Hey guys,
Unfortunately I will be shutting down this blog! It has become far too much work to keep up with my other blog and stay updated with over 700 followers there.
Thank you all for your support, and I appreciate everyone's participation to make this blog a fun endeavour =).
For now, please visit me on my primary blog, alphabetalife.blogspot.com
Cheers, love you all!
Puzzled Yet ???
A daily brain teaser. If you have a puzzle to challenge me with, post it in the comments!
Be sure to check out my other blog, Alpha Beta Life!
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
The Crying Man
Answer to last puzzle: Turn the 'n' upside-down to form a 'u'. With these letters, you can spell Utah, a state that has 6 sides (thus an irregular hexagon).
That was a toughie... In fact, that one was just plain cheat! And yeah, very few of you got it... But that's okay! Here's an easy one for you guys:
You whiz around the corner in your rented moped when suddenly you're forced to come to a sudden stop.
It seems a funeral procession has stopped for a quick breather. Empathy overwhelms you and you offer your condolences to the whimpering man nearby. "Were you close?" you ask, wishing you hadn't.
After a moment, the man replies, "Brothers and sisters I have none, that man's father is my father's son."
That sounds sarcastic, you think to yourself. Maybe the guy doesn't want to tell you, which is fine, but there's no reason to be a smartass about it.
Or, perhaps the clever among can see this is the real answer.
That was a toughie... In fact, that one was just plain cheat! And yeah, very few of you got it... But that's okay! Here's an easy one for you guys:
You whiz around the corner in your rented moped when suddenly you're forced to come to a sudden stop.
It seems a funeral procession has stopped for a quick breather. Empathy overwhelms you and you offer your condolences to the whimpering man nearby. "Were you close?" you ask, wishing you hadn't.
After a moment, the man replies, "Brothers and sisters I have none, that man's father is my father's son."
That sounds sarcastic, you think to yourself. Maybe the guy doesn't want to tell you, which is fine, but there's no reason to be a smartass about it.
Or, perhaps the clever among can see this is the real answer.
The hexagon
Answer to last puzzle: Yes, the arrow will meet its mark, because it is possible for an infinite summation of numbers to equal a finite sum. In other words, we can add the "half distances" infinitely many times, and it can produce a finite "total distance".
Although it has its foundation backed by mathematics, I don't like this answer! Some of the answers I received in the comments were much more intriguing and founded in physics roots or other more tangible properties:
"The number gets so small that it is good enough to be called touching. besides. Due to the fact that atoms exert a force on other atoms nothing ever really touches anything. we only experience the forces of the atoms pushing on one another." -vashrave
"I would say no as even if it is halved to infinity, it would eventually be traveling a distance of Planck length(1.163*10^-35).
IE: Much smaller than a neutrino which is so tiny that it can pass through matter almost undisturbed. Strings(1D) in String theory exist at this level.
Any length shorter than Planck length makes no sense given the laws of physics and quantum mechanics that are agreed upon by the scientific community today." -Mike
"I thought its a simple limit of a geometric series. Mathematically, the formula for the series of each halving of the distance will be 5/(2^n) from n=0 to n=infinity. As |r| < 1 the series diverges and the entire distance traveled is the sum of this series. The formula for the entire distance traveled is a/(1-r) where a=5 and r=0.5 (from 5/(2^n)) So the total distance traveled is 5/(1-0.5)=10. Sorry if this is hard to follow, it made more sense in my brain." -TheGeneral
TheGeneral's was probably the closest to my mathematical explanation. In response to Jacob who said, "Good rule If you have a roommate; Take no more than half the sugar.. that way there will ALWAYS be some left^^" This isn't exactly true, because eventually you'll reach the last grain which you can't half (not easily, anyway). In other words, there's a fundamental unit; time and space, on the other hand (as the question is composed of) has no fundamental unit so it can be infinitely halved. Nice try though, Jacob =).
You are given four large wooden letters on a table in front of you. They are the lower case "a", the lowercase "n", the lowercase "t", and the lowercase "h". Arrange these letters to make a hexagon. You may not use a curved side as a straight side.
Although it has its foundation backed by mathematics, I don't like this answer! Some of the answers I received in the comments were much more intriguing and founded in physics roots or other more tangible properties:
"The number gets so small that it is good enough to be called touching. besides. Due to the fact that atoms exert a force on other atoms nothing ever really touches anything. we only experience the forces of the atoms pushing on one another." -vashrave
"I would say no as even if it is halved to infinity, it would eventually be traveling a distance of Planck length(1.163*10^-35).
IE: Much smaller than a neutrino which is so tiny that it can pass through matter almost undisturbed. Strings(1D) in String theory exist at this level.
Any length shorter than Planck length makes no sense given the laws of physics and quantum mechanics that are agreed upon by the scientific community today." -Mike
"I thought its a simple limit of a geometric series. Mathematically, the formula for the series of each halving of the distance will be 5/(2^n) from n=0 to n=infinity. As |r| < 1 the series diverges and the entire distance traveled is the sum of this series. The formula for the entire distance traveled is a/(1-r) where a=5 and r=0.5 (from 5/(2^n)) So the total distance traveled is 5/(1-0.5)=10. Sorry if this is hard to follow, it made more sense in my brain." -TheGeneral
TheGeneral's was probably the closest to my mathematical explanation. In response to Jacob who said, "Good rule If you have a roommate; Take no more than half the sugar.. that way there will ALWAYS be some left^^" This isn't exactly true, because eventually you'll reach the last grain which you can't half (not easily, anyway). In other words, there's a fundamental unit; time and space, on the other hand (as the question is composed of) has no fundamental unit so it can be infinitely halved. Nice try though, Jacob =).
You are given four large wooden letters on a table in front of you. They are the lower case "a", the lowercase "n", the lowercase "t", and the lowercase "h". Arrange these letters to make a hexagon. You may not use a curved side as a straight side.
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