Hatrack River Forum: Riddles (A Game)

This is topic Riddles (A Game) in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

When the correct answer is confirmed, the winner posts a new riddle.

I'll start:

Who makes it, has no need of it.
Who buys it, has no use for it.
Who uses it can neither see nor feel it.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Coffin.

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

yes [Smile]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Someone at a party introduces you to your mother's only sister's husband's sister-in-law. He has no brothers. What do you call this lady?

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

That's not a given in Massachusetts anymore. [Big Grin]

Dagonee
Wow, every thread CAN be a gay marriage thread...

Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :

Someone looking for a free meal?

(Where's the beer?)

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

CT, yup. Your turn. [Smile]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

What do you get when the getting's good?

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Not your cheese (nocho-cheese).

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

What have I got in my pockets?

Or if that one's too hard...

I don't really have any riddles... I'll give you a brain teaser but that may not really be what's desired.

You have two strings that burn at random velocities (i.e. the time it takes to burn a string will not necessarily be twice the time it takes to burn half of that string), given no other timing device, and only matches, how do you use those two strings to determine when 45 minutes has passed (and now sun-dial like answers [Razz]

)

Hobbes

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Um, I think you left out a crucial piece of information on this one, Hobbes.

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Yes, yes I did. They each take exactly 1 hour to burn, it's the rates that are unpredictable, not the total time.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Light one string at both ends - it will burn in 30 minutes if you do that.

Light the other string at one end at the same time. When the first string is burnt up, there will be 30 minutes of time left on the second string, no matter how much of it is actually burnt up at that point.

Light the second end of the second string; when the second string is consumed, 15 minutes will have elapsed (half of the remaining 30 minutes).

Dagonee
Edit: Riddle incoming in a couple minutes.

[ July 06, 2004, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

There are three cups of cofee and 22 lumps of sugar. How can you add an odd number of lumps of sugar to each coffee cup if each lump of sugar must be used in a coffee cup?

Dagonee

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

The rope riddle's been used by Microsoft as an interview question.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I'd heard it before, but I solved it on my own when I heard it so I didn't feel bad about posting the answer.

Had the ropes had 30 minute burn time (which is how I actually heard it), you would just wait to light the second at both ends until the first is out.

Dagonee

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Can you cut the lumps in half? If so that's the answer, cut two in half and add 8 to each one.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

I certainly would... some people count it as even, some say it's niether but I don't think anyone says it's odd.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

I quite enjoyed solving the rope riddle as well, as well as another Microsoft interview question (I was chatting with a MS intern), but its too CS oriented to post.

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

#1: 1 in cup #1, 1 in cup #2, 20 in cup #3. I sure think 20 is an odd number of sugar lumps for one cup of coffee.

#2: 11 in cup #1, then place cup #2 into cup #3, and place 11 into both cups at once.

#3: 7 in cup #1, 7 in cup #2, take the remaining eight to form a 2x2x2 cube, and place in cup #3.

Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :

The sum of any two odd numbers is an even number.

22 - any even number is also an even number.

it's not possible!

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Sorry, got distracted in the latest theology thread dispelling some Jack Chickish rumours.

Papa's Number 1 is the answer I was looking for. (No, you can't cut them in half.)

Number 2 is cheap, and number 3 would work if I said cubes, not lumps. [Taunt]

Your riddle Papa.

Dagonee
Edit: 0 could be counted as even for this purpose.

[ July 06, 2004, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :

I cede my riddle to whoever wants it. I have to go pick up my car.

--Pop

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Is this a trick riddle?

Is the answer carrots?

Dagonee

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Fugu, I'd like to hear it, you don't have to make it an official riddle for this thread.

Dag, you think Papa's number 2 answer was cheap? Your's was $20,000 below sticker price! [Mad]

Hobbes

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

Since Papa Moose forfieted his riddle...

What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?

Posted by Jalapenoman (Member # 6575) on :

someone been reading Oedipus?

It's man

Posted by Jalapenoman (Member # 6575) on :

New riddle:

If you're flying in your canoe and the wheels fall off, how many oranges does it take to build a house?

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

Who's Oedipus?
I learned that riddle from my brother. Very few people get it right.

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Ohh that's easy, as Confucius says -

"The building of a whole house begins with a single orange"

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :

You can build a house with oranges?

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Heh, k.

Its in two parts.

You have a linked list. First, design a program that discovers if the linked list is/has a loop.

Second, design a program that does the same thing in the same finite amount of memory regardless of list size.

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

Confucious confuses us.

Posted by Jalapenoman (Member # 6575) on :

It's a drunk joke. Ask them this one and they will try to "essplain" their answer or say they understand yours.

The answer? Three, because elephants don't lay eggs on Tuesdays when it rains.

I pass on the right of asking the next riddle.

As far as the line "Who's Oedipus?" goes: he was a young man who was challenged by the sphinx to answer the riddle or die. It is from the play Oedipus Rex. In it, an oracle prophecies that a baby will kill his father and marry his mother. The boy's father attempts to have him killed, but the person assigned the duty takes pity and allows the child to live. He grows up and has several adventures, including killing his father and marrying his mother. When he does find out the truth of his parentage, he kills himself. Freud uses this story to name his bogus Oedipus complex, where he says that all men want to sleep with their mothers.

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

what word is masculine and plural, but when you add an 's' becomes feminine and singular?

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

OK, Fugu, I have two different answers for you depending, if the loop is garunteed to be a full circle (shape of an O) there's answer A, if the circle can start anywhere (like a 'P') then there's answer B.

Both answers in C++, but the language doesn't reall matter.

Answer A:

code:

template <class T>
bool CheckList (T *Start)
{
	T *Current = Start;

	while (Current != NULL) {
		if (Current == Start) return true;
		Current = Current->Next;
	}

	return false;
}

Answer B:

code:

template <class T>
bool CheckList (T *Start)
{
	T *Current;
	T *Mov;
	int StartCount;

	Current = Start;

	for (int ObjectsTo = 0; true; ObjectsTo++) {
		if (Current == NULL) return false;

		Move = Start;
		for (StartCount = 0; Move != Current; StartCount++) {}
		if (StartCount < ObjectsTo) return true;

		Current = Current->Next;
	}

	return false;
}

Hobbes

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

By the way, I haven't error checked my code, so if there's a syntax error, I'm A) not surprised, and B) not that interested. [Wink]

Hobbes

[ July 06, 2004, 08:05 PM: Message edited by: Hobbes ]

Posted by Mr.Gumby (Member # 6303) on :

*looks at C++ code and curls up into a little ball, quivers and cries softly at flash-backs of programming class* [Angst]

Posted by Eruve Nandiriel (Member # 5677) on :

Jalepenoman- that sounds familiar now. [Smile]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

The loop can be anywhere, and the second answer is incorrect.

Edit to "clarify": the second answer is incorrect for either part of the question, though its logic could be used to answer the first part correctly (of course, there's a much easier if more memory intensive way; but we can use as much memory as we want for the first part). Its nowhere near the right answer for the second part of the question, though its closer to the right method of thinking than the easy answer for the first part of the question.

[ July 06, 2004, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

Why? It gets the answer and it takes a static amount of memory no matter the size.

Hobbes [Smile]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

No, it doesn't take a static amount of memory regardless of size. It takes a static amount of memory as long as the list's size is less than the largest value of an int. Then it just fails. And once you use a non-bounded substitute it takes an amount of memory proportional to the length of the list, which is unbounded.

[ July 06, 2004, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]

Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :

::yawns at geekyness::

so here's a REAL riddle.

What can go up a chimney down, but cannot go up a chimney up?

Ni!

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

You realize I could get around that by declaring a "T *Counter", since the pointer is garuneteed to be of adequate size, or the rest of the program would crash first. [Razz]

Am I allowed to change the pointers themselves?

And Becky, just because it's you and for no other reason my guess is: a horse. [Big Grin]

Hobbes

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I think I know kwsni's. An umbrella?

Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :

Poke your fingers in my eyes and I will open wide my jaws. Linen cloth, quills, or paper, my greedy lust devours them all.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Clearly that one is a just-learned-to-crawl baby. [Wink]

Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :

guess again [Razz]

Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :

scissors

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :

they're both in it for the CAWrayons?

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Because Poe wrote on both.

Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :

*raCAWous laughter*

what a hoot!

poe?

*snort*

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

Hey - that's great. I didn't know that one had an answer.

Was Lewis Carrol after Poe?

Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :

no.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

It doesn't, exactly.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

That's great, Rifka [Big Grin]

I like: "Because they both come with inky quills."

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Yeah, inky quills is my second favorite. But since I first came across the Poe one in The Annotated Alice many moons ago, that's the one I tend to remember.

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Sorry, Hobbes, I realized I hadn't seen your response earlier.

You can't change the pointers themselves, and I'm not asking for a concrete solution, I'm asking for an abstract solution. This is an exercise in puzzle based thinking, not good enough thinking.

Plus, you're wrong. Computer storage nowadays can easily hold a list long enough to be more than the capacity of a pointer. I fail to see why it would crash, as well.

Edit: I'm guessing your talking about memory addressing capabilities. First, one can have a linked list on the hard disk and have parts of it brought into memory as needed. I didn't specify the implementation. Second, even were it all in memory, that's actually not a complete limitation. Its theoretically possible for each member of the list to be restricted to under a machine word, using an extremely compact notation.

[ July 08, 2004, 10:41 PM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]

Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :

Rivka got mine.

We are very little creatures, all of us have different features. One of us in glass is set; one of us you'll find in jet. Another you may see in tin, and a fourth is boxed within. If the fifthyou should pursue, it can never fly from you. What are we?

Ni!

Posted by jacama (Member # 6291) on :

The vowels: a, e, i, o & u

What is lighter than a feather, yet noone can hold it for long?

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Their breath.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

The beginning of eternity
The end of time and space
The beginning of every end,
And the end of every place.

Posted by jacama (Member # 6291) on :

"e"

Feed me and I live.
Give me to drink and I die.

Posted by fil (Member # 5079) on :

Fire.

Which room has no windows, no doors, no walls and no floors?

fil

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Mushroom.

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

Post a riddle!

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I knew there was a reason not to answer the last one. [Wink]

Hang on, I'll be right back.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I never was, am always to be,
No one ever saw me, nor ever will,
And yet I am the confidence of all
To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.
What am I?

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

The future!

[ July 09, 2004, 10:01 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Close enough for government work. [Wink]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

What was the private sector answer? (Riddle incoming soon.)

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Tomorrow.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

A non-elastic rope is wrapped exactly once around the equator. Assume a perfectly spherical Earth.

How much length needs to be added to the rope to make it exactly 6" off the ground all the way around?

Dagonee

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

circumference/diameter = pi

circumference of earth (ce) / diameter of earth (de) = pi

ce = pi * de

new circumference / (de + 12") = pi

new circumference = pi * (de + 12")

new circumference = pi * de + pi * 12"

new circumference = ce + pi * 12"

so 37 and two thirds plus a bit more inches.

edit: that is, pi*12", being explicit.

[ July 09, 2004, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: fugu13 ]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I had you on the short list for getting that, fugu. You're turn.

The math's easy, but the result is counterintuitive to most people.

Dagonee

[ July 09, 2004, 10:33 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
The math's easy, but the result is counterintuitive to most people.

Yup. I got the answer, stared at it, mused as to whether it was right -- and fugu had posted. [Wink]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

You were on the short list, too. Plus, I knew you were on. [Smile]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

I've done the cored ball problem, answers relating to counterintuitive results of dimensionality changes never surprise me any more.

Actually, that's a decent riddle, though many of the people able to answer it will probably have done it before. Of course, many of them may have forgotten [Wink]

.

You have a perfect wooden sphere. You drill a cylinder through the middle such that the remaining ring of wood is exactly 2" high (when measured along the cylindrical hole). What is the volume of the remaining wood?

Note: I've forgotten the answer, so I'll have to work it out for myself. I'll have it in a sec, but if you post an answer quickly post your work as well so I can just check that.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

OK, I don't want to do the math, but it's clear the size of the sphere doesn't matter, which means the diameter of the hole doesn't matter. So assume a zero-radius hole, which means a 2" sphere. So it's equal to the volume of a 2" sphere, right?

I can't prove this mathematically, because I don't remember how to do the partial volume of a sphere intercepted by a plane.

Either that or you left out some critical information. If you didn't, I think I have to be right.

Dagonee

[ July 09, 2004, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :

Yep, you're right. And its not the volume of a sphere intersected by a plane, its just a three dimensional integral done by rotation.

Your turn.