HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: shari@room.Princeton.EDU (Shari L. Landes)
Subject: Re: Riddles
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 13:33:59 GMT

In article <l94itlINN26u@news.bbn.com> ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer) writes:
>shari@room.Princeton.EDU (Shari L. Landes) writes:
>>12	N on an A C
>
>Not necessarily.
>
>Mine has 0.  My wife's 4.

I believe you have the wrong solution in mind then.

Harlan - Gates of Dawn BBS - 609-426-1618
-- 
_________________________________________________________________________
          Only the ephemeral is of lasting value--Ionesco
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: Tony Lezard <tony@mantis.co.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: SSN puzzle
Keywords: primes, SSN
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 13:31:34 BST
Distribution: world
Organization: Mantis Consultants, Cambridge. UK.

asymptot@sbe (Mike Mathews) writes:

> define a function f(x) where f(x)={number of integers < x which are prime}
> 
> then the answer should approximate (25/90)*(f(1,000,000,000)-f(100,000,000))
> which I could calculate if I were near reference materials-
> 
> note that f(x) is a commonly used function in the study of prime numbers, but
> it goes by a different name (totient?)

The number of primes <= x is denoted by pi(x). (Greek letter pi) An
approximation to pi(x) is x/ln x, though there are better approximations
available.

(Euler's) totient function is something else.

--
Tony Lezard IS tony@mantis.co.uk OR tony%mantis.co.uk@uknet.ac.uk
OR EVEN arl10@phx.cam.ac.uk if all else fails. Great! Kept my .sig down to two
lines!
From: sanzgiri@bombay.metaphor.com (Ajit Sanzgiri)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: ducks and foxes (SPOILER)
Keywords: ducks, foxes
Date: 17 Aug 92 20:23:38 GMT
Organization: Metaphor Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Aug13.214438.12887@news.eng.convex.com> dodson@convex.COM (Dave Dodson) writes:
> ..........
>than halfway around the pond.  If the fox turns around, the duck will turn
>back onto an outward radial path until the fox passes colinearity, and then
>will turn 90 degrees the other way, which puts the fox in a worse position
>than if he had not turned around, so it is not in the fox's best interest to
>turn around.

and later karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr) writes:
> ....
>at full speed.  But if the fox were now to try to reach the duck's
>destination in a counterclockwise direction, then at some instant he
>and the duck must be on a diameter of the pond.  At that instant, they
>have exactly returned to the situation that existed at the end of step
>1, except that the duck is a little closer to the edge than she was
>before.  That's why the duck always repeats step 2 if the fox is ever

	Not so fast. Yes, the duck is closer to shore, but the arc along
	which the fox must run is also correspondingly shorter. One needs
	to check that the duck's gain outweighs the shorter distance the
	fox must now run. This is in fact the case (thank god).

	Ajit Sanzgiri

	P.S. Strangely enough, I was told this puzzle by my brother
	half-way across the world 4 years ago. These puzzles sure travel
	faster than their characters.
From: abreu@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Abreu)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Ten Equals 9.9999.... (new twist!?)
Date: 17 Aug 92 21:53:12 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London

In <5387@transfer.stratus.com> markc@eomer.hw.stratus.com (Mark Christensen) 
writes:
 > An alien comes down to earth with the intention of bringing
 > back all the information contained in the Encyclopedia
 > Britannica.  He has only a metal rod (no special technology,
 > just your simple metal rod and it is short) and a method
 > of inscribing on it.  He is allowed  to make ONLY ONE (1...EIN)
 > mark on this rod. He has no special technology so please don't
 > come up with any bizarre scenarios.  Is it THEORETICALLY possible
 > for him to make only one mark on this metal rod to transcribe
 > all the data in the encyclopedia?  Is it PHYSICALLY possible?
 > Why or why not? Let's assume that the mark must be no longer
 > than the circumference of the metal rod (which by the way is round).
 > That way I don't get a alien writing cursive in very tiny letters.

The whole contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica can be encoded by one
unique number. The number is arrived at by devising a sort of Godel
numbering for the alphabet plus all other characters printed, then
encoding the contents to finally arrive at the encyclopaedia's Godel
number.

Variations on this could be used to encode different kinds of
information; for example, we could extend the coding strategy to include
graphics.

It turns out that this number would be BIG (real BIG). Given that the
rod is finite, and a short one at that, the engraving could be done as
a fraction of some unity: a centimeter, say. The accuracy necessary
to make the engraving would be far beyond the physical diameter of an
atom.

So, although theoretically possible to do it, it is impractical.
Hamilton
From: jkenton@world.std.com (Jeff Kenton)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Hofstadter:Riddle Sentence
Date: 19 Aug 92 13:49:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: world.Bt8H2K.3AK
Organization: Kenton Systems Corporation, Weston MA

In article <1992Aug19.122331.21962@odin.diku.dk> torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen) writes:
>mhz7c@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Mark H. Zollinhofer) writes:
>
>>I just began perusing Hofstadter's book "metamagical themas"
>>and found a sentence on page 44 that I can't decipher.  This is
>>old by now so if someone out there can enlighten me, I'd be
>>grateful.
>
>>"f y cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd."
>
>The first half translates to "if you can read this", but I can't
>figure the last part. Maybe it is supposed to be nonsense?
>


I am sure that the second half (the whole thing) is a joke.  There
used to be ads on matchbook covers and in subways (in New York)
which said "if you can read this, you can get a good job ..." with
all the vowels removed.  It was advertising a simple shorthand
system some school was teaching.


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
=			Jeff Kenton	(617) 894-4508			=
=			    jkenton@world.std.com			=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Rhymes
Date: 17 Aug 92 11:43:57 GMT
Reply-To: ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Interzone Office
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

yeh@qucis.queensu.ca (Delbert Yeh) writes:
>I'll give you an orange if you fix my door-hinge..  :-)

Is your door-hinge "silver"??

.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: graf@island.COM (Montgomery Graf)
Subject: Re: Virtual reality puzzle
Organization: Island Graphics Corp.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 17:18:00 GMT


OK - go back to the virtual reality simulator, plug yourself in, and
call up a simulation of the house.  Keep doing this until the thing
runs out of memory and crashes. :-)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dant@techbook.com (Dan Tilque)
Subject: Re: Riddles
Organization: Pseudopolis Yard
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 07:46:14 GMT

sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk writes:
>
>One of the Psychology Profs here told me of an example similar to
>this that he used to use in teaching basic Psychology.
>
>Lecturing, he would state "The human perceptual system can
>still make sense of sentences..." and then write on a blackboard
>"whn ll th vwls hv bn mttd".  
>
>The riddles in this thread seem to follow a similar theme;
>question: does it work as well with numbers ?  [I know numeric sequences
>are used in intelligence tests.]

It wouldn't work with well at all for numbers, or it would have to be
modified somehow.  The reason it works well with words is the large
amount of redundancy in written language.

The first aspect of this redundancy is that not all combinations of
letters are valid words.  For instance, in your example above, there's
no other common word that has a consonant pattern of "vwls" except
"vowels".  There's also few alternatives for "whn" and "mttd".  This
makes it easy to figure out what the other words must be from context.

However, with numbers, all strings are equally valid.  So just leaving
out all the 8's and 9's would make things very ambiguous.  You could do
something like 12x5x + x6xx0 = 4x0xx, I suppose (I just made that up on
the spur of the moment and have no idea if it has a unique solution or
not).  Occasionally, we get such puzzles.  The last one I remember had
all x's (no given digits) but gave a unique solution despite that.

---
Dan Tilque    --     dant@techbook.com
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler)
Subject: Re: Who pays for the drinks
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:13:50 GMT

otten@icase.edu (John Otten) writes:

>The hotel room thread reminded me of a puzzle I found in a book when I was about
>11 or 12. Unfortunately, through a misprint or something, the answer was not
>in the book. (The book was an old Dover reprint of an even older puzzle book).
>Anyhow, the puzzle is below. Please bear in mind that I *don't* know the answer,
>although I have an idea as to what it might be. So, if it is poor ettiquite to post
>a puzzle for which I don't know the answer then -- TOO BAD!!! :-)

>And now...
>THE PUZZLE:

>At one time, the Mexican and American dollars were devalued by 10 cents on each
>side of the border (i.e. a Mexican dollar was 90 cents in the US, and a US dollar
>was worth 90 cents in Mexico).
>A man walks into a bar on the American side of the border, orders 10 cents worth of
>beer, and tenders a Mexican dollar in change. He then walks across the border to
>Mexico, orders 10 cents worth of beer and tenders a US dollar in change. He continues
>this throughout the day, and ends up dead drunk with the original dollar in his pocket.
>Who pays for the drinks?

>John
>otten@icase.edu

Pardon me for being olbique, but I just don't understand the problem.  It
seems that the premise for the puzzle is faulty.  It would be impossible
for the currency to be devalued on each side of the border.

$1 M = $.9 US in America and $1 US = $.9 M in Mexico?  That equation just
doesn't compute for me.

Now if the devaluation was occuring alternately on each side of the border,
then the problem might make sense.  Maybe I just answered my own question.
Could someone let me know the correct premise?
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA)
Subject: Re: ducks and foxes (SPOILER)
Keywords: ducks, foxes
Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 10:25:52 GMT

|> >     The question is, can the duck escape?  Why or why not?
|> 
|> Suppose the fox runs at a speed 23mph and the duck swims at 5mph. Can
|> the duck escape now?

Suppose the fox to duck speed ratio is a (a=4, in the original puzzle,
a = 23/5 = 4.6 here)

Now the duck may swim out to (not including) a radius of r/a, while still
keeping the fox exactly opposite the pond centre. Now for the duck to
be able to escape we must have 4*(r-r/a) < pi*r <=> a < 4/(4-pi) ~= 4.65979

So, still no duck!!
-- 
stein.kulseth@nta.no (Norwegian Telecom Research)
  'It's the howl from the desert, the scream from the slums
   The Mississippi rolling to the beat of the drums'
   - Phil Alvin ("American Music" recorded by the Blasters)
From: stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: ducks and foxes (SORRY)
Keywords: ducks, foxes
Date: 13 Aug 92 12:51:14 GMT
Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research

In article <1992Aug13.102552.27971@nntp.nta.no>, stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA, THAT'S ME) writes:
|> Now for the duck to
|> be able to escape we must have 4*(r-r/a) < pi*r <=> a < 4/(4-pi) ~= 4.65979
|> 
|> So, still no duck!!

Sorry, I was a bit too quack there, that's:
	 a*(r-r/a) < pi*r, gives a-1 < pi, and DUCK!!
(for the fox, and I duck, too)
-- 
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: rice@enterprise.Berkeley.EDU (Daniel S. Rice)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Virtual reality puzzle
Date: 19 Aug 1992 04:39:31 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: enterprise.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Aug18.002339.17501@hellgate.utah.edu> tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:
>
>  It is the year 2056, and the first perfect virtual reality simulators
>have hit the market.  So you buy one, bring it home, and plug into it.
[stuff deleted]
>  What is a sure way to know if you are in the real world or the virtual
>one?  That is the puzzle.

	This was a favorite theme of the late Phillip Dick.  See the novels
_Ubik_ or _The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch_ if this sort of thing
turns you on.

						Dan
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Rhymes
Date: 15 Aug 92 15:05:49 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

"sporange" (spore case, in NI2) rhymes with "orange".

I'd rather eat an orange, than a sporange.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618

"In a study of schoolboys, an educator discovered a correlation between size
 of feet and quality of handwriting.  The boys with the larger feet were,
 on the average, older."        Wallis & Roberts, _The Nature of Statistics_
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dsinclai@nyx.cs.du.edu (David Sinclair)
Subject: Re: Virtual reality puzzle
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 11:38:57 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.002339.17501@hellgate.utah.edu> tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:
>
>
>  So you unplug it, walk around the house, looking under beds and in closets
>until you realize she is at work.  She walks in the front door, and.....
>you realize that you MIGHT STILL BE IN THE VIRTUAL SIMULATION.  The 
>simulation is hooked into your house computer, which has been recording
>everything for the past few years.  It also is hooked into the local
>and global networks containing all the information about what is going on.
>The vitual simulator could be simulating your real life- and you might
>still be attached to it.  Even when you "unplugged" it merely simulated that.
>
>  What is a sure way to know if you are in the real world or the virtual
>one?  That is the puzzle.

Perhaps this should be in some philosophy group, but I don't think there
is one... I believe that Alan Turing and Alonzo CHurch found that any 
phenomenon that could be simulated could be simulated by ANY universal
Turing machine. If a digital simulation can emulate reality then reality
could just be a digital simulation. Of course the programmers might have
left in a dead giveaway, such as the 2nd law of Thermodynamics not working,
or a Babel fish, or something, but otherwise, I'm afraid, you're stuck.
My tuppenceworth,
	       Bod.
From: skataba@pbhyf.PacBell.COM (Sam Atabaki)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: NUMBER CREATION USING FOUR "2"s
Date: 18 Aug 92 01:03:34 GMT
Organization: Pacific * Bell

Creating numbers using four "2"s and any of mathematical symbols
such as:
          +, -, *, /, .(dot), ^(power), V   (square root)

I have already come up with solutions for the following
numbers (below 1000).  "XX" denotes numbers I don't have
solutions for as of today (8/17/92).

Numbers 0-50:

  0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14
 15  16  XX  18  XX  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  XX  XX  29
 30  XX  32  XX  34  XX  36  XX  XX  XX  40  XX  42  XX  44
 XX  46  XX  48  XX  50


Numbers 51-1000:

52 55 64 80 81 88 98 100 102 108 111 112 120 121 144 200 220
224 242 256 400 444 482 484 486 500 550 576 968 1000


Examples:   
            1= 22/22
           12= 2*(2+2+2) = (22+2)/2 = 22-2/.2
           20= 2/.2 + 2/.2 = (sqrt(22))^2 - 2


See if you can add to this list.
For solutions to specific numbers send email.
Any new ideas are welcome.

-Sam Atabaki
From: linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Nerd words
Date: 21 Aug 92 20:02:47 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: positive

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

Examples:
            NOT  +  ABLE  =  NOTABLE
            CHILD + LESS  =  CHILDLESS

This is not a great example because "notable" is not the
opposite of "not".  See if you can do better.   "Childless"
is somewhat better, but still not there.

One way of looking at this puzzle is to consider that it is
looking for a negator that is a suffix, not a prefix.

I had a hell of a time trying to get the Unix toolkit to
generate lists of candidate words (i.e. catenate pairs of words
and check if it's in the dictionary).  Ideas here?

    
--
linden@eng.sun.com|| P. van der Linden and his uncustomary theories.
Go Giants!! Don't || When solving a "panic" you must first ask yourself what you
stop at Florida...|| were doing that could possibly frighten an operating system
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Little numerical puzzle (SPOILER)
Date: 14 Aug 92 05:56:36 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <1992Aug13.233425.2370@nas.nasa.gov>, Daniel A. Asimov writes:

>        2
> 	x  + log  (2x) = 3
> 		10

How about x=sqrt(10)/2?  x^2 and log(2x) are strictly increasing, so
this is the only positive real root.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618

"In a study of schoolboys, an educator discovered a correlation between size
 of feet and quality of handwriting.  The boys with the larger feet were,
 on the average, older."        Wallis & Roberts, _The Nature of Statistics_
From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Riddles
Date: 19 Aug 1992 13:25:09 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Reply-To: ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

shari@room.Princeton.EDU (Shari L. Landes) writes:
>12	N on an A C

Not necessarily.

Mine has 0.  My wife's 4.
From: Gordon_Wong@mindlink.bc.ca (Gordon Wong)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: A Tough One from Pop Sci Magazine <Apologies>
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:12:48 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada

Ooops ... the solution was Fossil D, not Fossil G. Sorry for any confusion
caused.

However, I congratulate all netters who stuck with their solution despite me
posting the wrong solution.
From: shari@room.Princeton.EDU (Shari L. Landes)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Riddles
Date: 14 Aug 92 16:20:02 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster


SPOILERS!
^L



In article <1992Aug7.213401.11908@newshost.lanl.gov> mrw@mpx2.lampf.lanl.gov (Wennersten, Matthew R.) writes:

>1. Next number in this series 3 3 5 4 4 

I'll guess... 6 ?

>3. Each capital letter stands for a word to make up a common combination.

>  3 B M, SHTR

Three Blind Mice, See How they Run

>  7 W of the W

Seven Wonders of the World

>  12 S of the Z

12 Signs of the Zodiac

I couldn't get the others... but try these...


57 H V
1001 A N
8 D a W (In the B S)
12 D of C
9 P in the S S

That's all I could think of off hand...

Harlan Landes
GAtes of Dawn BBS
+1 609 426 1618



-- 
_________________________________________________________________________
          Only the ephemeral is of lasting value--Ionesco
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: jbz@atlanta.dg.com (Ben Zipperer)
Subject: Re: Little numerical puzzle (SPOILER)
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 18:51:00 GMT
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC

>PUZZLE:
>Find a closed-form solution for x in the following equation:
>
>         2
>	x  + log  (2x) = 3
>		10






























 x = sqrt(10) / 2


-- 
 ________________________________________________________________
 Ben Zipperer                  CSNet: jbz@reo-lobo.atlanta.dg.com
 Solution Services             Voice: (404)448-6072
 Data General Corporation        FAX: (404)446-2260
 Norcross, Ga  30092      DISCLAIMER: My opinions are my own.

 "... but the books of the Big-Endians have been long forbidden,
      and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding
      employments."       ---  Jonathan Swift, 1726.


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com (Bob Marshall)
Subject: Re: Swallows flying south
Reply-To: marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: LMSC, Sunnyvale, California
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 19:04:49 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.115259.28944@nntp.nta.no>, stein@hal.nta.no (Stein Kulseth FBA) writes:
>A swallow (A) is flying south. It then spots another swallow (B) flying behind
>it, but some distance to the right on a parallell course due south. Ie:
>
>                       (A)
>- - - - - - - - - - - - => - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>
>- - - - - - - - - => - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>                 (B)
>
>Now A wants to intercept B in order to pick up the latest swallow gossip.
>What change in direction should A make?
>
>B will maintain constant speed and direction. The flying speeds of the two 
>swallows are not necessarily identical (one is European, the other African) 


----------------------A----------------------------------------
                     ^|   .   
                     d|       .x
                     v|           .
--------------B------------------------Q-----------------------
              |<--c-->|<-------e------>|

Assuming we know the distances c and d in the picture above, and assuming
that bird A also flies at constant speed and direction, then in order for
both birds to arrive at point Q at the same time we get :

      x    (c + e)
     --- = -------
      a       b

where a is bird A's velocity and b is bird B's velocity. Since 
x = sqrt(e^2 + d^2), we can rewrite this equation with only one unknown, e :

  sqrt(e^2 + d^2)   (c + e)
  --------------- = -------
        a              b

Squaring both sides and collecting terms we get :

     Ae^2 + Be + C = 0,

where A = (a^2 - b^2)/(a^2 * b^2)
      B = 2*c/b^2
      C = c^2/b^2 - d^2/a^2

Solve this quadratic equation for e (assuming it has a real solution), 
and then the angle for the change in direction is given as arctan(d/e).
 
=============================================================================
Bob Marshall                     \\     "It ain't age
Lockheed Missiles & Space Co.     \\     That makes me look this way
Sunnyvale, CA                      \\    It ain't the years, boys,
marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com\\   It's the miles"
"I tell the truth 'cept when I lie"  \\     - Chris LeDoux
=============================================================================
From: hamel@primate.wisc.edu (Ray Hamel)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Homographs
Date: 14 Aug 92 14:02:35 GMT
Organization: UW-Madison Primate Center


> I friend recently asked me for two homographs (words spelled the same
> but pronounced differently) where one was an adjective and the other a
> noun.  He swears there's only one.  I don't believe him, but I've yet to
> come up with another example.  
> 
> Rob DeLine

How about BASS?

BASS (noun) --the fish
BASS (adjective) -- as in bass violin

Ray Hamel
University of Wisconsin
Organization: Masters student, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA