RoboBob3000
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Here's a thought.



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Nuntar
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The knight secretly drinks from one of the lower-numbered wells before taking the drink from the dragon, so it ends up neutralising him. Then, since they're on an island, he gives the dragon water from the sea so that when the dragon afterwards drinks from well 10 intending to cure himself, he ends up killing himself instead. (Question: assuming that, since dragons are sapient, they have the same legal rights as humans, could the knight be charged with murder, or was it suicide? )

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stigant
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You are both correct, but Robobob was quicker on the draw.

>> they have the same legal rights as humans, could the knight be charged with murder, or was it suicide?

As the knight is now the only inhabitant of the island, by whom would he be charged?

And I suppose he could argue self defense... afterall, the dragon was trying to kill him too.

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Progress Quest Progress

Nuntar
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I was just making a humorous reference to another well-known puzzle. (In case you're not familiar with it, I'll put it in secret tags


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lopsidation
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"Happiness is like a cat. If you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

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[Last edited by lopsidation at 12-05-2008 09:08 PM : Secreted]

Nuntar
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To be honest, I'm not sure I know what my answer would be -- and I'm certain that no answer has a sole claim to being callef correct. But I don't want to derail the thread any further. Robobob's turn.

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RoboBob3000
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Anybody can take it if they want it.

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Nuntar
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What do the following sets of letters have in common?

(1) C I N O T
(2) A E P R T
(3) E H I N T
(4) C E N R S X
(5) A D E I L P R

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NiroZ
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They're... Letters?

Nuntar
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They certainly are, but I'm looking for something much more specific. Something that you'll know is the correct solution as soon as you see it. Something that, if you chose five, six or seven letters at random, the chances would be minuscule that they would have this property.

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lopsidation
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Four of them have pretty common letters, but C E N R S X is killing me. You can't make any words out of that at all!

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"Happiness is like a cat. If you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

Nuntar
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True, that's the hardest of the five to solve.

And yes, thinking about words you can make with each set of letters is on the right track.

If it helps, another six-letter set I could have used is A E I N S T. As it's over a week since I posted the puzzle, let me know if you want more hints, or you can ask direct questions.

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lopsidation
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I'm completely stuck. I guess I'll buy a hint.
Is this assumption right:


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"Happiness is like a cat. If you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

Garlonuss
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Does the order of the letters make a difference, or did you just happen to place them in alphabetical order? I'm still not seeing a real pattern, yet, but that is one thing I noticed.

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Haikus are easy.
Sometimes they don't make much sense.
Refrigerator.

Nuntar
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Lopsidation: I'm afraid that's heading off the track. You must use only the letters that are given to you.

Garlonuss: I deliberately said "set" rather than "sequence" to emphasise that they are not in any order, i.e. T O N I C is exactly the same set of letters as C I N O T. I chose alphabetical order to present the sets merely because it gives you no information about whether another rearrangement might make it easier to see the answer to the puzzle.

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Garlonuss
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Nuntar wrote:
I deliberately said "set" rather than "sequence" to emphasise that they are not in any order, i.e. T O N I C is exactly the same set of letters as C I N O T. I chose alphabetical order to present the sets merely because it gives you no information about whether another rearrangement might make it easier to see the answer to the puzzle.

I thought as much but I had to confirm.

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Haikus are easy.
Sometimes they don't make much sense.
Refrigerator.

lopsidation
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Can you use letters twice? Do you have to use all the letters?

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"Happiness is like a cat. If you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

Nuntar
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Part of the puzzle is to figure these things out.

I will give you one more hint though -- I'll just eliminate another red herring that's cropped up. I've already said the answer is to do with words that can be formed from the letters. Well, I'll add that the meaning of the words is totally irrelevant. So long as the words are normal English words that can be found in a dictionary, that's all that matters.

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TripleM
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I think the problem is that there are far too many things you could do to make words out of these

For example, (although you already ruled this out before), each set of letters can form a word if you change one letter to something else. I was assuming it would be obvious in the fact that all words are connected, but now this is not true.

I could think of lots of other ways of forming words, and it will just be plain luck that I eventually stumble onto the 'obvious' one

I think you need more hints.

lopsidation
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Does this set work:
A E S T Q
?

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"Happiness is like a cat. If you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."

Nuntar
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No, it doesn't. The set E S T does work though. In fact, if you allow non-standard spellings (as you might find under "also" or "alternatively" in a larger dictionary), E S T even works for a variant of this puzzle that's one step up, if you like.

I can't think of any set that works for this puzzle that contains the letter Q. Unless the names of characters from Moby-Dick count as words. (Yes, that is a hint.)

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50th Skywatcher

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[Last edited by Nuntar at 12-17-2008 01:12 AM]

RoboBob3000
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Too frustrating. This puzzle is causing a constriction in my chest.

ENOPRSU?

Edit: EINST is pretty good too.

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[Last edited by RoboBob3000 at 12-17-2008 01:42 AM]

Nuntar
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That works! Maybe you've got it?

Edit: Both of those work, so I really think you have got it.

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[Last edited by Nuntar at 12-17-2008 01:50 AM]

RoboBob3000
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I know the rule - I'm still puzzling over 2, 3, 4 and 5. Anybody have any recommendation for anagram solvers that accept blanks? Preferably more than two blanks.

A quick search of Moby Dick is what set me over the edge.

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Nuntar
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OK, your turn, even if you haven't solved all the sets mentioned so far. Anyone who likes is free to continue attempting to solve those, and now that the rule has been found, I'm happy to spill the beans by PM if anyone requests.

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Rabscuttle
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What would be the Moby Dick set of letters?

Nuntar
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That really does give it away, so I'll put it in a secret tag:


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TripleM
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Well, I got it, but even when knowing it it doesn't seem that obvious to me

Rabscuttle
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ah, got it. it took me nearly twenty searches!

TripleM
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By the way, the following works with a Q:

E I M N Q U