Oneiromancer
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This is pretty trivial stuff, I agree...it uses basic algebra and dimensional analysis, which should be expected from a typical high school education, which I believe I said was the requirement for math-based puzzles.

Here's a full-blown solution, just because I can.

The position of the first train at some time t is x1 = 60t. The position of the second train at the same time t is x2 = 250 - 40t. 250 has units of miles, 40 and 60 have unites of miles/hour, so t is in hours. The two trains collide when x1 = x2. Solve 60t = 250 - 40t to get the time of collision of 2.5 hours.

The problem asks the total distance the bird has flown. Since it never slows down, and only changes direction, all at constant speed, the only thing that matters is how long it flies. Since we know now that it flies for 2.5 hours, we simply find the total distance as 2.5 hours x 90 miles/hour, or 225 miles.

I was waiting to post because I didn't have a puzzle immediately available...I still don't, although I'll have one soon.

Game on,

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DiMono
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It will take 2.5 hours for the trains to collide. 2.5 * 90 = 225 miles

I'll think of a puzzle in a little bit.


Edit: Curses! I really wish there was an easier way to tell there's another post in the thread, because when you're only reading the post and not looking for the page counter you don't notice there's another page until you reply. This has happened at least five times to me now.

Well, Oneiromancer got in first, so he's the one stuck with coming up with the puzzle

[Edited by DiMono on 02-18-2004 at 09:16 PM GMT]

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Schik
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DiMono wrote:
It will take 2.5 hours for the trains to collide. 2.5 * 90 = 225 miles

I'll think of a puzzle in a little bit.

That's a fine piece of math there, but I think Oneiromancer beat you.


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Oneiromancer
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Okay, here we go. I think this one's pretty cute, not necessarily high-caliber, but fun.

What's so peculiar about this sentence?

I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness.


Game on,

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RoboBob3000
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That's awesome. Each word in the sentence is one letter longer than the previous word.

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eytanz
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The fact that it's two sentences?



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Oneiromancer
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RoboBob is indeed correct. You're up!

And Eytan, that seems to be a reasonably accurate use of the semi-colon...but I won't be arguing that point with an Linguistician.

Edit: oh, never mind, I guess you're being pedantic about the puzzle saying "this sentence" instead of "the following sentence". And I have only one thing to say to that.

Bah.

Game on,

[Edited by Oneiromancer on 02-18-2004 at 10:29 PM GMT]

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

RoboBob3000
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Hmm, I shouldn't have answered. I can't think of anything. Does anybody else want to take over for me?

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Schik
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Hmm, I'll put one up.

A woman has two biological sons who were born in the same hour of the same day in the same year, but they are not twins. How can this be?

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DiMono
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One was taken from her womb and put in someone else's, then she got pregnant again. The two just happened to be born closely together. Am I close?

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zex20913
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The wait begins! 23...nearing 22.

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Scott
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Theres no mention of month in there.

RoboBob3000
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Simple. There's no way the mother could be twins with her own twin sons. That is, if we want to interpret the pronoun that way.

Also, they could be triplets.

On an unrelated note, I was born in the same hour of the same day of the same year as my brother. We are twins though.

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Schik
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RoboBob3000 wrote:
Also, they could be triplets.

That's what I was looking for. Hope you have one to post this time


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RoboBob3000
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Find an English word that, after taking the final four letters off of it, retains its same pronounciation.

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Nillo
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Queue?

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“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

RoboBob3000
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Two minutes. That's a new record.

Nillo, your turn.

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Nillo
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Ther are three mistakes in this discussion. You must find all thre.

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“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

RoboBob3000
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Ooh, how paradoxical, if that's a word.

I won't answer though. I don't have any more puzzles in me.

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Oneiromancer
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Nillo wrote:
Ther are three mistakes in this discussion. You must find all thre.

Er, okay.

1. The first word is misspelled (should be "there" ).
2. The last word is misspelled (should be "three" ).
3. The obvious answer would be "there are only two mistakes, so that is the third mistake, but wait, now there are three mistakes again so it's true again, what's that over there, oh, it's the mess from my head exploding." However, just in case that's not exactly and verbatim correct, another possibility is that the original problem isn't actually a discussion. It's more like two sentences.

Game on,

[Edited by Oneiromancer on 02-20-2004 at 08:39 AM GMT: stupid accidental smilies]

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Nillo
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That's right, the third mistake is that there are only two mistakes. You're up!

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“Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.”

Oneiromancer
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Hmm, okay, here we go. Yet another series.

What are the next three numbers in this series?

5
1
2
5
7
3
5
1
4
?
?
?

Game on,

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TripleM
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Hmm. I'm sure I nearly have it but not quite.. I'll have a guess anyway.

DiMono
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I think it's this:


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Oneiromancer
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Nope, you're both wrong, and as an additional hint, the numbers you both assumed were definitely first were also wrong.

Game on,

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bibelot
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Oneiromancer
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Very nice, bibelot, that's indeed the solution. You're up!

Game on,

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DiMono
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Where does bibelot get all these answers from? I get the feeling that if I put up the most random question, he'd have the answer in less than an hour.

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Oneiromancer
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Well, if you're implying that he cheated, I definitely don't think so, as I've not seen this puzzle elsewhere. There were several clues, if you happen to see them...there was no number higher than 7, there were 12 numbers total, etc. (It would have been easier if this year wasn't a leap year, perhaps, since the second and third numbers would have been the same.) I thought it might go longer too, but at least on this puzzle, I believe that the answer was genuinely figured out.

If you're not implying that, then I apologize for assuming.

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

bibelot
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Yeah, I should say that I do a lot of puzzles so I'm pretty good at finding their ins and outs. (I really should be doing something better with my time.) I've also seen a lot of these puzzles in the past, but I don't answer if I've already seen it.

Anyway, here's a cute one.
You feel like having a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, all that you have is a three-cup and a five-cup jug, an unlimited water supply, and a pack of instant coffee. At any time, you can dump the entire contents of the coffee pack into one of the jugs (it will dissolve instantly and uniformly). The pack contains enough coffee so that if it is dumped into a single cup of water, it will make one cup of coffee at 100% strength. But you happen to like your coffee weak, really weak. Find a way that you can measure out exactly one cup of coffee at 1% strength.


[Edited by bibelot on 02-21-2004 at 12:06 AM GMT: units]