Math and Logic Puzzles

[ChaosOmega]

Two children go across in boat. One child comes back. Mum goes across. One child comes back. Two children go across. One child comes back. Dad goes across. One child comes back, and both children cross one more time.

[Kcdaspot]

can one child get across on its own?

if so,

2 kids >
1 kid <
1 adult >
1 kid <
2 kids >
1 kid <
1 adult >
1 kid <
2 kids >

Done?

[Kcdaspot]

DAMMIT OMEGA

[killerjester]

Omega's got it.

[ChaosOmega]

Arrange the numbers 1-9 on a tic-tac-toe board so that each row, column, and diagonal add up to 15.

[cjdrum]

Code: Select all

 4 | 9 | 2
-----------
 3 | 5 | 7
-----------
 8 | 1 | 6 

[Quilford]

just post the next one already cjdrum

[KageLord]

just post the next one already cjdrum

[Kcdaspot]

*yawn*

[cjdrum]

Argh. Always hard to think of one.

Someone else go.

[Sudo_Nym]

You are the ruler of a medieval empire and you are about to have a celebration tomorrow. The celebration is the most important party you have ever hosted. You've got 1000 bottles of wine you were planning to open for the celebration, but you find out that one of them is poisoned.

The poison exhibits no symptoms until death. Death occurs within ten to twenty hours after consuming even the minutest amount of poison.

You have over a thousand slaves at your disposal and just under 24 hours to determine which single bottle is poisoned.

You have a handful of prisoners about to be executed, and it would mar your celebration to have anyone else killed.

What is the smallest number of prisoners you must have to drink from the bottles to be absolutely sure to find the poisoned bottle within 24 hours?

[animorpherv1]

1000?

[Sudo_Nym]

1000?

That wouldn't be much of a math puzzle, would it?

[Kcdaspot]

well... one.. if you are lucky.

[Sudo_Nym]

Given that it's a math and logic puzzle, I doubt you can count on getting lucky.

[Bowser]

Sudo, what is that orange thing in that person's hand in your avatar?

[animorpherv1]

999?

[Sudo_Nym]

Sudo, what is that orange thing in that person's hand in your avatar?

It's a cheeseburger.

999?

I get the feeling you aren't really applying math nor logic to this puzzle.

[Bowser]

Cheeseburger? Your avatar implies your awesomeness immensely. The posts are just icing on that cake.[/obvioussignaturebait]

I'm trying to think of a solution...but I'm coming up empty.

[animorpherv1]

The way I'm looking at it:

* If someone drinks more than one bottle, then you don't know for sure which bottle it is.

*If you go with 999, if it wasn't drank then it's the undrank bottle.

* If you go any less than 999, with the above condition, then there is at least two unused bottles if the poison was not drank.

[Sudo_Nym]

Nope. You can test all the wine, and know for sure, with far less than 999.

[Kcdaspot]

999 bottles of beer on the wall, 999 bottles of beer...
you take one down, ya pass it - HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGG
*thud*
"kay game over"

[Kcdaspot]

hmmm... can you do this by sorting it somehow?

[StrangerCoug]

Nine, I think.

[DonJosh]

10 prisoners.

Divide the bottles into 10 groups of 100

Prisoner A drinks combined drops from all bottles in Group A
Prisoner B drinks combined drops from all bottles in Group B
etc.
Prisoner J drinks combined drops from all bottles in Group J

Lets say Prisoner J dies.

Prisoner A drinks combined drops from 12 bottles in Group J
Prisoners B-I each drink combined drops from 11 bottles in Group J

Lets say Prisoner I dies.

Prisoners A-C drink combined drops from 2 bottles in Group J-I
Prisoners D-H drink a drop from one bottle each in Group J-I