Solve Enjoyable Enigmas with Mr.E's Challenge

  • Thread starter Thread starter Enigman
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
Sign up Log in
1,043 replies · 212K views
Oops I didn't realize it's totally filled with liquid, I was thinking just partially filled.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The water inside the bottle is supercooled. It will crystallize the moment you open the cap. You then have to wait for a long time in order to pour water out of it (till it melts).
 
consciousness said:
The water inside the bottle is supercooled. It will crystallize the moment you open the cap. You then have to wait for a long time in order to pour water out of it (till it melts).

Actually I shake it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lISK1YFcZBM
 
Gad said:
So fruit is involved! :biggrin:

Let me see, hmm, I would say pomegranate. :-p

Here you go Gad, made some ice pops for you with the ice:
http://timescity.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Easy-Pomegranate-Ice-Pops-21-300x199.jpg
 
Thanks a bunch! :-p They look yummy. *plans on getting some soon*:!)
 
There is a minor flaw. This would only work if the other guy knows that the water is
Supercooled.

Next one-

A man leads a mundane corporate life on the 100th floor of a building. Perhaps disgusted with himself, he jumps through a window on the wall with great speed. There is nothing to cushion his fall down like wires etc. He is wearing only his formal attire when he jumps. He escapes mostly unhurt. How?
 
Nothing says it's an exterior window - he jumps through the window and lands in the conference room, utterly embarrased
 
Office_Shredder said:
Nothing says it's an exterior window - he jumps through the window and lands in the conference room, utterly embarrased

Correct!
 
A new homeowner walks into the hardware store* to buy some items for her new home. After deciding on a style she likes, she examines the pricing:
1 costs $4
16 costs $8
128 costs $12​
What type of items is she buying for her home?


*A home improvement warehouse would also qualify, but it isn't necessary. Pretty much any small or large, residential** oriented hardware store should carry such items.***

**As opposed to "industrial."

***This might be somewhat culturally biased. But I don't know of any exceptions to the statement, off hand. [Edit: Ever since learning this riddle many years ago, every time I enter a new hardware store that I haven't been to before, I wander around looking for such items, just to check that they carry them; sure enough, every hardware store that I have checked carries them.]
 
Last edited:
collinsmark said:
A new homeowner walks into the hardware store* to buy some items for her new home. After deciding on a style she likes, she examines the pricing:
1 costs $4
16 costs $8
128 costs $12​
What type of items is she buying for her home?
I'm not sure about the wording, "type of item". If we consider all nails to be the same "type" of item, one foot-long spike might cost $4 while 128 smaller nails might cost $12.
 
zoobyshoe said:
I'm not sure about the wording, "type of item". If we consider all nails to be the same "type" of item, one foot-long spike might cost $4 while 128 smaller nails might cost $12.
Although the items she is buying might not be truly identical, they are all of the same style, and all approximately the same size as each other (roughly speaking, anyway). [Edit: They at least all have the same height. The width might vary from one to the next.]

So, nails. Let's check:
http://www.homedepot.com/b/webapp/catalog/servlet/Navigation?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&searchRedirect=nails&redAB=A&N=5yc1vZc2dx
Sorry Zooby, but no. I'm going to have to go with "no" on nails and/or spikes.

Hint: If you browse around Home Depot's website, you can find the correct type of items (rounded to the nearest dollar anyway [as of today]). http://www.homedepot.com
 
Last edited:
Speculation as to what is happening with no attempt at generating a final solution
1,16 and 128 do not refer to the number of items being bought, but are describing an item in some other way. Perhaps the strength of some weight bearing object
 
Office_Shredder said:
Speculation as to what is happening with no attempt at generating a final solution
1,16 and 128 do not refer to the number of items being bought, but are describing an item in some other way. Perhaps the strength of some weight bearing object

Yes and no. It is not required to know any subtle or hidden properties about this type of item*. Pretty much everything one needs to know is worded quite literally (and correctly [including verb conjugations]) in the original riddle.

*(any more than a typical homeowner would know).
 
collinsmark said:
Although the items she is buying might not be truly identical, they are all of the same style, and all approximately the same size as each other (roughly speaking, anyway). [Edit: They at least all have the same height. The width might vary from one to the next.]

So, nails. Let's check:
http://www.homedepot.com/b/webapp/catalog/servlet/Navigation?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&searchRedirect=nails&redAB=A&N=5yc1vZc2dx
Sorry Zooby, but no. I'm going to have to go with "no" on nails and/or spikes.

Hint: If you browse around Home Depot's website, you can find the correct type of items (rounded to the nearest dollar anyway [as of today]). http://www.homedepot.com
So, there is no important difference between the units you pay $4 a piece for and the ones you pay $12/128 for, correct? The only interesting thing here is that the more you buy the more dramatically the price drops per unit.
 
Er...batteries?
1V 16V 128V
(don't think its the answer, but that's only thing I can come up with as pen drives won't be sold in hardware stores and no one would buy 1 watt bulbs*...)
EDIT-*unless its LED
 
I'm thinking the fact that all the 1's line up might not just be formatting but a clue to something... it's not 16 as in sixteen, it's 16 as in one-six. 128 as in one-two-eight.

Observation from the above post:
Actually from the hint above I realize it's clear now that it should say "16 cost $8" instead of costs, so for the verb conjugation to be correct 16 is still referring to a single item, not multiple items.
 
Last edited:
zoobyshoe said:
So, there is no important difference between the units you pay $4 a piece for and the ones you pay $12/128 for, correct?
That's not quite the right way to interpret the wording.
 
Office_Shredder said:
Observation from above post:
Actually from the hint above I realize it's clear now that it should say "16 cost $8" instead of costs, so for the verb conjugation to be correct 16 is still referring to a single item, not multiple items.
You are correct; that's not the final answer, but your deduction is valid.
 
Enigman said:
Er...batteries?
1V 16V 128V
(don't think its the answer, but that's only thing I can come up with as pen drives won't be sold in hardware stores and no one would buy 1 watt bulbs*...)
EDIT-*unless its LED
I'm going to have to go with "no" on batteries.
 
128 volt batteries would be pretty intense... anything past about 40 volts is considered to be high voltage and typically requires extra safety standards because if you place it against your skin it can pass sufficient current through your heart to stop it (or something like that)
 
128V batteries are used in some laptops...but you wouldn't find them in hardware stores(at least not those which the enigma's talking about.) and I doubt that there are 1V batteries similar to laptop batteries...

If collinsmark hadn't mention home improvement shops USB flash drives would have worked as they would be found in computer hardware shops...don't know if they would fit the prices mentioned though.
 
Pretty sure I got it. Don't read this if you don't want to spoil it.
They are the digits of the home addresses stuck on walls/front door, usually made of metal. Example- 16 refers to the digits 1 and 6 (equally priced).

BTW there is another answer to the bored corporate man Enigma!
 
The Three Stooges, Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp, decide to have a custard pie party. Each is to bring however many custard pies they can manage to make on short notice. Shemp says he has no time at all to make pies, but will reimburse the others for his share if they make extra.

Moe arrives with a certain number of pies. Then Larry shows up, and he has brought one more pie than Moe. Curly enters, and it turns out he has brought one more pie than Larry.

Shemp is discovered sleeping under the carpet. He's been there the whole time, which is funny if you've seen the whole episode, but has no bearing on the enigma at hand. He says the pies all look tasty and they should divide them up so everyone gets the same number of pies. Then he will pay a dollar for each pie he gets. Everyone agrees there are a dozen pies, and they all agree a dollar is a fair price. Except Moe. He thinks his pies are much better than the others and should be worth more.

Passions escalate until the inevitable pie storm occurs. For some reason, a society matron enters the room and gets caught in the thick of it. She gets hit in the face with a pie, and starts throwing pies herself. If you keep track of all the pie-to-face impacts, the total is, strangely, more than a dozen. That has nothing to do with this enigma, though.

The question actually is: if the pie fight had not happened, how much would Shemp owe and to whom?
 
If Susan is 10, Arabella is 20, and Jim and Neal are both 5, but Richard is 10, how much is Jennifer by the same logic?
 
if everyone except Shemp eats only their own pies then it should be Larry- $1 and Curly- $2.
That's not a baker's dozen by any chance is it?
 
Last edited:
OH
OH
OH
OH
----
NO!

This is an addition. The letters represent numbers. One digit per letter. The same letter always represents the same number. Replace the letters with numbers to make the addition correct.
 
zoobyshoe said:
oh
oh
oh
oh
----
no!

This is an addition. The letters represent numbers. One digit per letter. The same letter always represents the same number. Replace the letters with numbers to make the addition correct.

h=3 o=2 n=9
 
Billy had a coin purse with fifty coins, totaling exactly $1.00. Unfortunately, while counting them, he dropped one coin behind the radiator. What is the probability it was a penny?

For furriners:

$1.00

= 100 pennies
= 2 half dollars
= 4 quarters
= 10 dimes
= 20 nickels
 
Pennies:

He has a quarter, two dimes, two nickels and 45 pennies, so the probability that the coin he dropped a penny is 90%. Is there a way to solve this beyond try a bunch of coin combinations and come up with one that works?
 

Similar threads

High School Enjoyable Enigmas #2: Who Wins the Matchstick Game?

  • Enigman
  • · Replies 7 ·
  • General Math
Replies
7