Puzzle Definition and 12 Discussions

A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle. There are different genres of puzzles, such as crossword puzzles, word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, and logic puzzles.
Puzzles are often created to be a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious mathematical or logical problems. In such cases, their solution may be a significant contribution to mathematical research.

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  1. SrivastavaHarsh

    A A game of seemingly mutually independent events

    There are 4 players numbered 1 to 4. There is a room with an entrance door to one side and exit door to opposite side. Inside the room, there are 4 boxes numbered 1 to 4. Inside each box, there is a chit containing a number (with equal probability) from 1 to 4 (inclusive). No two chits can have...
  2. jrrunge98

    I A pattern in the numbers?

    I have been trying to find a pattern in this sequence of numbers: 72.1, 25.2, 35.1, 58.3, 164.14, 99.8, 23.1, 51.5, 13.2 I have tried every method I can think of like finding the mean, putting them in numerical order, trying to see if the differences between each number has any correlation (It...
  3. MesonMarcus

    Can you solve this puzzle involving regular expressions?

    can anyone help solve this puzzle regarding regular expressions? I was given this in an interview test from BAE systems cyber security department a few years ago and just came across it again, still haven't managed to get anywhere like an answer. I have tried matching each line of regex to form...
  4. M

    I Why can't I reach every cell in a 3x3 square?

    Hi, I was playing this game in which you start from any cells of a 3x3 or 5x5 square and draw a line that loops through every cell in the box. The line can go only through a vertical or horizontal side (not diagonally). When you start from certain cells (problem cells), you can't reach at...
  5. Jehannum

    I Mathematics binary puzzle

    The society on Jupiter's moon Io has a very odd way of counting. They count in binary using special counters: small discs with 0 printed on one side and 1 on the other. To increase speed when counting they made a rule: Rule #1: To get the next number in the sequence, only one counter can be...
  6. B

    I "Banana clock shapes" puzzle on social media

    I looked for an answer to this question other places but found none. There is a puzzle going around that people are getting the answer wrong to. No surprise there. According to the proofs I found for it on the internet, my assumptions were true and I did arrive at the right answer (38...
  7. W

    I Binary puzzle

    Hi there. There is currently a Binary puzzle being solved in the game Word Of Warcraft. In the puzzle, there are 10 levers which can each be placed in 9 different positions 1-9. So for example, the solution may be 1459275918. So far the community is stumped. The code given is below, I would...
    • WRC
    • Thread
    • binary puzzle
    • Replies: 3
    • Forum: General Math
  8. pioneerboy

    The dog's game

    Is there a solution to this game https://prlbr.de/2011/08/hundepuzzle/alle-karten.png in the form of an equation that only requires high school mathematics but no higher maths and informatics?
  9. themagician

    I The Train/Fly puzzle

    I remember back at physics A level we were posed with the question of what happens when a train hits a fly. According to Newton laws the forces are equal, and so, by this theory, the fly should stop the train. We obviously knew that this didn't happen, but it took the whole class waaay too long...
  10. Carnal

    What is the next shape in the series?

    I've been staring at this for hours but I do not get how the pattern works at all. The problem is from this website. It's not that I'm an idiot, I think there's something wrong with the pattern!
  11. LAZYANGEL

    3 barrel question / logic puzzle

    First of all, this is NOT a homework question. So I give you three barrels, one has 50 apples, the second has 50 oranges, the third has 50 - a mixture of both apples and oranges. However, I have intentionally placed the wrong labels on all of them. Find the minimum number of fruits you need...
  12. M

    Trivial/pointless math puzzle I'm too stupid to solve

    Pretend you own a printing press and you want to be able to represent any arbitrarily large natural number. You also want to store the fewest possible number of characters in your collection, just to save space. What base, if any, would yield the largest ratio of numbers you can represent to...
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