HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ajtd@honey.st-and.ac.uk (Tony Davie)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Blacksmith code
Date: 28 Aug 92 14:01:36 GMT
Organization: St.Andrews University

In article <1992Aug27.200642.11597@octel.com>, richard@octel.com (Richard Karasik) writes:
> 
> 
> Im lookingfor another word beside blacksmith that has 10 unique
> letters.

How about:

algorithms OK
amplitudes OK
artichokes OK
authorised OK
authorized OK
background OK
behaviours OK
benchmarks OK
bifurcated OK
binoculars OK
blacksmith OK
blueprints OK
boundaries OK
bracketing OK
breakdowns OK
breakpoint OK
championed OK
charmingly OK
clamouring OK
clustering OK
compatible OK
compatibly OK
complained OK
complaints OK
completing OK
complexity OK
compulsive OK
computable OK
configured OK
conjugated OK
conjugates OK
consumable OK
copulating OK
culminated OK
culminates OK
customized OK
deblocking OK
decorating OK
decoupling OK
decryption OK
defaulting OK
designator OK
destroying OK
dictaphone OK
discourage OK
dispatcher OK
downstream OK
duplicates OK
earthbound OK
educations OK
exhausting OK
exhaustion OK
factorised OK
factorized OK
favourites OK
flourished OK
flowcharts OK
formalised OK
formalized OK
formidable OK
formidably OK
formulated OK
formulates OK
graciously OK
graticules OK
greyhounds OK
grievously OK
handsomely OK
harmonised OK
harmonized OK
harvesting OK
hospitable OK
hyperbolas OK
hyperbolic OK
hypnotised OK
hysterical OK
impersonal OK
importable OK
importance OK
inexorably OK
inoculated OK
interlocks OK
interplays OK
introduces OK
isothermal OK
journalism OK
journalist OK
judgmental OK
juxtaposed OK
kiloparsec OK
labyrinths OK
logarithms OK
lubricants OK
lubricated OK
lunchtimes OK
mackintosh OK
magnitudes OK
manifestly OK
manuscript OK
matchboxes OK
methodical OK
michaelson OK
microwaves OK
mineralogy OK
miscounted OK
misfortune OK
mistakenly OK
moderating OK
modularise OK
modularity OK
mouldering OK
nebulosity OK
neighbours OK
nightmares OK
normalised OK
normalized OK
normalizes OK
noticeably OK
outlandish OK
outplaying OK
overlaying OK
pachyderms OK
persuading OK
precaution OK
precluding OK
preloading OK
presumably OK
previously OK
proclaimed OK
productive OK
profitable OK
profitably OK
profligacy OK
profligate OK
profundity OK
projecting OK
promulgate OK
punishable OK
purchasing OK
reductions OK
regulation OK
relocating OK
resumption OK
scheduling OK
scrambling OK
stupefying OK
subjecting OK
sublimated OK
submediant OK
suboptimal OK
switchable OK
symbolized OK
syncopated OK
ultrasonic OK
uncompiled OK
underflows OK
unworkable OK
unworkably OK
vanquished OK
vapourised OK
whitsunday OK
worshipful OK
wozencraft OK

Base 11, 12, 13, ... also available. A favourite is 'questionmark'.

Tony Davie
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart)
Subject: Re: 30 questions
Organization: my opinions only
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 21:43:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.172646.1435@ole.cdac.com> ssave@ole.cdac.com
(Shailendra Save) writes:

>30 questions(Puzzle 1)
>
> A man walks into a bar. He asks for a glass of water.
> The bar-tender looks at him and gives him a glass of water.
> The bar-tender pulls out a gun and points at the man.
> The man smiles and leaves.
> What happened here?

The bartender explained to the man that normally he would be shot for
posting such problems without reading the FAQ, but in this case he'd
be allowed to live if he promised never to do it again.

Seth		sethb@fid.morgan.com
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart)
Subject: Re: riddle I remember reading as a kid **SPOILER**
Organization: my opinions only
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 21:12:34 GMT

In article <64901@cup.portal.com> Eric_J_Rainbolt@cup.portal.com writes:

>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?

She picks a pebble, then throws it away.  She then looks at the
remaining pebble, and since it is black, the one she threw away must
have been white.

Since there weren't any witnesses, the villain foreclosed on their house.

Seth		sethb@fid.morgan.com
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA)
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle 
Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 08:08:21 GMT

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")
From: asymes@nl.oracle.com (Andy Symes)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle
Date: 27 Aug 92 15:04:33 GMT
Organization: Oracle Europe

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")

And still on the same subject,

   "How do you pronounce the second day of the week, is it 'Toosday' or
    is it 'Tyoosday'"

Ans: [rot 13]: ZBAQNL

--
Andy Symes
Not my opinions, either
From: grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle Bible New Testament
Date: 26 Aug 92 12:05:01 GMT
Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.

In article <1992Aug21.190625.23459@visix.com> debbie@visix.com (Debra Fetter) writes:
>In article <12636@grayt>, grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) writes:
>
>|> and now the other golden oldie
>|> .
>|> How many animals of each kind did Moses take with him on the ark?
>> -- 
>
>It was Noah and the ark, not Moses.

This is an exam-ple of an audible puzzle in which the listener will
supply part of his own bafflement. He will hear "ARK" and automatically
substitute Noah. I have even heard one person who was very knowledgeable
about the Bible begin to explain about 7 of the clean and 2 of the
unclean before he realized his mistake.

Can anyone give more examples of audible puzzles like this that
rely on the listener trying to make sense of a nonsense question?


-- 
i.sinature
From: asymes@nl.oracle.com (Andy Symes)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: <None>
Date: 27 Aug 92 15:00:04 GMT
Organization: Oracle Europe

In article <1992Aug26.233652.15141@husc3.harvard.edu>, vreddy@husc3.harvard.edu writes:
|> In article <1992Aug26.215348.4776@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, berninge@iron.ecn.purdue.edu (James A Berninger) writes:
|> > 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?
|> > 
|> > My personal favorite is "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?"
[n lines deleted here]
|> I dunno if this is what you are talking about, but what about the bus-stop
|> question? You know... a bus stops at the first stop and 5 get on... the next
|> stop, 2 get on and 3 get off, the next stop, 5 get on abd 1 gets off, etc etc
|> etc... then the question at the end: How many stops did the bus make?
|> 
|> The people are so preoccupied doing the math, which they are led to believe is
|> the key to the question, and they are caught without an answer when they
|> realize the question asked them for something they weren't paying attnetion
|> to.. :)
|> 
|> -- Venk --
|> 

Especially if you leave them with a _negative_ number of people on the bus :)

Andy Symes
--
Stand Ard Di's Claimer apples :) 
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Re: 30 questions
Date: 26 Aug 92 17:38:41 MDT
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept

>> A man walks into a bar. He asks for a glass of water.

Then the man asks for all the money behind the bar, and pulls out a knife.

>> The bar-tender looks at him and gives him a glass of water.

The bar-tender smiles, and says "fuck off", then reaches down beneath the bar.

>> The bar-tender pulls out a gun and points at the man.
>> The man smiles and leaves.

The man says, "Next time I will bring a gun too"
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Smurf problem
Date: 1 Sep 92 15:05:43 MDT
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept

Alright, so the mayor dude calls for all red hatted smurfs to stand up....
Let's examine some possibilities....

0) If no smurfs had red hats, the mayor would not have made the request

1) If one smurf had a red hat, he would see no one else had red hats, so
would have stood up on the first request.

2) If two smurfs had red hats, on the first request they would have waited
(for they would assume the other guy would stand up).  They might wait
to see what the other guy did.... but since the commands came rather
quickly they would have to wait for the next request.  After the next
request, they would know that they too had a red hat, so would stand.

Therefore, the number of request made equals the number of people standing.
From: berninge@iron.ecn.purdue.edu (James A Berninger)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Audible Puzzles or Nonsense Questions was  Re: Slaughter of the Innocents
Keywords: puzzle Bible New Testament
Date: 26 Aug 92 21:53:48 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

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?

My personal favorite is "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?"
Grant and his wife are entombed there, but no one is buried there.
(I'll probably get flamed for that one.)

Jim Berninger                   ______ "This is no 'Whoops!'  This is
B0 w- c- g k s- e r- p          \    /  an 'Aaaaaaaauuuuuggggghhhh!'"
berninge@cn.ecn.purdue.edu       \  /   - Harvey ("Arnold") Fierstein
Green Lantern Fan, Extraordinaire \/      "Torch Song Trilogy"
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr)
Subject: Re: 4 color atlas
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 18:52:24 GMT

In article <1992Sep1.181038.27830@athena.cs.uga.edu> DEANRE@bscf.uga.edu (ROBIN DEAN) writes:
>    Has it ever been proved that with only 4 colors any planar map
>can be colored in such a way so that no two countries that touch
>will have the same color?

I believe it was proved by computer in the late 70s.  That is to say,
a group of people wrote a computer program that printed out reams of
paper that purported to be a proof of the theorem.  The reason the
proof is so long is that many, many cases must be considered.

There was (and I think still is) some controversy about this proof
method because supposedly no human being has ever been considered
to truly have understood and verified the proof.  It is simply
too long.

>     My math teacher presented our class with this problem back in
>1977 and at that time he said it had not been either proven nor
>disproven.  (Apparently at one time there was a reward for the person
>who could find a map that needed 5 colors.)

I think either the proof was presented shortly after your teacher said
this, or he was just slightly out of date.  I remember this issue from
1978, at which point I think the proof was available.

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)
From: mannj@acf9.nyu.edu (Jordan Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Spoiler to the Bug Wedding
Date: 4 Sep 92 16:46:16 GMT
Organization: New York University

mgtaylor@eos.ncsu.edu (Mary Molly G Taylor) writes:

>_THE BUG WEDDING_

>[...]

>7.  Who danced at the wedding hop?
>Grasshopper 

How about the jitterbug ? :)

>11.  Who lit the candle?
>Firefly
Or fire ant.

>MaryMolly
--

Jordan Mann at NYU      (mannj@cims.nyu.edu)
From: buchanan@heron.enet.dec.com (Andrew Buchanan)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Four of a kind
Keywords: puzzle
Date: 31 Aug 92 13:41:20 GMT
Reply-To: buchanan@heron.enet.dec.com (Andrew Buchanan)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


In Article <1992Aug27.183258.15169@ecst.csuchico.edu>, 
PANDERSON@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU (Peter Anderson) writes (modulo some minor 
syntactic slips I've taken the the liberty of correcting):

>Take four numbers and write them down beside each other. e.g.
>
>5   3   17   34
>
>Find the difference between each number and the number to its right. In 
>the case of the fourth number find the difference between it and the first 
>number( that is in this case between 34 and 5). Continue to do this and 
>you will always come to four of the same number.
>
>Example:
>
>5   3  17   34
>2   14  17  29
>12  3    12  27
>9   9     15  15
>0   6      0    6
>6   6      6    6
>
>This apparently only works with four numbers.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	Not so.

	Say the initial sequence, S, has length n.   Assume wlog that S has 
period n (ie, S is not just a repetition of some shorter subsequence).   Then
iteratively applying the function described, f, yields a constant value 
if n is a power of 2.   On the other hand, if n has an odd prime factor, then
there exists a sequence, S, of length n which never yields a constant value
under iterative application of f.


Sketch of Proof:

	Let S_0 = S.
	For j>=0, let S_j denote (f^j)(S) (ie, f iteratively applied j times to
S)
	Let r_j >= 0 denote the largest integer such that 2^(r_j) divides
every element of S_j.
	Let K_j >= 0 denote the largest member of S_j.

	Suppose first that n=2^m.
	Then simple consideration of Pascal's triangle mod 2^m shows that
r_(2^m) > r_0.   By repeating this, we see that r_(2^(mt)) -> infinity with t. 
Yet K_(2^mt)) < K_0.   Therefore, there exists j such that f^j(S) consists
entirely of zeros.

	Now suppose instead that n has an odd prime factor p.   Let S(i), the ith element of the sequence S, be given by: 
	S(i) = 2i + k(i mod p), 
where k is a function from {0,1...,p-1} to {0,1}, such that:
	|{x in {0,1,...,p-1}, k(x)=1}| is neither 0 nor p.
Then it's easy to see that S has period n, and r_t = 0 for all t.   This means
that no matter how many times f is applied to this S, we can never reach a
constant value.   Try it with the sequence 1,3,4 for instance.

Cheers,
Andrew.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: rstimets@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (robert and stimets)
Subject: Re: A Function
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 21:47:35 GMT

In article <12753@grayt> grayt@Software.Mitel.COM (Tom Gray) writes:
>
>While driving to work, My mind turned to this function
>on the natural numbers:
>
>for n and m both integers > 0 
>
>define
>
>f(n) = m mod n
>
>a) can you describe the general shape of the function?
>b) for n<m what is the maximum value of the function?

If m is odd, m= (m-1)/2 mod (m+1)/2
   
If m is even, m= (m-2)/2 mod (m+2)/2

eg: 13=(13-1)/2=6 mod 7   (7= (13+1)/2 )

    14=(14-2)/2=6 mod 8   (8= (14+2)/2 )

therefore (m-1)/2 or (m-2)/2 is attained for f(m,n)  (n<m)

Furthermore, in general, m mod n = m-n if n>=[ (m+2)/2 ]  ([x] is greatest integer fn)
Also,
   m mod n < n for all m,n.

Combining all this info, we get the two number offered as maximums.


>c) for a given m, how mnay 0's will be produced by the function

This is the question:
  how many divisors does a natural number m>1 have, not including itself.

  Elementary number theory gives the answer, best described in two parts:

  if m=p^k for some prime p, then d(m) (number of divisors of m) is found easily:

     d(m) = k+1  (only 1, p, p^2, . . . ,p^(k-1), p^k )

  the function d is clearly multiplicative (ie d(r*s)=d(r)*d(s) if (r,s)=1.

  therefore d(m)=product of all ((powers in prime power decomposition of m) +1)

  and f(m,n) = d(m) - 1

>d) what sort of number will produce the greatest number of 0's
>   relative to its size? For this sort of number describe the
>   relationship.
    
Only for m=2 or m=1 will we have the statement
     For all n<m, f(m,n)=0.

The case of m=1 is trivial (no n's top plug in)
The case of m=2 is also trivial, only n=1 has 2=0 mod 1.

Due to c), numbers larger than 2 will have a non-empty support.

Therefore, relative to m=1 or m=2, f has the maximum number of zeroes
possible. (100%)

>e) what sort of number m will produce the least number of 
>   0's from the function

any prime p will have only one n<p such that p=0 mod n (that being, of course, n=1)
Any composite p will have a prime divisor and hence will have a non-trivial zero.

RStimets


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: rstimets@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (robert and stimets)
Subject: Re: Puzzles with everyday objects
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 19:16:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug30.204116.503@nadia.stgt.sub.org> jonboy@nadia.stgt.sub.org (Jonathan Welton) writes:
>
>Here are four puzzles based, more or less, on everyday objects.
>They all contain slight twists, one perhaps more than the rest.
>
>1.Imagine a clock, with dots instead of numerals, which you can see
>reflected in a mirror. Each hour, on the hour, the reflected clock hands
>show a time, not necessarily the correct time, but one which would be
>plausible if the clock were not reflected.
>How many other times during a twelve hour period does this happen ?

Huh?

>
>2.The professor was spooning sugar into his tea. I pointed out that
>each spoonful was less than it should be because the spoon was wet,
>and some sugar was stuck to it. 'No problem' said the professor,
>'I will also use the spoon to stir the tea.' 'But then there is too
>much sugar because some is also stuck to the bottom of the spoon.'
>'Ah' he repied, 'but with the number of spoonfuls I take, it works out
>just right.'
>How many spoonfuls of sugar did he take ?

Two, provided the spoon was wet to begin with.
>
>3.You have an ordinary record and record player. If the record is cut
>in two along a diameter and the two halves are shifted one groove
>relative to one another before being glued back together, what happens
>to the record's spiral ? Is it still possible to play the record ?
>
Depends on how its glued.  if the left half is shifted "down", then since
the record travels clockwise, if the needle is placed on the outermost groove
the needle will fall off the edge of the record.  Otherwise the same 9/5 sec
of music will be played over and over again.
If the left halfis shifted "up", then the record can be played, it will finish
in half the time.
All this predicates on the grooves matching after the shift.
Furthermore, by flipping the record over the opposite case occurs.

>4.Between Bad Canstatt and Zuffenhausen, two straight road segments
>meet in a corner with twice the angle that a car turns through when
>taking the corner. What is the angle at the corner ?

Explain: how can the angle of the road differ from that of the path of the
car?  Maybe this is what you're looking for:

                                    /
                                   /
                                  /
                             120^/
                  ---------------  60^

The car travelling along changes its direction by 60^ (degrees).

RStimets



Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tycchow@riesz.mit.edu (Timothy Y. Chow)
Subject: Lewis Carroll sentence
Organization: None.  This saves me from writing a disclaimer.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 92 00:25:45 GMT


``Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to
others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what
you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.''


Is the above sentence grammatical?  If so, what does it mean?  (This is
taken from a debate going on in talk.philosophy.misc, sci.logic, and
cs.logic.)

I claim that the sentence is not grammatical, and offer the following
analysis:

a. "What you were or might have been" and "what you had been" are noun
clauses and can be replaced by "the queen" and "the king" respectively
without changing the structure of the sentence.
b. "Not otherwise than" can be safely deleted.
c. "It might appear to others" can be replaced by "it seems."

We get:

Never imagine yourself to be what it seems that the queen was the king would
have appeared to them to be otherwise.

This does not seem to be grammatical.  Someone else disagrees, and gives the
following analysis.

In article <OZ.92Aug24122942@ursa.sis.yorku.ca> oz@ursa.sis.yorku.ca (Ozan Yigit) writes:
>| Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise
>| than ...
>| 
>|         what it might appear to others
>|         that ...
>| 
>|                 what [you were or might have been] was not otherwise
>|                 than ...
>| 
>|                         what [you had been] would have appeared
>|                         to them [to be otherwise]

Opinions?
-- 
Tim Chow     tycchow@math.mit.edu
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs
30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh
only 1 1/2 tons.                               ---Popular Mechanics, March 1949
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,sci.philosophy.tech,sci.philosophy.meta,sci.logic
From: nik@csgi38.dcs.leeds.ac.uk (Nik Silver)
Subject: Re: Nomic
Organization: School of Computer Studies, University of Leeds
Distribution: scs
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 15:56:36 GMT
X-Posted-From: csgi38.leeds.ac.uk
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <26AUG199203083871@meena.cc.uregina.ca>, scholar@meena.cc.uregina.ca (SCHOLAR) writes:
>How about a Nomic like game where the rules are subroutines that automatically
>activate in the appropriate conditions (production rules).  That way you could
>have a real fizbin type game.  Bill it as the first computer game designed by a
>democratic process.

Very nice idea, but this is program that would have to *modify itself*.
Hofstadter himself did think of such an idea (he is a computer scientist, after
all) in the form of a computer (although we can assume it is a virtual
computer). This is from page 83 of Metamagical Themas:

        Playing on the names of the ENIAC, ILLIAC, JOHNNIAC and other
        computers I had heard of, I called it ``IACIAC''. I hoped
        IACIAC could not only manipulate its own programs but also
        redesign itself, change the way it interpreted its own
        instructions, and so on. I quickly ran into many conceptual
        difficulties and never completed the project, but I have never
        forgotten the fascination. It seems to me that although it is a
        game and not a computer, Nomic comes closer in spirit to that
        goal I sought than anything I have ever encountered. That is,
        except for itself.
        
So I think this seems to be difficult to do(!). But maybe it would be possible
in some lesser sense...?

-- 
Nik Silver                          "Now, give me the gatekey."
nik@scs.leeds.ac.uk                   "What gatekey?"
                                    "Fezzick, tear off his arms."
                                      "Oh, you mean this gatekey."
                                                   --- from The Princess Bride