Best...Puzzle...Ever....

[Savage Wombat]

I've been wanting to use a riddle like this:

The angry dragon looms above you and poses this riddle:

"What has four heads, eight legs, eight eyes, and is incredibly stupid, ugly, and cowardly?"

... or some such.

The correct answer is "The four of us" in some form - but what group of PCs would be willing to say so?

 

[MerakSpielman]

Re: Smurfs
This seems too easy, so I'm sure I'm missing something.

Spoiler

The tallest smurf knows what color his hat is, after counting the hats he can see. So he calls out his color. The 2nd tallest smurf, with that information, can determine which hat color he has, and calls it out. Now the 3rd smurf knows their hat color, and calls it out. And so on and so on. The shorter smurfs have to keep track of the numbers of hats that are remaining in their heads, but as long as nobody messes up, they should all be able to live.

Or perhaps the answer is: You can't line them up in order of height. They're all three apples high!

edit: You also neglected to prohibit smurfs from simply taking off their own hat and looking at it.

 

[FireLance]

Re: Smurfs
This seems too easy, so I'm sure I'm missing something.

Spoiler

The tallest smurf knows what color his hat is, after counting the hats he can see. So he calls out his color. The 2nd tallest smurf, with that information, can determine which hat color he has, and calls it out. Now the 3rd smurf knows their hat color, and calls it out. And so on and so on. The shorter smurfs have to keep track of the numbers of hats that are remaining in their heads, but as long as nobody messes up, they should all be able to live.

Or perhaps the answer is: You can't line them up in order of height. They're all three apples high!

edit: You also neglected to prohibit smurfs from simply taking off their own hat and looking at it.

What you're missing is that there are fifty smurfs and fifty hats of each color. Theoretically, you could have forty-nine red hats followed by a blue hat, so the tallest smurf wouldn't know whether his own hat is red or blue.

My suggestion would be:

Spoiler

The 50th (tallest) smurf says the color of the hat in front of him. If he is lucky, it is the same as his own hat and he lives. Otherwise, he dies. The 49th smurf now knows the color of his hat and compares it to the color of the 48th smurf's hat. If it is the same, he says the color of his hat as one syllable, "red" or "blue". If it is different, he says the color of his as as two syllables, "r-ed" or "b-lue". The 48th smurf now knows the color of his hat and compares it with the color of the 47th smurf's hat, and repeat. By following this strategy, only the tallest smurf is in danger of death.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Good idea, as long as they get to talk about it beforehand, which I guess they do, if they're coming to us for help.

So that's why it seemed to easy to me... I didn't realize there were only 50 smurfs involved. I thought it was the whole village, minus Smurfette. I bet she's the sniper.

 

[orsal]

Tonight, fifty smurfs have been told that, in the morning, they will be lined up from tallest to shortest, and each given a red hat or a blue hat (there are fifty red hats and fifty blue hats; the hats chosen could be any combination thereof). Each of them will be able to see the hat of any Smurf shorter than himself (Smurfette isn't around), but not his own, nor those of the smurfs behind him. Then, each of them is required to call out the color of his own hat. Any smurf who says any word other than the color of his own hat, or who says it more than once, will immediately be put down by snipers. Any smurf who hasn't said anything after an hour will be put down by snipers. Any smurf who takes a step, or looks backward, will be put down by snipers. Any smurf who says the color of his hat will be taken away, to be rejoined with any other potential survivors once the whole deal is over.

The smurfs have come to you for advice as to how to escape this dilemma. Give them a plan that, if correctly followed, guarantees that no more than one smurf will die.

Spoiler

The tallest smurf has to be willing to sacrifice himself -- he's the one who's going to die, and it's guaranteed. He says the number of red hats he sees, and gets killed.

The next smurf counts the red hats in front of him; if that's the number he heard, he says "blue", but if his count is missing one hat, he says "red". They proceed in order, each smurf adding the colours he hears from the smurfs behind to the hats he can count on the smurfs in front, and calculates whether there's a red or blue hat missing from the total.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Spoiler

Perhaps the tallest smurf could shout out a number that, when converted to binary, perfectly describes the pattern of hats he sees.

I.e.,
RRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRRBBRR = 11001100110011001100110011001100110011001100110011
=
900,719,925,474,099

I'm sure all the smurfs can convert huge numbers to binary sequences in their heads and thus each will know exactly what color his hat is.

 

[apsuman]

Spoiler

The tallest smurf has to be willing to sacrifice himself -- he's the one who's going to die, and it's guaranteed. He says the number of red hats he sees, and gets killed.

The next smurf counts the red hats in front of him; if that's the number he heard, he says "blue", but if his count is missing one hat, he says "red". They proceed in order, each smurf adding the colours he hears from the smurfs behind to the hats he can count on the smurfs in front, and calculates whether there's a red or blue hat missing from the total.

The death of the tallest smurf is not guaranteed...

Spoiler

The tallest smurf says red, if there are an even number of red hats in front of him, and he says blue if there are odd number of red hats in front of him.

Now the next tallest smurf counts the hats in front of him, does the necessay math and he and all shorter smurfs escape unharmed.

Now the tallest smurf has a 50% chance to survive.

 

[rkanodia]

The death of the tallest smurf is not guaranteed...

Spoiler

The tallest smurf says red, if there are an even number of red hats in front of him, and he says blue if there are odd number of red hats in front of him.

Now the next tallest smurf counts the hats in front of him, does the necessay math and he and all shorter smurfs escape unharmed.

Now the tallest smurf has a 50% chance to survive.

apsuman is correct. For those that care, I learned this problem (with slight modification)

Spoiler

in a computer architecture class, during a test on parity bits. Any computer engineer who can't solve this problem ought to have his degree revoked!

 

[Tuzenbach]

Here's one to revive this thread.........

Hello, guys! Long time, no puzzle! LoL

Anyway........I recently downloaded the trial version of a particular piece of audio editing software. Once I run the thing (for which I now have 12 days left) there's a prompt where you're asked which version you're using. Obviously, you're supposed to click the "trial" button and continue. Well, one time I mistakenly hit the other button and a challenge was issued.

There are two boxes. One is marked "Challenge" and the other "Response". In the *challenge box* is a bunch of seemingly incoherent and disjointed text. The *response box* holds nothing. My guess is that one is supposed to take all the words and letters from the first box, unscramble/decipher them, and then place them in the second box.

Please note! I'm not posting this in order to pirate software! I'm posting this for two reasons:

1. To revive a really cool thread.
2. I couldn't solve the damn thing but realized the challenge was entertaining and so I wanted to share it with all of you.


Can any of you solve the seemingly unsolveable?



Here is what's written in the "Challenge" box:

LAW LIRA CUFF AJAR VAT UNIT PIPE RACY FIB PLOD PECK PAW ROBE






Good luck with this, everybody!

 

[Saeviomagy]

Hello, guys! Long time, no puzzle! LoL

Anyway........I recently downloaded the trial version of a particular piece of audio editing software. Once I run the thing (for which I now have 12 days left) there's a prompt where you're asked which version you're using. Obviously, you're supposed to click the "trial" button and continue. Well, one time I mistakenly hit the other button and a challenge was issued.

There are two boxes. One is marked "Challenge" and the other "Response". In the *challenge box* is a bunch of seemingly incoherent and disjointed text. The *response box* holds nothing. My guess is that one is supposed to take all the words and letters from the first box, unscramble/decipher them, and then place them in the second box.

With no more information than this, then there is no solution beyond the most trivial one (ie - try every possibly combination of symbols in the response box).