With older, more well known riddles, it is more fun to try and think of another correct non-answer response.
It's not an answer because the poser didn't think of it? Pshaw to that! With these riddles the preferred thing should be to think (preferably out of the box) for yourself; there's nothing smart about just regurgitating stock replies.
I have the Tower of Hanoi down to a science...on my physical, 7-level tower, I can complete it in minimal steps in two minutes.
The number of steps required, if anyone is curious is 2^n - 1, where n is the number of levels.
Here's the trick: Any time a piece is moved to an empty peg, the next goal is to stack all smaller pieces on top of that piece. You might say "Well, isn't that the goal of the entire puzzle?" Sure, but it's also the goal of every single intermediate step, making it a recursive process.
Imagine a four-level tower. First, I move the top piece, creating a tower of 1. Then I move piece 2 to the empty peg and put piece 1 on top of it, creating a tower of 2. Then I move piece 3 to the empty peg...my goal now is to get a tower of 3 so that I have an empty peg for piece 4.
Here's a method I use to speed things up. Let's say I have a tower of x pieces that I'm trying to transfer onto the next largest base (example: I have a 4-level tower that I'm trying to transfer onto the next largest piece to make a 5-level tower). If x is odd, I move the top, smallest piece of my tower directly onto the new base. If x is even, I move the smallest piece onto the peg that the new base *isn't* on. The place where most people make mistakes, I'd imagine, is right at the beginning of these minitower constructions, because if you make this one false move, your tower won't be transferred to the base, it will be transferred to the other peg.
Anyway, I'm done with my crazy Tower of Hanoi raves.
I generally count how many rings I have, and then depending on whether its even or odd, move the top ring to either the second or third peg (even second, odd third). The rest of the puzzle pretty much does itself. I still make mistakes because I suck at counting but it works pretty well.
The newly formed U.S. Cyber Command is supposed to centralize and focus the military's ability to wage war over the Internet, but so far it's basically famous for brainteasers. The command's fancy logo contains a super-secret code in its inner gold ring: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a. Though some people noticed the code late last month, Wired's Threat Level blog picked it up Wednesday morning and announced a contest, with a free T-shirt (or a ticket to the International Spy Museum) going to the first reader to crack the code.
I bet one of Nelson Tethers' assignments was to help design the logo.
Assuming that you mean the earths rotation around it's own axis, the same (ignoring things like why bodies move in space, like gravity and alignment). In fact, no matter if you change the axises for the rotation around the sun and around the center of the earth, it would still take the same time. Because what matters is the absolute rotation speeds, not their directions.
Year is how long it takes us to get around the sun once. Day is how long it takes the earth to spin on its axis, though for the purpose of this, I'm wanting how many days there would be on our calendars. (I'll accept an average over four years)
Comments
This is surprisingly fun. I just spent the last half hour trying to see how many I can do. I'm up to eight. So far...:D
Great, now I think I like this answer better than the one I had in mind
... obviously there are more answers than I thought. Do you want me to tell you what I had in mind?
Good DAY, Sir! And, you win, Mr. Highway.
Edit: Nevermind, I just read the riddle again and this answer doesn't make any sense.
Fine, fine, no need to come up with more examples of why my riddle sucked >_<
What will weigh the same when it is full and empty?
I would have said "a balloon", but I hear that due to pressure or something, they actually DON'T weigh the same. So I don't know.
I guess your correct I was thinking of a hard drive but a writable cd works aswell
I have the Tower of Hanoi down to a science...on my physical, 7-level tower, I can complete it in minimal steps in two minutes.
The number of steps required, if anyone is curious is 2^n - 1, where n is the number of levels.
Here's the trick: Any time a piece is moved to an empty peg, the next goal is to stack all smaller pieces on top of that piece. You might say "Well, isn't that the goal of the entire puzzle?" Sure, but it's also the goal of every single intermediate step, making it a recursive process.
Imagine a four-level tower. First, I move the top piece, creating a tower of 1. Then I move piece 2 to the empty peg and put piece 1 on top of it, creating a tower of 2. Then I move piece 3 to the empty peg...my goal now is to get a tower of 3 so that I have an empty peg for piece 4.
Here's a method I use to speed things up. Let's say I have a tower of x pieces that I'm trying to transfer onto the next largest base (example: I have a 4-level tower that I'm trying to transfer onto the next largest piece to make a 5-level tower). If x is odd, I move the top, smallest piece of my tower directly onto the new base. If x is even, I move the smallest piece onto the peg that the new base *isn't* on. The place where most people make mistakes, I'd imagine, is right at the beginning of these minitower constructions, because if you make this one false move, your tower won't be transferred to the base, it will be transferred to the other peg.
Anyway, I'm done with my crazy Tower of Hanoi raves.
A birdcage with an electrified floor.
My puzzle from the last page:
second ______ = third _______
A whole!
or it. Whether you are full of it or dont want anything to do with it:D
Assuming birds levitate rather than flap their wings for upwards thrust?
I guess Didero already got it, but I would've said a balance, or scale. Whether or not it has something on it, it weighs in the same manner.
hand/person
I bet one of Nelson Tethers' assignments was to help design the logo.
It says "Nancy Pelosi is a poopyface."
Solve'd
But third hand is the same as second hand, when it's on a clock!
365.24, same as now
Each day would be 8 minutes shorter, not 4. So 1 year=367.24 days.
Good work villagio.