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Hacker Project Café => Whatever => Topic started by: Raistlin on September 06, 2008, 04:24:44 PM



Title: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Raistlin on September 06, 2008, 04:24:44 PM
I'm looking for a good brainteaser to run a contest on the forums. Ideally, it'd be short and elegant, but my major criteria is that the answer CAN NOT be found by googling. It has to be a bona fide test of smarts. If you've got any good ideas, let me know, either in this thread or by PM. If I wind up using yours, prize is 100K HPD, payable over 1 day.  If you've got one I like but don't use, prize is 60K.

EDIT: Redid my math, it'd take 24 hours to get you the 100k, in a worst case scenario. Odds are it'll take closer to 12, depending on the time of day.


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Adramalech on September 06, 2008, 05:39:14 PM
i got a very good one, lost the site though.. but searching it.

you have 5 balls, which you should be distributed over an increasing amount of cups.
you begin with 1 cup, so 5 balls go in one cup. the amount of possiblities should be remembered,
now you have 2 cups, you can divide the balls over the cups in 6 ways, (5 in 1 cup 0 in the other, 4 in 1 cup 1 in the other, 3 in 1 cup 2 in the other, etc.) so 6 possibilities, plus the possibilities from the previous times, 6+1=7

now i need to know all the possibilities, up to 500 cups.
so:
5 balls 1 cup = 1
5 balls 2 cups = 6 + 1 = 7
5 balls 3 cups = 21 + 6 + 1 = 28



if you don't understand, say it, and I'll explain it better.


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Raistlin on September 06, 2008, 10:59:29 PM
A quick google trawl shows those numbers as following down a row in Pascal's Triangle. 506,500 should have the answer, meaning the 500th cell of the 506th row down.  If I'm wrong, of course, let me know, cause this is the only entry so far. A little less elegant than what I was hoping for, but cool nonetheless.  Call it 25k? Message me in-game for collection.


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Andreas on September 07, 2008, 02:27:59 AM
Most (not to say all) mathematical problems can be found in wikipedia. And knowledge can also be found on google. I believe something strongly related to this game or perhaps this forum would be the best contest since its about to be smart in one way and everyone on the forums would have a chanse. (Maybe not a big chanse but a chanse.)


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Adramalech on September 07, 2008, 08:01:58 AM
i didn't try to gogle y question, i solved it myself, (i'm a not-fun-spoiler, and indeed, it is the triangle which i also came up with)
but i made a nice piece of code (not good looking) to solve it,


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: KernelPanic on September 07, 2008, 10:20:55 AM
A quick google trawl shows those numbers as following down a row in Pascal's Triangle. 506,500 should have the answer, meaning the 500th cell of the 506th row down.  If I'm wrong, of course, let me know, cause this is the only entry so far. A little less elegant than what I was hoping for, but cool nonetheless.  Call it 25k? Message me in-game for collection.
Hey i entered too XP
I wasn't kidding about the riddle...
"What is the correct answer to Abort, Retry, Fail?"


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: Adramalech on September 07, 2008, 12:40:12 PM
Windows?


Title: Re: Searching for puzzles.
Post by: KernelPanic on September 07, 2008, 03:52:11 PM
Is that your final answer?
[Abort] [Retry] [Fail]