thnik again!

Red out of the box

Jan Nordgreen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:04:23 +0000

Get the red piece out of the box. Click the buttons on the left for three variations of the puzzle. Play it here.

Quote

Jan Nordgreen — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:02:36 +0000

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped. - African proverb

Reflections

Jan Nordgreen — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:02:07 +0000

Playful thinking

Jan Nordgreen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:02:27 +0000

“Hidato is a logical puzzle game invented by Dr. Gyora Benedek, an Israeli mathematician. The goal of Hidato is to fill the grid with consecutive numbers that connect horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.”

New to Hidato? Read more here and play it here.

Colour puzzle

Jan Nordgreen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:04:15 +0000

Erich 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

Jan Nordgreen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:02:54 +0000

My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle. - Henny Youngman

Stare at the nose

Jan Nordgreen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:06:34 +0000

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

Jan Nordgreen — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:02:09 +0000

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

Jan Nordgreen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:04:30 +0000

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

Jan Nordgreen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:02:56 +0000

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. - Ellen Parr