Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with puzzles

Solve my Sudoku

cosmonaught — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:17:17 -0800

Is this a medium difficulty Sudoku puzzle? Am I a Sudoku idiot? I've just started playing Sudoku (on my iPhone) and this puzzle comes up under medium difficulty, and apparently is going to keep coming up until I solve it. I'll get through it eventually, I'm sure, but it's requiring a lot more thought then I was expecting. Is the difficulty of this puzzle off, or have I not given Sudoku puzzles (and their solvers) enough credit?

How can I sharpen my mind?

decoherence — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:24:36 -0800

I've been feeling slow lately. How can I sharpen my mental powers? I've been feeling mentally sluggish over the past month or so. I'm having a bit more trouble locating the right words when I speak, and I'm getting tongue-tied more than usual. My general problem solving abilities also seem to have taken a hit. Nothing too serious though -- just the consequence of staying in an understimulating job a bit too long, I suspect. (I'm in my mid-20's, I'm healthy, and I'm not taking anything.)

Does anyone have any suggestions for proven ways to "sharpen up" one's intellectual faculties? Not looking for anything gimmicky or quick fix-ish. Some sort of project or daily activity I can do for the next couple weeks would be great. And please, no suggestions to change my circumstances -- I'm already doing that in the very near future. Thanks.

The ultimate self-discipline is not peaking at the answer.

Christ, what an asshole — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:11:13 -0800

I need some mind-bendingly difficult brain teasers. I used to tackle these all the time back in high school, and my passion for them was recently rejeuvenated when I picked up Professor Layton for the Nintendo DS. I've been searching online, but all I come across are sites with crappy little riddles and math problems. I need some big guns. If you have any really great ones or know of a site that catalogues a trove of them, please post them here.

4. good crossword puzzle book

horseblind — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:31:27 -0800

Looking for good crossword puzzle books. I enjoy the Boston Globe puzzles online (alas, no Sundays unless I subscribe) and usually get a kick out of the themed puzzles in the print edition of The Onion. I tend to find puzzles from both of these fun, witty, clever and pretty fast paced. FWIW, I also enjoy the NYT puzzles but they just don't have that same feel as the previous sources. Dell books and the like are usually too easy and too repetitive within a given book (they drive me crazy.) Spiral bound or a spine that allows it to lie flat is a plus. I am willing to entertain the idea of puzzle to print from the internet provided it consistently comes close to the description I gave. Also, all crosswords, no other puzzles, no filler. I have read other MeFi/Ask MeFi crosswords posts and see nothing that stands out to me.

how many words in METAMORPHOSIS

LizardOfDoom — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:35:15 -0800

How many words can be made from the letters in the word "Metamorphosis"? Is there a website where you can type in a word and find out how many words can be created from its letters? I work in a public library and want to make some puzzles, but don't trust myself to come up with every single possibility...

Thanks!

Help me puzzle-hack with Python!

cowbellemoo — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:41:53 -0800

What are some fun and simple puzzles or cryptography I can solve with Python to help me learn the basics? I'm working my way through Dive Into Python for fun and I'm itching to get some enjoyable coding done. I've found PythonChallange.com, and cryptographic tasks appeal to me, but I'd appreciate some handholding if I'm stumped.

I'm not fantastic at math, so I'd enjoy string/list-based parsing, ciphering, and sorting puzzles -- especially if there's 'starter' examples and lots of interesting input sources or messages to work with. For example, coding an Enigma machine or similar mechanical cipher would be lots of fun (as long as I can look up actual implementations to compare). Are there any puzzle-y Python tutorials? Or just cryptographic tutorials not prog. language-specific (with pseudocode)?

Simple puzzles that require time travel to solve?

TimeTravelSpeed — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:13:35 -0800

Can you think of time-travel puzzle rooms for my D&D mini-campaign? (2 other categories of puzzles I'd like are described inside) Let's say player A has a magical hourglass which is labeled "Past" on the bottom, and "Future" on the top. When sand falls "into the past", she goes back in time. Turned horizontal, to the present, and turned the other way, the future. I provide the amount of sand in each room, and that controls the distance and duration of her travel. (For example, "30 seconds of sand" would mean she goes back 30 seconds, and can remain in that timeline for 30 seconds before returning) Additional notes: 1) her physical location is preserved over the "time jumps", 2) when she goes back in time there will be two of her, 2.1) if she jumps back in the same physical location she was in, she'll just appear next to her clone from the past -- no overlap, and 3) the sand disappears when she exits a room.

I would like simple and interesting puzzles that require this ability. An example might be that she enters a room whose floor begins to raise slowly toward a ceiling of spikes. The solution is to go forward in time 30 seconds so that the floor has now raised over head, revealing the room underneath the raising floor with the lever that stops it. Also, don't worry too much about time paradoxes -- the players are much more interested in simplicity and coolness-factor than ones that are consistent with physical laws :P

The two other players also have special abilities. One can turn into a titan or tiny creature at will. The other can shift gravity toward any wall or ceiling. Puzzles of this type would be great too. I would be VERY grateful to anyone who can come up with a puzzle that requires ALL THREE abilities cooperatively in a clever way.

Please be as outlandish as you like. The rooms are the creation of a trickster god, so the setting allows for pretty much anything. If you have any questions, please ask. Thanks!

What sudoku game do I want for my new Nintendo DS Lite?

booksandlibretti — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:32:50 -0800

I got a Nintendo DS for Christmas! Given my logical style of solving sudoku, which of the scores of sudoku titles do I want? I solve sudoku 100% logically, so I definitely don't want a game that includes puzzles that make you guess. If the puzzles can be solved with logic alone, any difficulty level is fine for me. A variety would also be fine.

Because of the style I use to solve sudoku, in each square that winds up containing one number, I need to be able to write nine smaller numbers (or place nine dots, or whatever). For example, Brain Age did this perfectly. This is my main requirement -- it's absolutely crucial for me.

It's also important that the game have a ton of puzzles -- I solved all of Brain Age's sudoku puzzles in a week, when I borrowed my brother's DS after having my wisdom teeth removed. Obviously I won't usually play anywhere near that much (maybe one a day?), but I don't want to run out.

I'm interested in plain vanilla sudoku, and I probably won't be really enthusiastic about playing any variants that are included. Missions would be cool, though. A timer might be nice but isn't crucial -- and if there is one, pausing or saving/resuming should be simple and fast.

It would be nice if the DS were held in its usual orientation, and not like a book -- I've heard the hinge problem blamed on holding the DS book-style and flattening it out.

A DS title would be ideal, since I like the touch screen, but a GBA one would also be fine if it has the features I want. $20 or under would be awesome, but I'll go up to the standard $35 if the title has everything I'd like. As long as it's common enough I won't have trouble buying it, popularity/status/prestige/whatever is totally not a concern.

3 sequential sets of double letters?

widdershins — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:28:22 -0800

I'm interested in websites that explain/list/provide examples of word oddities... Yesterday, the final puzzle on Wheel of Fortune (yes, I know) was BOOKKEEPER. Pat made a throwaway comment that it was one of only 3 words in the English language that contain 3 sequential sets of double letters. How can I find out what the other two are?

In a similar vein, I remember hearing years ago that there are only two English words that use all the vowels in alphabetical sequence. I remember FACETIOUSLY was one but can't remember the other, though I do seem to remember that there was some controversy around the accuracy of this.

Is there a good resource online for things like these?

Game system for a Puzzle Gal?

beautifulcheese — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:19:36 -0800

I've been enjoying Brain Challenge on my cell phone and am thinking of purchasing a hand held system. I'm unsure whether it would be better to buy a GameBoy Advanced or a Nintendo DS. Also which is more kid friendly. I looked here http://ask.metafilter.com/26681/Should-I-buy-a-Game-Boy-Micro
but that thread is two years old and I'm hoping for more current experience. I do own a Playstation One and did somewhat enjoy Final Fantasy VII but really only dedicatedly played Crash Bandicoot. Games like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider were vaguely appealing but only for the puzzle like aspects. I'm looking to play Brain-type games with the odd adventure story. Which system is more weighted to those type games? Is there something else out on the market that would fit my needs? Bonus points for games that could be played with my 6 year old nephew who gets mad at dying in games and a 3 year old niece who insists on having her turn and is afraid of bad guys.

What games should my friends & I play instead of Warcraft?

iwhitney — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:38:03 -0800

Now that World of Warcraft has abandoned all attempts at creativity, my friends and I would like a fun, casual, multi-player game where we can hang out. Any ideas? While we're all big nerds and like Warcraft, it's become apparent that every expansion is going to follow the same formula

Add 10 levels
Add a half-dozen zones
Set up some big bad to kill
Add a ton of repetitive faction grinds

And, since it's obviously making Blizzard a ton of money, I'm not going to begrudge them. But I would like to find another game to play with my friends.

We're geographically diverse, smart, talkative 20 & 30-somethings. We play games not to be the 'best' or to while away entire days, but to have fun, unwind and socialize.

Most of them are more into the RP side of RPG. But all of us can enjoy a good game, even if we're not pretending to be a dwarf.

What games out there could work for us? I've poked at Puzzle Pirates a bit, and it seems fun, but it also seems that every player is off doing their own puzzle (maybe this isn't true, I only tried it for a few minutes).

Another option is online Scrabble, which I'd be more enthusiastic about if I weren't terrible at Scrabble. But online board games do seem like a good option.

We obviously don't mind paying for our games. But free is cool too.

The best puzzle/RPG hybrid videogames?

yellowbinder — Sun, 20 May 2007 16:42:47 -0800

Looking for more puzzle/RPG hybrids! I know the genre is only just developing, but maybe there are some titles I'm missing out on. If you're not familiar, these are casual games with RPG elements added. I loved Bookworm Adventures and Puzzle Quest, what else is out there?

Crosswords without pencils?

mzurer — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 10:34:46 -0800

Anyone have reccomendations for audio brain-teasers? I've been doing language tapes in my car, and I really like the aspect that is puzzle-ish, such as figuring out conjugations from prior examples and finding new word combinations to express a thought. But the actual language-learning is sort of exhausting and sometimes I just don't feel like doing another unit.

Are there any excellent audio puzzle podcasts or commercial audio puzzle collections people have liked? I enjoy crosswords and scrabble, but anagrams without visual stimulation are very difficult for me. I like, but don't love, the NPR puzzle shows. I've been playing bridge recently as well, and if I could find some kind of bridge instruction audiobook, I think I would really enjoy that, though I imagine without seeing a hand in front of you that might not be that feasible.

Does a truck work extra to pull a drafting car?

condour75 — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:11:29 -0800

Does drafting a truck theoretically lower the truck's mileage? There have been a few articles about the practice of hypermiling (most recently I saw it on MotherJones via kottke.) Hypermilers try to extend their gas mileage to extreme lengths, and one of their more dangerous practices is drafting a truck -- tailgating it to ride the vaccum the truck creates as it moves forward.

I blogged a little about this and mentioned that the drafting is technically zero-sum for the environment since the truck must use more gas to make up for towing the car. My brother disagreed, and suggested that the energy of the vacuum would otherwise be exerted on surrounding air.

Could this be one of those infuriating puzzles like the jet and the conveyor belt, or is there a simple answer?

Great PBEM games for a time-starved dad?

jbickers — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:41:20 -0800

I need to get back in touch with one of my original loves - gaming - and need some help finding some great play-by-email-games ... I've loved games all of my life (note: not really talking about electronic/video games here, more the board/dice/paper/etc. variety), but have lost touch with them - as a father of two, working two jobs, I barely have time for any hobbies.

But my heart has lately been crying out for this old hobby of mine ... I used to stay up late playing Advanced Civilization (the AH game, not the Sid Meier one), Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Acquire, even RPGs and the first wave of CCGs. And I totally miss the intellectual stimulation and social interaction they provided.

Given my schedule (too full, hectic), I'm thinking that a play-by-email game might just be the thing. I've tinkered with Diplomacy in the past, but as I'm not a history buff, I just don't find it that interesting.

Are there any great games that are well-suited for someone who cannot commit to logging on at a certain date/time? PBEM appeals to me because I could join in throughout the day, whichever office I happen to be at. Or am I missing something? Is there some other way to get the satisfaction that gaming provides?

(As an aside, I'm also an avid go player, but online go services have been nothing but frustrating. I'm not a great player, not a terrible one, and as such it's hard to find opponents - good ones will abandon matches the minute they see that I don't have a dan rating, absolute beginners are no fun at all to play against.)

Thank you in advance!

Pixel Puzzle Picture Help

papercake — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:58:20 -0800

I'm working on a book of puzzles and need help coming up with interesting images to use. [mi] The puzzles are paint-by-numbers. The more of them I design, the harder it gets to come up with interesting images. I've got a month to complete another 40 of them and I'm experiencing, I think, stress-related brain freeze.

I'm trying to avoid the usual famous people's faces, well-known cartoon characters, etc. that most of these books use. Just about anything is fair game. (Although porn, or goatse-type images need not apply.)

For instance, I did one of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and my editor got very excited -- "Interesting! Edgy!"

Thanks for your help.

Two sided jigsaw puzzle with numbered code

unceman — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:12:10 -0800

Puzzle Filter: Looking for any information about a puzzle I saw in the late 70's (?). As a kid I saw an explanation of a jigsaw puzzle that was distributed in a velvet bag, on a TV show (That's Incredible! maybe, or 60 Minutes). The jigsaw pieces had a code written with numbers on both sides of the puzzle pieces (white numbers on black background?). I seem to recall that there was a hefty reward for anyone who could solve this puzzle. I always considered this one of the toughest puzzles I had ever seen (I was elementary school aged at the time).

Geometry puzzle

Crotalus — Thu, 18 May 2006 23:35:32 -0800

Attention geometry wizards, Explain this picture

Games like "The Incredible Machine"?

coffee and minarets — Tue, 09 May 2006 10:59:00 -0800

I loved that old game "The Incredible Machine" Any suggestions for more recent games in a similar vein?

Where can I find out little known traps , puzzles , paradoxes , myths and limitations of economics, beside wading through college textbooks?

studentguru — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:27:52 -0800

Where can I find out little known traps , puzzles , paradoxes , myths and limitations of economics, beside wading through college textbooks? I am looking for books and articles etc on little known traps , puzzles , paradoxes, myths and limitations of economics.

They make the task of learning economics more interesting.

I have found a few but please share what you know . Thank you very much.

Economics on Trial: Lies, Myths, and Realities (Hardcover)
by Mark Skousen

Puzzles and Paradoxes in Economics (Paperback)
by Mark Skousen, Kenna C. Taylor

Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 volume set)
AUTHOR: Rothbard, Murray N.

http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?control=1568
Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774–2004

http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2005/12/twelve_myths.html
December 21, 2005
Twelve Myths

http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/multipliermyth.html
The Myth of the
Money Multiplier

Many transactions are exduded from measures of national product. Intermediate goods have already been noted. Production within the household—work family members do for which they don't get paid—is exduded. The depletion of resources and the production of "bads"—also find no place in national product.
On the other hand, some things are induded that should not be. For example, in contract dispute cases, private
arbitrators' fees are exduded as intermediate goods, but judges' salaries are induded.
Some such oddities are simply decisions on xi/here to draw debatable lines, some are mistakes that are retained for historical reasons, some are shortcuts taken to make measurement easier.

According to their national
income and product accounts, countries like Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are relatively rich, 'nth high GDP per worker. But a very large chunk of this wealth in such resource-rich economies arises from the sale of limited and depietable natural resources.
Since 're indude investment in GDP—the increase in the economy's capital stock, its man-made productive resources—shouldn't we count resource depletion as a tor' of disinvestment—a reduction in the economy's stock of naturally occurring productive resources? There is no good reason not to. But it is difficult to measure, so we don't.

The four monetary aggregates do not behave the same. During 1992, for example, M 1—the narrow measure—grew by more than 13%, while M3, the broad measure, grew by less than 1%. As gauged by Ml,monetary policy in 1992 was expansionary: the Federal Reserve's monetary policy was forcing M l to grow rapidly, pushing down interest rates and boosting demand.
But as gauged by total M3, monetary policy in 1992 was contractionary: The Federal Reserve was allowing the supply of M3 to shrink, pushing up interest rates and deepening the 1991-93 recession. Different measures of the money stock say different things about monetary policy.
It is harder to be a monetary economist than it used to be.

Scheduling bocce ball league.

ao4047 — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 20:41:46 -0800

Help my friend schedule his bocce leauge: 8 bocce ball teams meet weekly, playing 8 games a week over 4 timeslots (7pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm) in 2 courts (courts E and W). During weeks 5 and 11, the first four games of the night (7pm and 8pm timeslots on courts E and W) are 'position games' where who plays is determined by the current rank of the teams.

How do we organize the games so:

1) Each team plays twice a night.
2) Avoid teams having to play at 7pm and then have to wait around until 10pm.

Anyone remember North American TV Show "It Stands To Reason"

lockedroomguy — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:52:03 -0800

Information on an old TV show called "It Stands To Reason." As I hazily recall, this was a TV show either on a Buffalo, New York PBS station (Channel 17, WNED), or on TVOntario (Channel 19) in Canada in the early 1970s, and was a show about logic or puzzles. It featured a male host working on a very simple, spare set, demonstrating or discussing logic-related items.

The only specific segment I recall was when he demonstrated how to tie a knot in a scarf without letting go of the ends in the process. (No, I don't need the answer to that.) I believe it was a series, but have no idea how long it ran.

The title is such a common phrase that googling isn't helping. No luck on imdb, TVTome, or ebay.

Any information about the show appreciated. If no one here knows, I suppose I could try calling the stations themselves. Other suggestions for further searching are welcomed.

How to give away a limited number of items as fairly as possible?

AmbroseChapel — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:20:16 -0800

How to give away a limited number of items as fairly as possible? I work for an organisation which sometimes gives away free books, CDs and stuff to people on a mailing list who write in and ask for them. (Long story, and no, you can't join, sorry!)

Say we have 20 books to give away. We send out that list and thirty people write in and say "I would like Book A please" etc.

I've asked them to state a preference, to make it easier. So what they do is actually say "I would like, in order of preference, Book A, Book B or Book C".

So now I've got twenty books, and thirty people asking for them.

If the matrix looked like this, there'd be no problem:



Item    1st        2nd        3rd

--------------------------------------

Book A  Person 1   Person 3   Person 4

--------------------------------------

Book B  Person 4   Person 1   Person 3

--------------------------------------

Book C  Person 2   Person 5   Person 2 

--------------------------------------

Book D  Person 3   Person 4   Person 5

--------------------------------------

Book E  Person 5   Person 2   Person 1

(Hope that comes out OK in your browser. Looks OK on preview. Monospaced font will line everything up.)

Because in that perfect world, there are five books and five people and everyone's got a first choice which is nobody else's first choice.

What happens of course is more like this:



Item    1st        2nd        3rd

--------------------------------------

Book A  Person 1   Person 3   Person 4

                   Person 2   Person 2

                              Person 7

--------------------------------------

Book B  Person 4   Person 1   Person 3

        Person 2

        Person 5

        Person 3

        Person 6

        Person 7

        Person 8

--------------------------------------

Book C             Person 5

                   Person 6

--------------------------------------

Book D             Person 4   Person 5

                   Person 8   Person 6

--------------------------------------

Book E             Person 1   Person 8

                   Person 7   

--------------------------------------

with lots of people nominating popular items, lots of "holes", and more people than items.

What would be your strategy for maximum happiness here? In other words, what's the best way to make sure the greatest number of people get their highest-number choice?

Looking for the 80s-era toy, "The Brain"

mark7570 — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:14:41 -0800

Back in 1988 or so I remember coming across a toy called, if I remember right, "The Brain." It was clear plastic, cylindrical in shape (a little bigger than but similar to a stack of 20 CDs), and it had about a dozen small black rods sticking up around the top plane of the cylinder. You could see a bunch of interlocking plates in the inside of the cylinder, and they controlled which rods you could move at which time. The goal was to figure out the code. Has anyone seen this toy or know where I can find one? I've tried eBay and Froogle but no luck.

How can I frustrate my friends?

Amanda B — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:19:43 -0800

I have an English final coming up, and I need to make a presentation on Franz Kafka. As a reinforcement activity, I would like to give my class a puzzle of some sort that is either impossible to solve, or at least very difficult. My goal is to frustrate everyone in order to make a point about Kafka's life, as well as his writing style. It's important the puzzle look solvable, so that there is no one who wants to give up being starting . While there seem to be a lot of tricky math related puzzles, I'd like to use either an actual physical task or some sort of word problem.

The class I'm presenting is a high school AP English Literature class, and all the students are seniors.
The activity would need to last for around 10-15 minutes.