HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: saouter@irisa.fr (Saouter Yannick)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,?
Date: 27 Aug 92 22:16:50 GMT
Organization: Irisa, Rennes(FR)

In article <1992Aug26.183020.15528@cs.cornell.edu>, karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug25.120533.24301@wisipc.weizmann.ac.il> dany@marva.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il (Nabutovsky Dan) writes:
|> >   What is the next item in the serie:
|> > 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ?, ...
|> >
|> >   (Not 11)
|> 
|> How about the rule, "a(i) is i+1 written in base 19-i."
|> Then the next item is eleven written in base nine, i.e. "12."
|> 
|> -- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)

Isn't it the :

- list of numbers x>1 for which x^11 = 1 (mod 11) so 12,
- list of numbers superior to 1 which does not contain a `l` in their spelling so 12,
- list of numbers x>1 for cos(2 \pi / x) has an algebaric expression so 12,
- list of numbers x>1 which are equal to the sum of their components, so no other term,
- list of all numbers x>1 excepting those which are prime and non-Mersenne prime so 12.

saouter@sigle.irisa.fr
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: baljeual@uther.calvin.edu (Alan Baljeu)
Subject: word permutations and rotations
Summary: What is the answer
Keywords: word permutat rotat
Organization: Calvin College
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 15:10:50 GMT

1. a

no on

ate tea eat

item mite emit (temi)

Above are examples of 1,2,3 letter words in which you can rotate the letters
and still have a word.  The 4 letter example doesn't completely work,
so can anyone find one that does work?
How about for 5? 6? 
	I'm sure these exist, but I can't find an answer.


2. Permutations.  Certain words can be permuted many ways and still produce
	words.

rats star arts tars tsar
angel glean angle

"stop" has 6 permutations (you may find them yourself :)
Can anyone do better?

	Alan Baljeu
generic .sig
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,sci.math
From: timk@meaddata.com (Tim Klein)
Subject: Re: Solitaire games
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 17:10:01 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.063728.20792@dde.dk>, ct@dde.dk (Claus Tondering) writes:
|> What do you do when you are bored? You are sitting at the doctor's or at
|> the airport waiting, waiting, waiting. You've read all the newspapers
|> twice. There is absolutely nothing you can do. But you have a pencil
|> and a pad of paper...


This doesn't even require pencil and paper, and it can be played solitaire
or with a group of suitably bored people:

Think of two words of opposite meaning that start with the letters A and B.
(e.g. "Above" and "Below").  Now do the same with B and C, then C and D,
and so on.

When you're done with that, go through the alphabet thinking of synonyms
instead.  (There IS a good answer for W-X, but I've never been able to
come up with one for X-Y, among others.)

And when you're done with that, go through the alphabet 3 letters at
a time.  Name a category that starts with the first letter, and two
members of that category that start with the other two.  (For example,
Animals: Bear, Cow.)  I'm sure you can think of ways to make it more
challenging if necessary.


===========================================================================
Timothy Klein                 I wish I had a kryptonite cross.  Then I
timk@meaddata.com             could keep both Dracula AND Superman away.
...!uunet!meaddata!timk                               -- Jack Handey
From: Eric_J_Rainbolt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: riddle I remember reading as a kid
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 08:06:17 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

Here's an easy one.  I remember trying to figure this out when
I was a kid.  I think it was in HighLight's Magazine.
There was a villian, a farmer, and his daughter.  The farmer owed
the villian lots of money, but he couldn't pay his debt.  They were all
standing in a street loaded with white and black pebbles.  The villian said,
"I will pick up two pebbles, a white and a black one, put it in my hat, and
let your daughter choose.  If she pulls a black one, she is mine in payment
of your debt, if she chosses white, she is free."  The nervous farmer, not
to mention his daughter, agreed to the contract.  When the villian grabbed
the stones from the ground, the daughter noticed that he picked up two
black stones.  She knew if she refused to choose, the villian would win.
What does she do?
From: grue@cs.uq.oz.au (Pauli Dale)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: word permutations and rotations
Keywords: word permutat rotat
Date: 3 Sep 92 22:53:28 GMT
Reply-To: grue@cs.uq.oz.au

baljeual@uther.calvin.edu (Alan Baljeu) writes:

[...]
>Above are examples of 1,2,3 letter words in which you can rotate the letters
>and still have a word.  The 4 letter example doesn't completely work,
>so can anyone find one that does work?
>How about for 5? 6? 
>	I'm sure these exist, but I can't find an answer.

Ignoring all 1 and 2 letter rot-words.

For 3 letters, I found 10 legal sets of words:
	ait tai ita
	ary yar rya
	ask kas ska
	asp pas spa
	ate eat tea
	chi ich hic
	dso ods sod
	een nee ene
	eth het the
	hoo oho ooh

For 4 letters, I only found three different words:
	lana alan nala anal
	sese eses
	nana anan

Of these the first is by far the most interesting.


Sorry, I found no longer words that satisified the requirements.



>2. Permutations.  Certain words can be permuted many ways and still produce
>	words.

>"stop" has 6 permutations (you may find them yourself :)

	opts post pots spot stop tops


>Can anyone do better?

Yes.

------------ The words with the most permutations ------------

13 permutations:
	apers apres asper pares parse pears prase
	presa rapes reaps spaer spare spear

12 permutations (three different ways):
	least leats salet setal slate stale
	steal stela taels tales teals tesla

	arets aster earst rates reast resat
	stare stear strae tares tears teras

	alerts alters artels estral laster ratels
	salter slater staler stelar talers tarsel

11 permutations:
	palest palets pastel peltas petals plaste
	plates pleats septal staple tepals

There are four different words with 10 permutations.

------------ The words with the most permutations for given lengths ------------

For three letter words (5 permutations):
	ate eat eta tae tea

Four letter words (9 permutations):
	ates east eats etas sate seat seta taes teas

Five letter words (13 permutations):
	apers apres asper pares parse pears prase
	presa rapes reaps spaer spare spear

Six letter words (12 permutations):
	alerts alters artels estral laster ratels
	salter slater staler stelar talers tarsel

Seven letter words (10 permutations, three ways):
	easting eatings gainest genista ingates
	ingesta seating tangies teasing tsigane

	anestri nastier ratines resiant retains
	retinas retsina stainer starnie stearin

	angries earings erasing gainers graines
	reagins regains reginas searing seringa

Eigth letter words (9 permutations):
	angriest astringe ganister gantries granites
	ingrates rangiest reasting stearing

Nine letter words (6 permutations):
	centiares cisternae creatines encraties iterances nectaries



The dictionary I used gets a bit sparce after this so I won't
continue.



        						Pauli

Paul Dale                       | grue@cs.uq.oz.au
Department of Computer Science  | +61 7 365 2445
University of Queensland        |
Australia, 4072                 | Did you know that there are 41 two letter
                                |     words containing the letter 'a'?
--
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: matthew@base.cs.ucla.edu (Matthew Merzbacher)
Subject: Re: Nerd words
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: 23 Aug 92 17:25:52 GMT

linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden) writes:

>I am looking for two words that, when catenated together
>form a third word, with opposite meaning to the first word.

Inspired by a recent edition of "The Straight Dope"...

SHAME + LESS = SHAMELESS

*or*

SHAME + FULL = SHAMEFUL (L :-))

Of course Cecil debunks this entirely, and you can too, with a 
dictionary.
--

Matthew Merzbacher	ARPA:	matthew@CS.UCLA.EDU
Moo - Moo Moo  		UUCP:	...!{uunet|rutgers|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!matthew
               		This time, *with* the oys
From: moon@mozart.llnl.gov (Steven Moon)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: 30 questions    Spoiler
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:53:19 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

|> 
|>     John walks into his house and sees Jill dead on the floor.
|>     The house is empty except for Bill.
|>     Bill is sitting on the couch near Jill.
|>     John does not call the police.  Why? 
|> 






































All of these puzzels are similar in their method.  You make
assumptions based on every day experiences.  The assumption
made here is that Bill and Jill are people and thus their 
should be some concern that Jill is dead.

The answer:  Bill is a cat and Jill a goldfish.

There are also variations on this same theme.  Venk Reddy (vreddy@das.harvard.edu)
suggested that Jill was long dead, cremated and placed in a urn.  This was
knocked over by a small child Bill.

.Steve
From: dant@techbook.com (Dan Tilque)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Virtual reality puzzle
Date: 23 Aug 92 10:50:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: techbook.1992Aug23.105033.6689
Organization: Pseudopolis Yard

The most likely VR scenario:

You're happily engaged in whatever fantasy your dirty little mind can
dream up (and yes, we can all imagine what rating the movie would have)
when suddenly it's cut off and standing there with the connector in
their hand is your parent/spouse/child who wants you to clean your
room/take the dog to the vet/fix dinner.  When that happens, you know
you're not in a fantasy anymore.

---
Dan Tilque    --     Do not reply -- this site is going away very soon.
From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: <None>
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:17:04 GMT
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK

In article <1992Aug27.164827.24480@col.hp.com> cab@col.hp.com (Chris Best) writes:
>Ask someone to time you (at something/anything) for 15 seconds.
>When they say time's up, ask them what time it is.  Only a very
>few will know, even though they were staring at their watch for 
>15 seconds!

Now that you mentioned it, I believe this to have happened to me many
times.  (No, I haven't been tested, it just happened by chance.)
Well, staring at the watch doesn't mean staring at the entire display
(resp. all three hands at the same time).  According to the Mahabharata,
if you want to hit the target, you must see nothing but the target.

But just today at dinner a friend of mine asked another friend of ours
to close his eyes and then to say what colour the floor of the dining
hall was.  The question, you guessed it, remained unanswered.

-- 
 `If ye hiv ears oan yer heid - then use them tae lissen.' (The Glasgow Gospel)
Ivan A Derzhanski   (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk;  iad@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,  Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
From: Bob_Hearn@qm.claris.com (Bob Hearn)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Intersection of 4 Solid Cylinders = ??? * SPOILER *
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:43:36 GMT
Organization: Spartacus Software

In article <3SEP199219393653@zeus.tamu.edu>, dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) writes:
> 
> Bob_Hearn@qm.claris.com (Bob Hearn) writes...
> >> QUESTION:	How many curved faces does the intersection of 
> >> all 4 cylinders have?
> >
> >8.  It's shaped like an octahedron with curved faces.
> 
> The construction was helpful, but I disagree with the result. I think each
> face of the octohedron is divided in three faces, by lines connecting the
> edge centers to the face center. Thus there are 24 faces total, each of
> which is a bulging quadralateral.
> 
> Dave Ring
> dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
> 
> 

Yeah, OK, I think I can see that now.  Notice that the general problem can
be formulated:

Given a (regular) n-hedron, what is the number of faces of the solid formed
by the intersection of n/2 cylinders of the same radius, where each cylinder
is centered on the line defined by the centers of opposite faces?

The answers for the regular polyhedra are (I think):

4: doesn't work; no opposite faces.
6: 12 (rhomic dodecahedron)
8: 24 (this is the same as using opposing vertices of a cube)
12: 60 (intersection of 6 cylinders)
20: ??? (see below)

The formula is n * (n/2 - 1), which is the number of faces multipled by
one less than the number of cylinders.

Imagine that one of the faces faces up.  Then one of the cylinders is vertical.
For all the above cases but the icosahedron, the remaining cylinders are all
at the same angle from vertical.  Each one is going to slice out a new face
of a (warped) polyhedron that sits atop the top face of a n-hedron.
Multiply this by n faces, and there's your answer.

I don't think it works for the icosahedron (the answer would be 180), because
not all of the remaining cylinders form the same angle to the vertical.
Thus they will not all intersect at the same maximum z point.

Hope I didn't screw up somewhere again...

Bob


--
Scott Lindsey <wombat@claris.com>
From: steppe@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Top Changwatchai)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle Bible New Testament
Date: 31 Aug 92 00:17:20 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <12683@grayt> grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) writes:
>Can anyone give more examples of audible puzzles like this that
>rely on the listener trying to make sense of a nonsense question?
>

I've heard lots of these; many are based on rhyming words. (E.g.  What's a
three-letter word for policeman?  Cop.  What's a balloon do when you stick
a pin in it?  Pop.  What's my name?  Top (heh).  What do you do when you see
a green light?  Go.)

Another kind has to do with spelling or pronunciation:  How do you pronounce
M-A-C-D-O-N-A-L-D?  How about M-A-C-B-E-T-H?  And M-A-C-H-I-N-E?  (There's
a tendency at this point to pronounce the "hine" separately and with a long
"i".)

Here's one that's not really an audible puzzle but does require audience
participation:
Person A: "Proposition:  all odd numbers are prime.  Let's test this:
3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13; yep, it sure works."  
Person B:  "Hey!  9 isn't prime!"
Person A:  "Oh, that's just experimental error."

Top
-- 
steppe@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
"I'm gonna live forever or die trying."
From: jrickard@eoe.co.uk (John Rickard)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: NUMBER CREATION USING ...
Date: 26 Aug 92 13:24:06 GMT
Organization: EO Europe Limited, Cambridge, UK
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

I wrote:
: skataba@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Sam Atabaki) writes:
: : 
: : Creating numbers using four "2"s and any of mathematical
: : operators and symbols
: : such as:                                 __
: :           +, -, *, /, .(dot), ^(power), V   (square root),
: :                           _
: :           ! (factorial), .2 (decimal repeatition), ...
: 
: A related puzzle:
: 
: What property do the numbers listed below share?  They are the only
: numbers below 100 that I know to have this property; can you find
: any I've missed?
: 
:     10, 15, 24, 25, 36, 71

Jaroslaw Wroblewski has pointed out that 64 and 81 also have the property.

-- John Rickard
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: rstimets@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (robert and stimets)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Idle Minds (circle chopping)
Date: 3 Sep 92 23:11:43 GMT
Organization: Indiana University

In article <Bu0L9J.9y4@world.std.com> jkenton@world.std.com (Jeff Kenton) writes:
>In article <mrios.7291@meltdown.chi.il.us> mrios@meltdown.chi.il.us (Michael Rios) writes:
>>Hi everyone.  I was just trying to get to sleep a few nights ago and came up
>>with these.  I have the answers to most of them now, but the later ones elude
>>me.
>>
>>1. We'll begin at the beginning.  One straight line can, at best, divide a     
>>  circle into two parts.  Two straight lines can, at best, divide a circle   
>>into four parts.  Three straight lines give, at best, seven parts.  How   
>>about 4 straight lines?  5?  n?
>
>	n * (n + 1) / 2 + 1
>>
>>2. One straight line, properly placed, can divide a circle into two equal   
>>parts.  Now imagine a line with a right angled bend in it (or two             
>>perpendicular rays at a common origin, if you wish 8-).  Can this angled      
>>line be placed within the circle so as to divide it into two parts of equal
>>   area?
>
>	There's always the degenerate case with the common origin
>	on the circle and one leg tangent to the circle.
>
>	In addition, if you start with the angle (origin) at the
>	center of the circle it divides the circle into 1/4 and 3/4.
>	If you move it in the direction it points it will divide
>	the circle into 2 equal parts before the origin crosses out
>	of the circle.
>>
>>3. Three straight lines divide a circle into seven pieces at best.  Can the    
>>  lines be placed such that all the pieces have equal areas?
>>
>
>	Too lazy to calculate this one out, but each line has 4
>	parts of the circle on one side and 3 on the other.  If
>	the parts are to be equal that's 4/7 on one side and 3/7
>	on the other.  This plus symmetry arguments force the
>	placement of all 3 lines (to within rotations).  I don't
>	believe the 7 areas are equal.
>
If we assume the circle is of radius 1, centered at (0,0) then the first
observation (3/7, 4/7) gives that we can assume line 1 is vertical at
x=0.112438 (using Mathematica and Calculus).
A BIG assumption will now be invoked, that is that the triangle formed from
the intersection of the three lines  is an equilateral triangle.  I think
this is the case but I choose not to prove it.  (after all, this is 
REC.PUZZLES, not WORK.BORING)
Anyway, with this assumption and the knowledge that the area of an equilateral
triangle with distance x from its center to any of its sides is
      Sqrt(3)*4*x^2,
we find that the triangle in question must have an area of approximately
      .0875885, 
nowhere near Pi/7, which would be one-seventh the area of the circle, as required.

So, you're right.

RStimets
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: HINT: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,?
From: dany@marva.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il (Nabutovsky Dan)
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 06:21:28 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Weizmann Institute of Science, Computation Center
Summary: Rule must be SIMPLE

>In article <1992Aug25.120533.24301@wisipc.weizmann.ac.il> I write:
>   What is the next item in the serie:
> 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ?, ...

   This is a well-known serie. In fact, everybody knows it.
If I'll give you the next item, you should know all others immediately.
(Of course it is not 12).

   All answers based on sophisticated mathematical rule are
certainly wrong.

		Dan
From: Bob_Hearn@qm.claris.com (Bob Hearn)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Intersection of 4 Solid Cylinders = ??? * SPOILER *
Date: 3 Sep 92 20:06:45 GMT
Organization: Spartacus Software

In article <15134@claris.com>, Bob_Hearn@qm.claris.com (Bob Hearn) writes:
> 
> In article <1992Sep2.215816.18987@nas.nasa.gov>, asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
> > 
> > It is well-known (and a problem in many calculus books) to calculate the
> > volume of the intersection of 3 identical, mutually perpendicular solid cylinders.
> > It turns out that the shape so formed has 12 curved faces.  (For those familiar
> > with the term, they are arranged like the faces of a rhombic dodecahedron.)
> > 
> > Now suppose that the 4 major diagonals of a cube are each thickened
> > to become a solid cylinder of some small radius R.
> > 
> > QUESTION:	How many curved faces does the intersection of 
> > all 4 cylinders have?
> > 
> > --Daz
> > 
> > P.S.  I must confess that this differs from many of the puzzles posted 
> > here in that I, the poster, do not know the answer.
> > 
> > 
> 
> 8.  It's shaped like an octahedron with curved faces.
> 
> It's easiest to see this by thinking of pairs of cylinders.  Look at a cube
> facing an edge, with a face facing down.  From this viewpoint, the upper-left
> and lower-right vertices define the angle of one cylinder, and the upper-
> right and lower left define another.  The intersection of these two has four
> curved sides.  It is just a deformation of the intersection of two cylinders
> at right angles.  Now rotate the cube toward you so that you're looking at
> what was the top.  Only two faces of the cylinder intersection are visible
> to you now; the other two are facing away from you.  Rotate this shape
> 90 degrees clockwise and intersect it with itself.  Visualize!
> 
> Don't ask me what the volume is!
> 
> Bob
> 

Oops.  I think I didn't visualize well enough. :-(
I don't think it's an octahedron.  Sorry!!

Bob

--
Scott Lindsey <wombat@claris.com>
From: wayne@ultra.com (Wayne Hathaway)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:42:41 GMT
Reply-To: wayne@ultra.com (Wayne Hathaway)
Organization: Ultra Network Technologies

Hope this hasn't been mentioned yet ...

My personal favorite in this genre is:

    How do you pronounce C-H-O, [pause], P-H-O, [pause], U-S-E?

Not many people will recognize the word as chophouse!

    Wayne Hathaway               domain: wayne@Ultra.COM
    Ultra Network Technologies     uucp: ...!ames!ultra!wayne
    101 Daggett Drive             phone: 408-922-0100 x132
    San Jose, CA 95134              FAX: 408-433-9287
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: yoo@netcom.com (Young-Kyu Yoo)
Subject: Re: Nerd words
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 92 21:11:50 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 


>I am looking for two words that, when catenated together
>form a third word, with opposite meaning to the first word.

With a little imagination,

  Cray/on
  Chic/ago

  :-)


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: rstimets@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (robert and stimets)
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 05:12:24 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.141733.536@das.harvard.edu> vreddy@das.harvard.edu (Venkatesh Reddy) writes:
>In article <1992Aug27.080821.12826@nntp.nta.no>, stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA) writes:
>|> This one works well in Norway:
>|> 
>|> "How do you pronounce the capital of USA, 'Nu York' or 'Nju york'?"
>|> 
>|> -- 
>|> stein.kulseth@nta.no (Norwegian Telecom Research)
>|>    'When murders are committed by mathematics, they can be solved by
>|>    mathematics. Most of them aren't, and this one wasn't'
>|>    - Nick Charles (Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man")
>
>Surprisingly, the folowing just like that works here in the US:
>
>How do you pronounce the capital of Louisiana? New Orlins, or New Orleeens?
>
Now I can think of some:

If a rooster is sitting at x-angle at y-time on a hen-house z-feet and lays
an egg, which side of the hen house does the egg fall down?

If a plane crashes on the Canada-US border, where do they bury the survivors?

How long will it take the hands of a stopwatch to coincide after 1:00 pm?

(US specific) The Mets and The Yankees are playing in the last days of the 
regular season when (chose any unusual situation here to be resolved) ...

(this is more of a joke, but can probably be made into a puzzle)  Did you
hear that in the next Friday the Thirteenth movie Jason dresses up as Santa Claus
on Christmas Eve and terrorizes a bunch of pre-schoolers?

Had enough?

RStimets