Two interesting puzzles (1 easy, 1 unsolved)

[gmgm]

Here are a couple of interesting puzzles from the same book.

The author says about the puzzles (he refers to them as "clues") that most of them rely on logical reasoning and pattern-spotting, that some understanding of mathematics and general knowledge helps with some of them, and that no foreign language skills are required, and that those who have English as a first language will only have a slight advantage.

The author also writes that each puzzle (Clue) provides exactly one upper- or lower-case letter as an answer and that hints or solutions from a previous puzzle have no impact whatsoever on later ones.

1. The first one is an easy one:

welcome to the quiz! i hope you’re excited to get started. there aren’t any instructions for individual clues so just rely on your instincts and, with some luck, you’ll figure them out eventually. i’ll give you a little hint for this first one: the letter is lower-case, as is implied from the intentional lack of capital letters.

for a few of the clues it’s really quite clear what you need to do while others might seem like random nonsense at first. however, i promise you there is a logical solution to each of these, even if they’re a tad sudtle and not immediately apparent. take your time, try to spot patterns and make connections. sometimes you’ll have to look for what isn’t there rather than what is.

2. The second one I've not solved yet. You should read the first puzzle first, since it contains general advice or instructions for solving the other puzzles (these are all instructions we get). Again, the answer we are looking for should be in the form of one letter, either upper case or lower case.



Any suggestions, ideas, thoughts, narrowing of possible answers highly appreciated!

[DeGe]

"b" ... based on my interpretation of the last sentence "what is not there"... the word "sudtle" should be "subtle"

For the second, is there a picture you wanted to upload that did not get uploaded or is "vwQRZ1Y.png" the clue?

Edited June 24, 2014 by DeGe

[gmgm]

"b" ... based on my interpretation of the last sentence "what is not there"... the word "sudtle" should be "subtle"

You got the answer right. Adding to the observation you made...

"b" is the only letter in the alphabet that is not used at all in the whole text. All the other 25 letters are used at least once.

For the second, is there a picture you wanted to upload that did not get uploaded or is "vwQRZ1Y.png" the clue?

It is an image. I wasn't able to upload it here for some reason. Maybe it will display this way:

If not, here is the link: http://imgur.com/vwQRZ1Y