HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rmjarvis@cco.caltech.edu (Robert Michael Jarvis)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: One Vowel... Two Syllables
Date: 26 Sep 92 22:47:38 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: punisher.caltech.edu

In article <1992Sep25.131026.16365@cc.uow.edu.au> mcelwee@wampyr.cc.uow.edu.au (Bennett) writes:
> In article <19re13INNsm5@gap.caltech.edu> kanga.caltech.edu!rmjarvis (Robert Michael Jarvis) writes:
>> Name a common two-syllable English word which has only one vowel.
>
>"Seriously, though," three suggestions we have come up with here (all are
>debatable):
>
>X-ray
>Rhythm
>Isn't
>
>I'd be interested to hear what word Robert had in mind when he posed this
>question.
>
	"Rhythm" was the answer I had in mind when I posed this problem.  I
don't consider contractions to be completely fair, since the apostrophe takes
the place of a vowel.  I had thought of these before posting, but I neglected
to say that they were off limits when I posted the question.  Also, I don't
like X-ray as an answer, since it involves pronouncing a letter.  If you 
include that as an answer, you would have to include "B", "C", etc. as answers
to the more general question - What words have at least one more syllable
than vowels.  They are technically correct, but they don't match the spirit
of the question.  In any case, it is debateable.  There were some answers
that I did think were good alternate answers.  These were all of the -sm words
such as prism, chasm, schism, etc.  I wasn't planning on following up to my
own question, but since someone asked, here are my own thoughts on the matter.


Mike

(Sorry, no .sig file yet.)
From: frank@guiness.cetia.fr (Frank O'Neil)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Puzzles... [SPOILERS]
Date: 2 Oct 92 09:16:55 GMT
Reply-To: frank@guiness.cetia.fr (Frank O'Neil)
Organization: CETIA

In article <1992Sep27.163759.12084@wisipc.weizmann.ac.il>, jhsegal@wiscon.weizmann.ac.il (Livy) writes:
|> 1) Suppose there is a game in which two players place little paper marks
|> (of different colors) on a big,white,square paper.The purpose of the game is
|> to place your marks on the paper.If you cannot place a mark on the big piece
|> of paper,you loose. YOUR mission is to build a strategy by which the first
|> player will ALLWAYS win.(I hope u understood the question...)

   He places the first 'mark' dead center on the sheet. Thereafter he
   places his mark symmetrically opposite whatever his opponent has played
   in the meantime.

|> 2)How many numbers of 9 are from 1 to 100 ?

   I suppose you mean "How many times does the digit '9' appear in the
   numbers from 1 to 100. Since 100 has no nines, I exclude it and count
   200 digits from '00' to '99' (i.e. 00 01 02 03 04 ... 98 99). since the
   ten digits are evenly distributed, 200 / 10 = 20 "9's".

|> 3)A cowboy have 1243 cows.Besides 345,all of them die.How many cows he still
|> have?

   345

|> 4)From one hundred fifty  you take! How much do you have?

    all

|> Livy

Frank.
From: rh@smds.com (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Caliban's Will
Date: 27 Sep 92 09:55:14 GMT
Reply-To: rh@ishmael.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Software Maintenance & Development Systems, Inc.

In article <26SEP199216164925@zeus.tamu.edu> dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) writes:
|james@crc.ricoh.com (James Allen) writes...
|>Can someone help me with Caliban's Will?  There's one step in the
|>solution I don't understand.

|The FAQL solution assumes these are identical, but they are not. If Y.Y. was
|the first to fall in love, then the order YY,Critic,Low should be ruled
|out but (3) does not do so. I don't know if this caused the error, but
|I agree that the FAQL is wrong: we can't tell who lent the umbrella.

I suspect the FAQL is following the original, which has the same mistake.
-- 
Richard Harter: SMDS Inc.  Net address: rh@smds.com Phone: 508-369-7398 
US Mail: SMDS Inc., PO Box 555, Concord MA 01742.    Fax: 508-369-8272
In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: cab@col.hp.com (Chris Best)
Subject: Re: No vowels, One syllable
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 14:51:11 GMT
Organization: your service

OK, I know of a TWO-syllable word with no vowels.
Also in the dictionary.  Guesses?
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: winegar@skyler.mavd.honeywell.com
Subject: Re: Wooden "Puzzles"...
Organization: Honeywell Systems & Research Center
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 18:40:40 GMT

   I design, make and sell unique 3D puzzles.  If you send me your US Mail
address, I'll send you my brouchure.

   My favorite puzzles are those that look trivial, yet are very difficult!
My "Wedge Key" puzzle looks like an ordinary 4 piece jigsaw puzzle, yet
each piece is locked to the one next to it, making the solution difficult to
achieve.  I also make a similar puzzle, my "Impossible" puzzle, which I have
designed to never come appart!  By correct placement and shape of the
knobs, a variety of difficult puzzles can be made.
   I have several cube puzzles that interlock in all 3 axis at once.
   For time consuming, I have a 100 piece "double wave" puzzle, which can
take several hours to complete.

Keith Winegar Puzzle Works
4539 Oakleaf Drive
Vadnais Heights, MN 55127-3640
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Subject: Re: Attribute Puzzles
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 02:00:31 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

In article <1992Sep29.091434.18183@serval.net.wsu.edu> wvanweer@wsuaix.csc.wsu.edu (Wayne VanWeerthuizen) writes:

>Submitted by: Robert M. Jarvis
>
>Set#3:  with:  Koosh, Small Intestine, Yorkshire Terrier, Christmas Tree
>        w/out: Toothbrush, Oak Chair, Soccer Ball, Icicle

All are covered with something akin to fur-- the koosh has those
rubber spines, the tree has needles, the intestine has villi (sp?),
the terrier has fur.  

The toothbrush was thrown into the w/out list to confuse us-- it's got
bristles, but it isn't covered with them.

-- 
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
Some news readers expect "Disclaimer:" here.
Just say NO to police searches and seizures.  Make them use force.
(not responsible for bodily harm resulting from following above advice)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: cab@col.hp.com (Chris Best)
Subject: Re: No vowels, One syllable
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 19:57:07 GMT
Organization: your service

> >OK, I know of a TWO-syllable word with no vowels.

> I think that we are going to have to be more specific as to what we
> consider to be a vowel.

----------

It's not something we can just decide ourselves.  There are 
rules already in place that define when y and w are vowels. 
I don't know how to put it technically, The best I can do is by 
example:    YEAR     y = consonant
            RHYTHM   y = vowel
            WOOD     w = consonant
            CWM      w = vowel
Just look at how each one is pronounced for an idea.
As for my question, the word has no y or w, either.  Happy?

Someone emailed me with a reminder that 'tsktsk' was already
mentioned, but the word I had in mind is only two letters (which,
I guess, is the easy extreme - I'd guess longer words would be
more of a challenge).  I'll try the ctrl-L trick and include
it here.

...and some LF's just in case.























BB.


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE)
Subject: Re: Packing problem
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 18:29:00 GMT

blum@news.ils.nwu.edu (Daniel Blum) writes...
>   Given an infinitely long rectangular strip which is two units wide,
>and circles with diameters of one unit, one can pack them in parallel
>rows of two, like so:
>                      _____________________________
>                      |oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
>                      |oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
>                      -----------------------------
>However, there is a more efficient packing.  What is it?
*** SPOILER ***


First shift the top row by half a diameter so that each top circle rests
on two bottom circles. This leaves a gap at the top. The density is so
far unchanged. Now rotate the first group of 4 circles counterclockwise until
the fourth circle touches the top edge. Repeat for all groups of four. This
will leave some space so that the groups may be shifted left. The resulting
density is about 0.5% better than the naive density.

Dave Ring
dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
From: jwg@gravity.cray.com (John Gregory)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Chess-problem
Date: 5 Oct 92 17:03:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: walter.1992Oct5.120307.27989
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Originator: jwg@gravity


In article <haha.718200242@vipunen.hut.fi>, haha@vipunen.hut.fi (Harri Haanp{{) writes:
> In <BvIFxz.4K7@news.cso.uiuc.edu> acheng@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Albert Cheng) writes:
> 
> >In article <1992Oct2.182648.1904@news.eng.convex.com>, Dave Dodson <dodson@convex.COM> writes:
> >>Onar, I'd like to check my understanding of your puzzle.  I think you are
> >>assuming that all the queens will placed on the board first such that the
> >>king will be in checkmate no matter where it is placed.  Is this correct?
> >>
> >>If so, I see such a position for 7 queens.
> 
> >6 queens can do too.  Put them from b2 to b7.  All rows from 2 to 7

> 5 queens is enough. See:

(Good solution deleted to save space)

For fun, I proved (to my satisfaction) that this is the minimum possible,
by formulating the puzzle as an Integer Linear Program and solving it
with a commercial LP package.  The solution obtained (d1,d4,d5,d6,d7) 
happened to be different from but essentially equivalent to the solution 
already posted. I figure, if it's fair to prove the Four Color Map Problem
with computers, this is fair too. I don't doubt that a more elegant proof 
(that four queens are insufficient) could be concocted.

The formulation boils down to defining variables xij for i=[1,8] and j=[1,8], 
with xij=1 if a queen is at square (i,j) and =0 otherwise.  The function to 
be minimized is then the sum of these variables, and there are 64 constraints
(one for each square of the chessboard) to require coverage by at least one
queen.  The tiny minority who might be interested in the messy details are 
welcome to email me.  

I believe this puzzle is a well-known textbook problem in Operations
Research, though I can't put my hands on a reference at the moment.

- John Gregory
  Applications Dept.
  Cray Research, Inc.
  jwg@cray.com
From: karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: A probability problem <SPOILER>
Date: 30 Sep 92 02:12:52 GMT
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853

In article <1992Sep29.172332.9336@cetia.fr> frank@guiness.cetia.fr (Frank O'Neil) writes:
>1) Julius Caesar expelled about 2.2 * 10^22 molecules of air in crying
>   "Tu quoique filli" 2000 years ago.
>
>2) The vast majority [read "all"] of those molecules are still around
>
>3) 2000 years is long enough that they are evenly distributed in the 
>   atmosphere (which contains approx 10^44 molecules)
>
>Q : What is the probability you just breathed in one of the molecules
>    Julius Caesar expelled ??

I am going to interpret this as:  If you breath in 2.2 * 10^22 
molecules (enough to say, "Tu quoique filii"), what is the probability
that you breathe in one of the 2.2 * 10^22 "marked" molecules?

<SPOILER> follows ...








The probability that the first molecule you breathe in is NOT one of
the "marked" set is 1 - (2.2*10^22 / 10^44) = 1 - 2.2*10^-22, which is
extremely close to 1.  Same for all the others you breathe in.  The
probability that you DON'T breathe in ANY of the "marked" molecules is
the probability that you "succeed" in a probility 1 - 2.2*10^-22 task
2.2*10^22 times in a row (actually it gets harder as you remove
unmarked molecules from the atmosphere but this is a second-order
effect at most).  The probability of NOT breathing one of Caesar's
molecules is thus
	(1 - 2.2*10^-22) ^ 2.2*10^22
	= (1 - 4.84/(2.2*10^22)) ^ 2.2*10^22
This is a real good approximation to e^-4.84 which is about .007907.
Consequently the probability that you DO breathe one of Caesar's
molecules is about .9921, i.e. more than 99%.

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Diameter of earth?
Date: 4 Oct 1992 00:45:10 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1992Oct4.000212.2961@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, amorgan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Crunchy Frog) writes:
>In article <1992Oct3.163947.17166@hellgate.utah.edu> 
>  tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:
>>  How can you measure the diameter of the earth, using everyday tools
>>that a typical person would have access to?  This means MEASURE, not look
>>up the answer someone else determined.  I want to measure the diameter of
>>the earth, and if some other people did to we could compare answers!
>
>Go to a nice, flat part of the Earth.  Determine the distance of the
>furthest visible point on the ground (figuring out how to do this is
>left as an exercise for the reader.  I have a few ideas).  Given the 
>height of your eyes and that distance, computing the diameter of the 
>Earth is trivial.


I prefer the originally published technique:  Measure the angle of the sun from
the horizon at noon from two places at the same longitude but different
latitudes, and a known distance apart.  Simple trigonometry will give you an
estimate of the diameter of the earth.  You can either have two people make the
measurements on the same day, or make the measurements yourself on consecutive
days (though if the latter, you should to it near a solstice so as to minimize
the error introduced).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: blum@news.ils.nwu.edu (Daniel Blum)
Subject: Re: Packing problem
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 22:04:49 GMT

>If you take the top row of circles and shift it half a unit to the right,
>it can pack a little closer to the bottom row. This actually loses a bit
>of "efficiency" but its a fixed amount on an infinite problem. 

>What this buys you is some headroom. I think that by breaking the lines of
>circles into segments, and tilting the segments, you may be able to pack
>things tighter than they were originally. I'll leave the math to someone else.

>Duane. 

"Headroom" doesn't buy you anything so far as I can see.  Remember,
we're talking about the ratio of covered area to the area OF THE STRIP
that is being used - that empty headroom counts against you, and you
can't fit a circle in there.

>O O O
> O O    .........\
>O O O            /
>
>(I hope you get it from this, ascii isn't the best for this sort of thing).
>
>C Frog

Wrong.  The efficiency of the original packing is pi/4.  The
efficiency of this packing approaches (3*pi)/(8*sqrt(3)) as a limit,
which is smaller.  This is assuming that I did the math correctly -
I'll believe you when I see your calculations.  Note that this sort of
packing WILL be more efficient if you have more rows - as I
recall, a three/two packing is just as efficient as a three/three
packing, but a four/three is more efficient than a four/four, and the
same is true for greater numbers of rows.

--
_____________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum           Institute for the Learning Sciences   Room 327
blum@ils.nwu.edu   1890 Maple Ave., Evanston, IL 60201   708-467-2306

"By the power vested in me by my own over-inflated ego, I now 
 declare this bridge officially open."
_____________________________________________________________________

Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE)
Subject: Re: Caliban's Will
Summary: Asking for a little help
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:16:00 GMT

james@crc.ricoh.com (James Allen) writes...
>Can someone help me with Caliban's Will?  There's one step in the
>solution I don't understand.

>]]If Y.Y. or 'Critic' has second choice, 'Critic' comes before the one
>]]who first fell in love."

>]](3) Either Low is second or Critic is not last.

The FAQL solution assumes these are identical, but they are not. If Y.Y. was
the first to fall in love, then the order YY,Critic,Low should be ruled
out but (3) does not do so. I don't know if this caused the error, but
I agree that the FAQL is wrong: we can't tell who lent the umbrella.

Dave Ring
dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
From: kml@cellar.org (Scott Tiger)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: No vowels, One syllable
Date: 30 Sep 92 16:19:36 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

Given that we've beaten the one-vowel, two-syllable puzzle into the ground,
how about a no-vowel, one-syllable word.  I know of one in Webster's.
I does not contain an A,E,I,O,U,or Y.

Any takers?


              Also, Charlottesville must be destroyed.

   These may not even be my opinions, let alone anyone else's.
  kml%cellar@tredysvr.tredydev.unisys.com - My other account is a Mercedes.
From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Diameter of earth?
Date: 6 Oct 1992 14:44:53 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Reply-To: ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr) writes:
|ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer) writes:
|>The version I've always heard is that one of his spots happened to be
|>located smack on the Tropic of Cancer.  So that at exactly one time (i.e.
|>noon) on exactly one day of the year (i.e. the Summer Solstice) the sun
|>shown all the way to the bottom of the local well.
|The Tropic of Cancer runs across the lower corner of Libya, across the
|southern frontier of Egypt, and then across the middle of the Arabian
|peninsula.  Seems pretty far south for a Greek philosopher to have
|ventured.  Greece is all above the 35th parallel; the Tropic is at
|23.5 degrees.

But (again, if I recall correctly) Erastophenes was based in Alexandria
(wasn't he the Librarian?)  Alexandria was, of course, a major Hellenistic
center.  In that event, he would have been starting out from northern
Egypt.

In any case the Hellenistic Empire (or at least its influence) certainly
stretched as far south as the Tropic of Cancer.  Erastophenes needn't have
visited the site himself to be aware of this phenomenon.

|On the other hand, it may be that what you wrote is exactly what
|happened.  What's the source of your story?

One place it was told was on the PBS series "Cosmos".  (They did something
similar in "The Ring of Truth" but I don't recall whether they spoke about
Erastophenes".)

I know I've seen it elsewhere.  Unfortunately I'm away from my books at the
moment.  I'll check when I get home tonight.

N
From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Astronomy: farther = closer
Date: 29 Sep 92 22:30:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: zeus.29SEP199217301861
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU writes...
>>A precise measurement of the cosmic background radiation will show that,
>>although it is very smooth, it varies continuously between one direction in
>>which it is hottest, and the opposite direction in which it is coolest.
>
>Does this mean that someone's confirmed the alleged anisotropy?

That refers to the isotropy present after the mentioned dipole distribution is 
subtracted out.

Dave Ring
dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: No vowels, One syllable
Date: 1 Oct 92 22:15:37 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <1992Oct1.195707.25933@col.hp.com>, Chris Best writes:

>>>OK, I know of a TWO-syllable word with no vowels.

> BB.

"bb" is an interesting word, since apparently it started its life
as a classification name for a certain size shot.  There are other
such classifications, e.g. "SS", "TT", even "BBB" (which can be
found in NI2 under the entry "shot"), but "bb" is the only one of
the group to become common as a word.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Subject: Re: Brown/Blue eyes (SPOILER!)
Originator: jmkaraka@c00054-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jmkaraka@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN MARTIN KARAKASH)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 21:31:01 GMT


|>(-1) What happens if the foreigner lies and says
|>  "At least 301 of you are blue-eyed"?
|>
|>-Yuzuru Hiraga
|>
	Obviously, every blue-eyed person realizes he's just trying to stir
up trouble and lynch him at the dock.  ]-)

	-john-
From: dodson@convex.COM (Dave Dodson)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Chess-problem
Date: 6 Oct 92 14:05:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Oct6.140538.6565
Reply-To: dodson@convex.COM (Dave Dodson)
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
Originator: dodson@bach.convex.com
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In article <1992Oct6.000733.15163@ll.mit.edu> shoham@ll.mit.edu (Daniel Shoham) writes:
>5 can do it: a5, b2, d7, f4, g2

No.  These five attack every square, but don't protect each other.
Thus I can put my king down on a4, and then capture the queen on a5.

To see that it is the king's move, just remember what checkmate is.
The attacker has placed the king in check and the king cannot move
to a position where it is not in check.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Dodson		                             dodson@convex.COM
Convex Computer Corporation      Richardson, Texas      (214) 497-4234
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: Minimal Pairs
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 03:47:17 GMT

> "loath" and "loathe"
> "teeth" and "teethe"
> "seeth" and "seethe"
               ^^^^^^
> I sense a pattern :).

Uh, don't you mean "I see the pattern"? :-)
                      ^^^ ^^^
-- 
Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto	 "The problem is that tax lawyers are
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com		  amazingly creative." -- David Sherman

This article is in the public domain.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles