The Incredible Puzzle Thread

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  • edited June 2010
    New guess: lock.
  • edited June 2010
    prizna wrote: »
    fine i lose now give this a go: http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi/

    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
  • edited June 2010
    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.
  • edited June 2010
    Harald B wrote: »
    New guess: lock.

    Great, now I think I like this answer better than the one I had in mind :p

    ... obviously there are more answers than I thought. Do you want me to tell you what I had in mind?
  • edited June 2010
    Then you LOSE!

    Good DAY, Sir! And, you win, Mr. Highway.
  • edited June 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    ... obviously there are more answers than I thought. Do you want me to tell you what I had in mind?
    Sure.
  • edited June 2010
    I was thinking of "burn". As in "the house burnt up" = "the house burnt down".
  • edited June 2010
    I think it could also be "stand". You can ask someone to stand up or a military commander can order his soldiers to stand down.

    Edit: Nevermind, I just read the riddle again and this answer doesn't make any sense.
  • edited June 2010
    I think it could also be "stand". You can ask someone to stand up or a military commander can order his soldiers to stand down.

    Fine, fine, no need to come up with more examples of why my riddle sucked >_<
    :p
  • edited June 2010
    Heres one,

    What will weigh the same when it is full and empty?
  • edited June 2010
    prizna wrote: »
    Heres one,

    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.
  • edited June 2010
    na not a balloon
  • edited June 2010
    Is it literally or figuratively? Because I can think of stuff like full moon or empty promises, but they only work for one of the two.
  • edited June 2010
    A writable CD/DVD? Or does the burning process remove mass?
  • edited June 2010
    Didero wrote: »
    A writable CD/DVD? Or does the burning process remove mass?

    I guess your correct I was thinking of a hard drive but a writable cd works aswell
  • edited June 2010
    prizna wrote: »
    fine i lose now give this a go: http://www.mazeworks.com/hanoi/

    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.
  • edited June 2010
    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.
  • edited June 2010
    What weighs the same when it's full or empty?
    A birdcage with an electrified floor.

    My puzzle from the last page:
    second ______ = third _______
  • edited June 2010
    What weighs the same when it's full or empty?

    A whole!

    or it. Whether you are full of it or dont want anything to do with it:D
  • edited June 2010
    What weighs the same when it's full or empty?
    A birdcage with an electrified floor.

    Assuming birds levitate rather than flap their wings for upwards thrust?
  • edited June 2010
    Assuming the flapping would be negligible, with the force dissipating outwards.
  • edited June 2010
    When you said that, I pictured a dead bird in a cage and I had no clue why you'd answer that.
  • edited June 2010
    prizna wrote: »
    Heres one,

    What will weigh the same when it is full and empty?

    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.


    second ______ = third _______
    hand
  • edited June 2010
    the answer i was looking for was a hard drive
  • edited June 2010

    My puzzle from the last page:
    second ______ = third _______

    hand/person
  • edited July 2010
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100707/od_yblog_upshot/the-secret-code-in-u-s-cyber-commands-logo
    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.
  • edited July 2010
    Klatuu wrote: »
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100707/od_yblog_upshot/the-secret-code-in-u-s-cyber-commands-logo



    I bet one of Nelson Tethers' assignments was to help design the logo.

    It says "Nancy Pelosi is a poopyface."

    Solve'd
  • edited July 2010
    second person isn't the same as third person.

    But third hand is the same as second hand, when it's on a clock! :D
  • edited July 2010
    If the earth span the other way, how many days would there be in a year?
  • edited July 2010
    If the earth span the other way, how many days would there be in a year?

    365.24, same as now
  • edited July 2010
    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.
  • edited July 2010
    Nobody correct so far :)
  • edited July 2010
    Really? Then how about you tell use what definitions of "day" and "year" you're using? That seems to have a non-trivial impact here.
  • edited July 2010
    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)
  • edited July 2010
    Weird. Well I can't get much further than to agree with henke then. Must be some peculiar assumption about date/time measurement in play or something.
  • edited July 2010
    I'm looking for a number - I only considered strongbrush' answer.
  • edited July 2010
    366.24? Assuming the same speed of rotation would the international date line go round 1 time more?
  • edited July 2010
    that's not correct. But if you got there by deduction, keep thinking about it, you're very close. If you just guessed that, then ah well.
  • edited July 2010
    Lol yeah I think I was halfway there right?

    Each day would be 8 minutes shorter, not 4. So 1 year=367.24 days.
  • edited July 2010
    Yup, if the earth span the other way, then we would have 367 days on our calendar :)
    Good work villagio.
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