HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty)
Subject: Re: Dying Young 
Reply-To: macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 17:04:53 GMT

	I've had it!!!! Someone commented something to effect of drivel being posted on
this net by Mr. Friendless because he was stating a solution not based on
mathematics but on pure logic and instinct.  Bullshit!!! (pardon my language,
but I am a little disgusted)  This person then proceeded to give this long
boring mathematic proof on the probability of certain events occurring.  

	Question (to the accuser): Didn't you happen to read that you only have 10
minutes to make a decision?  I would be willing to bet you that it took longer
than 10 minutes to calculate your solution.  The idea of the problem is that you
do not have time to do these calculations and that you logically make your
decisions on the basis of what everyone else is likely to do.  I.e., you put
yourself into their shoes and make your decision on the basis of those results. 

	Personally, I find Mr. Friendless's solution one of the few logical solutions
to be posted yet.  It beats the hell out of your mathematical bs.

				Feeling better,
				Mike
From: Demoel@Fwva.Saic.Com (Ed de Moel)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Missing subject header
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1992 21:27:38 GMT
Organization: Science Applications Int'l, Corp. - Computer systems operation

news@watson.ibm.com (NNTP News Poster) writes:
>
>Prove or disprove that the number of primes in the sequence
>1 , 11 , 111 ,  1111 , 11111 , ...
>is finite. 
 
Since 111 is divisable by 3 and 1111 is divisable by 11 that shouldn't
be too hard...
From: sarge@cs.uq.oz.au (The Lemming)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: word squares...
Date: 9 Apr 92 04:56:30 GMT
Reply-To: sarge@cs.uq.oz.au

In <9400@wrgate.wr.tek.com> dant@logos.wr.tek.com (Dan Tilque) writes:

->		
->		Number 2:   T  (A)  G
->			    E   E   T
->			    O   L   E
->
->		The two letters in parentheses can not be moved...
->	The idea is that they should form actual words, across and down...

-I couldn't find a solution to the other from only 9C, but I found a
-solution using only one word from web2:

-		Nunber 2:   T   A   T
-		            E   G   0
-		            E   E   L

SPOILER

What about

			    E   A   T
			    E   G   O
			    L   E   T


The Lemming, who can beat Friendless at Boggle, scrabble and any other
	     word game.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leap before you look.                      sarge@cs.uq.oz.au
The Lemming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Re: A question of time
Date: 14 Apr 92 22:09:10 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept




(partial spoiler ahead)





























Of the two clocks, one was digital and one had hands.  Either/or/both of
these were upside down.
From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Math Problem
Date: 8 Apr 92 21:45:00 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

james@crc.ricoh.com (James Allen) writes...
>	Find
>		sod ( sod ( sod (4444 ^ 4444 ) ) )
> 
>	where sod (x) is the sum of the digits in the decimal
>	representation of x.

*** SPOILER ***


let X = 4444^4444

sod(X) <= 9 * (# of digits) < 145900
sod(sod(X)) <= sod(99999) = 45
sod(sod(sod(X))) <= sod(39) = 12

but sod(sod(sod(X))) = 7 (mod 9)

thus sod(sod(sod(X))) = 7

Dave Ring
dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
From: morris@anasaz (Bob Morris)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Isaac Asimovs mysteries puzzle (hint and comment)
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:19:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: anasaz.1992Apr13.161902.10769
Organization: Anasazi, Inc.  Phoenix, Az

>>>Why does>	Christmas = Halloween
>>>
>>Comment:  This works in the US and some other places, but not everywhere.
>>And no, I don't mean places where they don't celebrate Christmas.  It
>>doesn't work in some places where Christmas is celebrated.  (Does anybody
>>outside of the US celebrate Halloween?)
>>
>>Puzzle #1:  Why doesn't it work everywhere?  Where does it work?
>>
>>Puzzle #2: Why does Christmas = Thanksgiving (sometimes but not always)
>>
>>Puzzle #3: Why does Halloween = Thanksgiving (sometimes but not always)
>>
>>(The answer to #2 and #3 is the same as the original.)
>SPOILER

>1)  It works only in countries where the name of the 10th month is abbreviated
>    OCT and the name of the 12th is abbreviated DEC, since we all know that
>    31 OCT(al) = 25 DEC(imal).

You're partly right.  In addition, (and the answer I was looking for) it
only works in countries where Christmas is celebrated on December 25.  In
some European countries, it falls on other days in December (help me out
here, net.european.people), and in Eastern (Greek) Orthodox countries, it's
January 7.  I guess the recently-Christianized countries follow the dates of
the missionaries that Christianized them.

>2) and 3)  I don't know of ANY numeric base abbreviated NOV, so haven't a clue
>    as to what you're talking about.

Base 9, of course.  25 Dec = 27 Nov = 31 Oct = 34 Sep etc.  But Thanksgiving
doesn't fall on 27 Nov all the time.  It's about one year out of seven, but
I'm sure someone with too much spare time will do an exhaustive analysis of
the calendar and come up with a more precise answer.

P.S.  If you have too much spare time, Thanksgiving (US) is on the
fourth Thursday of each year.

Bob Morris
aka morris@anasazi.com  (new address)
anasaz!morris@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (old address still works)
My opinions only, of course...
From: ncramer@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: A question of time
Date: 14 Apr 1992 02:38:37 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Interzone Office
Reply-To: ncramer@labs-n.bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com

tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:
>Professor Doofus looked at the clock on his wall and exclaimed "holy smoke",
>and then waddled down the stairs. 
>His watch ticked loudly, but his blurry vision kept him from seeing the hands.
>He counted out 5 minutes by the time he arrived at the downstairs clock.
>"My Gosh" he said, "3 hours and 5 minutes have passed since I left the
> upstairs clock"
>As it turned out, 5 minutes HAD passed, not 3 hours and 5 minutes. Also,
>both clocks were correct.
>What time was it when he embarked on his journey down stairs?

Spoiler[?] following:



Well, one solution comes to mind (assuming that we give a little latitude
to the phrase "both clocks were correct"):

In short, he left the top of the stairs at some time between 8:55 and 8:59.
(For purposes of this example, assume it was 8:57.)

However, the clock at the top of the stairs was digital, with seven-
segement-display characters.  Morevoer, the upper-right segement in the
hours digit was burned out.
                  --            --
                 |  |          |  
I.e, rather than  -- , it read  -- ,
                 |  |          |  |
                  --            -- 
making the professor think the time was 6:57.  Five minutes later, at the
bottom of the stairs he read the second clock showing the (correct) time
9:02 (that is 3hr 5min later according to his reckoning).

(I'm a little unhappy with this, because --given the form of the statement
of the problem-- I would expect to be able to nail down the answer more
exactly.  On the other hand, the fact that he looked at the _hands_ of his
watch sounds like just the right kind of red herring to make me suspect
that this may be at least on the right track.)

N
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: hemmady@Cadence.COM (Shankar Hemmady)
Subject: Re: Try me
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 21:49:19 GMT

In article <1992Apr3.031519.9057@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> amorgan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Crunchy Frog) writes:
>In article <15760002@hpspdla.spd.HP.COM> 
>  bruceh@hpspdla.spd.HP.COM (Bruce Hayek) writes:
>
>>Provide a formula which, for any three integers a,b and c,
>>returns the value (b) given (a) and returns the value (c) given (b).
>>
>>For example, if:      a=2   b=6    c=-10,
>>
>>Then your general formula, stated in terms of a,b,c should produce a
>>function (f) such that:
>>
>>	f(2) = 6
>>	f(6) = -10
>>
>>Hopefully this is worded in a sufficently clear manner.
>>Multiple solutions possible...look forward to reading yours.
>
>Spoiler:
>
>If the numbers are a, b, and c, the equation
>
>	f(x) = (x-a)*c/(b-a) + (x-b)*b/(a-b)
>
>Which can be extended to more numbers in the obvious way.
>


Note that this formula will NOT work when a == b.
This is also because there is NO solution when a == b != c,
since the premise then becomes:

f(a) = a; f(a) = c;  no solution if a == b and a != c.

In case a == b == c, then the solution trivially is the
identity function.

>C "1 4 9 16 25 36 49 -2498398 81 100 " Frog

-Shankar Hemmady
From: surya@watson.ibm.com (Surya Mohanty)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: factorial puzzle
Date: 10 Apr 92 16:08:19 GMT
Reply-To: surya@rothko.watson.ibm.com (Surya Mohanty)
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM

The key to solve this problem ( # of 0s in 1000! ) is to find the power of 
5 in 1000!. 
The power of 5 in 1000! = 
[1000/5] + [1000/5^2] + [1000/5^3] + [1000/5^4] + ...
where [x] denotes the integral part of x.
Thus the number of 0s in 1000! = 200+40+8+1 = 249.
From: morgan@spectra.com (Mike Morgan)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Sequence puzzle, retry after mailer problems
Date: 8 Apr 92 21:06:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: spectra.1992Apr8.210658.971
Organization: Spectragraphics Corporation


This is supposedly pretty simple, but.....

What are the next two numbers and why?
1,11,21,1211,111221, ..........

Later daze!

-- 
Michael L. Morgan 
morgan@spectra.com
From: djoyce@black.clarku.edu (Dave Joyce)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: trvia (alternative spoiler)
Date: 12 Apr 92 00:31:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: black.djoyce.703038701
Organization: Clark University (Worcester, MA)

In <703024532.1@nwark.FidoNet> Marc.Costaldi@f2050.n391.z1.FidoNet.Org (Marc Costaldi) writes:

>Got a problem need some help with:
>
>An architect was asked to design a square house with the window in each
>wall 
>having a southern exposure. How was this done?

Alternative spoiler:















Let's see now.  Suppose there was only one wall having a southern exposure.
Then the architect would only have to put a window in that wall.  So, he/she
would design a square house with no windows on the north, east, or west
walls, but one window on the south wall.  That explains why the problem
refers to "the" window: there only is one window.

-- 
David E. Joyce				Dept. Math. & Comp. Sci.
Internet:  djoyce@black.clarku.edu	Clark University
BITnet:    djoyce@clarku		Worcester, MA 01610-1477
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty)
Subject: Re: wierd birthdays
Reply-To: macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 07:51:00 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.173732.22043@fid.morgan.com>, sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth
Breidbart) writes:
> In article <1992Apr10.151236.18195@clpd.kodak.com>
> benham@anion.serum.kodak.com (Todd Benham (x37354)) writes:
> >I am 15 minutes older than my twin brother (actually, I dont have a brother
> >but let's pretend) but according to our birth certificate's time of birth my
> >birthday comes one day after my twin brother's and
> >in different years.  How did this happen (and when are our birthdays)?
> 
> To have the birthdays on different dates is easy, even different
> years:  You were born towards the end of Dec. 31, your brother toward
> the beginning of Jan. 1.  But you're older, and your date of birth is
> later; therefore, your mother must have been on a ship crossing the
> International Date Line in between your births.
> 
> The simplest explanation is therefore a typo on your birth certificate.
> 
> Seth		sethb@fid.morgan.com

	That gives me another idea for a better puzzle...  Since you brought up the
fact of crossing that International Date Line changes the date of birth,
couldn't his birthday be TWO days ahead of his brother's (crossing the other
direction)? In fact, your solution implies it.

					Just Bored,
					Mike
Organization: Doctoral student, Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Date: Wed,  8 Apr 1992 14:30:42 -0400 
From: Stuart Finkelstein <sf20+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: The Homing Pigeon Problem and more...
	<1992Apr7.011848.16208@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu>

>>And finally, name a six-letter word that when the first letter is
capitalized,
>>changes the pronunciation of the word.
> 
>there is a canonical list of these somewhere (not all 6 letters long).
>the only one i can remember off the top of my head does happen to have
>6 letters:  august.

what about "polish"?
From: johnson@spectra.com (boyd johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: 'A' word puzzle
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:09:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: spectra.1992Apr6.160944.22220
Organization: Spectragraphics Corporation

In article <9309@wrgate.wr.tek.com>, dant@logos.wr.tek.com (Dan Tilque) writes:
> 
> Other than starting with 'a', what do the following words have in
> common?
> 
> acorn
> aerial
> aide
> akin
> alight
> atone
> away
> 
> ---
> Dan Tilque	--	dant@logos.WR.TEK.COM

How about:
 air
 Alice (if proper names are ok)
 aloe
 alum
 atop
 auction
 auspicious

p.s.  I cheated and did some grepping, sorting, and uniqing on
/usr/dict/words.

-- 
========== Boyd Johnson	   nosc!spectra.com!johnson ==========
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: How to cluster US States?
From: wft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor)
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:34:41 +1200
Distribution: world
Organization: Department of Mathematics, University of Canterbury

In article <54618@hydra.gatech.EDU>, gt2807a@prism.gatech.EDU (Benjamin H. Cowan) writes:
 
|>   So, what is the minimum number of clusters that the continental US can
|> be grouped in to?  Also, what is the biggest possible cluster that can be
|> made, according to number of states in that cluster?  Please *post* any and 
|> all answers to rec.puzzles.

I make it 11 clusters at minimum, which can be achieved in a variety of ways.
There is an unprintably boring proof by exhaustion that 11 is minimal (unless
my proof has a mistake).

The biggest cluster is merely given by the state with the max number of
neighbours, which seem to be Missouri and Tennessee with 8 each.
----
Try the same question for the whole mainland American continent (N & S).

I get minimal 5 clusters; in only 2 possible ways (almost identical).
Largest cluster includes Brazil (surprise!) and all its neighbours.
----
I'll let someone else do Africa; and Eurasia; or EurAfrAsia.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: bmesmer@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Carl Muckenhoupt)
Subject: Re: Cube puzzle
Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 22:22:49 GMT

In article <1992Apr1.101133.15065@alf.uib.no> s290@brems.ii.uib.no ( Per Ivar Roervik) writes:
      Consider a 4x4x4 cube of tightly packed 1x1x1 cubes.
      How many of these smaller cubes can a straight line pierce;
      how many can it touch?

      A generalization for larger sizes seems trivial to me, but higher 
      dimensions has got me completely cross-eyed and befuddled (x .
Funny, a generalization to higher dimensions, for the first part of the
problem at least, seems natural to me. Consider: The number of cubes
we can pass through depends on the number of times we can switch to a new
cube. To switch to a new cube, we pass through a plane separating them.
There are 3 planes separating the cubes (if it's 4x4x4) in each direction,
so we can switch to a new cube 9 times (three for each dimension).
Adding on the cube we start with, we see that we have pierced 10 cubes.
In n dimensions, we simply have n directions in which we can switch to a new
cube, for 3n+1 cubes pierced (or, more generally, (m-1)n+1, where m is
the size of the cube).
    Okay, so that just shows that 3n+1 is an upper bound on the number
of cubes pierced, and some of you may doubt that we can actually get them
all. But when you consider that we can just take a line joining opposite
corners (which is clearly bound to pass through all the layers of cubes
in each direction), and shift it a slightly different distance in each
dimension so it doesn't pass through any corners, I think it becomes
obvious.
Now, anyone for generalizing the maximum number of cubes touched?

--

Carl Muckenhoupt        bmesmer@occs.cs.oberlin.edu
"As a lyricist you become sensitive to certain things. You become aware
that there aren't very many words that rhyme with 'love'. There are a lot
more words that rhyme with 'hate' than with 'love'. You've got 'above'
and 'dove' and 'glove' and 'shove' and that's about it."
                        - Peter Shickele


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: m_reymond@zeus.dev.macsch.com (Mike Reymond)
Subject: Situation (or Lateral Thinking) Puzzles
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  Situation, Lateral Thinking 
Reply-To: m_reymond@macsch.com
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation (MSC), Los Angeles, California
Date:  9 Apr 1992 12:58 PST  

I just bought a book with nothing but situation puzzles:

"Lateral Thinking Puzzles" by Paul Sloane, 1991, 
Sterling Publishing Co., NY, 96 pages.

It has many of the puzzles compiled by J.Hartman and
also many more that are not.

Mike Reymond
MacNeal-Schwendler Corp., Los Angeles, CA, USA
m_reymond@macsch.com
(213) 259-4926
From: ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Another Isaac Asimov puzzle -- geography
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:12:21 GMT
Organization: UC Davis Dept of Applied Science at LLNL

Here's a geography puzzle that appeared in one of Asimov's essays in
_The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction._  I have modified it
slightly to make it slightly easier, because as he stated it the puzzle is
virtually impossible (IMHO).  But I'll give Asimov's version first,
then mine, so people can start with his alone.  Even my version is
difficult enough so that I'd be surprised if anyone who hasn't seen
or heard of Asimov's solution could get it.  In fact, I think it's 
the most difficult geography trivia question I've ever seen!

Here's Asimov's version:  What do New York City, and Xenia, Ohio have
in common?

My version is below, for those who don't want to see it:






























Here is my version:  There are a set of cities in the world, numbering
less than fifty, that share a certain characteristic.  Exactly two of
these cities are in the United States:  New York City and Xenia, Ohio.
What is this characteristic?

Ed
ed@wente.llnl.gov
From: wenner@einstein.eds.com (Rich Wenner)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Circular number puzzle
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:43:20 GMT
Organization: Al little as possible.

In article <1992Apr6.212254.9960@iitmax.iit.edu> thssrkr@iitmax.iit.edu (Raghunath K Rao) writes:
>>
>>                ABCDEF * 2 = CDEFAB

Etc. (you've seen it a bazillion times by now).

>Generates the 6 digit repeating sequence of 1/7 = 0.142857142857.

Yes, this is true, and before someone else starts an eternal
thread, let me say that yes, a variation of the same trick works
with the reciprocals of 19, 29, 97, and many other numbers.  I can
not find any number N whose reciprocal is a repeating decimal of N-1
digits for which the trick does not work.  If someone has a proof 
or disproof, I'd like to see it via email, but let's not bore
everybody else with it, OK? If you have a proof, you and I are probably
the only ones in the universe who care.  ;-)


>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>                                  _____         ___        _______
>K. RAGHUNATH RAO                 /____/ \      /__/\      /______/\
>email : thssrkr@iitmax.iit.edu  |  __ \ /|    / _ \ \    /  ___  \ |
>sleepy   (res) : (312)791-9428  | |__) |/    / /_\ \ \   | / | \ | |
>sleepier (off) : (312)567-3407  | __  /\    |  ___  | |  | | | | | |
>                                | | \ \ \   | / | \ | |  | | |_| | |
>It is the intonation and not    | | |\ \ \  | | | | | |  | \/__/ |/
>the intention that matters!!    |_|/  \_\/  |_|/  |_|/    \______/ 
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
Rich Wenner                   --(o)--(o)--     I really hate this damn machine.
EDS/TSD/DSD/FSD/CSDPS         (    /\    )     I wish that they would sell it.
                                \ mmmm /       It never does quite what I mean,
#include <stddisclaimer.h>       \____/        But only what I tell it.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Dying young
Date: 6 Apr 92 17:52:28 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept


You are put in a room by evil Nazi's.  There is a button in front of you.  If
you press the button, you will die.  However, there are 100 other people in
similar rooms.  If no one pushes their button before 12:00, everyone dies.  You
have no way to know if the other people have pushed theirs or not. 
It is now 11:50. What do you do?

(For more similar problems, read William Poundstone's "The Prisoner's Dilemna")

There is a rational solution.
From: sjm@Miles.COM (Scott Mark)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: NOTE: Bar Trick Clarification!!!!
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:49:40 GMT
Reply-To: sjm@miles.com
Organization: Miles Inc., Diagnostics Division, Elkhart, IN

In article <1992Apr8.034228@IASTATE.EDU> macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty) writes:
> <straw puzzle>
>
>Please note that I did not say that the pencil has been sharpened, so please do
>not assume that it is so. In other words, the fact that it is a pencil does not
>enter into the solution.
>
>	However, if you did use that in your solution, you are getting close.

Break the pencil into three pieces.  Use two like chopsticks to pick up
the single straw, and the other piece to lift the fused pair.

sjm
From: news@watson.ibm.com (NNTP News Poster)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Missing subject header
Date: 9 Apr 92 18:05:54 GMT
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM


 
From: surya@rothko.watson.ibm.com (Surya Mohanty)
Reply-To: surya@rothko.watson.ibm.com (Surya Mohanty)
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Subject: Number of primes in a sequence

Prove or disprove that the number of primes in the sequence
1 , 11 , 111 ,  1111 , 11111 , ...
is finite. 
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: Re: 'A' word puzzle
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 04:28:45 GMT

> Although "swash" is archaic (cf swashbuckling), this would allow wash also.

"Swash" is typography talk for an extended flourish on a letter, like on
the capital C's in the Coca-Cola logo.  My dictionary also lists a series
of non-archaic verbal meanings generally similar to those of "splash" and
"dash".  So "(a)wash" can be added to the list.
-- 
Mark Brader			"'He added a 3-point lead' is pronounced
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		 differently in Snooker than in Typography..."
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com				-- Lee R. Quin

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