What is greater than God, worse than evil,
The poor have it, the rich require it,
And if you eat it, you die?
What is it?
Answer
Too easy! I've seen something like this before.
Nothing.
Explanation isn't really necessary - just check all the clues - but I'll give some anyway:
Nothing is greater than God; nothing is worse than evil; the poor have nothing; the rich require nothing; if you eat nothing, you die.
This puzzle is part of the ‘Twelve Labours’ series. Previous instalments can be found here: Prologue | 01 | 02 | 03
Now one crate lighter, Hercules made his way back up the road to the Erymanthian Bar. Outside, a chalkboard proclaimed the sporting fixtures for the coming week that would be shown live on television. Football, tennis, athletics, rugby... All the weekend’s horse racing too. Hercules smiled to himself – the owner, Pholus, was an old friend of the family, and completely mad about all things sports... especially when it came to horses.
“Of course, I used to jockey all over the country when I was younger – before the accident, I mean...” Pholus chatted away amicably, as Hercules unloaded his trolley. For once, Hercules did not begrudge the task he had been set – helping out Pholus (who always managed to remain cheerful despite his crutches) seemed like a good thing to do. “These days I’m lucky if I can manage a hole or two at the golf course up the road. But I’m happy, you know – I run a sports bar, I’ve got good, strong wine, and plenty of custom; really, I couldn’t ask for any more. I’m over the moon.”
Pholus gestured around his establishment, and Hercules had to agree it was truly a wonderful sight. Every wall was covered in sporting paraphernalia – scarves, signed photographs, souvenir programmes, banners... At the end of the bar was the dartboard where Hercules had scored his first ever one-eighty maximum; beyond that stood the table football, at which Hercules’ father had regularly contrived to lose to his young son; and just beyond that stood the snooker table that conjured up memories of the sound of chalk, the feel of a cue sticky with stale beer, and the smell of cigarette smoke that always seemed so illicit.
“Oh, let me help you set that up,” said Hercules, spotting the messy snooker balls. But on approaching the table, he stopped short. The green felt was covered in letters. Hercules laughed and shook his head – clearly, even his friend Pholus had sided with his mother and was testing him today!
Greyscale version available at page end...
“What does my mum need from you?” Hercules sighed, one eyebrow raised. Pholus laughed.
“Just something for the house. It’s a bit heavy though – I recommend you keep hold of that flatbed trolley...” Pholus handed Hercules a cue. “You’ve got one shot to work it out – it has to be a legal one, of course.”
TASK: Find the legal shot which will help Hercules deduce the item in Pholus’ possession. To be awarded the green checkmark, a complete answer must include an explanatory diagram.
HINT 1 (23-Oct-19):
The solution requires only one ball to be hit head-on by the cue ball (no tricky angles of impact). Once hit, the target ball does not touch any other ball on the table on its way to a pocket (although at one point it looks like it comes really really close to one...). It may help to assume a 'point mass' when drawing the balls' bounce...
HINT 2 (25-Oct-19):
As has already been discovered, a hidden message in the puzzle reads "YOU WON'T SOLVE THIS BY SHOOTING DIRECT." In fact, balls involved in the correct shot will hit the cushions 4 times in total. It is important to note that a ball hitting a cushion will always move away from it at a particular calculable angle - think symmetry...
HINT 3 (27-Oct-19):
The answer you seek is a 9-letter compound word. One letter appears within it 3 times; the others are all unique. There are no leading articles.
The same image is reproduced below in greyscale, for puzzlers with colour-blindness. The white cue ball is a numberless grey ring; each colour ball is a grey ring marked with its points value; each red ball is a fully shaded grey circle:
Answer
The answer is
WOODSTOVE
The diagram below shows the path of the shot. The diagram is made from flipping and inverting the snooker table at boundaries such that all paths would be straight lines.
Here is the path on the table by itself
If you're interested in starting the treasure hunt from the very beginning, check out the prologue!
After mailing in the correct question to the given answer in the preliminary test, it took only a couple of days to receive your actual invitation to participate in the Treasure Hunt 'Round the World. You eagerly tear into the gaudy, glittery envelope and read the letter enclosed:
Dear [insert username here],
Congratulations on your acceptance into the Treasure Hunt 'Round the World! Prepare yourself for a steeling worldwide adventure, where you will be pushed to your vastest limits in pursuit of the coveted treasure! I hope you've packed your bags, because the race... starts... NOW! Your itinerary is enclosed. Good luck, racer!
Yours truly,
Bailey M
Puzzlemaster for the Treasure Hunt 'Round the WorldP.S. When you arrive at the departure airport, members of our team will be there to assist you in searching for the fastest flight and booking your ticket.
You rummage through the envelope hurriedly, pulling out the itinerary. On it, you read:
Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.
Your destination is:
The 63rd member, periodically;
a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,
with common tongue tied to no other,
spoken unlike their American brother
(though the two decline unanimously).Once you've found the desired country,
your flight will arrive at 2:53.
Luckily, you did already pack your bags! Time to get racing!
What airport are you departing from, and what city are you flying into?
Per the request of Aggie Kidd, here's a nod in the right direction, based on each line:
Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.
The answer to this may be a bit trivial, since there have been so many good responses already, but none of them are exactly what I was looking for. Everyone's on the right track. As a hint, you are departing from North America, and Pocatello's airport code is not actually used in the puzzle.
The 63rd member, periodically;
There is a way to interpret the answer to this line a bit more specifically, which will significantly narrow down the number of possible countries.
a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,
I believe this was solved rather innocuously in the comments of an answer.
with common tongue tied to no other,
This line has not been interpreted as intended yet. The most common language in the destination country is also the most common language in other countries.
spoken unlike their American brother
This line has been interpreted correctly, though the country has not been correctly identified.
(though the two decline unanimously).
I believe rand al'thor correctly picked this one out, which should give you some guidance.
Once you've found the desired country, your flight will arrive at 2:53.
This is unsolvable without first having the country name.
Also a general hint about how to solve this puzzle: When I was creating it, I made a blanket list of all possible countries, then started whittling them down, clue by clue, until I had one remaining. If I had to solve this puzzle, I would try to do the same.
The story continues in the next part, Treasure hunt 'round the world! (clue 2)
Answer
Your flight departs at 1:47 from the Pocatello Regional Airport.
Take the 1st letter of Pocatello, the 4th letter of Regional, and the 7th letter of Airport to get PIT. Interpreting that as an airport code, it looks like we're flying out of Pittsburgh International Airport.
The 63rd member, periodically;
63rd on the periodic table is Europium, with chemical symbol Eu, so we're heading for somewhere in the EU (European Union).
a butterfly's sway, unconditionally,
Unconditional sway suggests monarchy, and the Monarch Butterfly is a common butterfly species in North America.
with common tongue tied to no other,
spoken unlike their American brother
(though the two decline unanimously).
So we want a monarchy in the EU with a common language not spoken in any other country, similar to a language spoken somewhere in the Americas, the word for "no" being the same in both languages. Let's try Spain (taking Latin American Spanish to be a separate language, as some do consider it to be).
Once you've found the desired country,
your flight will arrive at 2:53.
As with 1:47, we take the 2nd, 5th, and 3rd letters of SPAIN to get PNA, which is the airport code for Pamplona Airport.
So our destination city is
Pamplona, Spain.
These four ellipses represent four sets and all the possible ways they can intersect (a Venn diagram, in other words). There are 8 regions inside each ellipse, and 15 regions altogether.
Is it possible to assign the numbers 1 to 15 to the fifteen regions so that the sum of the numbers in each ellipse is the same?
Answer
Here is a method for constructing a solution without the use of a computer.
[EDIT: This generalises to any even number of sets, but not to odd numbers. See the edit at the end for a different method that I think will work for any number of sets.]
Associate the first four powers of $2$ with the ellipses, i.e. label them $1$, $2$, $4$, and $8$. Then for each region, give it the number that is the sum of all the ellipse numbers it lies in.
While this assigns the numbers $1$ to $15$ to the regions inside the ellipses, the ellipses don't all add up to the same amount. This is because of that one bit that all the regions within an ellipse share.
To fix this problem, change every number with even bit parity to its complement, i.e. for every region that belongs to exactly $2$ or $4$ ellipses change its number to 15 minus that number. This changes four numbers in each ellipse, in such a way that each bit is used in exactly half the numbers in every ellipse. This gives the following picture:
Every ellipse adds up the the same amount, namely $60 = 4(1+2+4+8)$. Unfortunately the region that was $15$ became $0$, so the regions are now numbered 0 to 14. So all that is left to do is to add 1 to all the numbers to get the following valid solution where each ellipse adds to $68$:
$1+2+7+8+11+12+13+14=68\\1+3+6+8+10+12+13+15=68\\1+4+5+8+10+11+14+15=68\\1+4+6+7+9+12+14+15=68$
EDIT:
Here is a different method that I believe generalises to any number of sets. I will use 5 sets in this description.
Label the sets A,B,C,D,E.
Pick any region, and calculate the number of that region as follows:1. Start with zero.
2. If the region lies in an odd number of the sets A,B,C,D,E, then add $2^4=16$.
3. If the region lies in an odd number of the sets A,B,C,D, then add $2^3=8$.
4. If the region lies in an odd number of the sets A,B,C, then add $2^2=4$.
5. If the region lies in an odd number of the sets A,B, then add $2^1=2$.
6. If the region lies in an odd number of the sets A,C, then add $2^0=1$.
The number you end up with is the number for that region.Put differently, if a,b,c,d,e are variables which are $1$ if the region lies in a particular set and $0$ otherwise, then the region is given a binary number where the bits are (a^b^c^d^e), (a^b^c^d), (a^b^c), (a^b), (a^c) where the ^ symbol indicates the exclusive or (XOR) operation.
The order of the bits does not matter. I think you are even free to use any XOR expressions of the variables, as long as they are linearly independent and contain at least one XOR operation.
There are $3$ saucers. And there are $5$ disks, say A,B,C,D,E, having respective areas $1,2,3,4,5$. That is, E is the largest disk and A is the smallest one.
They are placed in the order E,D,C,B,A in the leftmost saucer, that is, largest at the bottom, smallest at the top. The rest two saucers are empty.
You are supposed to transfer the entire stack in the same order in the rightmost saucer. That is, in the end, the first two saucers will remain empty and the third saucer will contain the disks in the order E,D,C,B,A, that is, largest disk at the bottom and the smallest one on the top.
You are allowed to use the middle saucer temporarily during the transfers, you can move only one disk at a time, you cannot place a bigger disk on a smaller one.
What is the least possible ways in which you can do this transfer? Can you devise an algorithm for any number of disks?
Rather enjoyed my first outing as a poser in Post-Christmas - Christmas Movie Rebuses so I have made some more. Hopefully these should be a little trickier!
Deduce the three movies from the images.
N.B. All movies are Christmas themed or set at Christmas.
HINT
As image 2 has yet to be deduced, I have updated it in the spoiler tag below. Hopefully this should make the answer more apparent:
Answer
Finally got one :)
The third one:
Ghost bust ERs Two = Ghostbusters II
Oh no... is the second one:
The most famous Christmas movie of all, It's a Wonderful Life? Awe = wonder, heart is a symbol of life, or a life in many video games, since awe fills the heart, it's a wonder-full life!
And the first one thanks to DooplissForce is:
A Christmas Carol the image depicts the set for the UK show Countdown, and the figure is in the role once filled by Carol Vorderman, hence, with the Santa hat is a Christmas Carol.
Teapot Riddle no.20
Seems teapots are getting META in this game :D
Rules:
I have one word which has several (2 or more) meanings.
Each of the meanings is a teapot (first, second ...)
You try to figure out the word with my Hints.
Did someone not know the rules until now?
First Hint
My first teapot is really shocking
My second teapot is really annoying
Second Hint
My first teapot can be a pleasure
My second teapot on warm days too
Third Hint
My first teapot can be dangerous without safety
My second teapot can be dangerous when overgetting massively
Final Hint
My third teapot is used in the music, to make songs really cool;
without it music would be just the lame same
Good luck and have fun :)
easy last riddle
Answer
This may be far-fetched, but perhaps the answer is
DROP?
Meanings:
To DROP from a height. DROPS in the rain. A DROP during a musical track.
My first teapot is really shocking. My second teapot is really annoying
Falling is shocking. Rain is annoying.
My first teapot can be a pleasure. My second teapot on warm days too
Parachute jumping is cool for some people. Rain can be nice in hot days.
My first teapot can be dangerous without safety. My second teapot can be dangerous when overgetting massively
If you fall, you can get hurt. Too much rain is dangerous.
Final Hint
My third teapot is used in the music, to make songs really cool; without it music would be just the lame same
-
Drops in electronic music are considered cool.
Light, soft and healthy is me
mirrors are all over these
if finding gold is rather dismal
I sit next to the one in Pepto-Bismol
Different letters here is your goal
somewhere to go with an unfortunate hole
Equestrian researchers aren't quite right
take from the morning not from the night
Careful not to shoot from the hip
take a bow and get a grip
the vikings watch me in awe
I hate my bed I'll stay up more
These three up high are not the same
but their collective being will grant you fame
Answer
LEADERSHIP.
Light, soft and healthy is me
mirrors are all over these
if finding gold is rather dismal
I sit next to the one in Pepto-Bismol
Mirror suggests reversal. The opposites of light, soft, and healthy are heavy, hard, and unhealthy. What is heavy, hard, unhealthy, and can be used to find gold? Ancient alchemists wanted to turn LEAD into gold, which is actually possible (though unfeasible) by nuclear transmutation. LEAD is heavy and unhealthy, and post-transition it is classified as a hard metal. It's also adjacent in the period table to bismuth, which is contained in Pepto-Bismol.
Different letters here is your goal
somewhere to go with an unfortunate hole
Equestrian researchers aren't quite right
take from the morning not from the night
The answer to the second verse is two different letters taken from the word "here". The only possibilities are H and R, E and R, or H and E. If you have an unfortunate hole, you go to the emergency room. Take letters from the morning (the start) not the night (the end) of Emergency Room and Equestrian Researchers to get ER.
Careful not to shoot from the hip
take a bow and get a grip
the vikings watch me in awe
I hate my bed I'll stay up more
"S[hoot from the] hip" and Vikings, famous for going around in longships, suggest the word SHIP. Cannons on SHIPs must not be fired from the hip! A SHIP has a "bow" meaning front, and you can "get a grip" on the wheel. And a SHIP hates the seabed, preferring to stay well above it. (Also if you're on one you might sleep in a hammock, which is higher up than a bed.)
These three up high are not the same
but their collective being will grant you fame
We have LEAD, ER, and SHIP. Put them together to get LEADERSHIP. Hurray!
[Appeal: I'm trying to figure out a fun puzzle formula. There are many out there ("Who owns the fish", sudoku, etc). I'm interested in feedback on whether this works or is interesting for people. Possible to solve by hand. Techniques you found helpful, etc. Also a rating for this if you solve it: Easy; Tricky; Difficult; Fiendish]
After a long hiatus, you are back on the case. You arrive on the island to find a dead body and a number of possible suspects. You separate them and take their statements.
This is what you know from all those training sessions at the academy:
Suspect Names: Barbara, Donnie, Jackeline, Luisa, Mauricio, Roy, Shakia, Terence, Vanessa.
Statements of Barbara:
- I am innocent
- Roy is innocent
- Vanessa is innocent
- Shakia is innocentStatements of Donnie:
- I am innocent
- Luisa is innocent
- Terence is guilty
- Shakia is innocentStatements of Jackeline:
- I am innocent
- Shakia is innocent
- Luisa is innocent
- Terence is innocent
- Vanessa is guiltyStatements of Luisa:
- I am innocent
- Mauricio is innocent
- Shakia is guilty
- Donnie is guilty
- Jackeline is innocentStatements of Mauricio:
- I am innocent
- Roy is innocentStatements of Roy:
- I am innocent
- Mauricio is innocent
- Terence is guiltyStatements of Shakia:
- I am innocent
- Barbara is innocent
- Donnie is innocent
- Terence is guilty
- Roy is guiltyStatements of Terence:
- I am innocent
- Vanessa is guilty
- Mauricio is guilty
- Jackeline is innocent
- Donnie is innocent
- Shakia is guiltyStatements of Vanessa:
- I am innocent
- Donnie is innocent
- Mauricio is innocent
- Barbara is innocent
- Terence is innocent
Here's a table summarizing all the information:
Statements | B | D | J | L | M | R | S | T | V |
----------------------------------------------------
Barbara | I | | | | | I | I | | I |
----------------------------------------------------
Donnie | | I | | I | | | I | G | |
----------------------------------------------------
Jackeline | | | I | I | | | I | I | G |
----------------------------------------------------
Luisa | | G | I | I | I | | G | | |
----------------------------------------------------
Mauricio | | | | | I | I | | | |
----------------------------------------------------
Roy | | | | | I | I | | G | |
----------------------------------------------------
Shakia | I | I | | | | G | I | G | |
----------------------------------------------------
Terence | | I | I | | G | | G | I | G |
----------------------------------------------------
Vanessa | I | I | | | I | | | I | I |
----------------------------------------------------
Answer
There must be 3 conspirators.
Let's start by looking at Terence. He has accused 3 people and 3 people have accused him.
If we make an initial assumption (Assumption#1) that he is innocent, then either (Assumption#2) has identified 3 guilty conspirators and one of his other statements may be a guess, or (Assumption#3) he has identified 2 guilty conspirators and incorrectly guessed at a third, in which case his other statements must be true.
Starting from Assumption#3:
Terence has declared that 2 other people are innocent, so we can mark them all as innocent.
We can now see that Donnie thought that Thomas was guilty. This was an incorrect guess, so Donnie's other statements must be accurate. We can now mark more people as innocent.
If we look at Luisa, we can see that she has incorrectly accused Donnie and Shakia. So Assumption#3 cannot be correct.
So let's try Assumption#2:
Terence has correctly identified 3 guilty people
These people would not have collared any of their co-conspirators, so we can now mark Roy as innocent.
But Roy has incorrectly accused Terence as guilty and incorrectly identified Mauricio as innocent, so Assumption#2 must be incorrect.
Now we have disproven Assumption#3 and Assumption#2, so Assumption#1 must also be incorrect.
This means that Terence must be guilty.
From this starting point
we can mark all the people he has accused as being innocent (as he wouldn't have named a co-conspirator).
Similarly, anyone that has accused Terence must be innocent too.
Now Luisa has accused 2 innocent people, so she must be guilty.
Shakia has incorrectly guessed about Roy, so her statement about Barbara must be true, making Barbara innocent too.
Which leaves Jackeline who has made 2 false statements, so she must be a conspirator too.
So the guilty people are:
Terence, Luisa and Jackeline
Interesting puzzle. As far as I can tell, rule number 5 is unnecessary in this case. It was straightforward enough to solve by hand without running into trouble - just making assumptions and disproving them to arrive at a unique solution. So I would rate it as Tricky just because of the need to disprove other possible solutions.
Another group of pictures that have a theme:
1.--
2.-- 
3.--
4.--
5.--
6.--
7.--
8.--
9.--
10.--
11.--
12.--
13.--
HINTS:
a) The answer has nothing to do with South Park,
b) all of the images can be represented by a single word, and
c) each word will broadly relate to the theme of animals, and a subset of that theme will be the answer.
Answer
I believe that what we're looking at here are:
words that are used as groups of animals. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what words you're looking for, but here are my best guesses:
(1) an army of frogs
(2) a band of gorillas
(3) a pitying of doves (intended: a bed of clams)
(4) a brace of oxen
(5) a parliament of owls (intended: a congress of baboons)
(6) a skulk of foxes (intended: a crossing of zebra)
(7) a gang of elk
(8) a horde of crows (intended: horde of hamsters :)
(9) a murder of crows
(10) a shadow of jaguars (intended: a pod of whales)
(11) a school of fish
(12) a scold of jays (intended: sleuth of bears)
(13) a mob of kangaroos (intended: a rabble of butterflies)
This is my first puzzle but I hope it will work out well and that everyone can enjoy it.
While trying to get out of a dungeon, you arrive in a circular room with 5 doors at equal distances from each other. The doors are all locked, but fortunately, there is a nice guard in front of each door willing to unlock their door for you if you just ask them nicely. The problem is that only 1 of these doors is the exit while the others will send you to your certain death.
The guards are all knowing and willing to answer any questions you might ask by "yes" or "no".
Unfortunately the guards are very impatient and will only allow you to ask 4 things in total and your questions may not include multiple or conditional statements. Keep it short and sweet.
Oh yeah, one more thing, one of them always lies.
Is there a fail proof way to find the good door? If so say how you would proceed.
If not, explain why.
HINT
Read carefully what was asked of you from this puzzle.
Success can sometime be found in failure.
CONGRATULATION to Geliormth for finding the exact answer I was looking for and apologize for any mistakes or badly explained details there might have been withing my puzzle.
Please leave me comments on how you liked my puzzle and its "twists". If the twists and/or the answer were more irritating than fun, I will try to improve on that next time.
Answer
For clarification, I'll repeat the exact formulation of the question asked here:
Is there a fail proof way to find the good door? If so say how you would proceed. If not, explain why.
After reading the hint I came to the following conclusion: yes, there is a fail proof way to find the good door. (multiple solutions for this are given already, my solution looks like the one given by ffao)
But as stack reader pointed out to the ones finding the good door they were still stuck inside the room. So then the answer would be: no, there is no fail proof way to find the good door and open it.
As the valid questions can only halve the numer of options we need 3 questions to find the good door out of the 5 possible doors. But in order to know what the answers we get (yes/no) actually means we need one more question to make sure we know wether the guard we are questioning is telling the truth or telling lies. (ask a guard if the guard next to him tells the truth: yes -> both tell the truth, no -> one of them lies).
This means that we need 4 questions in total to find the good door but we need a 5th question to ask the guard to open that door.
With eight, I'm quite heady.
With three, my claws ready.
With thirteen, I'm downtrodden.
With eighteen, said to be sodden.Alone, I'm quite new here,
Yet ubiquitous everywhere.
What am I?
Answer
The numbers are referring to
Letters of the alphabet!
You are
The word 'at'
With eight, I'm quite heady,
Hats are worn on the head [citation needed].
With three, my claws are ready,
Cats are known to have sharp claws.
With thirteen, I'm downtrodden,
Mats, like doormats and floor mats, are walked on.
With eighteen, said to be sodden.
This one could be a reference to the phrase "wet as a drowned rat".
Alone, I'm quite new here,
yet ubiquitous everywhere.
Thanks to Ryan, I now know that it refers to the @ symbol! It's new to the common keyboard (relatively), yet is in common usage on pretty much all keyboards, websites, etc. these days.
I was looking up some quotations the other day by a famous person. The following three quotations were all made by the same person, but somehow they got mixed up before I could read them.
Can you tell me what happened to them, what the quotations are, and who said them?
Quotation 1
The sis maize imp puller ill legion. They risen own eat fort dimples; known eat fork ump lick hated fill us if he. A rowin' bray, now roan art a sour temp pull. Duff ill us iffy ask eye and nest.
Quotation 2
Harp rhyme purr puss sin thus lie fist ooh hell paw thirds. Sand diff few can tell path emmett leased owned heard dumb.
Quotation 3
Weak enough fur robed hay imp ease sin theatre whorl dent ill owe he may cap ease withers elves.
Answer
1:
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
2:
"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."
3:
"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves."
These are all quotes from
the Dalai Lama.
and they've been modified
by taking phonetically similar words.
Poem riddles are becoming more prolific and more popular on Puzzling.SE (examples: Pacoverflow Riddle Poem, Pacoverflow Riddle Poem #2, Identity Crisis: What Am I?).
Inspired by the 'Tips for Golfing in....' (tips) questions on Programming Puzzles and Code Golf.SE and confused by the plethora of poem riddles springing up, I wondered: what are some tips for solving poem riddles?
For example, it is best to read each line carefully the first time or is it best to read it through a couple of times and then start guessing?
Please state the tip, then give the reason for the tip being successful in the solving of poem riddles.
Answer
There are several types of clues embedded in these puzzles.
The clues are totally descriptive (easiest, most obvious and least likely).
This answer is deliberately slightly vague. Solving riddles is essentially a creative act of invention and as such can not be mechanised.
Let's walk through a few to illustrate:
Full poem:
You might try to pet me or kick my butt
but you can not touch me no matter whatIf you gave me presents I'd leave you for sure
but take what's around me and I will endureYou can search the whole ocean or even beyond
in sometimes for sure, a loch or a pondIf you see whats behind it
you are very closeAnd as you assumed
its right under your nose
Now let's walk through it line by line:
You might try to pet me or kick my butt but you can not touch me no matter what
A couple of options here. "Pet me" could refer to the letters of "me". However the second line indicates that are dealing with something intangible. So, let's constrain ourselves to concepts and things which "cannot be touched". Example candidate list: Darkness/Reflection/Truth/Nothingness/Sun.
If you gave me presents I'd leave you for sure
We could be dealing with present tense. "I'd leave you", could mean we are dealing with a word containing a "u" which when removing some letters (like "ID") would leave something else. Alternatively, more metaphorically, rather than symbol tricks, if you give/add something it is no longer what it was. The second option is closer to our feelings about the first clue. We can lean towards Nothingness now. However this is probably never going to go this smoothly but it is intuitive.
but take what's around me and I will endure
This really looks like a symbol trick. Like maybe the letter in the middle is an "I". It may also mean that so long as you don't mess with the core of the thing (which cannot be touched - clue #1), it will not be affected. It is hard to map this to anything on our preliminary list (darkness maybe?). Nothingness may also fit.
You can search the whole ocean or even beyond
This is very cryptic and confusing. It does not seem to reveal anything. But it gives the impression that the thing cannot be "found". But notice the trickery of the words spoken aloud taking different meaning. One must always keep an eye out for homophones - whole does indeed = "HOLE" - something to consider. Anagrams of ocean should also be considered.
in sometimes for sure, a loch or a pond
It is very unclear what a "loch or a pond" has to do with anything. Do take notice that the author is cunning and a German... "Loch" means "HOLE" in German...
If you see whats behind it you are very close
This just goes further than "cannot be touched". This is more like "is transparent". It may also mean to look "behind it" (the letter T). "You are very close" - probably means that if your candidate is transparent then you are looking good.
And as you assumed its right under your nose
This looks like a clever double meaning (I would expect it to have the following 2 meanings). It is implied that the answer is supposed to be obvious - a day-to-day thing. And that there is some relation to the physical body.
OK, so let's take stock... From our original candidate list "Nothingness" (include equivalent concepts like "Zero" (and thus "O")) is looking very strong and would probably get accepted due to inability to refute using the clues. But please do notice some possible hinting to a "HOLE". "Nothingness" is quite close to "HOLE", and "HOLE" fits just a tiny bit better (knowing the German connection helps a lot).
Let's go with HOLE!
Doing one that I made might be good because I know the intention entirely.
Full poem:
I'm lying down, with a dah-ditty-dah, in the middle of the end,
I'd hang upside-down similarly with my friend,
Were I to flip over, with a dah-ditty-dah, it'd be the middle of the day,
Right way up I cannot plainly say,
Here's the key, let's end the fun,
I'll tell you a secret, I hide behind one
What am I?
Now let's walk through the poem line by line.
I'm lying down, with a dah-ditty-dah, in the middle of the end,
This line relies on drawing suspicion to the words "dah-ditty-dah". Hopefully, one would notice that this is the vocal sound used in Morse code. "Middle of the end" will almost always be referring to the letter "N" (this is a clue of the first kind). So let's look at Morse code of "N". It is -.. Supposedly it is "lying down".
I'd hang upside-down similarly with my friend,
"Similarly" here should mean "in the middle" or possible "lying down". You should try both - like branch the search. So, what's in the middle of "friend" - "i" and "e". We should move along with "a" ("e" upside-down). And even "!".
Were I to flip over, with a dah-ditty-dah, it'd be the middle of the day
Again "dah-ditty-dah" and "middle of the X". Let's look at A in Morse code. It is .-. A clear pattern emerges. Let's start to solidify the conjecture of !.
Right way up I cannot plainly say,
Ah-hah, one does not "say plainly" when using !. However, "Right way 'up'" could refer to a letter trick giving 'pu'. So this clue could be of the first or the second kind.
Here's the key, let's end the fun,
"Here's the key" is quite attention grabbing. "What is the key!?" we ask. Indeed, it could be a literal key... how many types of those do we know and use? - a door key, and a keyboard key, a piano key. Well, we are conjecturing something like a symbol, so probably a keyboard key.
I'll tell you a secret, I hide behind one
"Tell you a secret" does not sound like a clue, but rather filler that signifies that a clue is coming. "I hide behind one" - this could refer to the letter "E" - this is almost a possible answer to the question. However, since we are think about a keyboard, let's try the key with 1 on it. We see that it also shares the !.
Let's go with !.
A casino offers the following game:
You flip a fair coin repeatedly and record the results on slips of paper, one result per slip. At any time you may decide to stop, at which time one of the slips is chosen uniformly at random. You win \$1 if the chosen slip says "Heads".
How much should you be willing to pay to play this game, and what is your strategy?
I heard this puzzle several years ago, I do not know the solution.
This is an entry in the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41: Short and Sweet.
English spelling is very strange. Sometimes you encounter words with letter combinations that would seem entirely unpronounceable on their own.
I have listed a few such letter combinations below. Try to determine what word each combination is from.
GNAG
PSTR (U)
KWH
NDTHS
GHTH (U)
CST
WKW
MBSTR (C)
CKKN (F)
RWAT (U)
NDTHR
LFTH
RTGA
XACE
APK
ESHOL
When you have all the words, their initials will spell something that English in general, or these words particularly, could use.
Answer
The final answer is
SUBTLE ADJUSTMENT
(note that subtle contains the rather rare letter combination BTL. Not sure if that is on purpose ...)
formed by the words
- Signage (Parseltongue)
- Upstream (Parseltongue)
- Buckwheat (Parseltongue)
- Thousandths (Parseltongue)
- Lighthouse (JonMark Perry)
- Ecstatic (Parseltongue)- Awkward (Dorrulf)
- Dumbstruck (me, kazi0)
- Jackknife (me)
- Underwater (Dorrulf)
- Spendthrift (kazi0)
- Twelfth (me, kazi0)
- Mortgage (Dorrulf)
- Exacerbate (kazi0)
- Napkin (kazi0)
- Threshold (Dorrulf)
I tried to reconstruct who came up with individual words first; which is kind of hard given the timelines and grace period edits. Apologies for any mistakes.
But if you ask me (non-native speaker here):
English spelling in general can use a not-so subtle adjustment.
I found some remaining ones:
MBSTR:
duMBSTRuCk
CKKN:
jaCKKNiFe
LFTH:
tweLFTH
So, I've been given these strange blocks of clues. I've read them end to end but frankly I just can't make head or tail of them! I know I must be missing some kind of connection somewhere. Can't you help me, please? It's driving me insane!
Block 1:
1. Talk to me, I talk back, ask me why, then I lie.
2. A fruit we are, like fat but not quite.
3. I'm the happiness that's almost miss.Block 2:
1. Like someone on the warpath, just shorter.
2. Rude drivers and angry bulls use me quite often.
3. Resting against a curve makes one tidy.Block 3:
1. More like a cow than a cow, just scared.
2. Rough weather or long road?Block 4:
1. We are shy, but when you're all gone the world is ours.
2. Misleading acronym time? Step on it!
3. A most costly kind of gate.
4. Lay me down if you want to get your way.
5. Put me on and do it good, I once got stopped by some big dude.
What is this puzzle trying to tell me?
Answer
What it's trying to tell me --
N U T S
The gimmick:
Put the answer words of each block "end to end", as it were, by making "some kind of connection"—a crossword-style connection, linking them at common letters. Correctly connecting the answer words will draw out a letter per block, and these put together spell out the four letter puzzle answer.
entries in BOLD were found independently by me (even though others got there too)
entries in BOLD ITALIC were borrowed from someone else (with credit given).
Block 1:
1. Talk to me, I talk back, ask me why, then I lie. PHONE (@Dan Russell)
you talk (in)to your phone and it talks back; phone-why→phony→lie
2. A fruit we are, like fat but not quite. PLUMS (@stack reader)
fat→plump→plum→plums (because "we" is plural)
3. I'm the happiness that's almost miss. BLISS
bliss is the happiness synonym that rhymes with missP B
HL L
O U I
N MS
E S → "N"
Block 2:
1. Like someone on the warpath, just shorter. WRATH
someone on the warpath is mad as heck→wrathful→wrath; also, warpath leaves wrath
2. Rude drivers and angry bulls use me quite often. HORN
rude drivers honk their horns, angry bulls gore you with 'em.
3. Resting against a curve makes one tidy. CLEAN (@Thrax)
a curve, "C", with "lean" against it, makes clean=tidyW C
R L
A E
T A
HORN → "U"
Block 3:
1. More like a cow than a cow, just scared. COWER
more cow-like→cow-er→cower, something you do when scared.
2. Rough weather or long road? WINDY (@Dreagen)
rough weather is windy. long roads can wind around = windy.COWER
I
N
D
Y → "T"
Block 4:
1. We are shy, but when you're all gone the world is ours. MEEK (@TwoBitOperation)
the meek shall inherit the earth
2. Misleading acronym time? Step on it! MAT
[m]isleading [a]cronym [t]ime → mat
3. A most costly kind of gate. TOLL (@dcfyj)
toll gates cost money to pass; other gates generally don't.
4. Lay me down if you want to get your way. LAW
lay down the law to make sure people do things your way.
5. Put me on and do it good, I once got stopped by some big dude. SHOW
per OP, this is about WWE; Big Show's signature move was the "Show Stopper"MEEK
A
TOLL
A
SHOW → "S"
I was born in a holy place,
holy for a separate reason.I was met with a great man's face,
a sight that's been lost through the seasons.I was killed in an empire's base,
victim to a violence and treason.
Who am I?
Hint:
A supreme leader, forty villains, and an apian sting.
Hint 2:
"Holy place" might be an understatement.
Hint 3:
I'm in da house
Answer
Are you
Ali
The cousin and the son-in-law of Muhammad, the last prophet of Islam.
I was born in a holy place, holy for a separate reason.
Mecca
Mecca is considered the holiest city in Islam, as it is home to the Ka‘bah
I was met with a great man's face, a sight that's been lost through the seasons.
Ali saw Muhammad, it is now forbidden to portray him.
I was killed in an empire's base, victim to a violence and treason.
On 19 Ramadan AH 40, which would correspond to 27 January 661, while praying in the Great Mosque of Kufa, Ali was attacked by the Kharijite Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam.
Hint 1:
Ali Khamenei, Ali baba, Muhammad Ali.
Hint 3:
Ali G
When I take the three words "boy", "meets" and "girl", the sentence "boy meets girl" is correct, but "meets girl boy" is not.
Could you think of three distinct words for which both expressions are correct and make sense?
Note to the downvoters: sorry if this question bothers you. This is my first one of the site. I first posted it on english.stack-exchange, but someone said it would be a better fit here. I agree that there is certainly many correct answers. I just would like one to illustrate a basic programming exercise (i.e., "rotating" the value of 3 variables).
Answer
The simple solution is to write
ADVERB, PRONOUN, VERB and then make it PRONOUN, VERB, ADVERB
For instance
Sometimes people think and People think sometimes
And
Slowly I drive and I drive slowly
Another example
Daily they read and They read daily
Another solution found by Jonathan Allan is
PRONOUN, PRONOUN, VERB and PRONOUN, VERB, PRONOUN
For instance
Anyone you know and You know anyone
And
Somebody we saw and We saw someone
Once again
Others he met and He met others
There can be words with multiple meanings which will work:
On right side (on the right hand side) and Right side on (the correct side is on)
This glancing blow,
In freezing snow,
Of a cat woman,
In faux platinum,Dedicated to bonneted lassies,
Elegant ladies so classy,
Boy loving Mona Lisas,
Dressed like fashionistas,
Always so enticing,
In urban life thriving,With sneakers on my feet,
Patron of archivists I greet,
Narcissistic action is required,
That my beauty hath inspired,Temperatures rising outside,
Emergency services notified,
This extreme heat in the air is,
Making Viserion leave Daenerys,Perspiration hitting the ground,
Confirm to me that I am renowned,
In a desert all evaporated,
My crew remains fiscally motivated,Let the choir sopranos celebrate,*
Since the lassitude of 88th street will donate,*
Situated in our weekend location,
Skeptics obtain visual confirmation,*** = (x3), ** = (x6)
What in the world is this poem about?
Solvers: I know your answer can be very short but please list each line in your answer, for the benefit of others who aren't familiar with this "poem". Thanks!
Answer
This made me laugh so much when I got it. Line by line first, answer at the bottom.
This glancing blow,
In freezing snow,
Of a cat woman,
In faux platinum,
This hit, that ice cold
Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold
Dedicated to bonneted lassies,
Elegant ladies so classy,
Boy loving Mona Lisas,
Dressed like fashionistas,
Always so enticing,
In urban life thriving,
This one for them hood girls
Them good girls straight masterpieces
Stylin', wilin', livin' it up in the city
With sneakers on my feet,
Patron of archivists I greet,
Narcissistic action is required,
That my beauty hath inspired,
Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent
Gotta kiss myself, I'm so pretty
Temperatures rising outside,
Emergency services notified,
This extreme heat in the air is,
Making Viserion leave Daenerys,
I'm too hot (hot damn)
Called a police and a fireman
I'm too hot (hot damn)
Make a dragon wanna retire man
Perspiration hitting the ground,
Confirm to me that I am renowned,
In a desert all evaporated,
My crew remains fiscally motivated,
I'm too hot (hot damn)
Say my name you know who I am
I'm too hot (hot damn)
And my band 'bout that money, break it down
Let the choir sopranos celebrate,*
Since the lassitude of 88th street will donate,*
Situated in our weekend location,
Skeptics obtain visual confirmation,**
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)*
'Cause uptown funk gon' give it to you*
Saturday night and we in the spot
Don't believe me just watch
If you haven't gotten it yet, these are expertly transcribed lyrics to
Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars.
This puzzle belongs to the puzzle series: hyper-modern art
After cracking the door code of the last room, the two friends in the gallery of hyper-modern art are moving on to the next room.
"Oh, look at this! This image is lifting my mood quite a bit after this monochrome depression lately."
"Yes, but I don't quite know why it's making me thirsty just to look at it."
"Hmm, I can see what you mean. It also looks somehow familiar... What is the picture called, anyway?"
"Sweet Dream - quite fitting, I'd say."
"I agree. But now you'll soon tell me that there is more to that than meets the eye on first sight, right?"
"Of course! Would it be hyper-modern art otherwise? As with a lot of modern art, the picture hides a message to the public."
"Really? A political statement hidden in art? Maybe I can see through it..."
"Not so sure if it is political, but it is clearly a statement. A wish. A dream, if you will."
Full resolution image, 1.3Mb, 4000 x 3000 pixels
The goal of this puzzle is to derive the message coded into it. This message consists of 3 words and is in English. It is hidden in the picture and not in the digital content.
You could print the picture and solve the puzzle from the printed picture. The link beneath the image leads to a full-resolution version, which might be recommended for solving this puzzle.
Additionally to the actual message, there are also various hints 'hidden' in the image. Bonus for finding them all!
Answer
The pattern of candy and blank spaces
matches the word lengths of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, starting at the line "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up...." This is clued by the image at the bottom of a dark-colored chocolate square delivering a speech to a mixed group of light and dark squares. The orator is crowned as a "king", and the candy images come from the game Candy Crush, which was developed by the company King.
At the bottom
the light and dark squares encode the word
ORIGINALusing a Bacon code, while their shadows encodeELEMENTS(noticed by @Will).
This suggests that we find
the candies with shape/color combinations that match the original ones in the game Candy Crush. If we superimpose MLK's speech on the candies, the letters in those spots spell out
CHOCOLATE FOR EVERYONE, which is the message. The whole image was too large to upload, so here's a section of four lines near the middle:
This is Room 4 of the Maze series. For those wishing to start from the beginning, click here
You wake up in Room 4 after a troubled night of 'sleep'. Your head was clouded all night with thoughts of geography, chemistry, and math. "What's coming next?", you wonder as you head for the note. But instead of a note on the platform, you see that the platform is glowing like a computer screen, showing a page on your favorite site, the Puzzling StackExchange! You realize that the platform is a sort of touch-screen interface so you attempt to navigate to an emergency service site, but all you can see on the interface is a question and the edit, close, and flag buttons. Even the add comment and add answer features are missing. Baffled, you scroll and read the question:
Welcome to Room 4 of the Maze! You have officially made it farther than any of the other test subjects. You humans have an expression, "Out of the frying pan and into the fire"; if we understand it correctly, your current situation is an apt application of that idiom. From here on, the puzzles get noticeably harder. You're going to have to start thinking outside of the box if you want to live, but we have faith that you're up for the challenge. Good Luck!!
Key 1:COPY
STOP
Key 2:
124 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 10 10 124 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 113 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 10 67 53 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 113 32 32 32 113 32 32 32 32 101 10 124 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 101 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 10 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 101 32 32 32 101 32 32 101 32 101 10 124 45 124 113 45 45 45 113 45 45 45 124 101 45 101 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 10 35 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 101 10 124 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 45 124 10 32 32 32 32 32 32 101 32 32 32 101 32 32 101 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 113 10 67 52 10
The keypad on the door has only digits. It holds enough room on the display for 3 digits. You can faintly see fingerprints on some of the keys. "That's odd; I thought no one had ever made it this far...", you think to yourself. Shaking your head to concentrate, you turn back to the bewildering information on the screen and get to work.
Answer from Previous Room:
117
This room has been solved. Normally I would wait until the next morning to post the next room, but figured I'd give the night shift a chance. Are you any closer to escaping the Maze? What's the next subject matter? Will anyone ever get sent to the universe of Bud Light Lime? Find out in the next installment!
Answer
The code to enter is:
The same as the previous room, 117
Key 1 is morse code with spaces being dots and tabs being dashes. This yields the text:
SUMFREQFLOORADD6049ADDAFPRSQRT
Key 2 is, as f'' figured out is decimal ascii representation. Converting this to ascii code yields:
![1]](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7OQ8R.jpg)
|-|--------|--------|--------|--------|
|-|--------|----q---|--------|--------|
C5 q q e
|-|--------|---e----|--------|--------|
e e e e
|-|q---q---|e-e-----|--------|--------|
# e
|-|--------|--------|--------|--------|
e e e q
C4
Converting all of the notes in the key signature to their frequencies gives us this:
0 x 698.456 |-|--------|--------|--------|--------|
0 x 659.255
1 x 587.330 |-|--------|----q---|--------|--------|
3 x 523.251 C5 q q e
1 x 493.883 |-|--------|---e----|--------|--------|
4 x 440.000 e e e e
4 x 391.995 |-|q---q---|e-e-----|--------|--------|
1 x 369.994 # e
0 x 329.628 |-|--------|--------|--------|--------|
4 x 293.665 e e e q
0 x 261.626 C4
Following the instructions in Key 1:
SUMFREQ = sum of the frequencies = 7523.600
FLOOR(SUMFREQ) = 7523
FLOOR(SUMFREQ) + 6049 = 13572
FLOOR(SUMFREQ) + 6049 + AFPR (answer from previous room = 117) = 13689
SQRT(FLOOR(SUMFREQ) + 6049 + AFPR) = 117
Since it seems at least some people are enjoying these I'm continuing the series.
This one is not quite as elegant, but still interesting.
Can White Castle?
Answer
I present to you, pure inefficiency:
1. Nf3 f6 2. Nh4 Kf7 3. Nf5 Ke6 4. Nd6 Ke5
5. Nc4+ Kf4 6. Nb6 Nh6 7. Nxc8 Ng4 8. Nb6 Nc6
9. Nxa8 Nd4 10. Nb6 Nf3+ 11. exf3 Ne5 12. Bd3 Nc4
13. Bg6 hxg6 14. Na4 Rh5 15. Nac3 Rh6 16. Qe2 Rh3
17. Qe4+ Kg5 18. Qf5+ gxf5 19. Na3 Ne3 20. Ncb5 Kf4
21. Nd4 Nc4 22. Nab5 Ne5 23. Na3 Nd3+ 24. cxd3 Ke5
25. Nc6+ Kd5 26. Nb4+ Kd4 27. Nd5 Kc5 28. Nc3 Kb4
29. Ne4 fxe4 30. Nc2+ Kc5 31. Na3 exd3 32. Nb5 Rh4
33. Nc3 Rc4 34. Nd1 Rxc1 35. Rb1 Rc4 36. Rc1 Kb4
37. Rc2 Rh4 38. Ne3 Rh3 39. Nd1 dxc2 40. Nc3 Kc4
41. Nd1 Kd3 42. Nc3 Rg3 43. Nd5 Rg4 44. Ne3 Rg5
45. Nd1 Rg3 46. Ne3 c1=R+ 47. Nd1 Kc2 48. h3 Ra1
49. h4 Kc1 50. Nc3 Rh3 51. Ne4 Rh2 52. Nc3 Kc2+
53. Nb1 Kd3 54. h5 Kd4 55. h6 Ke5 56. h7 Ke6
57. h8=B Kf7 58. d3 Ke8 59. O-O
It can definitely be done faster, but this works.
Find the rule specified in the image below.
Note that the rule applies to each row independently so every "true" row is "true" by itself
If you are confused about these, here's an easy one:
Did you get it right? The answer to the puzzle above is:
They must contain the color red.
Answer
The answer is:
Each row has precisely two dark grey rectangles with an odd number of other-coloured rectangles between them
I got this by:
Noticing that they stand out, which allowed me to find that there were two in each row, with a small modification for a couple of the False rows which also had two of those
