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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 25, 2017 2:31:53 GMT
Jeremy is dead. There is an iron bar across his neck, and some uneaten food in front of him. Who is Jeremy? May I ask, Brimfin, what kind of iron bar it is (I'm having trouble visualizing the situation), or would that give too much away? I'm going to guess a prisoner, brimfin, but I'm sure that's not it. Still working on it.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 25, 2017 5:16:06 GMT
Can I guess? A mouse cauught in a trap perhaps?
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 25, 2017 11:59:53 GMT
OK, I think I just got it. A mouse in a mousetrap? (I just checked to confirm that tarathian123 had got the same thing.) I think it's the "who" that got me off track. "Who" implies a person, as opposed to "what" for an animal, which is why I thought of a prisoner. I suppose the whole "who/what" distinction can be avoided by rephrasing the riddle like this: "Jeremy is dead. There is an iron bar across his neck, and some uneaten food in front of him. How did Jeremy meet his death?" (General male-female pronouns ( he, she, him, her), though, rather than the interrogative pronoun who, can be used with animals, according to my online dictionary.) That would be fair to the reader and avoid the "who" concern. I think!
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Post by brimfin on Apr 25, 2017 12:10:30 GMT
Have very limited time right now, but tarathian123 and salzmank, you are both correct.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 25, 2017 12:40:12 GMT
Have very limited time right now, but tarathian123 and salzmank, you are both correct. Thanks, Brimfin! No worries about limited time.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 25, 2017 17:30:11 GMT
By the way, jervistetch , have any guesses or questions about the hat puzzle? I'm here to help! (I needed my roommate to tell me a few times before I got it.)
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 26, 2017 4:49:42 GMT
Hi Salzmank. True confession: I'm ashamed. I ran amok trying to figure out the Hat Riddle and finally peeked at brimfin's solution. It was brilliant and I never came close.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 26, 2017 13:21:49 GMT
Hi Salzmank. True confession: I'm ashamed. I ran amok trying to figure out the Hat Riddle and finally peeked at brimfin's solution. It was brilliant and I never came close. No need to be ashamed, Jervistetch! I was just wondering if you needed any help. But, yes, it is a hard one. I don't have a mathematical mind, so it took me ages!
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 26, 2017 15:37:30 GMT
Thank you. The limit of my applicable math knowledge ends at "Buy One. Get One Free". But that won't stop me from going at another one of your puzzles if you post one.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 26, 2017 15:44:04 GMT
Thank you. The limit of my applicable math knowledge ends at "Buy One. Get One Free".
But that won't stop me from going at another one of your puzzles if you post one. Yeah, that applies pretty much for me too. That puzzle is rooted in mathematical, deductive logic, at which I certainly don't excel (far from it, in fact--I'm better at a more inductive or abductive kind of logic). As for another puzzle... I'll try to remember, or find, another one. Of course, everyone's welcome to post their own here!
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 27, 2017 22:56:52 GMT
OK, I'll go again, but because I haven't found a particularly good riddle that would stump anyone here for more than eight seconds, I'll be bad and offer this: Why is a raven like a writing-desk?
I'm sure you all know the story, but if you don't... In Lewis Carroll's (Charles Dodgson's) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter poses this riddle to Alice. She asks him why, and he says he doesn't know, he just wanted to ask a riddle. Thus, "why is a raven like a writing-desk?" was never intended to have an answer, but that hasn't stopped people ever since from trying to figure it out all the same. Several possible answers: Lewis Carroll himself, after fans begged him: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front." Which is actually cleverer than it may appear at first, if you think about it. Let me emphasize that there are no typos in that sentence. Puzzle Enthusiast Sam Loyd: "Because Poe wrote on both." Author Aldous Huxley, in a Carollian nonsensical manner: "Because there is a 'b' in both and an 'n' in neither." Esther Inglis-Arkell, who wrote this article on the "riddle": "Because neither is approached without caws." Tony Weston (about whom I've been able to find nothing else): "Because a writing-desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens." OK, so, not quite a riddle, but still something that'll cause you to put your thinking caps on, if any of the usual suspects ( jervistetch , brimfin , tarathian123 , persistenceofvision , Pete ), or anyone else, is interested. Don't worry, I'll try to find a real (challenging) riddle some time soon. EDIT: I should have realized that jervistetch 's username is a reference to the Batman villain the Mad Hatter (based on Carroll's character), but in my defense I know little about Batman villains, or really anything Batman-related, to be honest (though I do like the character).
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 29, 2017 10:08:18 GMT
Here's an old teaser and probably beneath you expert problem-solvers, but I'll stick it up anyway. Someone may not know it.
A Fox, a Chicken, and a Sack of Grain:
You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken, the fox will eat the chicken; if you leave the chicken with the grain, the chicken will eat the grain. How can you get all three across safely?
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 29, 2017 13:35:29 GMT
Here's an old teaser and probably beneath you expert problem-solvers, but I'll stick it up anyway. Someone may not know it. A Fox, a Chicken, and a Sack of Grain: You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken, the fox will eat the chicken; if you leave the chicken with the grain, the chicken will eat the grain. How can you get all three across safely? Ah, I know this one well, Al, so I'll keep silent on it. Learned it in a big ol' book of puzzles that I loved looking through when I was little.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 29, 2017 16:39:38 GMT
Another favourite old riddle you probably all know:
You are on a trail in a desert. You already drank all your water, and are 2 miles from the next well. There is a crossroads in the trail. One path leads directly to the fountain, and one leads out into the middle of nowhere. At the crossroad, there is an Indian. He is from one of two tribes - one tribe always tells the truth, and one tribe always tells lies. The two tribes have one thing in common: They will only answer one question.
What question must you ask to find out which trail to take?
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 29, 2017 17:34:38 GMT
You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken, the fox will eat the chicken; if you leave the chicken with the grain, the chicken will eat the grain. How can you get all three across safely? Can you just: Carry the grain over first. Go back and then carry the fox over. Go back and then carry the chicken over?
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 29, 2017 17:47:21 GMT
@jervis. Carry the grain over first. Go back and then carry the fox over. Go back and then carry the chicken over? Not right, Here's why... While you're carrying over the grain, the fox eats the hen.
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 29, 2017 17:50:45 GMT
Oh, yeah. Duh.
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Post by brimfin on Apr 29, 2017 23:41:37 GMT
Wow. Lots to cover here. 1.) I have heard the puzzles submitted by jervistetch and the two submitted by tarathian123 years ago. They are all classics. (In fact, the fox, chicken, and grain puzzle was shown on an episode of BRAIN GAMES a few years back.) So I won't offer solutions on them but encourage others to think them through. You can get there. 2.) I notice that no one has offered a solution to the doctor problem I submitted. Perhaps I should have put it on a separate post instead of including it with my Jeremy puzzle as I did. 3.) salzmank's "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" puzzle reminded me of a couple of puzzles I ran across as a kid. The first one is "Why is a blotter like a lazy dog?" A blotter, by the way, is a piece of blotting paper used to absorb excess ink, to protect a desk top. In these days of computers, blotters are long forgotten. Anyway, I will include the answer in spoiler mode, but it's not really a serious puzzle to be solved; it's more of a clever play on words. Here it is: A blotter is an ink-lined plane. An inclined plane is a slope up. And a slow pup is a lazy dog. On a similar plane is this riddle, "Why is a fire engine red?" The Russians are red, and a fire engine is red because it's always rushin'. The funny thing is that the original answer to the fire engine one was a much longer piece of wordplay and those two lines were just the end of it. If anyone knows the full nonsensical answer please let me know.
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 30, 2017 1:30:25 GMT
Fox & Chicken He takes the chicken across. Then he takes the grain across and brings the chicken back. Then he leaves the chicken and brings the fox across.Then he goes back for the chicken? I think that works. It only took me three days. Sherlock would kick me down the stairs of 221B.
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Post by jervistetch on Apr 30, 2017 1:32:11 GMT
brimfin, I had heard the doctor one before so I didn't post a solution.
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