I've been playing Praser 5, an old interactive fiction game (like Zork) made a few decades ago, and available here. In it, you wander from area to area solving riddles posed by mythical animals. Many of the puzzles involve lateral thinking. I've had quite a bit of difficulty with the following puzzle:
The sphinx stretches lazily and says, "Consider a Euclidean plane. Draw points O and S. Put I between them so that half the distance between O and I is the distance between O and the point one-third of the way from O to S. Say that S and I are one bloit apart. Now put D as far from O as S is from the point between I and O, so that the ratio of the distance between D and I and the distance between O and the point between D and I is twice the distance between O and the point between D and O. Mark E so that the distance between O and the point between E and the point between D and E is half the distance between O and I, and half the distance between S and E is the distance between the point between S and D and D. Now, P is placed so that the sum of the distances between P and S and between P and D, one of which is two bloits, is as long as E is far from the point three times as far from O as it is from D so that D is between that point and E. P is closer to I than it is to S, but if it weren't, H would be the point between P and D as far from where P really is as I is from where P would be. R is as far from H as O is from S and as far from D as D is from E. So what is the shape of the figure OSRHP, and what is its area in square bloits?" It smiles gently and curls up again.
So far, I have O, I, and S on a line, with O and I two bloits apart and S one bloit past I. D is two bloits above O, and E is two bloits below O.
Beyond that, I suspect that P is in the lower right, H in the upper middle, and R in the lower left. I think the result is a star/pentagram. However, to check your answer in game, you must simultaneously enter the shape and area.
Is my solution (a star) correct? And he can I find the area?
(Note: to try speaking to the Sphinx in-game, type arlumere).