Solve Enjoyable Enigmas with Mr.E's Challenge

  • Thread starter Thread starter Enigman
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The forum thread invites puzzle enthusiasts to share various types of puzzles, including cryptograms and whodunnits, while emphasizing that participants should know the answers without resorting to online searches. A code message is presented, which participants attempt to decode, leading to discussions about its meaning and possible interpretations. Participants also engage in solving additional puzzles, such as cutting a cake into pieces with minimal cuts and a physics challenge involving water and matchsticks. The conversation highlights the enjoyment of problem-solving and the creative thinking required to tackle these enigmas. Overall, the thread fosters a collaborative atmosphere for sharing and solving intriguing puzzles.
  • #151
It floats?

.. . :biggrin:
 
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  • #152
Nope, it drives...
over water that you cannot drink
 
  • #153
Enigman said:
Nope, it drives...
over water that you cannot drink
Maine: freezing winters. They drove the tractor over in the winter when the lake was frozen!
 
  • #154
Yep. I am running out of puzzles...anyone else have anything?
 
  • #155
Enigman said:
Yep. I am running out of puzzles...anyone else have anything?
Where are you getting these? You have a book of them?
 
  • #156
Memory- All of these have been asked of me and solved by me (well, mostly). I have been addicted to them since I was a kid.
 
  • #157
This is the famous Chinese murder mystery that has been claimed to be the first instance of forensic science in recorded history:

In a rural village a farmer is found dead. The local law officer determines he was killed by a savage blow from a shovel.

He orders all the village farmers to assemble in the town square with their shovels, and they are required to stand at attention holding their shovels with the spade end up in the air.

He paces back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour, studying the shovels. None of them shows any sign of blood or tissue. Then, he stops in front of one man, and orders him arrested for the murder.

What did he see that tipped him off?
 
  • #158
mmm...
no mud?
 
  • #159
Haha! Nice!
 
  • #160
Enigman said:
mmm...
no mud?
No, something more interesting and damning than that.

Edit: something that developed over the half hour they stood there.
 
  • #161
P. :biggrin:
 
  • #162
Gad said:
P. :biggrin:
P? Eh?
 
  • #163
:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #164
So, is it the right answer, Zshoe?
 
  • #165
Gad said:
So, is it the right answer, Zshoe?
I'm afraid not.

Were you trying to say "pee"? As in, the murderer peed himself? If he did, it wasn't till after he was caught.
 
  • #166
A spot of the victim's blood on him?
 
  • #167
Probably more in the lines of blood clotting...
EDIT: or perhaps all others except the murderer became tired of holding spades up in the air and dropped them while only the murderer kept the spade up in air so that he doesn't seem suspicious...but that's more 'criminal mind' than 'CSI'...
 
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  • #168
My imagination is running wild...
The murderer broke his shovel and then glued the spade and handle together...the glue melted off.
They probably didn't have luminol, did they?
 
  • #169
Or probably villagers start to cover up from the sun using their hands except for the murderer cause he doesn't want to show scars/swellings in his hands...Zshoe, where are you?

Edit: I had 3 cups of coffee and I am getting no sleep.. that's just perfect.
 
  • #170
Or perhaps they used a dog to smell him out by the smell of blood.<It does go against the storyline but that's what I would have done.>
 
  • #171
Okay, until Zshoe tells us who's right, I have another puzzle. A stingy man managed to marry a very rich woman, and his next step was to get her killed so he inherits her wealth as she has no relatives. So, he convinced his wife to go for a vacation in the mountains in some other country, which rarely has tourists at that time of the year. Anyway, he booked the round trip tickets and everything was smooth as planned. Once they got there, there were no one around. They went out for a walk and, of course, the lady fell of a cliff and died. Investigations were held and nothing proved that the husband is guilty. And he was sent to one officer for one final investigation before going back home. The officer did not ask him a single question. Instead, he looked through the case papers, and conducted one phone call. He hanged up the phone, and ordered to arrest the husband. What was the phone call about? :biggrin:
 
  • #172
Number of tickets that were booked?
 
  • #173
Is it supposed to be hard evidence?
yea, I was thinking about the number of tickets that were booked, but he booked a roundtrip - any smart murderer would book both tickets for both flights.
 
  • #174
Enigman said:
Number of tickets that were booked?

How did you Know! I thought this one would last for a while, or at least until Zshoe shows up.
 
  • #175
so he's a dumb murderer
 
  • #176
lendav_rott said:
Is it supposed to be hard evidence?
yea, I was thinking about the number of tickets that were booked, but he booked a roundtrip - any smart murderer would book both tickets for both flights.

Yeah, but this one was stingy. :p Maybe I shouldn't have said a round trip, assuming this is inevitable.
 
  • #177
stingy being synonymous to cheapskate?
Why do we have to speak #$$@% English, no fair, it's your first language :(
 
  • #178
Yes.
 
  • #179
zoobyshoe said:
This is the famous Chinese murder mystery that has been claimed to be the first instance of forensic science in recorded history:

In a rural village a farmer is found dead. The local law officer determines he was killed by a savage blow from a shovel.

He orders all the village farmers to assemble in the town square with their shovels, and they are required to stand at attention holding their shovels with the spade end up in the air.

He paces back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour, studying the shovels. None of them shows any sign of blood or tissue. Then, he stops in front of one man, and orders him arrested for the murder.

What did he see that tipped him off?

Worms?
 
  • #180
zoobyshoe said:
No, something more interesting and damning than that.

Edit: something that developed over the half hour they stood there.

Oder because the criminal was nervous
 
  • #181
zoobyshoe said:
This is the famous Chinese murder mystery that has been claimed to be the first instance of forensic science in recorded history:

In a rural village a farmer is found dead. The local law officer determines he was killed by a savage blow from a shovel.

He orders all the village farmers to assemble in the town square with their shovels, and they are required to stand at attention holding their shovels with the spade end up in the air.

He paces back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour, studying the shovels. None of them shows any sign of blood or tissue. Then, he stops in front of one man, and orders him arrested for the murder.

What did he see that tipped him off?
The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.
 
  • #182
Borg said:
The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.

I don't think so, he said it was something that developed over the half hour or maybe he's misleading us...
 
  • #183
lendav_rott said:
stingy being synonymous to cheapskate?
Why do we have to speak #$$@% English, no fair, it's your first language :(

That would be my third language.
 
  • #184
Borg said:
The guilty farmer had the only clean shovel.

Already tried it in #158
 
  • #185
Enigman said:
That would be my third language.

Arabic is your second? :biggrin: :-p :-p


I would say a crow landed on the farmers head, Zshoe...
 
  • #186
Gad said:
Arabic is your second? :biggrin: :-p :-p

Ah, if only I were so lucky milady but my second language is Jabberwock...Japanese* would be my fourth if only to learn to write haiku. But kanji is a terrible thing to learn...

*There's also the bonus that I would be able to read the manga Raws which are always released before the translations...
 
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  • #187
No one has yet solved the Chinese murder. One person, however, has stumbled into the right ballpark.

Speaking of which, if you're out there in the outfield, a batter might hit this kind of ball. If you catch it, he'll be out, and the Chinese murder will be solved.
 
  • #188
The sample space for the ball park:

ABD EL HAMEED said:
-Odour because the criminal was nervous
-Worms?
Gad said:
-A spot of the victim's blood on him?
-I would say a crow landed on the farmers head, Zshoe...
Enigman said:
-Probably more in the lines of blood clotting...
-EDIT: or perhaps all others except the murderer became tired of holding spades up in the air and dropped them while only the murderer kept the spade up in air so that he doesn't seem suspicious
-The murderer broke his shovel and then glued the spade and handle together...the glue melted off.
-They probably didn't have luminol, did they?
-Or perhaps they used a dog to smell him out by the smell of blood.<It does go against the storyline but that's what I would have done.>
 
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  • #189
Enigman said:
I don't play ball and the only relevant thing from all the mangas I have read seems to be the huge glove the guy who plays instead of wicket keeper plays...
Not cricket.

That was a clue.
 
  • #190
Okay neglecting the puzzle entirely and focussing on what I read up on wiki about baseball and your hints:
Why flies?
 
  • #191
Enigman said:
Okay neglecting the puzzle entirely and focussing on what I read up on wiki about baseball and your hints:
Why flies?
Specifically: blow flies.
 
  • #192
On the spade? ...Wow, what a way to get caught...foiled by flies...
 
  • #193
Sherlock Holmes' sidekick, Dr. Watson, was a medical doctor. When he set up practice he took over the office and clients of a doctor who was retiring from a life-long practice there. This office was on the second floor of a wooden building. There happened to be another Doctor in the same building, but access to his office was by a different set of stairs. By coincidence, the doctor currently there also took over the office and clients from a previous doctor who retired from life-long practice there, about the same time as Watson's predecessor.

The first times Holmes visited Watson's office he instantly congratulated him on having taken over for the far more successful of the two previous doctors. He was right, but Watson was baffled by how he could have known that was the case.

How could Holmes know, with a mere superficial look at the exterior of the two different offices, that Watson's predecessor had been the more popular and sought after doctor?

Enigman said:
Offhand I would say the extent of wearing out of benches in waiting room could serve as a pointer, especially towards the edges -If its too crowded. Recent renovations, better taste in decoration etc. would be other considerations. The face of the receptionist may be a clue too...

A real life scenario ... very similar:

Then, there was the furniture. In the waiting room of the practice the two doctors ran, the chairs badly needed reupholstering. What was unusual was that the chairs were worn down on the front edges of the seats and armrests instead of on the back areas, which would have been more typical.

It was the chairs, or more accurately, the person hired to re-upholster the chairs, that gave Dr. Meyer Friedman the first clue that something might be wrong with his cardiology patients (besides their heart problems). It led to Friedman's theory that Type-A personalities (chronically angry and impatient) have a higher risk of heart problems than average people.
 
  • #194
Enigman said:
On the spade? ...Wow, what a way to get caught...foiled by flies...
No doubt the killer wiped the spade, but the police official was apparently experience enough to know blowflies would be attracted to the trace blood. When you see flies landing on one spade, but no others, there has to be a good reason for that.

Strictly speaking, your bloodhounds would also have worked, but I'm not sure the Chinese had developed blood hounds.
 
  • #195
I didn't know there was a Sherlock Holmes or whatever the local equivalent might be, in China xD
 
  • #196
Actually Sherlock Holmes did go to China after Richenbach falls. More specifically Tibet, where he met the Dalai Lama
under the name of Sigerson.
 
  • #197
A duke was hunting in the forest with his men-at-arms and servants when he came across a tree. Upon it, archery targets were painted and smack in the middle of each was an arrow. "Who is this incredibly fine archer?" cried the duke. "I must find him!"

After continuing through the forest for a few miles he came across a small boy carrying a bow and arrow. Eventually the boy admitted that it was he who shot the arrows plumb in the center of all the targets. "You didn't just walk up to the targets and hammer the arrows into the middle, did you?" asked the duke worriedly. "No my lord. I shot them from a hundred paces. I swear it by all that I hold
holy." "That is truly astonishing," said the duke. "I hereby admit you into my service."

The boy thanked him profusely. "But I must ask one favor in return," the duke continued. "You must tell me how you came to be such an outstanding shot."

How'd he get to be such a good shot?
(Got this off from the web...quite silly really)
 
  • #198
Enigman said:
"You must tell me how you came to be such an outstanding shot."

How'd he get to be such a good shot?
(Got this off from the web...quite silly really)
The answer is probably ironic. His expertise was gained in poaching the game on the Duke's land, I'll bet.
 
  • #199
lendav_rott said:
Why do we have to speak #$$@% English, no fair, it's your first language :(

Just saw that. Really? Thanks, I suppose. :biggrin:
 
  • #200
zoobyshoe said:
The answer is probably ironic. His expertise was gained in poaching the game on the Duke's land, I'll bet.

He's not a good shot -the story is quite misleading on that. Don't let it fool you.
 

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