Saturday 17 October 2015

mathematics - What, the answer isn't the No of the Yes is?


Doorknob knows exactly how to solve this, so I ask him to not answer this question.



No, an answer is the cube without A, No?
The Yes is No.
The squared answer, Yes, is to an answer.
A Yes without the Yes is to the answer.
Yes, the answer is No.

Yes, the answer to a no is 432.
What is the answer?



I tried my best to make it as grammatically correct as I could, but nope, too hard.
I'm not gonna put any tags on because the key thing to this puzzle is that you need to figure out what type of puzzle it is. Maybe after it gets answered.
Just that the 4th sentence says the answer is No does not mean that the answer is no.



I'm being serious here; it works perfectly. If you get it, it's gonna be a EUREKA!!! moment because it works perfectly.
I have added a tag because it is obvious that rand al'thor is on the right track. Probably post the answer in 3 weeks (if not flagged for unclear puzzle).
Someone managed to solve an earlier version of this (same concept) and a bunch of people here are a lot better at solving than him so... I don't think its terribly hard...

If you don't get the answer I'm looking for, but manage to make a reasonable answer, I will give you an upvote, but not an answer mark.
This puzzle was inspired by a conversation with Doorknob and someone else (not on this site).



Answer



The EUREKA moment is to realise that



some of the words (yes, no, a, the, answer?) represent numbers or mathematical operations.



E.g.



'is' means = and 'without' means -.




Let



Y, N, A, a, t, T denote 'Yes', 'No', 'answer', 'a'/'an', 'to', 'the' respectively.



(I don't know whether the capitalisation in some 'Yes's and 'No's is relevant.) We have


No, an answer is the cube without A, No?
The Yes is No.
The squared answer, Yes, is to an answer.
A Yes without the Yes is to the answer.

Yes, the answer is No.
Yes, the answer to a no is 432.
What is the answer?


These statements become:


(1) No, an answer is the cube without A, No?



$N a A = T^3 - a N$



(2) The Yes is No.




$T Y = N$



(3) The squared answer, Yes, is to an answer.



$T^2 A Y = t a N$



(4) A Yes without the Yes is to the answer.



$a Y - T Y = t T A$




(5) Yes, the answer is No.



$Y T A = N$



(6) Yes, the answer to a no is 432.



$Y T A t a N = 432$



Note that (6) implies




none of our six variables can be zero. This will help with cancellation later!



Big spoiler block now with a lot of algebra.



By (2) and (5), $A=1$. Substitute in $A=1$ and $N=TY$ to get:
$(1)\Rightarrow Na=T^3-aN \Rightarrow 2TYa=T^3 \Rightarrow T^2=2aY$.
$(3)\Rightarrow T^2Y=taTY \Rightarrow T=ta$.
$(4)\Rightarrow aY-TY=tT=t^2a.$
$(6)\Rightarrow YTtaTY=432 \Rightarrow Y^2(ta)^2ta=432 \Rightarrow (Y=4, T=3)$.




So 'the answer' is



$TA =$ 3.



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