HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dcarroll@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Dana Carroll)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Date: 17 Nov 92 16:32:45 GMT
Organization: Ohio University CS Dept,. Athens

>>|> If I wanted to send information to a society that will inhabit the earth
>>|> one billion years in the future, how would I do it?  If I engraved the
>>|> message on a bunch of diamonds, then buried the diamonds in a secure place,
>>|> would that do it?  There must be a better way.

In Carl Sagan's book, "Contact", there is a method whereby three superimposed
messages can be sent in one radio signal:  At the top layer, something to 
indicate that this is a bonafide message, not a random signal;  in the 
second layer, the actual message itself;  in the third layer, a key to
decryption.  The book is very well written and easy to follow;  it details
the problems that the scientists had not only recognizing that this was in
fact a message but how to decrypt it as well.

So the answer is simple: simulatenously send out the radio signal in all
directions, powerful enough so that it will still be around in a billion
years, and hope that it will eventually be reflected back to earth.

Another poster suggested beaming at an object that is 500,000,000 light years
away, so that the signal will return in 1 billion years.  But this may not
work, as that object may not be there when the signal reaches it.  By sending
in all directions at once, we would be beaming at that object, but will also
be beaming at ALL objects that far away, so that maybe one of them will still
be around that far in the future.

Of course, the signal encryption that Sagan describes may be a poetic license
and not possible at all, but I think that all of his technology in the book
(except for the computers) is possible with today's technology.

Other than this, I cannot see a possible solution, as there is no way to
guarantee the existence of any object that far in the future.
Date: Tuesday, 17 Nov 1992 12:41:38 EST
From: <RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
 <1992Nov10.114703.26890@ugle.unit.no>
 <1992Nov12.195311.22523@wisipc.weizmann.ac.il>
 <1992Nov17.163245.14885@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu>

why not put your message on a letter, put it in an envelope and
mark it, "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL NOVEMBER 17, 1000001992"?

bob vesterman.
From: tim@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au (Tim Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Date: 19 Nov 92 01:42:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: giaeb.tim.722137373
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.

tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) writes:

>>If I wanted to send information to a society that will inhabit the earth
>>one billion years in the future, how would I do it?

Give it to Australia Post, marked "Express Delivery" ?

Sorry.

Tim
From: clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Another sequence (SPOILER)
Date: 18 Nov 92 08:30:32 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <1992Nov17.181310.17548@husc15.harvard.edu>, Eric Blom writes:

> 2
> 11
> 12
> 122
> 12211
> 1221121
> 1221121221
> ...
> (eventually) 1221121221221121122121...

It looks like we have S_1=2, S_2=11, S_3=12, and S_n=S_{n-1}+R(S_{n-3}),
where the "+" symbolizes string concatenation and R(S) is the reverse of
the string S.

> Prove that the infinite sequence never repeats.

The density of 1's approaches an irrational number in the limit; if
the sequence eventually repeated, the density would converge to a
rational number.  I'll post the details when I have more time, but
the basic idea is that the number of 1's is characterizd by a third-
order difference equation as is the total number of characters, so
solve and take the ratio.
-- 
Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: cliff@watson.ibm.com (cliff)
Subject: Billion-Year Survivability
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 13:59:29 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: A

If I were to make such a message to last a billion years, I'd put it it
DNA sequences.   Chapter 30 "Extraterrestrial Messages in Our Genes"
in MAZES FOR THE MIND: COMPUTERS AND THE UNEXPECTED goes into great 
detail on this subject: exactly how you would code the message, and the
care that must be taken so that the message does not mutate over the
great strectch of time.  In this book chapter, scientists discover that
the genetic sequence of a tarsier codes for the digits of pi.
(St. Martin's Press, NY, 1992)

Thanks, Cliff
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: cab@col.hp.com (Chris Best)
Subject: Re: message for the future
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 03:44:08 GMT
Organization: your service

>same side to the Earth.... That's why its called the "Dark Side Of
>the Moon".
>the Moon"...

----------

Nope.  The side that faces AWAY from Earth has that nickname.
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Re: SURWDKGO
Date: 20 Nov 92 15:04:15 MST
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept


>What is the next letter in this sequence:
>
>ETIANMSURWDKGO
>
>There is a definite answer.

A definite answer? 

That is an interesting comment, for it would mean that the answer is NOT
ambiguous.  Or in other words, there is only one possible answer and no
others exist.  This seems doubtful, in the extreme.  The above list corresponds
to probably a few hundred not so common things, and a few common things.
For example, it might be the initials of Kings, or one letter past the
initials of a famous family heritage, or some relationship to the greek
letter.

Indeed, the above sequence of characters has an infinite number of answers
if one will accept answers of any size.  For example, the above list
is equivalent to some sequence within PI, if we translate the digits
into numbers appropriately.

Therefore, since there are an infinite number of answers the problem must
not be well defined.
From: ggww@sjfc.UUCP (Gerry Wildenberg)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Word sequence
Date: 16 Nov 92 18:06:15 GMT
Reply-To: ggww@sjfc.UUCP (Gerry Wildenberg)
Organization: Saint John Fisher College, Rochester, NY

In article <2291@sjfc.UUCP> ggww@sjfc.UUCP (Gerry Wildenberg) writes:
>In article <BxGGMp.9Iv@brunel.ac.uk> Barry.John.Good@brunel.ac.uk (Barry John Good) writes:
>>I hope this isn't an FAQ, but what's the longest sequence of 4-letter words 
>>that you can find such that the last three letters of each word are the
>>first three letters of the next in the sequence?
...
>I quickly found:
>
>case asea seas ease asem semi emit mite item temp
>

And soon after posting the above I found:

sera eras rase asea seas ease asem semi emit mite item temp


-- 
Gerry Wildenberg                         
St. John Fisher College                  
Rochester, NY 14618                      ggww@sjfc.edu
From: umahf69@ma.ic.ac.uk (Nairo Aparicio)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Gale and bridges
Date: 21 Nov 92 17:57:06 GMT
Organization: Imperial College Mathematics Department

In article <Nov.20.06.23.11.1992.10614@remus.rutgers.edu>, clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov19.214915.18650@cc.ic.ac.uk>, Nairo Aparicio writes:
|> 
|> > If you think this is to easy for you,  try to solve it assuming that
|> > each bridge will collapse with independent probability "p" where
|> > 0<=p<=1.  I have the answer for both problems, I will post them
|> > sometime in the future.
|> 
|> Real puzzlers will solve the analogous problem for 3*n islands instead
|> of just for 6.
|> -- 
|> Chris Long, 265 Old York Rd., Bridgewater, NJ  08807-2618

In fact, the trick used to solve the problem "in a beautiful way"
(obviously, the problem with any distribution of islands and
bridges can be solved but not necessarily in a "beautiful" way)
remains valid if the river has a distribution of n times n-1 islands.

I will post the answer next friday (if nobody can solve it).

				Nairo Aparicio
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: suopanki@zombie.oulu.fi (Heikki Suopanki)
Subject: Re: Anagram generator?
Reply-To: heikki.suopanki@phoenix.oulu.fi
Organization: Unixverstas Olutensin, Finlandia
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 18:22:52 GMT

>>>>> On Mon, 16 Nov 1992 01:37:07 GMT, djweisbe@unix.amherst.edu (David Weisberger) said:

David> Does anyone know of a program which generates anagrams?
David> UNIX or MSDOS executable or C source would be acceptable.

One of the winners of this years International Obfuscated C Code 
Contest was an anagram generator. I have the compiled program, but I
don't have the sources anymore. It was posted to several newsgroups:
comp.sourcers.misc, alt.sources et al, look around on ftp sites
which archive those newsgroups. It was a short program, so somebody
could even post it....

-Heikki
From: morje@miles.mps.ohio-state.edu (Prabhav G Morje)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Algorithm to win a game
Date: 16 Nov 1992 17:02:54 -0500
Organization: Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: miles.mps.ohio-state.edu
Keywords: trees, partitions, sum


   The following game is meant for one person. More interesting versions
may be around.

  (1) To start, you are given r weights (positive intergers): n_1,...,n_r.
  (2) A move consists of replacing two of the weights by their sum.
      So each move reduces the number of weights by one.
  (3) A move is worth one point if two numbers being added are equal,
      otherwise a move is worth zero points.
  (4) You keep making moves until there is just one weight left. There are
      r-1 moves in a game.


 Question:
   (1) Given r weights: n_1,...,n_r, 
       what is an algorithm to get maximum number of points in the game?
   (2) What is an expression for this maximum number of points as a 
       function of n_1,...,n_r?

       


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: isaak@aurora.com (Mark Isaak)
Subject: Re: Elements ending in H
Reply-To: isaak@aurora.com (Mark Isaak)
Organization: The Aurora Group
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 17:03:24 GMT

There are lots of elements which end with 'h':  hydrogen, helium,
holmium, hafnium, hahnium.

You never said which end.
-- 
Mark Isaak           "Every generation thinks it has the answers, and every
isaak@aurora.com      generation is humbled by nature." - Philip Lubin
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: blum@medici.ils.nwu.edu (Dan Blum)
Subject: Re: Special sentence
Reply-To: blum@ils.nwu.edu
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 07:12:58 GMT

Spoiler!

They will look (more or less) the same if they are rotated 180 degrees
(about an axis through the monitor, natch).


I don't feel like thinking up any others at this hour.

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

 He thought he saw an Argument
 that proved he was the Pope;
 he looked again and found it was
 a Bar of Mottled Soap.
"A fact so dread,"
 he faintly said,
"extinguishes all hope!"
____________________________________________________________________
From: bickford@jimmy.dfci.harvard.edu (Paul Bickford)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Anagram generator wanted...
Date: 16 Nov 1992 21:08:09 GMT
Organization: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: jimmy.harvard.edu

I am interested infinding an anagram generator, too, but I am looking for
on the Macintosh platform. Anyone have any leads?

--Paul Bickford
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE)
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords: pi, Louie
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 21:26:00 GMT

karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr) writes...
>If you set out in a rocket ship that maintains a constant acceleration
>of one gravity (as perceived by you in the ship) for the entire duration
>of a trip straight out to a point some distance away from the Earth and
>back (obviously using its rockets to decelerate during part of that time),
>and timed to take exactly 1 billion years Earth-frame time for the round
>trip, how much will you age during the trip, assuming you live that long?
>What is the dependence on the rate of acceleration?

It takes about a year to reach relativistic speeds. Each year of proper time
after that is about an e-fold increase in earth time, so it takes about
20 years. This result is approximately inversely proportional to g.

Dave Ring
dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Special sentence
From: vandana@multi.ee.usu.edu (Vandana Rungta)
Date: 17 Nov 92 12:42:59 MDT
Organization: EE Dept, Utah State Universtiy


Lion No. 17


Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: mueller@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Carl Douglas Mueller)
Subject: Number Puzzle
Reply-To: mueller@math.wisc.edu
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin Dept. of Mathematics
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 15:21:11 GMT

Here's a puzzle that was told to me on the phone last night by a friend.
He thought it was a pretty hard one.  It turns out to be fairly easy to
solve if you look at it right, but I thought it interesting enough to 
post here.

Find a number ending in 7 such that when this number is multiplied by 7
the resulting number consists of the same digits in the same order but
with the 7 moved to the front.  That is:

7*(abc...xyz7) = 7abc...xyz

where the abc...xyz is some string of digits (you'll have to figure out 
how many digits).

After solving this one (and finding the EASY way to solve it) I extended
the puzzle to numbers other than 7.  ie

N*(abc...xyzN) = Nabc...xyz.

I've found the numbers for N = 1 (trivial) up to N=9.  

Carl Mueller (mueller@math.wisc.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com (Mark Johnson)
Subject: Re: Special sentence
Reply-To: johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com
Organization: Motorola Wireless Enterprises, Schaumburg, IL
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 15:43:04 GMT

In article <1ebg66INNm1l@gap.caltech.edu>, carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick) writes:
=)however, when you do that, results in "Simou uow is," not "Simon now is," and
I think the original poster intended to use upper case.
=)the third in "3 woss is sowe," not "3 moss is some."  Are you perchance a bit
=)dyslexic?
This one is not as easily explained.  Maybe "3 WOSS IS SOME?"
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "Johnson"                              |Just because you're paranoid doesn't|
| johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com |   mean they're not out to get you. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Let's face it; if our lawyers knew what went on here, they'd shut us down.  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr)
Subject: Re: Billion-year survivability
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 02:59:56 GMT

All right, this business about bouncing radio signals off objects a
half-billion light-years away is getting way out of hand.  I propose the
following question:

Suppose you can modulate the power output of the Sun at a radio
frequency (i.e. you have a BIG signal).  Now let this signal propagate
away from the Sun in all directions (as proposed) and strike some
object one half billion light-years away; suppose that object is a
sphere the diameter of our Galaxy which is, miraculously, perfectly
reflecting in your chosen frequency band.  The "echo" of your signal
also propagates in all directions, including the direction of the
Earth.  Suppose you have an antenna the diameter of the Earth's orbit
to receive the signal.

Now, what is the power of the signal you receive back after a billion
years, after taking into account the dissipation of the signal over
these large spheres of propagation?  (Just to add insult to injury,
don't forget to include the Doppler red-shift due to the motion of
your reflector due to the expansion of the universe.)  What is an
appropriate unit in which to measure the power?  electron-volts
per second?  Or micro-, pico-, or atto-ev per second?  Per year?

Anyone care to look up the relevant physical constants and do the math?

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)
From: blom@husc15.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: What is the next term?
Date: 22 Nov 92 22:15:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc15.1992Nov22.171544.17703
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

What is the next number in the sequence:

1,1,0,-1,0,7,28,79,192,431,...?

(Hint: the sequence grows faster than any polynomial function.)

--Eric Blom
  Harvard U
From: mlsa@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (MICHAEL LAUREN SHERMAN)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: message for the future
Date: 21 Nov 92 23:40:23 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

In article <10159@ncrwat.Waterloo.NCR.COM>, tjgerman@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM (Tr
evor German) writes:
>
>       Re: sending a message to the future.
>
>       Obviously anything placed on earth is likely to be destroyed
>       by plate techtonics etc so no good burying something. A transmition
>       that takes that long to get back would be hard to receive even if
>       you were expecting it.
>
>               I have a much better idea. Take a dead satelite. A big one,
>       like say the moon. Then blast its surface with  enough nukes to
>       make an easily recognisable pattern that would be only partly
>       erased by comet and meteoride collisions. Then just for good measure,
>       adjust the rotational velocity of the moon so that the message
>       always faces the earth. The message could be something like
>       a big face......................
>
>
>       Came to me in a dream.
>
>--
>       >|  "Only average people            | Trevor J German BSc    |<
>       >|        never make mistakes."     | NCR, Waterloo, Ontario |<
>       >| tjgerman@53iss6.Waterloo.NCR.COM | Canada.                |<
>
Just put it in an envelope with the instruction: Don't open until Red Sox win
world series.
-- 
MICHAEL LAUREN SHERMAN
758-0207
MLSA

"I really do appreciate the fact you're sitting here, you're voice sounds so
wonderful but your face don't look too clear so barmaid bring a pitcher,
another round of brew, why don't we get drunk and screw?"- J. Buffett
Organization: Doctoral student, Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 09:07:40 -0500 
From: "Bruno W. Repetto" <br0w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Sequence
Distribution: world

Excerpts from netnews.rec.puzzles: 17-Nov-92 Sequence by Andre'
Pirard@vm1.ulg.ac 
> Date: Monday, 16 Nov 1992 17:07:15 +01
> Subject: Sequence
> From: Andre' Pirard <pirard@vm1.ulg.ac.be>
>  
> 1
> 11
> 21
> 1211
> 111221
> ?
>  
> -----
> Andre Pirard          SEGI, Univ. de Li`ge         139.165 IP coordinator
> B26 - Sart Tilman     B-4000 Li`ge 1 (Belgium)            +32 (41) 564932
> pirard@vm1.ulg.ac.be  alias PIRARD@BLIULG11.BITNET

312211

This is in the FAQ.

Bruno.  br0w+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: rec.puzzles FAQ comments [POSSIBLE SPOILERS]
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:14:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: sq.1992Nov16.161430.13158
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada

> I read through the whole FAQ list and came up with a few points. I sent
> one of these (the first one listed, I think) to the FAQ maintainer, but
> there are enough of these that a posting seems warranted ...

I don't think that that is good procedure.  However, since the comments
were made publicly and one of them relates to an answer that has my name
on it, I'll answer that one.  (I should point out, by the way, the most
of the credit for compiling the list of words in the first place goes
to others, not named; I just helped classify them.)



> > List all homographs (words that are spelled the same but pronounced
> > differently)
> > A	commune {take Communion; administrative district}
> > B	mouse {rodent; to hunt them}
> > A	present {current; Christmas ~}
> 
> - "commune" should be classed as B, because I think both meanings are
>   related to the root from which we get "community".  (This would
>   benefit from attention from an etymologist who knows the words.  I
>   could well be wrong.)

That one was a judgement call.  The definition of class B is given as:
"B - Basic meanings are related".  My intention was to require a closer
relationship than an etymological one.  Several of the other "A" entries
also have etymological relationships, but I considered that this list was
about the *English* meanings.  Class A could be subdivided into entries
that have an etymological relationship and ones that don't.

> - "mouse" should be BE: I and many others I know pronounce both
>   meanings identically.

Granted; confirmed by dictionary.

> - "present" should be E: ditto.  (The verb meaning I do accent
>   differently, but the adjective and noun I pronounce identically.)

No, but I was wrong too.  It should be class B, with the note "{NV}"
for "corresponding noun and verb".
-- 
Mark Brader			"How can we believe that?"
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		"Because this time it's true!"
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com		-- Lynn & Jay: YES, PRIME MINISTER

This article is in the public domain.
From: mouse@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: Sequence
Date: 23 Nov 92 01:37:50 GMT
Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines

In article <19921119.204913190456.NETNEWS@BLEKUL11>, pirard@vm1.ulg.ac.be (Andre' Pirard) writes:
> In article <0f2Dmga00YUoMxNrJg@andrew.cmu.edu> Bruno W. Repetto, br0w+@andrew.cmu.edu writes:
>> 312211
>> This is in the FAQ.
> OK OK, and the FAQ is good reading indeed.
> But, anyone's got a pack of toner cartridges for me to finish
> printing it?

Print?  *Print*??

You don't print out netnews to read it, why should you print out the
FAQ?  D'you get charged for connect time and have a dumb terminal
instead of a local machine or something?

Obpuzzle?  Hm.  Okay, there are these three strings, and they're...no,
that's an objoke.  Er...well, I needed a db-15, but all we had were
db-25s, so I cut...no, that's an obhack.  Ah.

There is only one monomino.  There's only one domino.  There are two
trominos.  There are five tetrominos.  There are twelve pentominos.

How many hexominos?  Heptominos?  Etc.  Extra points for a closed form
solution for arbitrary N. :)

					der Mouse

			    mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
From: karr@cs.cornell.edu (David Karr)
Subject: Re: Trig. inequality
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 05:04:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov22.030801.4773@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> J.Theodore.Schuerzinger@dartmouth.edu (J. Theodore Schuerzinger) writes:
>In article <1ekddfINNi96@uwm.edu>
>radcliff@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (David G Radcliffe) writes:
>
>> Show that (sin x)^(sin x) < (cos x)^(cos x) when 0 < x < pi/4.
>
>[...] (cos x)^2 will be greater than (sin x)^2 from 0<x<pi/4.  I
>haven't taken any math since freshman year of college, [...]

We could have figured the last part out ourselves.  :-)

The problem is you DON'T have (sin x)^2 on the left, you have
(sin x)^(sin x), which is considerably bigger.  The behavior of
this object as x->0 is not as obvious as that of any fixed power
of sin(x).

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)
From: umahf69@ma.ic.ac.uk (Nairo Aparicio)
Newsgroups: rec.puzzles
Subject: Re: A Simple Puzzle
Date: 21 Nov 92 17:32:11 GMT
Organization: Imperial College Mathematics Department

The answer is 54.

If x is the initial number of diamonds, the king found

8*x/27 = 3*n+1       diamonds

so n=5 is the small number such that x is an integer.


				Nairo Aparicio