One day I was visiting an unknown forest and I found some mysterious message written on the trees. The message was
WEZI SUZNKX JFWYM
QT BRX AMPP GLH
Help me to decode the hidden message.
Answer
@MOehm is right: the idea is:
go back with number of letters in the word itself
WEZI SUZNKX JFWYM
SAVE MOTHER EARTH
QT BRX AMPP GLH
OR YOU WILL DIE
This puzzle is part 25 of Gladys' journey across the globe. Each part can be solved independently. Nevertheless, if you are new to the series, feel free to start at the beginning: Introducing Gladys.
Dear Puzzling,
And so my journey has come to an end. This is my last destination. I have spent the day walking around in a shopping mall, trying to find the perfect souvenirs. I hope you have enjoyed my puzzles as much as I have enjoyed making them. I'll send you one more message once I get home to let you know the correct answers to my puzzles.
Wish you were here!
Love, Gladys.
Part 1
Part 2
1. The news put me in touch with strange gases (7)
2. Strike head of nail in long piece of tree (3)
3. Landlord engaged in toilet terrorism (6)
4. Venereal disease dropped from satellite to troublemaker (4)
5. Musician to almost guide make-up artist (9)
6. Fear to shoot rare ogre evenly (6)
7. Organize disorganized decoration (10)
8. Some gold estimated for first-born (6)
Part 3
1. A psychic; neither large nor small (6)
2. Solution with a high pH value (4)
3. Communication sent by post (6)
4. Slapping or walking musician (7)
5. JFK and MLK, for example (8)
6. New and original (5)
7. Enemy of the Allies (4)
8. The resolution of a legal dispute (10)
Gladys' journey will conclude in "More important than the destination".
Image credits: 4. Ixnayonthetimmay, CC BY-SA 3.0; 5.1 Steven Depolo, CC BY 2.0; 5.2 Rick Marshall, CC BY 2.0; 8.1 Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0; 8.2 Bruce Marlin, CC BY-SA 3.0
Answer
Complete Solution
Part 1:
1. laTEX + T = TEXT. (Thanks, @Omega Krypton!)
2. NAT King Cole + URAL mountains = NATURAL.
3. SCARLETT O'Hara - T = SCARLET.
4. VICI + centre of hOUSe = VICIOUS. (Thanks, @masterX244!)
5. VANILLA ICE CREAM - VANILLA ICE = CREAM.
6. First half of clownfish = CLOWN. (Thanks, @Omega Krypton!)
7. Vertigo - go + cal = VERTICAL.
8. Prince PHILIP + PINE = PHILIPPINE. (Thanks, @Omega Krypton!)
Part 2:
1. The news put me in touch with strange gases (7)
ME + gases rearranged SSAGE = MESSAGE (thanks, @JonMark Perry!)2. Strike head of nail in long piece of tree (3)
LONG - head of nail N = LOG.3. Landlord engaged in toilet terrorism (6)
toiLET TERrorism = LETTER (def. landlord).4. Venereal disease dropped from satellite to troublemaker (4)
SPUTNIK - STI = PUNK.5. Musician to almost guide make-up artist (9)
almost GUIde artist rearranged TARIST = GUITARIST.6. Fear to shoot rare ogre evenly (6)
sHoOt RaRe OgRe evenly = HORROR.7. Organize disorganized decoration (10)
rearrange decoration = COORDINATE (thanks, @Omega Krypton!)8. Some gold estimated for first-born (6)
gOLD ESTimated = OLDEST.
Part 3:
1. A psychic; neither large nor small (6)
MEDIUM2. Solution with a high pH value (4)
BASE (R.I.P. my chemistry skills haha....high is base and low is acid)3. Communication sent by post (6)
LETTER4. Slapping or walking musician (7)
slapping and walking are bass terms, so the musician is a BASSIST.5. JFK or MLK, for example (8)
INITIALS (although I didn't see it, @JonMark Perry got this at the same time or before me. Thanks very much!!)6. New and original (5)
NOVEL7. Enemy of the Allies (4)
AXIS8. The resolution of a legal dispute (10)
SETTLEMENT
Putting it all together:
1. TEXT MESSAGE MEDIUM = SMS.
2. NATURAL LOG BASE = E.
3. SCARLET LETTER LETTER = A.
4. VICIOUS PUNK BASSIST = SID.
5. CREAM GUITARIST INITIALS = EC.
6. CLOWN HORROR NOVEL = IT.
7. VERTICAL COORDINATE AXIS = Y.
8. OLDEST PHILIPPINE SETTLEMENT = CEBU.
Much gratitude to @athin for finding the final solution:
SM SEASIDE CITY CEBU in Cebu City, Philippines.
On the table, there is a balance with two pans together with ten weights ofrespectively 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512 grams. Cosmo takes a coin out of his pocket, shows it to Fredo and says: "There are exactly 89 different ways of placing the coin together with some (perhaps zero) of the weights into the left pan and placing some of the other weights into the right pan, so that the balance is in equilibrium."
Question: What is the weight of Cosmo's coin?
Answer
The weight of Cosmo's coin is
$341$, or represented as a binary number $101010101$.
Carl Löndahl found the second solution $171$.
This image represents both sides of the scale, the colored part being the coin splitted in the corresponding weights. The part below demonstrates distribution of the weights for some possible weighings. In this case we only change the weights 256 and 512 ("bits" 8 and 9), and ignore changes in the rest of the bits. There are 2 possible cases. Let's call this number: $$S_1=2$$
This time we look at the weights 128 and 64 ("bits" 6 and 7). We have again 2 possible cases. For each of the 2 cases we can choose 1 possible case from step 1 above which gives us together $2 * S_1$ cases.
But we have 1 additional case if we use all four "bits" 6 to 9. This gives us a new number: $$S_2=2*S_1+1=5$$
Again 2 cases, this time using bits 4 and 5. Both can be combined with all cases from step 2.
One additional case using bits 4 to 7 which can be combined with all cases from step 1.
And one more case using bits 4 to 9. This gives us a total of: $$S_3=2*S_2+S_1+1=13$$
Similar to previous chapters we can define: $$S_4=2*S_3+S_2+S_1+1=34$$
I omitted the picture here as the pattern should be obvious now: $$S_5=2*S_4+S_3+S_2+S_1+1=89$$
The nubmer of weighings can be calculated similarly for this number.
$$S_1=3$$Here we see a difference, there are 2 cases without using bits 5 and 6, and this is also true for the following steps.$$S_2=2*S1+2=8$$ $$S_3=2*S_2+S_1+2=21$$ $$S_4=2*S_3+S_2+S_1+2=55$$ There is also a difference in the 5th step. Because bit 1 is already used we multiply with 1 instead of 2 here. $$S_5=1*S_4+S_3+S_2+S_1+2=89$$
Based on the thoughts above we can define a general way to calculate the number of weighings. First write the number in binary form. Then define a variable for each bit equal 1 from left to right as follows:
$x_1$ -> number of weights bigger or equal the value of the first set bit
$x_2$ -> number of remaining weights bigger or equal the value of the second set bit
$x_3$ -> number of remaining weights bigger or equal the value of the third set bit
...The number can be then calculated as follows:
$$S_1 = x_1$$ $$S_2 = x_2*S_1+(x_1-1)$$ $$S_3 = x_3*S_2+(x_2-1)*S_1+(x_1-1)$$ $$S_4 = x_4*S_3+(x_3-1)*S_2+(x_2-1)*S_1+(x_1-1)$$ $$S_5 = x_5*S_4+(x_4-1)*S_3+(x_3-1)*S_2+(x_2-1)*S_1+(x_1-1)$$
We have enough amount of $2$x$2$ grid ships where you can put them on the $14$x$14$ grid battleship board. If this was a real battleship game, you could simply put $49$ of these $2$x$2$ grid ships into the board without any grid shared.
This time, you are going to put the ships one by one shown as the example below. Every time you put a ship, it cannot share more than 1 grid with other ships. That is, it must occupy at least three empty grids. In this case,
At most how many ships can you put into the board?
If this question was asked for $4$x$4$, the answer would be $5$ as shown below:
Here is the wrong way playing the game where you put the green ship, it shares two grid at the same time when you put it:
Answer
An obvious upper bound is
65, because each new ship after the first must occupy at least empty 3 squares, and $1 + \frac{196 - 4}{3} = 65$.
I couldn't do that well, however, so this might be suboptimal. My best arrangement so far gets to
64 ships:
After travelling around the world and returning home, I opened my passport to admire my stamps.
Five individual pieces of paper fell to the floor:
I must have picked them up somewhere, but I can't remember where...
Hint #1
All of these pieces have printing on one side only.
Hint #2
Some of the edges appear to be carefully torn.
Answer
Answer
You were in Giza, Egypt, at the Pyramid of Khafre?
Because
The four black and white pieces of papers seem to be parts of a QR code, but they appear skewed. However, if you stand them up along their hypotenuse edges and, using the black square as a base, lean them against one another so that the 4 corners come together to form a pyramid, the intent becomes apparent. When viewed from above, the code is now readable, and scanning it with a mobile device, we find it decodes to
+2.The shape implies that we should be looking at pyramids, and I guess that the last hint is either to imply there's more than 2 pyramids (but that would be better hinted by
2+), or, more likely that the precise location is the "2nd" pyramid, hence the Pyramid of Khafre, since it is known as "The Second Pyramid" and is the second-tallest and second-largest pyramid of Giza.
What are the chances of getting this correct if you pick at random?
You are not allowed to add more answers to this list
Note; This DOES have a correct, demonstrable answer!
Answer
Probability of
picking `1/4` = `1/2`
picking `1/2` = `1/4`
picking `1/3` = `1/4`
Probability of
correct answer `1/4` = `1/3`
correct answer `1/2` = `1/3`
correct answer `1/3` = `1/3`
So the probability of me picking correct Answer is
( 1/2 * 1/3 ) + ( 1/4 * 1/3 ) + ( 1/4 * 1/3 ) = 1/3
Probability of me picking correct Label remains 1/4
Like in my fifth part, I'm searching for the name of an anime. There is no knowledge about this anime needed to solve it, but it helps! I hope you have fun :)
This time I made a rebus riddle:
Answer
I'm thinking the answer is
Sword Art Online
"abc combinations" are words so "S + word" = "Sword"
The thing in the top corner is a paint palette for "Art"
And the entire thing is balancing ON a LINE (of rope) for "Online"
I may be wrong about how I reached the second word, but I still think the answer's correct. Relatively simple, but I prefer this one over your others so far as it feels more puzzley. Keep up the good work! :)
