganit ngl I thought you stole this from erik agard's puzzmo crossword yesterday because it basically had this clue in it, even though it was a non-cryptic

love me some dropout tho

@Mithical can confirm these are all bangers

Ankoganit

@juicifer aha, that's probably how it ended up on the subreddit

Mithical

@juicifer Somehow I'm not surprised that a number of Puzzling.SE users are Dropout fans.

juicifer

given that one of their shows is literally "figure out what the show is"? yeah that tracks

juicifer

3:28 PM

@Jafe oh, this is CREE P

Jafe

yup

juicifer

nice one, had me going down several different tracks before I realized what was going on

juicifer

3:47 PM

CCCC: Sit with one's legs apart & crooked? (9)

Sphinx

4:35 PM

Q: The riddle is, "What is but never was? You can live with one but not the other."

The answer is supposed to be hidden in a painting but I can't figure out what it would be to look for it. Based on my research, "What is but never was" is "Tomorrow". But I don't see how that can be in a painting.

visual

Sphinx

4:58 PM

Q: Unpaired socks in my lap

Today in my laundry basket I had 10 pairs of socks. For each sock, I take a sock randomly from my basket. If it matches a sock in my lap, I pair both up and put them aside, otherwise I put it on my lap. On average, what is the maximum number of socks in my lap? (Inspired by a true story.)

probability

Stiv

5:21 PM

@juicifer MANSPREAD = AMPERSAND*

GentlePurpleRain

Nice. But isn't that an indirect anagram?

juicifer

5:40 PM

@Stiv right-o

@GentlePurpleRain I mean, maybe. I would argue that since it's the name of the symbol that's being anagrammed and not a synonym that it's somewhat more fair, but it is still probably unfair

@juicifer in any case, this was also inspired by a clue from this same puzzle

Daniel S

@Stiv love this one

M Oehm

5:57 PM

It's probably a border case. The & sticks out as something special and reversing the clue to make it "legal" (i.e. making ampersand the answer) would also make it blander, in my opinion.

2 hours later…

GentlePurpleRain

8:25 PM

@juicifer Fair enough. Probably wouldn't make it into any newspaper's cryptic crossword, but I'll accept it. (Not that you need my acceptance.)

Sphinx

Q: Words written in encoded numbers

In a certain code language $COMMENCE$ is coded as $18251624$ and $PRESERVE$ is coded as $18323620$. Then how will $UNLAWFUL$ be coded in that language ? Attempt :- The length of both the words and the encrypted number is 8 . But upon close inspection the positioning of letters do not seem to rela...