bonanova

The Bishop square: DudleyDude for first solution, with one somewhat specious word plainglazed for first solution with bona fide words Did we all Google the squared circle? Or is it still being worked out? Two stars for a solution that does not use Icarus.

Most puzzle aficionados know how to solve the "equation" Halloween = Christmas. Let's extend the puzzle a bit. In 2008, and on average every seven years, one can write Halloween = Thanksgiving = Christmas. Explain. . If we concatenate the month and day numbers we get 1031 = 1225. How could this be possible? . If we assign distinct, nonzero numbers to letters and let period be multiplication we get Oct.31 = Dec.25. What value must "c" have? .

I hate to blow the whistle on myself, but you can find the squared circle on the internet. I'll leave it as an open puzzle for those honorable folk - that would be all of us, I think - who want to tackle it on our own. But I'll add one I don't think can be easily found, this one from chess. The Rook can move around a square path, and so ROOK can easily be squared. R O O K O _ _ _ O _ _ _ K _ _ _ [/code] But not so, the diagonal-loving Bishop. Three gold stars for the solver who can square the Bishop. [code] B I S H O P I _ _ _ _ _ S _ _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ _ O _ _ _ _ _ P _ _ _ _ _

That works. Two stars for the circle solver.

Here's a wonderful set of letters that comprise seven 7-letter words interlocked in a square array. M E R G E R S E T E R N A L R E G A T T A G R A V I T Y E N T I T L E R A T T L E R S L A Y E R S [/code] [b]Easy puzzle.[/b] Can you square a cube? [code] C U B E U _ _ _ B _ _ _ E _ _ _ Challenging puzzle: Now, how about a circle? C I R C L E I _ _ _ _ _ R _ _ _ _ _ C _ _ _ _ _ L _ _ _ _ _ E _ _ _ _ _ [/code][/font][font=Verdana] Proper nouns are allowed. In fact, if onelook lists a word, you can use it. Enjoy! [/font]

aaronbcj, suppose after picking a door, Monty said, you can stay with that choice OR pick BOTH of the other doors. Would you switch?

For example you could get lucky and weigh A vs B, B vs C, C vs D, D vs E and find them in ascending order, and you'd do it in four weighings. But it might take more than four. So yes, the minimum number to insure a correct ordering. I guess when I said maximum I was thinking "the most it might take."

You have five objects, A, B, C, D and E, no two of which have the same weight. You have a balance scale but no weights. What is the maximum number of weighings [comparing two objects] needed to order the objects by weight? How many weighings are necessary for six objects?

Six inches in the Length, not the Diameter, of the hole.

That's what makes this a great puzzle.

Gmaster had the correct answer first [but I couldn't say so without giving clues.] Drexlin had the correct matrix of identities first. Declaring a well fought contest with dual winners ... ! Congratulations

You're fine on everything you've said. Three options have now become two options: Door 2 [stay] and Door 3 [switch]. Initially all the doors have 1/3 probability of having the car. After we learn that Door 1 has 0 probability, where does that 1/3 go? You assume it gets split equally between 2 and 3, making them both 1/2. But why should Door 2 change, just because we are shown a goat behind one of the other two doors? We know Doors 1 and 3 combined have 2/3. If we learn Door 1 has 0, doesn't that mean Door 3 now is 2/3? Or, If Door 2 has the car, switching to Door 3 loses. If Door 2 has a goat, switching to Door 3 wins. Are these cases equally likely?

Gmaster479's result is very close. Drexlin's observation is correct. The coveted bonanova Gold Star awaits the final solution.

Why did 1/3 become 1/2? Remember Monty did not guess which door had a goat. He knew. And he didn't open the door you chose, he showed a different goat.

I may not have the right sense of "whatever the number could be" but ...

Hi knob, and welcome to the Den. The solution you suggested doesn't respond to the question that was asked. You missed the point. So here's a hint: Often, how a puzzle is worded - what it says and what it doesn't say - will provide a clue to the correct answer, which might be only one among many otherwise possible answers. Your post raised a lot of interesting possibilities. Like the character of the sons and of the King, and whether certain derogatory adjectives may or may not have applied to them as people. The clue here to finding the correct answer is to see precisely what was asked. The Original Post [OP for short] gives us what happened. What the King said, and how all three sons answered. What it did not say was that they were stupid, underhanded, liars, or anything else related to their character. So to add those possibilities makes it a different puzzle. The general rule is to take the OP as stated. Nobody was said to have made a guess. Or lie saying they didn't know when in fact they did. Rather, all three were asked to say whether they knew the color of their feathers. Their answers were No, No and Yes. The question then was how the third son could know, when the first two did not. Here's another hint. No one here is impressed with offensive characterizations. Whether they're applied to the puzzle makers, the characters in their puzzles or the Brainden members who post their solutions. I'm going to assume you were just having some good fun and hope you stay around. Cuz you clearly know how to think out of the box, and that's a plus. But I think you'll enjoy your membership here a little more, and certainly for a longer period of time, if you're thoughtful in choosing the boxes that you go outside of. Word to the wise.

tamjap, not a problem. Thanks for the link. There is a whole forum on this site, VirtuO, where you might find other links to stuff you might like. Other Mind-boggling Stuff on the Web

tonym144, it's a fun puzzle and one that's debated a lot because we like to follow our intuition instead of doing all that messy math.

One source is puzzle magazines. Some magazines specialize and have puzzles of only this type. More often, they're one type in a mixture of types and are usually called Logic Puzzles.