We haven't been playing our usual games since the new fforum started working, so it's time to change all that. Thanks to Booknut for the idea...

Basically post any logic puzzles in this here thread...

And to start....

Two electricians walk into a pub and order a beer. The first electrician is the other one's father, yet the second electrician is not his son. How come?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

2nd electrician is his daughter?

another Brierley on the fforum? Any relation to Jon/Adam?

notice how quickly I got the thread off-topic? :-)

My great-grandad was called Sam ... but a) he wasn't a Brierley, and b) he was killed at Passchendaele, so it isn't him.

Jon (no relation)



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

For a moment there I thought that was the start of a different question. And yes, twas a daughter. I never said it was a very hard one - just good for sorting out a bit of mysogynistic thinking. Anyone got a better question?

Hello Whittam btw, nice pic too.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

It's just Dave trying to get things off topic so we don't realise he's crap at puzzles.

You have nine seeming indentical balls. However, one is lighter. What is the fewest number of weighings using a balance to workout which one it is ?

I'm off home soon (well to see Toyah in Calamity Jane of all things !) so answer tomorrow.

P.S. It's not the thing in the Telegraph a few weeks ago as I can't remember that one...

One if you're really lucky. ;-)

Otherwise the best I can come up with is 2.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

OK...

A man is pushing his car and he stops outside a hotel. Immediately he knows that he is bankrupt. How?

No fair if you watch 'Brainteasers' on this one...



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

on the electrician one, it didn't necessarily have to be his daughter...he could have been a Priest...

and on the second one, you don't need to weigh them, just bounce them...generally, the lighter one wouldn't bounce as high as the others....


always trying to think "outside the box" but then again, I've never claimed to be the logical sort! So perhaps what I've said is total rubbish! LOL

Well, it would depend what the balls were made of. Some things really don't bounce much, regardless.

I always liked the story about the Physics student who was asked on the final exam how to figure out the height of a tall building using a barometer. As I recall, he suggested:

Knocking on the door of the landlord and telling him "I will give you this fine barometer if you will tell me how high this building is."
or
Tying a rope to the barometer and lowering it from the roof until the barometer touched the ground, then measuring the rope.


When told the first two answers didn't employ anything he had learned in class (and thus wouldn't be awarded credit) he then suggested dropping the barometer from the roof of the building, timing how long it took to fall, and then calculating the height of the building.

Who the hell is Toyah? It's a mystery.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I agree with the grand total of two weighings, using a method that is guaranteed to identify the light ball in two weighings, at the expense of not being able to have a flukey guess and get it in one.

I can also get it in no weighings, without even touching the balls.

1: Duck tape up the windows and doors.
2: Cut a hole in the ceiling.
3: Fill the room with sea water
4: Go fishing
5: Dolphins can distinguish between two tennis ball sized objects at the other end of a 30m pool. Train a dolphin to select and retrieve the odd object out, using copious rewards of fish from stage 4.
6: Insert dolphin into flooded room
7: Look smug - and don't think of the time wasted when you could have weighed the balls twice in far less time.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Duck tape? There's a tape just for ducks? That's quackers.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Of course - have you ever tried peeling off normal tape with a bill? It just won't happen.

And 'Duck Tape' really does exist - and I can prove it! There's even a club...

[www.wikipedia.org]

[www.duckproducts.com]

And for more uses, try [www.octanecreative.com]

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EDIT --> Intriguingly, given the multitude of uses, Duck Products post the following warning:

Please note that HCA has NOT tested the product's effectiveness for use in biohazardous situations.

I wonder if the Department of Homeland Security know this?



Post Edited (03-04-03 12:18)

PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Man only needs two things for all DIY activities. Duck tape and WD40.

If it moves and it shouldn't ... Duck tape.
If it doesn't move and it should ... WD40.

Job done.

hmm. I know the answer to the bankrupt one, but how to post without spoiling it for those that don't?

back in the old html days, I could have put it in the same colour font as the background, so you would have to select the answer to see it highlighted..

I'm guessing it's not as simple as there being a big sign saying 'Mr Smith you are bankrupt' ??

go on, tell us the bankrupt thing, just write spoiler in the beginning

Imagine you're in central london somewhere, ooh, I dunno, say Mayfair? Or Park Lane.

Does that help?