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It's almost Halloween at Farthingbottom School and Professor Charles Flavanna is getting festive.

"Right children, put down your copies of The Origins of Fort Monmouth - it's time to carve some pumpkins! Have a look at my creation and follow suit. You have 30 minutes and no talking." enter image description here

After a sterling effort by the class, the following pumpkins were produced:

enter image description here

"Hold on a minute", said the Professor, "two of you have not been paying attention."

Question: Which children have made a mistake and what should their pumpkins have looked like?

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    $\begingroup$ Two possibilities: Henry & Richard have concave polygon eyes. Paul & Susan have more teeth than eye/nose holes. $\endgroup$
    – Alconja
    Oct 29, 2015 at 0:01
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    $\begingroup$ The question is not completely clear: Do the two kids have made the same mistake, or each an individual one? i.e do we search for a deviating pair or for two deviating singles? $\endgroup$
    – BmyGuest
    Oct 29, 2015 at 7:35
  • $\begingroup$ @bmyguest All the pumpkins have been carved using the same rule as the professor's except for the two in error. They have been carved independently, though, so the question could have been presented with one pumpkin fewer and only one mistake, or I could have added extra valid and/or invalid ones. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    Oct 29, 2015 at 8:09
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    $\begingroup$ I would say this question is too broad. As shown by Alconja you can already come up with two different rules that could fit. $\endgroup$
    – Ivo
    Oct 29, 2015 at 8:23
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    $\begingroup$ @IvoBeckers Not if you follow the clues! $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    Oct 29, 2015 at 8:27

1 Answer 1

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The two kids are

Richard and Susan

because

reading from left to right, the teeth should spell your first initial using Morse code
Where upper tooth is . and lower tooth is -.

Professor Charles' example is

lower/upper/lower/upper = -.-. which is a Morse C
Richard should have done upper/lower/upper =.-. = R
Susan should have done three upper teeth - ... = S

Edit (according to comment)

The usage of

Morse code is actually part of the lesson, not just a festive break. The children were learning about Fort Monmouth, where morse code radios were developed.

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you suggest why the children would have thought that this was related to Morse Code? $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    Oct 29, 2015 at 8:38
  • $\begingroup$ The Origins of Fort Monmouth is a more specific link to Morse code. $\endgroup$
    – Gordon K
    Oct 29, 2015 at 9:07
  • $\begingroup$ OK :-) I'm not really that familiar with that part of history $\endgroup$
    – JNF
    Oct 29, 2015 at 9:14
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    $\begingroup$ Oh no, I don't want to upvote this because JNF's point total is perfect for Halloween! $\endgroup$
    – VictorHenry
    Oct 29, 2015 at 22:29
  • $\begingroup$ @Victor You can up vote now, momentum lost ;-) $\endgroup$
    – JNF
    Oct 30, 2015 at 5:31

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