Questions tagged [real]
For puzzles that presented themselves, with real parameters and consequences, during otherwise non-puzzling activities.
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Is this duplo train track under too much tension?
My kids were making this train track of duplo the other day, and this is what they put together. They are still very young, and for them, this is something big. They were really proud that they ...
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2
answers
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A good puzzle is a double-edged sword
A rare double-edged sword is currently on loan from the British Museum to the Magna Carta exhibition.
The sword itself is described as likely made in Germany around 1250-1330 and includes the ...
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8
answers
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My friend sent me a photo of his keyboard, but there's something I can't figure out about it
Two months ago, my friend bought a new Chromebook. He told me yesterday that while he is happy with the computer overall, he's not that impressed by the quality of the keyboard. My friend is an ...
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Unsolved Mysteries: Kryptos
This is the second in a series of Unsolved Mysteries posts. These posts explore current unsolved real-world puzzles. Since these have been unsolved for years, it's uncertain whether anyone on on ...
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Can you open the bathroom door? [closed]
This happened to me in a rental apartment and I had to be creative to solve it.
The geniuses who designed the bathroom managed to fit a drawer about a centimeter behind the door, and eventually what ...
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1
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Unsolved Mysteries: D'Agapeyeff cipher
The D'Agapeyeff cipher is an as-yet unbroken cipher that appears in the first edition of "Codes and Ciphers", an elementary book on cryptography published by the cryptographer Alexander D'Agapeyeff in ...
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The Beale Papers
The background to this one's given here.
NB: These may not be a genuine cryptograms (current thinking is that these are gibberish); but I though it interesting to share these in case they're genuine / ...
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Changing baby's shirt
Baby needs a change of shirt, but baby is also sucking on a bottle (see this stock photo for a visual). If the bottle leaves baby's mouth, baby will start crying. Also, baby loves holding the ...
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1
answer
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Computations of an old woman
Recently I met a Polish woman who showed me something very interesting. Apparently her mother kept notebooks which she filled with strange calculations, never telling anyone what they were for. From ...
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Unsolved Mysteries: Magic Square of Squares
This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of Unsolved Mysteries posts.
Note that this puzzle has no known solution, nor any proof that a solution is impossible. We will see how ...
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3
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Is this more than a packing puzzle?
I bought this set of wooden blocks at a garage sale today, and although it was a challenge to fit them in the box, I suspected they were more than just a packing puzzle. Can you guess what else they ...
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Should I Take the Bus or Refill My Bottle First?
This is a real-life puzzle encountered by one of my friends.
I want to arrive early to my class today. Exactly every $7$ minutes, there is a bus that arrives at the station near my dorm and will ...
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1
answer
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Goodbye grand mother <3
My grand-mother died the 17th of June 20 from cancer after spending the last three months nearly alone in her house because of the COVID Pandemic. I dedicate her this puzzle. She's Lao and today, for ...
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Does this metal puzzle have a solution (Baguenaudier)
When I was young I got this puzzle as a gift to me.
The aim is to get the long piece out. I haven't yet found a solution, and I'm not sure if there is one
Does this have a solution and if so ...
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6
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Cut a cake into 3 equal portions with only a knife
You have to determine a way to cut a circular cake into exactly three portions of equal size. The only marking on the cake is a candle in the very center.
All you have to work with is a knife that is ...
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4
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The "Loop of rope" dilemma
It's a "dilemma" that I encountered in real life problems. I believe that it's not new and is quite easy to explain, but may look puzzling at first glance.
Alice and Bob are playing with a ...
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Real life puzzle: Unknown alphabet or shorthand
User JellicleCat posted this on linguistics stackexhange a few years ago. None of us were able to come up with a satisfying answer but most seemed to agree that it was an idiosyncratic cipher or ...
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The master programmer and the mystical reversal
The master programmer sat at his desk, gazing into the distance, his eyes seeing, and yet unseeing.
The lunch had been heavy.
His reverie was interrupted by the appearance of his close colleague, ...
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This image contains a "Great Discovery"
The Puzzle:
Source material taken from here
As discussed on Numberphile, here is John Herschel's doodle, sent to his friend Charles Babbage.
John H.
John Herschel was an English polymath, ...
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14
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Separate the milk!
You have a jug of milk and a jug of water. You must empty both jugs into a nine gallon barrel.
You must be able to:
Differentiate between the milk and the water
Separate the milk from the water
You ...
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Colouring a rug
I have a rectangular rug in my living room composed of coloured patches (shown below). For convenience I have labelled each distinct colour from 1 to 6. Let's suppose that it was created by starting ...
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What is the solution to Lewis Carroll's "Froggy's Problem", and what is the "trap"?
Froggy's Problem was presented in Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic, with a note that it "contains a marvellous trap". Because Carroll never released Part 2 of Symbolic Logic, its solution is unknown.
...
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11
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Why is the pavement wet?
Saw this the other day. So I took this picture. There was another nearly identical wet patch 2 spaces away.
Why is the pavement wet?
Note: This is a straight forward physics puzzle. This is a ...
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What's wrong with this line in a baking recipe book?
A cookie-baking recipe book (this one, specifically) has the following instruction in it, which is incorrect in a single spot:
If you have a fan-assisted oven, you will need to reduce the recipe ...
user88
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2
answers
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Who is Panama Oxridge?
Panama Oxridge is the author of a children's book series about a boy called Justin Thyme. However, the name Panama Oxridge is actually a pseudonym for an unknown author. From the series website:
Once ...
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The Greenhouse Problem
While I was playing a certain popular indie farming game, I came across a dilemma. I have a greenhouse that I'd like to fill as efficiently as possible. How many plants can I fit in the greenhouse?
...
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Early 1900's Paper Puzzle - Release the Key and Live Forever
This puzzle was found in an old attic and was a religious invitation. Release the key and you could send it in to receive a Bible based book. Apparently 1000's were made but I can find no more other ...
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Ricky McCormick's Notes
On June 30 1999, Ricky McCormick was found dead in an isolated area, 15 miles away from his home. He didn't own a car, and the area was not subjected to public transport so it is a mystery how he got ...
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The falling broom handle
As the reaction to my previous physics puzzle was somewhat mixed, I'll try again. I found this in an online physics book.
You hold a broom as shown in the following picture:
The head of the broom is ...
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My teacher gave me a puzzle one day
I told my teacher that I liked riddles and puzzles. As a matter of fact, I introduced him to the Puzzling Stack Exchange! Then, he got a sheet of paper, asked for a pen, and when he found one (I didn'...
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Two many rainbows?
Wish I’d had a camera at the time
but a cartoon will have to suffice,
representing two actual incomplete rainbows
that stop in midair where they meet,
lit only by a setting sun.
This seemed so ...
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3
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Explain this bad parking job
One bright Monday morning, I drove to work and parked my car in Lot A. That morning, others also parked in Lot A, and we all found each other’s parking jobs to be satisfactory.
That afternoon, a co-...
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Reversical Engineerimicating
Ok, like, OMG!, this is totally true.
I was looking through an old Notepad++ file I had and saw the following statements, verbatim, as I found them:
...
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Is there a secret message in the first decimals of PI?
Is there a secret message encoded in the first decimals of $\pi$?
Source: Vi Hart
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Pulling Apart a Jigsaw Puzzle
Assume you have a jigsaw puzzle that is also a tessellation. This means every piece has an identical shape and can be assembled into a 2D pattern that fills the plane with no gaps. Such a jigsaw ...
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Optimal Money-Saving on the NYC Metro
You are on vacation in New York City. You didn't bring your car, and it's currently around $-50^\circ C$, so it's probably a good idea to take the NYC metro subway to move around.
You need a metro ...
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Explain this holiday calendar oddity
Happy Boxing Day! Yesterday was Christmas Day, and in a few days, it will be New Year's Day. Each holiday season, those two holidays are always on the same day of the week (in this case, Friday). But ...
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3
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Reconstructing World Cup results
In the group stage of the World Cup, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team plays three matches, one against each other ...
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1
answer
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Who can solve this cipher?
The following cipher is moderately difficult but not impossible. It is (IMO) probably easily solvable for an experienced professional code breaker.
...
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21
answers
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The Empty Elevator [closed]
This is a lateral thinking puzzle based on my real life:
Earlier this evening I got into an empty elevator, pressed a button for a floor, and walked out before the door closed.
I wasn't being ...
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4
answers
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This number sequence has entered my life recently
Just recently, I've noticed this sequence of numbers has become a pretty big part of my life. It goes like this:
1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12
So here's the mystery:
What is this sequence?
Where do I keep seeing ...
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11
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1
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Binary coded message on a house in Catalonia
I found this inscription on a wall of a house in town of Martorell, Catalonia, Spain. It looks rather modern and I think its creator ciphered some word / message / joke in it. I tried to lookup ASCII ...
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1
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Cryptic images have been posted around University of Central Florida campus. Can you help crack the cipher?
Recently there have been sightings of images duct-taped to various poles and such, reminiscent of a large house with windows within the UCF campus. On closer inspection, there is obviously a cryptic ...
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A strange construction of locks
This gate is locked with 6 locks. What is the purpose of this construction?
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3
answers
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Ridge Trail moisture mystery
(click to visit this picture via Google Street View)
The weather was less pleasant than pictured above
but the afternoon began nicely enough that I wasn’t about to
waste an hour already ...
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10
votes
4
answers
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Not-Quite-Sufficiently-Advanced-Technology Square
This was given as an assignment to a group of sixth graders, who were told they could use calculators. Beyond that, no real assistance was provided. They were not working on it as a group, so ...
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3
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Optimal refueling strategy
On the way home from work, I want to refuel my car. There are 5 petrol stations along the way that all have a different price for petrol. I know that the prices will be in the range [A, B], chosen ...
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10
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1
answer
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The tomb with the answer to life
Diophantus was a famous ancient Greek mathematician. This was carved on his tomb:
Herein lies the remains of Diophantus. God vouchsafed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when ...
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2
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Euclid's orchard
Once upon a time Isaac was lounging under a tree in Euclid's apple orchard,
when something struck his foresight.
“In the future,” he imagined,
“the layout of these trees could help
...
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