Tag Archives: deduction

A Puzzle in Honor of Leonard Nimoy

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Late last week, news went out that actor, sci-fi luminary, and respected advocate for science Leonard Nimoy had passed away. As a fan of much of his work — not just Star Trek, but Fringe, In Search Of…, and numerous other shows made better by his presence — I was sad to say goodbye to such a terrific and influential figure.

And so, I thought it was only appropriate to honor him in true PuzzleNation fashion: with a Star Trek-themed brain teaser.

This puzzle was created by a University of Kentucky mathematician and puzzler named Raphael Finkel, and came to my attention thanks to a post on IO9.com. It’s a logic puzzle that will really test your deduction skills, perfect to honor pop culture’s most famous Vulcan and their great tradition of logic and reason.

Six Fearsome Heroes

Grobly Grizik is planning to write a novel fashioned after Star Trek: The Next Generation. In this novel, six of the crew members compete both at Fizzbin and at Tri-Dimensional chess. Each crew member gets two independent rankings for proficiency at these games (one ranking for each game), with “1” ranked lowest and “6” highest.

Every crew member has a personal hero among the crew, and every crew member is afraid of some crew member. Everyone is the hero of somebody, and everyone is feared by somebody. Nobody either fears him/herself nor counts him/herself as a hero. Nobody fears his/her own hero.

From the given clues, discover every crew member’s ranking at Fizzbin and at Tri-D chess, as well as whom he/she fears and whom he/she counts as a hero:

  • Geordi ranks 2 at Tri-D Chess.
  • Picard ranks two positions behind Troi at Fizzbin.
  • Troi is feared by the person Geordi fears.
  • Worf’s hero ranks 3 times lower at Tri-D Chess than the crew member who is best at Fizzbin.
  • Picard’s hero fears Geordi.
  • Data’s hero is not Geordi.
  • Data is the hero of Riker’s hero.
  • The person who is worst at Fizzbin is better than Troi at Tri-D Chess.
  • The person ranked number 3 at Tri-D Chess is ranked 4 positions higher than Data at Fizzbin.
  • Riker is feared by the person Picard fears and is the hero of Worf’s hero.
  • Riker is ranked 2 lower at Tri-D Chess than the crew member ranked 2 at Fizzbin.

Let us know if you solve this diabolical puzzle. And please share your favorite Nimoy roles and memories. He was a remarkable talent and will be missed.

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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Hats Off to You edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to revisit the subject of brain teasers.

A few years ago, we posted a riddle that had been making the rounds online. It centered around four men buried up to their necks in the ground, each one trying to figure out what color hat he is wearing.

It’s a great exercise in logic and deduction, one that most solvers unraveled after a few minutes.

As it turns out, there’s a more complex version of this riddle. But this one involves 100 people!

One hundred prisoners are lined up single file, facing in the same direction. Each prisoner will be randomly assigned either a red hat or a blue hat.

No one can see the color of his own hat. However, each person is able to see the color of the hat worn by every person in front of him. So the person at the head of the line cannot see the color of anyone’s hat, the second prisoner can see only the first prisoner’s hat, the third can see the first two prisoners’ hats, and so on. The last person in line — the 100th prisoner — can see the colors of the hats on all 99 people in front of him.

Beginning with the last person in line, and then moving to the 99th person, the 98th, etc., each will be asked to name the color of his own hat. If the color is correctly named, the person lives; if incorrectly named, the person is shot dead on the spot.

Everyone in line is able to hear every response as well as hear the gunshot; also, everyone in line is able to remember all that needs to be remembered and is able to compute all that needs to be computed.

Before being lined up and given their hats, the 100 prisoners are allowed to discuss strategy, with an eye toward developing a plan that will allow as many of them as possible to name the correct color of his or her own hat (and thus survive). They know all of the preceding information in this problem. Once lined up, each person is allowed only to say “Red” or “Blue” when his turn arrives, beginning with the last person in line.

What would your plan be to save as many people as possible? How many prisoners can you definitely save?

It’s an absolutely diabolical riddle, one that definitely taxed my puzzle skills. And different plans have different chances for success! Will you save half? 75%? Can you save everyone?

[Click here and scroll down for the solution, courtesy of the folks at IO9.]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

A logic puzzle with an artistic twist!

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Puzzles are truly a worldwide phenomenon. So many different cultures and groups have created fantastic, long-lasting puzzle styles that continue to resonate across decades and even centuries.

In the past I’ve endeavored to make PuzzleNation Blog a bit more PuzzleInternational by sharing overseas puzzle flavors from German and Spanish puzzle books that’ve been passed to me by fellow puzzlers.

And I’m so excited that another friend of the blog has shared an absolute treasure trove of international puzzle books with me, ensuring that our puzzly world tour will continue!

So today, instead of examining a single puzzle book and getting a glimpse into a particular culture’s brand of puzzles, I’ve picked a particular type of puzzle and we’ll be exploring magazines from several different countries dedicated to that puzzle!

Let’s take a global look at Logic Art!

Logic Art puzzles (also known as Pixel Puzzles, Pic-a-Pix, Illust-Logic, Griddlers, Hanjie, and Picture Puzzles) are a wonderfully artistic take on deduction-style logic puzzles.

Essentially, you’re given an empty grid with numbers along the top and left-hand side. These numbers indicate black squares to color in and white squares to leave alone. By deducing where to place the black squares and white squares, a pixelated picture will emerge!

(For more complete rules and solving tips, check out this helpful guide from our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles.)

So, the difficulty of the solve and creativity of the solution image are only limited by the puzzle constructor’s imagination and your own puzzle savvy.

Some magazines, like these German puzzle books, stick to the simple black square/white square mechanic…

… while others, like this Cyrillic magazine with several colors and this Hungarian magazine with splashes of red, encourage greater use of color in your Logic Artwork.

These smaller, digest-sized Cyrillic magazines offer multiple grids per page with simpler solution images.

But look at the level of detail some of the larger grids offer!

I must admit, though, I’m partial to these Japanese puzzle books, if only for this particular solution image:

Logic Art is obviously a puzzle with global appeal. Although not as universal as Sudoku (or as intuitively easy to solve), it clearly strikes a chord with solvers across the world.

It’s always a treat to explore puzzles from another culture’s perspective. Thanks for taking this journey with me today.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman…

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With subscriptions to puzzle magazines like Will Shortz’s WordPlay and GAMES Magazine, as well as puzzle-by-mail services like The Uptown Puzzle Club and The Crosswords Club, there are plenty of ways to get puzzles by mail.

But one particular puzzler in the UK has put an intriguing twist on the idea of puzzles-by-mail: he’s challenged the carriers of the Royal Mail postal service to solve puzzles in order to deliver his mail.

A graphic designer by trade, James Addison was impressed by the diligence of the postmen of the Royal Mail, and he playfully decided to test their mettle with different challenges, including maps, word searches, pictograms, and other befuddling methods to conceal the intended destination of the letter.

From an article on The Telegraph website:

Although he enjoys solving puzzles himself, he said his hobby was fuelled by a desire partly to test the Royal Mail’s ingenuity and partly to honour old-fashioned letter-writing, following his mother’s advice that a handwritten thank-you note showed you had made an effort.

Well, Mr. Addison is certainly taking his mother’s words to heart. And it seems the postmen of the Royal Mail quite enjoy the spirited challenges his letters offer.

[To try your hand at solving some of Jim’s letters, including those pictured in this post, click here!]

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out our library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

PuzzleNation App Reviews: Point 2 Point

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Welcome to our third edition of PuzzleNation App Reviews! Today we continue our quest to explore the world of puzzly games and apps for your tablet or smartphone!

Our resident App player and puzzle fiend Sherri has another intriguing game for us today, so without further ado, let’s dive into her review of Point 2 Point!

If you enjoy pure puzzle games, then Point 2 Point is the game for you. This iOS game is essentially one puzzle with varying levels of difficulty.

Normally, I prefer games with more graphics than this one, but the simplicity of it lured me in. The “point” of the game is to connect all the points in each level without crossing the lines. Each point has a numerical value that represents the number of connections you must make. Each collection of levels is called a pack.

I played the introductory pack, and it kept me engaged. The game started off very simply, but as the levels progressed — some with movable dark blue points — they grew more and more difficult. For each completed level, you earned 1, 2, or 3 stars based on your proficiency.

While I prefer games with more puzzle variety and a greater emphasis on striking graphics, I was drawn into this game. I wanted to match the points and earn 3 stars for each level, and I nearly did that! Some of the levels, even in the introductory pack, were really tricky! This game really works your brain and makes you think. You really have to puzzle out the best way to connect the points.

Ratings for Point 2 Point:

  • Enjoyability: 3/5 – it isn’t a spectacular game but it is interesting and really makes you think; its joy lies in its simplicity
  • How well puzzles are incorporated: 5/5 – it is all about puzzles. You have to puzzle out how to connect the number of points to get to the maximum number of stars in each level.
  • Graphics: 1/5 – the graphics are simply lines and points, but the simplicity doesn’t distract at all from the game
  • Gameplay: 3/5 – it’s a deceptively simple game that really challenges your mind, but it really is just one puzzle repeated several times. There isn’t much variety, but the increasing difficulty keeps the game fresh.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!