[Yoruichi-san]

Disclaimer: This puzzle depicts fictional events with fictional characters. Any resemblance to real members is *purely* a coincidence...;P

Archaeologists have just uncovered the Death Tablet, a stone tablet with the rules that if you carve someone's name onto it they will die in exactly 2 hours and 3 minutes. Since it takes a while to carve into a stone table, the 2 hours and 3 minutes is counted from the exact expected mean of the time it takes to carve all of the letters of the name into the tablet.

CPenguin carved on the tablet from between 13:56-14:03

CLv2.0 carved on the tablet from between 14:17-14:25

GCoughBR carved on the tablet from 14:35-14:44

BEV1spMEB carved on the tablet from 15:01-15:13

Aizen carved on the tablet from between 15:37-15:47

Fr0wzd carved on the tablet from between 15:46-:15:55

Unreality died at exactly 17:00. Who killed him?

Edit: Fixed. Clarification.

Edited August 21, 2008 by Yoruichi-san

[Guest]

Clv2.0, GCoughBR, and Aizen killed Unreality

CLv2.0 carved on the tablet from between 14:17-14:25

GCoughBR carved on the tablet from 14:35-14:44

Aizen carved on the tablet from between 15:37-15:47

[unreality]

thanks guys I know that the true killer will be brought to swift (or maybe not) and painful justice

[Guest]

If I understand the problem then the mean time of the carving of unreality would have been 14:57 (2 hours 4 min before 17:00)

NOBODY was carving at that time, so how could it be the mean time of someone's carving??

[Yoruichi-san]

If I understand the problem then the mean time of the carving of unreality would have been 14:57 (2 hours 4 min before 17:00)

NOBODY was carving at that time, so how could it be the mean time of someone's carving??

As some others have alighted on...

There was more than one person involved...the mean time is based on the times of carving of all the killers...;P

[Guest]

As some others have alighted on...

There was more than one person involved...the mean time is based on the times of carving of all the killers...;P

I think people are confused here by the "expected mean time" of several continuous ranges of times. Usually when discussing the "expected mean" of something, one expects a distribution of points. Failing that, one expects a continuous function describing a probability for a distribution of points.

In this case, you have a strange variation on the latter, where the distribution itself is given, but in the form of a boolean function: carving @ some time = true for times in a choice of ranges.

This is a non-trivial problem, unlike an easier variation where you could consider the carving times to be centered on some point for each range. i.e. CLv2.0 carved for 9 minutes at 14:05.

[Guest]

I guess for anyone to take my guess seriously i have to post the math...darn

I ran the math for every possible two man combo, courtesy of my high tech abacus named excel, no results matched the theory.

So i moved on to three man combos. One worked. As you can see courtesy of the photo, it was GcoughBR, Clv2.0, and Aizen who killed Unreality.

GCough carved from 14:35 to 14:44, therefore his avg time is 14:39:30, with a weight of 9 mins.

CLv2.0 carved from 14:17 to 14:25, therefore his avg time is 14:21 with a weight of 8 mins.

Aizen Carved from 15:37 to 15:47 therefore his avg time is 15:42 with a weight of 10 mins.

Add up all three times their weights and divide by the total of the three weights and you get this equation:

(14:39:30*9+14:21*8+15:42*10)/(9+8+10) = Avg time

14:57=Avg time.

Add 2:03 to kill unreality and unreality died at precisely 17:00.

Q.E.D.

[Guest]

Btw this problem would have been a lot easier if it was stated as a weighted avg. and not an expected avg, which unless i am highly confused has nothing to do with this problem.

edit: fixed spelling

Edited August 23, 2008 by slaer

[Guest]

Haha I think Y-San killed Unreality and posted it as an extremely confusing and impossibly hard puzzle so nobody would expect it was her...

You never fooled me though Y-San! Not for a second!

Oh and please don't cut off my air supply

[Yoruichi-san]

Btw this problem would have been a lot easier if it was stated as a weighted avg. and not an expected avg, which unless i am highly confused has nothing to do with this problem.

edit: fixed spelling

The Expectation value is the weighted average...so it's the same thing...

[Guest]

The Expectation value is the weighted average...so it's the same thing...

The weighted average applies when you have a certain number of points with attached weights. Where are the points in this problem? The times they start? The times they finish?

[Yoruichi-san]

The weighted average applies when you have a certain number of points with attached weights. Where are the points in this problem? The times they start? The times they finish?

The number of letters.

I.e. if A carved 3 letters at time=0 and B carved 6 letters at time t=60min, then the weighted average would be t=40min...

[Guest]

The number of letters.

I.e. if A carved 3 letters at time=0 and B carved 6 letters at time t=60min, then the weighted average would be t=40min...

Ok, but...

If A carved 3 letters from time t=0 through t=4 and B carved 6 letters from time t=60 through t=62, what would be the weighted average?

[Yoruichi-san]

Ok, but...

If A carved 3 letters from time t=0 through t=4 and B carved 6 letters from time t=60 through t=62, what would be the weighted average?

Since it is the same name, take the initial time and the final time for the name letters

[Yoruichi-san]

Since it is the same name, take the initial time and the final time for the name letters

Well, if you want to do it the exact way, think of it (your example) as a bar of length 62 with weights of 1 kg (or any other unit) at positions l=0, l=1, and l=2 and l=60, l=60.4, l=60.8, l=61.2, l=61.6, and l=62. Where would you put the fulcrum so that the bar is steady? (Torques have to be equal). So it would give an exact answer, but since the length of the bar is much greater than the distances between weights, the exact answer will differ from my simplified method by something on the order of seconds, and there are no seconds in this problem...;P

[Guest]

Well, if you want to do it the exact way, think of it (your example) as a bar of length 62 with weights of 1 kg (or any other unit) at positions l=0, l=1, and l=2 and l=60, l=60.4, l=60.8, l=61.2, l=61.6, and l=62. Where would you put the fulcrum so that the bar is steady? (Torques have to be equal). So it would give an exact answer, but since the length of the bar is much greater than the distances between weights, the exact answer will differ from my simplified method by something on the order of seconds, and there are no seconds in this problem...;P

And here i thought that was my birthday present!

CrazyPaintingPenguin that I am....

[Yoruichi-san]

And here i thought that was my birthday present!

CrazyPaintingPenguin that I am....

Haha...yeah, some ppl killed Unreality for your birthday present...surprise!

But, oops...just did the physics/math and realized I should have used the median points for each person instead of the outer points, but the answer is still the same or pretty close, since the difference is on the order of seconds and there are no seconds...;P