PUZZLE THREAD

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

10/04/2015 07:12 PM

Copy pasting--One prisoner is only allowed to turn it off. The rest of the prisoners may only turn it on. When the "off" prisoner has flipped the switch off 99 times, he knows all 100 have been in the room.

Now, if any given prisoner has turned on the light bulb at any time, from that point forward, he or she leaves it untouched no matter how he/she finds it.

Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.

3885

10/04/2015 09:00 PM

author=TungerManU
Only prisoners who haven't been to the room before can switch the light back on.

Almost, but now there may be prisoners who enter the room for the first time finding the light on, and who are then disallowed from ever turning the light on.

author=pianotm
Now, if any given prisoner has turned on the light bulb at any time, from that point forward, he or she leaves it untouched no matter how he/she finds it.

And that is the detail I wanted to hear. Puzzle solved!

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

10/04/2015 11:41 PM

Okay

Correct the equation. You may only alter it with a single line.

5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 555

I feel bored. How odd.

1979

10/05/2015 12:33 AM

Try adding a slash through the equal sign.

SweetMeltyLove

587

10/05/2015 02:03 AM

~~5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 555~~

aaaaay

Anyway I just googled it and it's pretty dumb, but I'd call addRabbit's answer a valid one

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

10/05/2015 02:07 AM

But...they are not the answers I'm looking for.

SweetMeltyLove

587

10/05/2015 02:15 AM

Turn a + into a 4 with a line, so 5 4 5 + 5 + 5 = 555

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

10/05/2015 02:21 AM

You got it!

Edit: Googling it doesn't change the fact that it's solved on this thread.

SweetMeltyLove

587

10/05/2015 02:24 AM

The system is broken, i'm outta here

Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.

3885

10/05/2015 08:14 AM

Fun fact, random number simulations of the 100 prisoners and the lamp show that the process, on average, takes about 10500 days before the leader can say the prisoners have all been inside the room, with a standard deviation of a little under a thousand. Most cases should therefore be in the 8000 - 12000 range. That's quite a few years before they can get released.

I feel bored. How odd.

1979

11/14/2015 01:55 AM

You are driving a bus
There are ten people on it
At the first stop, 3 people get off, and 4 get on
At the second stop, 2 people get off, and 1 gets on
At the third stop, 5 people get off, and 7 get on
At the fourth stop, 1 person gets off, and 2 get on
At the fifth stop, 5 people get off, and 3 get on
At the sixth stop, 2 people get off, and 6 get on
How old is the bus driver?

If no one can solve this, I will lose all my faith in humanity. It's that easy. Especially as it is written out.

FlyingJester

Living the Dream

1797

11/14/2015 02:46 AM

The bus driver is 23. Because I am 23.

Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.

3885

11/14/2015 02:03 PM

A common thief tries to sneak into a city. The town gate is guarded by a single guard. The thief hides in the bushes, and observes the guard for a while.

After some time, a farmer with a wagon full of crops arrives. The guard says one number: '12'.
The farmer replies '6', and the guard lets him into the city.

A few minutes later, a merchant carrying a sack arrives. The guard says '6'.
The merchant replies '3', and is allowed into the city.

The thief then comes out of hiding, and walks up to the guard, who says '4'.
The thief replies '2', and the guard stabs him to death with his spear.

What should the thief have replied, and why?

I feel bored. How odd.

1979

11/14/2015 02:53 PM

FlyingJester is correct!

He should say four, as that is how many letters is in the word 'four'.
Twelve has six letters
Six has three letters.

Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.

3885

11/14/2015 03:14 PM

Ding ding ding!

Interestingly, in the Dutch language, there are three of these low number combinations that have half as many letters as their value, 12 and 6 also being among them. The last one is 8, 'acht', which has 4 letters. Of course, in English, it has 5, so I couldn't use it here.

Dudesoft

always a dudesoft, never a soft dude.

6309

11/14/2015 03:35 PM

I'm seeing a lot of 'googling' talk here. I gave up reading a lot of these, though I love the idea, but here's a thought!
Don't Google.

Is this really so hard these days? The point is to stop looking for the easy way out and think.

edit: I feel old, because I remember a time before google.

Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.

3885

11/14/2015 04:04 PM

We can't check if people google the answers to our puzzles. In my case, it's almost certainly possible, as I've only posted puzzles that people have asked me at some point.

I guess I just assume the average person wouldn't google the answer to a puzzle, or at the very least, if they google it, wouldn't post the answer in a puzzle thread. Perhaps that's overly optimistic.

So yeah, don't google. And if you can't figure a puzzle out, and decide to google it anyway, don't post the answer here.

The TM is for Totally Magical.

32388

11/14/2015 04:25 PM

Jeroen_Sol
I guess I just assume the average person wouldn't google the answer to a puzzle, or at the very least, if they google it, wouldn't post the answer in a puzzle thread. Perhaps that's overly optimistic.

Yeah, that really annoys me, like earlier on this page, I posted that abstract 5+5+5+5=555 puzzle and someone said straight up that they googled it and then posted the answer. I mean, what can I do at that point? Yep, you got, after cheating your pants off.