HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: hxie@saul.cis.upenn.edu (Hong Liang Xie)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Dying young
Date: 7 Apr 92 03:27:15 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Apr6.175229.23741@hellgate.utah.edu> tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:
 
>You are put in a room by evil Nazi's.  There is a button in front of you.  If
> ...
>It is now 11:50. What do you do?

Eduacated by Lei-Feng's (a hero in China) self-sacrifice spirit, I 
would press the button as earlier as possible, to save more people :^))  

-Hong, CIS Dept, U of Penn
From: morris@anasaz (Bob Morris)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: House on the Moon (was Re: trvia)
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:52:13 GMT
Organization: Anasazi, Inc.  Phoenix, Az

mark isaak writes:
>
>Solution 2:  Build it on the near side of the moon, with all
>the walls slanted so you can see the Earth's south pole from
>inside.

You get an A for creativity, but only C- for astromechanics.  There is no
spot on the moon where this is possible.  Think of it this way:  if you
could always see the south pole from your house on the moon, you could
also always see the house on the moon from the south pole.  The moon rises
and sets when viewed from the south pole, although the schedule is as weird
as the sunrise and sunset schedule.

My answer is to build the house in Mississippi or Alabama.  No matter where
you look, you see South.  (If you always want to see the South Pole, try
Krakow.)

Bob "but not Florida, it's part of Long Island" Morris
aka morris@anasazi.com  (new address)
anasaz!morris@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (old address still works)
My opinions only, of course...
From: sf20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Stuart Finkelstein)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: A question of time
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:59:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.Idv63IS00Uh783rax4
Organization: Doctoral student, Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

hmmm, here's a possible alternative to the "burned-out LED clock" solution.

perhaps the staircase in question is situated in a strange location
where time zones are suitably close together. of course, this doesn't
lead to a UNIQUE solution, but it allows both clocks to be competely
functional.

                                            the FINK
From: gt2807a@prism.gatech.EDU (Benjamin H. Cowan)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: How to cluster US States?
Date: 14 Apr 92 20:06:55 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology


  What is the smallest number of clusters that one can group the US states
into such that at least one state in the cluster touches every other state
in that cluster.  For example, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama would make
a valid cluster because Florida touches every other state in that cluster.
The addition of Mississippi to that cluster would make it invalid because
no one state touches every other state within the cluster.

  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.

Thanx,
Ben...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin H. Cowan                       || Reply to: gt2807a@prism.gatech.edu
Georgia Tech... Atlanta, Georgia  30332 || I'll read it & ignore it ASAP.
================================================================================

           "I don't believe there is a man, woman, or child alive
                   that doesn't enjoy a lovely beverage."
                                                        --Dave
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: hrjoist@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Holger Joist)
Subject: Re: Math Problem --- Oops !!!
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen, Germany
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 13:01:09 GMT

BANDA@AUSVM1.VNET.IBM.COM ("Venu Prabhakar Banda") writes:

>Aaaaaargh !!!!!, My first posting to rec.puzzles and I goofed....

>Sorry about the problem, it is incorrect. 4444 ** 4444 is NOT divisible
>by 9. In fact I realized after posting that finding (4444 ** 4444) mod 9 = 7
>and the proof is quite trivial.

>Heres another question......(Hopefully I wont make a mistake. This was
>asked in some math olympiad)....

>Problem: Consider the number 4444 ** 4444 (yes, again).

>a) Let A represent the sum of the digits of above number.
>b) Let B represent the sum of the digits of A.

B = 72601

>c) Let C represent the sum of the digits of B.

C = 16

>Determine C ?.......

Holger

---
Name  : Holger Joist
E-Mail: hrjoist@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
--
I am a signature antibody. Copy me into your signature and
your signature is immune from all known signature viruses.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: A question of time
Date: 13 Apr 92 20:03:31 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

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?

(This may be tricky)


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Subject: Re: SPOILERS: Isaac Asimov's mysteries puzzle
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 14:18:42 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

In article <1992Apr13.030724@IASTATE.EDU> macster@IASTATE.EDU (Michael C Mccarty) writes:
>In article <1992Apr11.014450.25843@bmerh2.bnr.ca>, coop1w13@bnr.ca (Mike
>Hammond) writes:
>> Spoilers for a tough puzzle. (The only reason I know this is because I
>> happened to read that particular issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction
>> Magazine. By the way, isn't this a puzzle of Martin Gardener?)
>> 
>> In article <3847@shum.huji.ac.il>, yehuda@shuldig.huji.ac.il (Jonathan
>Berlinger) writes:
>> |> Donn't know if anyone heard this one yet, so:
>> |> 
>> |> Why does>	Christmas = Halloween
>> |>
>              [...deleted...] 
>> 
>> Well, December 25 is 12/25, while October 31 is 10/31. Note that 25 in base
>> 12 is equal to 31 in base 10. Thus Christmas=Hallowe'en.
>> 
>            [...deleted...]
>
>	I hate to sound blatantly ignorant, but, how does:
>                  25 (base 12) = 31 (base 10)?
>        Wouldn't that be 29 = 31, or am I just being stupid?

No, you are right.   The joke is

DEC 25 = OCT 31.
(DEC= decimal (base 10), OCT = octal (base 12))

-- 
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
Subject: Re: Math Problem
From: tatsuya@hamblin.math.byu.edu (& Kawasaki)
Date: 11 Apr 92 11:54:35
Organization: Brigham Young University

In article <9204071337.AA25632@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> BANDA@AUSVM1.VNET.IBM.COM ("Venu Prabhakar Banda") writes:
Path: hamblin.math.byu.edu!yvax.byu.edu!byuvm!cunyvm!ukma!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!
    zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!AUSVM1.VNET.IBM.COM!BANDA
   Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
   From: BANDA@AUSVM1.VNET.IBM.COM ("Venu Prabhakar Banda")
   Date: 7 Apr 92 13:37:11 GMT
   Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
   Lines: 6

   Problem: Show that (4444 ** 4444) is divisible by 9

   Cheers,

   Venu
   ====

4444^4444 is divisialbe by 9... it contain remainder of 7.

Did I miss something???
--
                                         _   /|
Tatsuya                                  \'o.O'
tatsuya@hamblin.math.byu.edu             =(___)=
EMT:901006  Ham: N7UQJ                      U
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: jwd2@elf.owlnet.rice.edu (Joseph William DeVincentis)
Subject: Re: trvia (alternative spoiler)
Organization: Rice University
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 06:24:32 GMT

In article <djoyce.703038701@black.clarku.edu>, djoyce@black.clarku.edu (Dave Joyce) writes:
> 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.

Well, I think he meant that there was a window in every wall.
But, your solution can still work if you allow only one wall.
Make your house round!

-- 
\  ,------------------------------------------------------------.  /
 \/     Joseph  De Vincentis            jwd2@owlnet.rice.edu     \/
 /\           Help! My .sig just flipped umop-ap!sdn !           /\
/  `------------------------------------------------------------'  \
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dsr@abraxas.cs.Virginia.EDU (Dana Richards)
Subject: Re: Isaac Asimovs mysteries puzzle
Organization: University of Virginia Computer Science Department
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 18:42:19 GMT

In article <3847@shum.huji.ac.il> yehuda@shuldig.huji.ac.il (Jonathan Berlinger) writes:
>Donn't know if anyone heard this one yet, so:
>
>Why does>	Christmas = Halloween
>

i first saw this in a dmitri borgmann book (probably _beyond language_),
but he stole most of his material.   i am curious what the true origin
of this puzzle is?

dana
From: morris@anasaz (Bob Morris)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Calendar Cubes
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:54:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: anasaz.1992Apr13.155402.10093
Organization: Anasazi, Inc.  Phoenix, Az

>Kenneth Tolman writes:
>[How do I make calendar cubes? ]

I know this isn't exactly what was asked, but my favorite calendar cube
is the Rubik's Cube (tm) perpetual calendar.  This is a commercial product
copyright 1981 by Idea, patent pending.

Mechanically, it is a standard Rubik's cube.  The faces are marked with
letters, digits, words, and blanks.  To display the correct date, it is
only necessary to solve one face (layer) of the cube.  The other faces
are "don't cares" which means even I can solve it.

The only reason it is possible is that although there are 12 months, there
are only 6 distinct letters in the center position of the 3-letter
abbreviations, A, E, C, U, O and P.  The first and last letters go on
edge cubies in pairs.  I'll list them here so that the first letter
in an abbreviation is capitalized:  Jc, Op, At, ly, Fn, Dv, Mb, -r.  On the
actual cube, all are capitalized; this allows N to begin NOV and end JAN.
(- indicates blank).

The word "day" always occupies the top center cubie.  The top left corner
contains the first part of the name of the weekday: {Mon, Fri, blank},
{Sun, Tues, blank}, {Wednes, blank, copyright notice},
{Thurs, Satur, blank}.  Notice that whatever one you use, there is another
to blank the upper right corner.

The bottom center cubie is the tens digit of the date, taken from {blank, 2},
{1,3}.  The bottom right is the units digit of the date, taken from {1,3,7},
{2,4,8}, {5,9,blank}, {0,6,blank}.  Again notice that whichever one you use,
there is a blank for the lower left corner.

This thing was even engineered to make it easy to change from one day to
the next.  Most of the time, you need only change the upper left and lower
right corners to get to the next day, and these are the easiest to move
without messing everything else up.  The only change I would have made if
I had invented it would have been to put Mon and Fri on different cubies
for people who never set their calendars on weekends.

I found mine at the bottom of a canvas bin of miscellaneous toys at an
outlet store.  I never saw one advertised or offered for sale in a normal
retail store.  If I hadn't bought the one I have, I would buy a regular cube
and draw the faces on it.  A must for every bank teller!

Bob Morris
aka morris@anasazi.com  (new address)
anasaz!morris@asuvax.eas.asu.edu (old address still works)
My opinions only, of course...
From: kontos@clipper.ingr.com (Thorne Kontos)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Monday morning brain energizer April 6th
Keywords: A weekly series in the making?
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:04:40 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Intergraph Advanced Processor Division - Palo Alto, CA


        The Deception Test

A,B,C,D, and E have just finished taking a test for Deception.
In their usual chatty way, they are making remarks about their
places. The remarks of the first and second place finishers
are false, while the others are true. Lets listen in now.

A: "D was third"
B: "E was not first"
C: "I was not last"
D: "C was lower than B"
E: "B was second"

What were their places?
From: ravi@hls.com
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Dying young
Date: 15 Apr 92 03:23:27 GMT

Imagine the scenario where you could talk with rest of the prisoners. 
In that case I'm sure no one is going to sit tight hoping that some
other kind soul presses the button. The optimal thing to do ( I
think ) would be to be draw lots among the prisoners to select one
who should die and ask him to press the button. 

The difference between the above scenario and the real one is that
you do not know what the other person is going to do and you can't
tell him what to do. This difference only means that there should
be a way of drawing `lots' without communicating and I think this
is what the probabilistic method suggested by some does.

So sitting tight and hoping that someone else presses the button
apart from being irrational, does in no way mean you are not 
stupid.

ravi
 
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Re: Game Theory
Date: 14 Apr 92 08:55:29 MDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

In article <1992Apr14.000319.1@tesla.njit.edu> jpk2581@tesla.njit.edu writes:
>
>I'm not sure if this is the appropriate group for
>this, but I've got a game I would like analyzed:
>
>A suit of cards (say ace through king of clubs)
>is shuffled and six cards are dealt randomly to 
>each of two players. The left over card is placed
>face down in the middle of the table. Each player
>ante's one chip. The players then alternate turns
>having the option on each turn to either put 
>another chip in the pot and ask the opponent if
>he holds a particular card (if the opponent does
>he must place it face up on the table in front of
>him) or announce what he believes the value of 
>the card in the center of the table to be and 
>turn it over (doing this doesn't require the 
>player to put a chip in the pot) If the one 
>flipping the card is right he wins the pot, 
>if not the other player does.

Interesting question....

It appears to me that the best strategy is to guess a card with total
randomness, excluding guesses you already made, and excluding cards that
have already been placed face up on the table.

Lets assume you chose some other strategy:

1) Give a higher percentage to cards absent from your hand:  Here, the other
  player could win because you would reveal the card on the table.

2) A higher percentage to ones own cards: Now the other player knows what
  you have, so has a better chance at knowing the table card.


Well, this is simplified obviously.  The other player may not know what
strategy we have chosen if our "higher percentage" is slight, and we could
modify strategies as we went.  But anyway, these still seem to lose out.
The BEST strategy is to sum up ones hand in pips, divide this by 7, and
guess the next higher number.
From: David_Verrinder@mindlink.bc.ca (David Verrinder)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Cathedral
Date: 9 Apr 92 08:53:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: mindlink.11336
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada

Good day to you all.

I am interested in finding out more about the game of 'Cathedral'.

The game involves blocks of various shapes.

Would any one out in the big wide Net world know of this game?

What are the shapes required, the rules of play, and any combinatorial
theory involved?

Thanks for your time and in advance for any replies.

david                                   David_Verrinder@mindlink.bc.ca
From: guy@ulysses.att.com (Guy Jacobson)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Dying young
Date: 7 Apr 92 20:46:52 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories


If I am only concerned with my own survival, then there is no reason to push
the button, because it only makes certain my death.  Of course, if everyone
behaved this way, all would die.  This is basically the prisoner's dilemma.

Altruism makes things more interesting.  Someone suggested that he would rush
to the button and martyr himself in the hopes of sparing the others, but this
is foolish.  The others won't know that he had pressed his button, so if
everyone reasoned as he did, it would again be 100% dead.

Therefore I will use a mixed strategy.  Let the probability of my pressing the
button be p.  Assuming the others act as I do and press the button with the
same probabilty, my chances of dying are p + (1-p)^100.  This is minimized when
1 - 100(1-p)^99 = 0, when p = 1 - (1/100)^(1/99) ~ 1/22.  So I will tear a
piece of paper into twenty-two pieces, and mark one with a black spot.  I will
fold the pieces up, place them into a hat, and draw one out.  If I pick the one
with the black spot, I press the button, otherwise I sit there and sweat.

_________________________________________________________________
Guy Jacobson   (908) 582-6558              AT&T Bell Laboratories
        uucp:  {att,ucbvax}!ulysses!guy	   600 Mountain Avenue
    internet:  guy@ulysses.att.com         Murray Hill NJ, 07974
From: c60b-1bx@e260-3e.berkeley.edu (John S. Byun)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: trvia
Date: 14 Apr 92 01:01:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.sdatnINN98p
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: e260-3e.berkeley.edu


>An architect was asked to design a square house with the window in each
>wall 
>having a southern exposure. How was this done?
>
>any ideas?


He built the house on the North Pole.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: pfalstad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Falstad)
Subject: Re: order of numbers?
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: League For Fighting Chartered Accountancy
Distribution: rec
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 20:17:50 GMT

dant@logos.wr.tek.com (Dan Tilque) wrote on 7 Apr 92 02:44:39 GMT:
>pfalstad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Falstad) writes:
>>The Romance languages are similar:
>>5, 2, 8, 9, 4, 7, 6, 3, 1
>>and
>>5, 2, 9, 8, 4, 7, 6, 3, 1
>
>There's 5 main Romance languages plus some minor ones, so you have to
>be a bit more specific.

By "the Romance languages" I meant "the two Romance languages which I know".
Sorry about that.  :-)  I should not have used such general terms.

>I'm sure that neither sequence is French and
>probably not Rumanian, but any of Italian, Spanish or Portuguese.

The first one was supposed to be French, but my memory is probably wrong.
I can't check, since I don't have a French dictionary around.

>So a single word or small set of words from related languages are not
>necessarily close in spelling or pronunciation.

>>2, 1, 9, 6, 7, 8, 5, 4, 3

This one helps to prove your point, I guess, since it is an IE language,
and the 7 is not in the usual place.  (The other one wasn't IE.)
Must have been a coincidence.  :-)

-- 
Paul Falstad, pfalstad@phoenix.princeton.edu | 10 PRINT "PRINCETON CS"
[Your blood pressure just went up.]          | 20 GOTO 10
From: bas@phys.uva.nl (Bas de Bakker)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: How do you number a dice?
Date: 9 Apr 92 09:37:28 GMT
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
In-reply-to: hemmady@Cadence.COM's message of 7 Apr 92 22:17:54 GMTLines: 9

>>>>> On 7 Apr 92 22:17:54 GMT, hemmady@Cadence.COM (Shankar Hemmady) said:

sh>You are given several unnumbered cubical Dices (sp?).  Your objective is to
sh>number the faces of each dice from 1 to 6.

Dice is the plural of die, although dice is also used instead of die.
Dices is wrong.

Bas de Bakker.
From: RAJA@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: apology to all puzzle solvers!
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:42:17 GMT
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

I recently posted a followup to an article and its descendents which was also c
ross-posted to soc.culture.indian. Since my expression of frustration at the cl
utter in that particular group was also posted inadvertently to this group I re
alise many may have been offended. My apologies to all concerned. My beef was o
nly with posting it to soc.culture.indian not anything else. once again my apol
ogies and I will desist from individual replies.

rajagopalan
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tom@ulysses.att.com (Tom Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: A question of addresses
Keywords: A simple puzzle for Wednesday
Date: 9 Apr 92 03:01:05 GMT
Reply-To: tom@ulysses.UUCP (Tom Smith)
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill

In article <1992Apr8.202556.29597@clipper.ingr.com> kontos@clipper.ingr.com (Thorne Kontos) writes:
> [lots deleted]
>
>If I tell you that Sam's number is less than Sue's or Sally's,
>and that the sum of their numbersis a perfect square multiplied
                     ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
request for clarification:

	sum of sue's number and sally's number
		-or-
	sum of sue's number and sally's number and sam's number

before i spend any time on this...

Tom Smith.
tom@ulysses.att.com
From: killer@psykoman.cs.hut.fi (Kalle Kivimaa)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: The negative Harmonic series
Date: 13 Apr 92 19:46:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: huuhaa.1992Apr13.194651.13633
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, CS-lab

>hemmady@Cadence.COM (Shankar Hemmady) writes:

>>It satisfies the rules of convergence, but not those of absolute
>>convergence.

>>So here is a puzzle on that subject.  (David please do not answer this
>>one)

>>What went wrong.  I know that there is the Absolute Convergence theorem which

Nothing.  A series that is convergent but not absolutely so is called
conditionaly convergent.

An alternating series that is conditionaly convergent can be made to
converge to ANY real number.

How?  First, take a series, say 1-1/2+1/3-1/4+1/5-...  Then choose
a real number, say 1.2

Next, start taking the positive terms until the sum is just over 1.2
(1+1/3).  Then take negative terms until the sum is just below 1.2
(1+1/3-1/2).  Continue this indefinitely.  Because the terms of the
both series converge to zero, the sum will converge to 1.2
--
************************************************************************
* The night sky over the planet Krikkit is the least interesting sight *
* in the entire Universe.  -- Douglas Adams, HHGTG                     *
************************************************************************