Monday Puzzle #3: "Circular Reasoning"

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Jadzia, Aug 3, 2009.

  1. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    Consider it a reboot. :D Starring Karl Urban as Zion Ravescene. :bolian:
     
  2. trampledamage

    trampledamage Clone Admiral

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    I'd watch it! Any chance of casting photos ;)
     
  3. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    Ask Crusher Disciple. :lol:
     
  4. Jadzia

    Jadzia on holiday Premium Member

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    Another correct answer from Spot's Meow. :)

    edit + 30 minutes : Also Ood Sigma
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2009
  5. All Seeing Eye

    All Seeing Eye Admiral

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    I feel.......................................... retarded.
     
  6. SilentP

    SilentP Commodore Commodore

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    One idea I would suggest is to write a list with all the combinations down (i.e blue smooth square etc.) and go through the rules to start eliminating those that aren't allowed in the final 4.
     
  7. Spot's Meow

    Spot's Meow Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Don't, I am absolutely shocked that I got it right! I actually tried the puzzle for like half an hour yesterday and got nowhere. I came back to it today with a fresh mind and was able to do it in just a few minutes! I can't believe I got it.
     
  8. All Seeing Eye

    All Seeing Eye Admiral

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    That's what I tried to do and that's when I ended up finding the contradiction and then the whole attempt just collapsed. :lol:
     
  9. Jadzia

    Jadzia on holiday Premium Member

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    It doesn't look like any more guesses are coming. So here is the answer to this week's puzzle...

    I have: a furry yellow circle, a smooth green square, a smooth red circle, and a furry red circle.

    I believe the most effective method of solution here is as SilentP suggested, to write down the 27 possible objects and eliminate them in batches by seeing which objects are forbidden by each rule in turn. You end up with a few possibilities remaining. To select from these, you can apply the "all colours" rule to determine the two yellow and green shapes, and then the "circles>smooth" rule to determine the two red shapes. Also notice in the opening sentence that all four of my objects must be different :)

    Thank-you to all who took part. :)

    We look forward to your joining in next week's puzzle, which I won't be hosting. :p
     
  10. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    And thanks to Jadzia for kindly taking the reins and devising this week's logic puzzle. :)
     
  11. Laren

    Laren Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Looking forward to next week! :)


    I made a sort of coordinate system to eliminate the impossible ones. So, were the answers listed randomly or did everyone guess the green one first?
     
  12. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    No you're not. :evil:

    I think it's both. :bolian:
     
  13. Laren

    Laren Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Intriguing! :D
     
  14. tehfunz0rz

    tehfunz0rz Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    In all honesty, I usually consider myself pretty good at these sorts of puzzles, but tried yesterday for a few minutes and gave up after I got light-headed.
     
  15. Spot's Meow

    Spot's Meow Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I started with the contradiction, knowing that there were no rough shapes. Then I listed each of the three colors and figured out what shapes they had to be based on the rules. A couple of them had to be smooth based on this info, so at least 3 of the objects had to be circles. For the last shape that could have been any color there were two possibilities, and since the question stated all the objects were different there was really only one choice.

    I actually tried writing it out methodically on the first day, but as I mentioned before that got me nowhere. So after that I just tried doing it in my head and it seemed to work better for some reason.
     
  16. trampledamage

    trampledamage Clone Admiral

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    I know he doesn't pop back and chat, but it would be interesting to know Jim Gamma's method since he solved it so quickly
     
  17. Jadzia

    Jadzia on holiday Premium Member

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    The more natural way of solving the puzzle is to take one property, like triangles, and see what you can deduce about triangle objects. You will get some specific facts: "triangles will always be smooth."

    In fact, there are 5 relatively simple deductions you can make:

    triangles -- must be smooth and red
    squares -- must be smooth
    green -- must be square and smooth
    yellow -- must be circle and furry
    rough -- cannot exist

    Once you get to that stage, it is not hard to solve. :)
     
  18. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    When I was testing your puzzle last week, I ended up using the SilentP method of determining all possibilites in a table (a.k.a. the Guess Who? method), then going through each rule one by one, eliminating the impossible, thus interpreting whatever remains, however improbable, as the truth. :bolian:
     
  19. trampledamage

    trampledamage Clone Admiral

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    Insane Romulans from the future? Didn't think of that!
     
  20. Zulu Romeo

    Zulu Romeo World Famous Starship Captain Admiral

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    "Dammit, man, I'm a doctor, not a physicist!"

    ;)