Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 A footprint in the mud Or a copy from a child. Just a bit inside your blood Or your ancestry compiled. Adding a diagonal Or left there by some skates. Think deep inside your skull And combine all my traits. What am I? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 onetruth Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 DNA/genetics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 train tracksA footprint in the mud Or a copy from a child. Just a bit inside your blood Or your ancestry compiled. Adding a diagonal Or left there by some skates. Think deep inside your skull And combine all my traits. What am I? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 Neither answer so far is correct. DNA fits the first paragraph REALLY well, but I can't see a connection to the 5th and 6th clue in the 2nd paragraph. Train tracks might fit some of these metaphorically, but I can't see a complete connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 Yes, DNA was my first guess, but "left there by skates" didn't make any sense at all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 could it be a family treeYes, DNA was my first guess, but "left there by skates" didn't make any sense at all... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 trace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 Maybe Trace? Footprint is a trace of life. Tracing is a way a kid would copy something. A trace would be a bit in your blood (trace of heavy metal). Trace your ancestory. Trace is the "sum of the elements along the principal diagonal of a square matrix" Trace is the leavings of a ray (skate) or the marks left by ice skates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 brain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 7, 2008 Report Share Posted May 7, 2008 Statman and Writersblock has it. Writersblock read my mind on all clues except for the first (I was thinking about someone tracking someone, and what you would call a footprint in that situation). Nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 DNA is a sufficient answer as well. With the skates clue, think ove the streaks an ice skater makes as he/she skates across the ice. DNA is in the shape of the double helix. I can picture the streaks of that ice skater looking somewhat like a double helix from various spins, twists, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 DNA is a sufficient answer as well. With the skates clue, think ove the streaks an ice skater makes as he/she skates across the ice. DNA is in the shape of the double helix. I can picture the streaks of that ice skater looking somewhat like a double helix from various spins, twists, etc. You can really stretch line 6 to fit that, yes, although a double helix is 3-dimensional and in 2-dimensions would not look like a figure 8, but rather different (like the graph of both y=sin x and y=cos x on the same axes). I don't know how "adding a diagonal" has anything to do with DNA from line 5. The answer (and explanations) in the spoiler above fit all 6 lines perfectly. That being said, I do like writing a riddle like this, and seeing when someone (like yourself) fits clues together in a different way to come up with something plausible. It's part of the fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Oh yeah, I forgot to justify line 5. DNA can have either diagonal or off-diagonal correlations. I agree with you about the fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 itachi-san Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 Statman and Writersblock has it. Writersblock read my mind on all clues except for the first (I was thinking about someone tracking someone, and what you would call a footprint in that situation). Nice job! I was trying to correlate the answer with the last 2 lines. Are there any relations or are they just extraneous? Mostly the skull part - I was thinking that deep within our skulls (minds) there are traces of prehistoric elements like instincts. Or am I just reaching for the unattainable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted May 8, 2008 Report Share Posted May 8, 2008 I was trying to correlate the answer with the last 2 lines. Are there any relations or are they just extraneous? Mostly the skull part - I was thinking that deep within our skulls (minds) there are traces of prehistoric elements like instincts. Or am I just reaching for the unattainable? I needed to rhyme something with diagonal. Probably should have said something like: "Don't be slow and don't be dull/and combine all my traits." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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A footprint in the mud
Or a copy from a child.
Just a bit inside your blood
Or your ancestry compiled.
Adding a diagonal
Or left there by some skates.
Think deep inside your skull
And combine all my traits.
What am I?
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