Red out of the box
February 6th, 2012
Get the red piece out of the box. Click the buttons on the left for three variations of the puzzle. Play it here.
Quote
February 6th, 2012
Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped. - African proverb
Reflections
February 5th, 2012Playful thinking
February 4th, 2012
Colour puzzle
February 3rd, 2012Erich Friedman has designed a puzzle where the task is to put coloured pentominoes on a grid. It has to be done in such a way that the coloured squares shown are covered by pentominoes of that colur.
Here is one example:
Here is a puzzle taken from Friedman’s web site.
Update: the same colored squares are covered by the same type of pentomino, and different colored squares are covered by different types of pentominoes. (Thanks to Sotiris for pointing this out!)
Quote
February 3rd, 2012
My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle. - Henny Youngman
Stare at the nose
February 2nd, 2012
1. Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds
2. Turn your eyes towards the wall/roof or somewhere else on a plain surface
3. Keep blinking your eyes quickly!
4. What can you see?
Source: illusionbot.
Quote
February 2nd, 2012
All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim. The means employed become, through individual habit, and social practice, part and parcel of the final purpose; they influence it, modify it, and presently the aims and means become identical. - Emma Goldman
From ape to man and beyond
February 1st, 2012
Lewis Carroll found that ‘ape’ can be turn into ‘man’ in six steps. A step consists of replacing one letter to give a word in the dictionary. By the way, he claimed to have invented the world ladder puzzle game.
Mathematica can be used for many things. One of them is to beat Lewis Carroll. It can turn ‘ape’ into ‘man’ in only five steps.
Here is a list of definitions. Can you fill in the lest column by changing just one letter in the word above?
| charge | a quantity of explosive to be set off at one time |
| exchange or replace with another, usually of the same kind or category | |
| occurring or appearing or singled out by chance | |
| of uncertain outcome; especially fraught with risk | |
| a rhythmical work song originally sung by sailors | |
| small crude shelter used as a dwelling | |
| European scaleless blenny | |
| a simple version of hockey played by children on the streets (or on ice or on a field) using a ball or can as the puck | |
| the characteristic sounds made by a horse | |
| habitually complaining | |
| a person given to excessive complaints and crying and whining | |
| any of numerous small silvery North American cyprinid fishes especially of the genus Notropis | |
| shake, as from cold |
Click here for a longer list.
Problem source: Wolfram Blog. You are advised to try to crack the problems above before you look at the blog.
Quote
February 1st, 2012
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. - Ellen Parr