Recent Questions - Puzzling Stack Exchange

The maze one should not enter
What is a Sharp Word?
Adding up divisors of integers
What is a Dime Word™?
Equation 60 divide by 2 [closed]
A Five City Loop, starting and ending in MA
Endless party… famous last words
The fearsome maiden
Around the world to a mystery country
Revolution repeated summons me soonest—what am I?
Double Connect Wall - I'll Drink to That!
The Pub Quiz and the Passion
Nurikolor (Level 1)
2 IQ questions - what is the logic?
Generic Cryptic Crossword
Mensa online IQ test question - big and small squares on a horizontal line
Strategy for solving Flow Free puzzles
Dinosaur egg drop

Posted: 31 May 2021 03:00 PM PDT

Once upon a time, somewhere in Italy, two archaeologists unearthed a burried passage.

As they explore the passage they reach the doorway, which is clearly the entrance of a lEFWE structure behind. They see well-built passages made of square stone walls. There are passage forking in various directions.

One of them exclaims:

-- It's a maze!

And indeed, it is. Very excited about their finding, they want to explore it. They start arguing about the best way to proceed without getting lost. But they suddenly stop when they see the following engraving on the wall.

-- Look at this! Not much of a challenge. I'm disappointed, actually. What's the point of building a maze if you just put the map at the entrance. That doesn't make any sense!

The other doesn't reply, absorbed in his study of the engraving. Eventually he gasps and becomes pale.

-- That's not a map, it is a message. It is a warning!

-- A warning?

-- Yes, I know where this maze ends, and we definitely shouldn't go there!

From what you have seen and what you have read, can you tell me what the message says and where to the maze is leading?

What is a Sharp Word?

Posted: 31 May 2021 01:39 PM PDT

(Based off and inspired by JLee's What is a Word™ puzzles)

What Is A Sharp Word?

Word that conform to a specific rule are called sharp words. Here are some examples:

Sharp Words™	Non-Sharp Words™
WALLOW	BATHE
WALK	STROLL
SHORES	BEACH
OTTER	SEAL
DUSTY	DIRTY
DUMP	TOSS
GENOME	GENETICS
GRUNT	HARUMPH
PITA	IXTLE

In CSV format:

Sharp Words™,Non-Sharp Words™  WALLOW,BATHE  WALK,STROLL  SHORES,BEACH  OTTER,SEAL  DUSTY,DIRTY  DUMP,TOSS  GENOME,GENETICS  LAUGH,GIGGLE  GRUNT,HARUMPH  PITA,IXTLE

What determines whether a word is or isn't a Sharp Word™? Why is it called a Sharp Word™?

Adding up divisors of integers

Posted: 31 May 2021 05:49 PM PDT

Alice and Bob play a game, taking turns. Alice starts and writes an integer between 1 to 10 on a blackboard. Then Bob adds any integer between 1 to 10 to this number and writes it on the blackboard. When a three digit number is reached the game ends. During the game the number of positive divisors of each integer written down by Alice are added up, the same applies for Bob. If Alice has more divisors at the end she wins, otherwise Bob wins. The divisors of the three digit number are not counted.

Is there a winning strategy for any of the players?

Example:
Alice 4 20 30 40 53 58 70 82 92 99 (number of divisors: 3+6+8+8+2+4+8+4+6+6=55)
Bob 12 22 31 48 57 68 75 88 96 100 (number of divisors: 6+4+2+10+4+6+6+8+12=58)
and Bob is the winner in this case.

What is a Dime Word™?

Posted: 31 May 2021 01:39 PM PDT

This puzzle is based off the What is a Word™ series started by JLee

If a word satisfies a certain property it is called a Dime Word™. Here are some examples:

Dime Words™	Not Dime Words™
KARMA	ECHO
PHOENIX	THUNDERBIRD
PANTHEON	VALKYRIE
CYPHER	ZERO
VIPER	LESION
RAZE	REAPER
BREACH	BASTION
SAGE	MAESTRO
TALON	SIGMA
KINDRED	MERCY
RUMBLE	PULSE
NAUTILUS	LION

CSV:

Dime Words™,Not Dime Words™  KARMA,ECHO  PHOENIX,THUNDERBIRD  PANTHEON,VALKYRIE  CYPHER,ZERO  VIPER,LESION  RAZE,REAPER  BREACH,BASTION  SAGE,MAESTRO  TALON,SIGMA  KINDRED,MERCY  RUMBLE,PULSE  NAUTILUS,LION

What is the rule to tell whether a word is a Dime Word™ or not? Why is it called a Dime Word™?

(Note that each word can be tested for whether it is a Dime Word™ on its own, without looking at any of the other words in the list of examples. And hello from the Maths Stack.)

Equation 60 divide by 2 [closed]

Posted: 31 May 2021 08:46 AM PDT

This puzzle is from YouTube

60 / 2(10+5) = ?

The answer mentioned is 450. The same answer is shown by Google. But, I believe the answer is 2.

Is the answer 2 or 450?

A Five City Loop, starting and ending in MA

Posted: 31 May 2021 08:47 AM PDT

Complete a loop of five large cities.

The starting city name starts with the letters MA. Each of the following cities starts with the last two letters of the previous city name. (Like PARIS ISTANBUL etc.). The fifth city name ends in MA, completing the loop.

All cities have population of at least 1 million according to many websites.

I understand there could be more than one answer. My answer has majority of cities from Asia.

Endless party… famous last words

Posted: 31 May 2021 05:44 AM PDT

Twelve of the clues are missing song titles, all different from one another, substituted by boldface question marks, one question mark per word. Each missing song was, as a single, in the top ten in the U.K. or the U.S. (or both). The twelve songs have something else also in common, as you'll discover in the course of solving the puzzle.

Across

1. Without a tee, golf better than, say, poop (6)
4. Drum and guitar innovator! (7)
9. Until ? ? eats starters (3)
10. Style or theme: it can be proven (7)
11. A red metal penny is missing (3)
12. Table provided supper, after lunch was sent back (5)
14. In SoundCloud, "An Apostle" (4)
16. A cheese setback? (4)
18. Perhaps Princess Fiona returns without her ultimate self-esteem (3)
19. God of mourning (5)
21. Renal failure study (5)
23. Drummer's groin operated upon (5)
24. Governor of North Carolina and New York is fit (5)
25. ? ? ? at first: precisely when? (3)
27. For present, first of talkies follows moving picture (4)
29. Sergeant Major? (4)
31. Rank among fruit (5)
33. Endless party for a scripting language (3)
34. An anticoagulant, it's in a box (7)
36. ? ? message (as yet unknown) (3)
37. Speak to a ? ?, perhaps? (7)
38. Eliot Canyon has echo (6)

Down

1. Supposed to arrive ?, e.g., to ham it up for the audience (7)
2. ? ? ? lasts only part of a leg (3)
3. Say famous last words in reverse before king (5)
4. It's cold outside of Bangor! Taking a bit of rum (3)
5. ? ? with her head between her feet for a group of soldiers (4)
6. Perhaps was like a Princess Zelda melee (5)
7. Sleep among dugongs and manatees (7)
8. "Little ? at last," cry (4)
13. Father now formed a glower (5)
15. Having an argument is high-class — not (5)
17. Develop ? ? without an end (4)
19. Find uneven support (4)
20. Opening ration without a shake (5)
22. Moravians hide, maybe like magpies (5)
23. Objects, including crown, of grandeur! (7)
26. March: time for film (7)
28. A lie worded ? ? ? ? (5)
30. ? ? ? with a bread (4)
31. Monsieur Gainsbourg's genre? Pah (5)
32. Top expert bored by Masonic initiation (4)
35. It's an insect, ? ? (3)
36. Endless Story Hill (3)

The fearsome maiden

Posted: 28 May 2021 07:16 PM PDT

Fair maiden of ___, most feared in these parts,
with terrible power thou ___ men's hearts.
The beaux of all kingdoms thou ___ to doom;
thy ___ and light they seek, but find their tomb.
Excited, the ___ all play, sing and dance;
each soldier and ___ falls under your trance.
The suitors all ___ with armor and swords;
a ___ for thee, each of peasants and lords.
In duels or ___ the smitten men brawl;
for each the ___ is the same: They all fall.

Fill the gaps with ten different anagrams.

Around the world to a mystery country

Posted: 31 May 2021 05:06 PM PDT

What country does this picture represent? Please explain your reasoning.

Some exhibits follow to help you out. Exhibits 1, 2, and 3 will get you started. Exhibit 4 will point your way.
Disregard the rivers, no special meaning.

Hint:

Hint 2:

Exhibits

1a

1b

2a

2b

2c

2d

4a

4b

4c

4d

4e

4f

4g

4h

4i

4j

4k

4l

Revolution repeated summons me soonest—what am I?

Posted: 29 May 2021 11:03 AM PDT

I thought of a riddle:

Dethrone the king, cast out the poorest
Revolution repeated summons me soonest

Put the rocks in the sky and the sun in the sea
Either way 'round, I'll still be me

I am (mostly) in crabs, and fish, and in birds
This way I am myself in these very words

Fastest in each of a metronome's flicks
And part of its tastiest ticks

The solution is an English word.

Double Connect Wall - I'll Drink to That!

Posted: 28 May 2021 04:30 PM PDT

This is my first attempt at a Connect Wall. Your task is to find the connections between the following 16 words to form 8 groups of 4. No, I did not Muck up the Fath – there is one connection per row and one connection per column 😊

Fun fact: I've recently been car-pooling with a work colleague and thanks to his efforts I have learnt how the British quiz show works. But rot13(obl qb V fhpx ng guvf tnzr)

Good luck!

EDIT: This was harder than expected so I will add a few hints, sorted in order of increasing desperation (great phrase from the Perl manual pages btw! 😊) :

HINT 1

HINT 2

HINT 3

The Pub Quiz and the Passion

Posted: 29 May 2021 02:45 PM PDT

^{An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #49: Pub Quiz Camouflage...a day or two late. Oops.}

Your local pub has an interesting way to show their pub quiz questions--sixteen televisions in a four-by-four display. However, when you come in today, just as the quiz is supposed to start, the quiz runner is having problems with the last television. After they deliver some percussive maintenance to the monitor, they get a picture...but it's only a blown-up letter Z.

The runner yells out, "Oh, that's not even part of the question--oh, forget it. They should be able to figure out what the answer is anyway."

Using the answers to the other fifteen questions and the use of one more step, what's the answer to number 16?

A rival to GarageBand and Audacity, what is the name of Adobe's digital audio workstation program?

What cultivar of rapeseed is sometimes used in biodiesel?

What South American cryptid shares its name with a "Cup" given annually to the "ugliest new building in the United Kingdom" from 2006-2018?

Also often used to describe any bee nest, what's the name of a man-made structure used to house bees?

What's defined by Merriam-Webster as "the proprietorship element in a corporation usually divided into shares?"

In the children's television show "Blue's Clues," what's the name of Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper's first child, first seen in the episode "Blue's News?"

In the children's television show "Rugrats," what's the name of the oldest child with the surname "Pickles?"

What does lead do at temperatures of 1750°C?

What name is both the name of the villain in the video game "Super Mario Bros. 2" and a demeaning nickname in the Disney animated movie "The Sword in the Stone?"

What four-letter word is a synonym for "heedless," "reckless," and "foolhardy?"

What liquid, when mixed with baking soda, creates the reaction seen in many junior high school volcanoes?

In chemistry, what quantity is equal to 6.02214076 times ten to the twenty-third power molecules?

With "the," what "always wins," according to a common gambling axiom?

According to the title, what is Dr. Sandra Lee known for popping on a TLC television show?

What simple children's playground game is, in the United Kingdom, also known as "tig," "it," and "dobby?"

Z

Hint:

Hint 2:

Hint 3:

Not-so-much-a-hint-as-just-making-the-puzzle-easier:

Nurikolor (Level 1)

Posted: 30 May 2021 07:22 AM PDT

Next level: Nurikolor (Level 2)

Welcome to my new puzzle: the NURIKOLOR, which is essentially the colored version of Nurikabe, but not exactly, with a few twists. The rules are simple:

There are colored numbers on the grid, which indicate the number of tiles the group of its color holds.
There are tiles with 1 "X", which indicate the color of the tile.
There are tiles with 2 "X"s, which indicate intersections of colors. All intersections are shown, and these are the only intersections.
Grey tiles are not part of any group; they just serve as barriers.
The goal is to have every non-grey tile covered by a type of color.
2 by 2 non-grey squares of the same color are illegal.
In future levels, there will be multiple numbers of the same color. They must not intersect.

Now, can you solve this puzzle? (Level 1)

Colorblind version:

y7 -- -- xx xx b4  -- -- yg yg -- --  -- -- r7 -- -- --  -- ry -- xx gp --  -- xx ro xx -- g9  -- -- o6 op op p5    r = red, y = yellow, g = green, b = blue, p = purple, o = orange, xx = gray

2 IQ questions - what is the logic?

Posted: 30 May 2021 11:16 PM PDT

I was taking the test in the following link: https://testyourself.psychtests.com/bin/transfer

But I am not really sure what is the answer and the logic behind them in the following questions:

Do you have any idea on how to solve this?

Generic Cryptic Crossword

Posted: 30 May 2021 03:18 PM PDT

Here's a cryptic crossword. I was originally planning on having some sort of overarching theme, but the words were just not fitting together how I wanted. Good luck!

ACROSS

1. Interpreter from the sea shore (3)
4. Vehicle belongs to head of household (3)
7. I said I'll send you a document of the data (5)
12. A strange, wee animal (3)
13. Those times are left behind (3)
14. I love the portal's sound (5)
15. Flower doesn't know why it's so small (3)
16. Tree parts still brown? Nope, since they changed (4, 5)
18. Chief's son ate some weird rice (4)
20. Wise plant (4)
21. Large man finished a turkey (3)
22. Flourishing after weight lifted from Midwest city (8)
24. A little elf starts to eat (4)
25. Smiling woman utters sad moan (4)
26. Trainee De Vita disconnected, deactivated, and reassembled (5)
27. Trying to imagine differently and endlessly (6)
30. Democrats say the right stove is out of order (6)
31. Afternoon soup containers flipped by king (5)
32. Alone, sounds very sad (4)
33. Men sometimes ignore reliable sources (4)
34. Network in upstairs storage spans ocean (8)
38. Salt Lake Athlete unable to entertain (3)
39. Earth can redirect without core (4)
40. Long story about neon told backwards (3)
41. In the meantime, Charlie confused his English cuisine (9)
44. I'm going to get sick (3)
45. Excited to listen to revolutionary Jamaican music without repeats (5)
46. Era can handle male's absence (3)
47. Luke or Lisa responds digitally (3)
48. Sailboat capsized in the lakes (5)
49. Tom, Dick, and Harry are heartlessly rude (3)
50. Can someone help with my Stack Overflows? (3)

DOWN

1. Public figure parties unjudged (5)
2. Spiral gives up a coin for wife (5)
3. I replace fifty welcoming suns (5)
4. Mushroom gives you back muscles (3)
5. The grand raisin is emerging (7)
6. Fruit wants to forbid Annalee (6)
7. Confront the gaps when trouble sounds (4)
8. A dreadful odor creates fuss (3)
9. Reveal the key of the damaged fin (7)
10. Tricky kid can run away, front to back (7)
11. A messy set contained in sets of six lines (7)
17. Hobo's heart shaped like oval (3)
19. Warped cosmic books (6)
23. Religious figure cuts off primate's tail (4)
24. Angry snob at race hands these over (6)
26. Drink tastes like fermented coal (4)
27. Mad masseuse endlessly jumps to conclusions (7)
28. First, the Latin eyes moved (7)
29. Battle between Napoleon and the twisted ogre man. (7)
30. Mad love around playground game has potential. (7)
32. Model gives yell, not about a river (6)
34. Try to flip Mamma's last name (3)
35. Mistakenly, I salt the appendages (5)
36. Sounds like I stick to the house (5)
37. He yells, "everyone is in Computer Science!" (5)
39. Carnivore's backwards head creates tomfoolery (4)
42. Leader creates enormous office (3)
43. Going back, the total creates an order of magnitude (3)

Mensa online IQ test question - big and small squares on a horizontal line

Posted: 30 May 2021 11:09 PM PDT

Doing the Mensa online IQ test at http://test.mensa.no/, I was puzzled by this exercise.

I understand that asking for answers like this kind of defeats the entire purpose of the test, but it's stuck bugging me. Does anybody else see some sort of logic in this? Most questions in this test flow both left-to-right and top-to-bottom, but it's possible that this one doesn't because

Strategy for solving Flow Free puzzles

Posted: 29 May 2021 04:30 PM PDT

There is an app on the app store called Flow Free.

Basically, there is a grid with a few sets of colored dots, and you need to connect each dot to the other dot of the same color, filling up the entire board.

For example:

It starts out pretty easy, but as you progress, it gets harder.

Is there a general strategy for solving these types of puzzles in the last moves? For example, this one:

Dinosaur egg drop

Posted: 30 May 2021 09:56 AM PDT

Archeologists discover two dinosaur eggs, and you are given the chance to test the durability of these eggs (bad move on their part). Suppose that these eggs will absorb a specific amount of force with no cumulative damage. In other words, if they don't crack, it is as if they never fell.

You have a 100 story building, and you are allowed only 20 trials.

Questions:

Is there an algorithm such that you can determine the highest floor in which one of these dinosaur eggs can be dropped and not break?
If so, what would be the highest building for which this algorithm would be able to work?
Supposing the number of trials were still 20, but you had as many dinosaur eggs as you needed. At what point would extra eggs not increase the highest floor for which you can test?

Bonus question: