Question: I have a
question that I have been looking for an answer to for quite some time.
Why do some people put jigsaw puzzles together from the edge to the middle
and some do it from the middle to the edge? Personally, I can only do it
from the edge to the middle, but my wife can only accomplish puzzles from
the middle to the edge. Needless to say, we put puzzles together fairly
well.
Anyway, I would think that it has something to do with whichever side of
your brain you use. ie: edge to middle is more logical (left brained) and
middle to edge is more intuitive (right brained). That is just my
speculation though and I was wondering if there is any information about
this.
Thank you,
Matt C.
Answer: This is
definitely an interesting observation. We can not directly confirm it, but
we also can not disprove it. We've decided to bring this idea to your
attention, and we will appreciate any further thoughts on the issue.
From time to time we are receiving your
messages with seemingly simple requests which turn out to be hard puzzle
nuts even for us, though. In these cases our search was unsuccessful.
Nobody can know everything!
It easily can be that somebody of you knows some answer to any of the
questions below, so any your tips or help will be greatly appreciated -
simply
Contact
Us.
Question: I am
interested in seeing a mathematical solution to the problem in
Muse called Dog does calculus. Please give me a general explanation
and a specific explanation, such as, with some given values like Tim
throws the tennis ball so that it lands 45 feet away and 15 feet from
shore, and Elvis can run at 8 feet/sec and swim at 3 feet/sec. Thank you.
Jay J.
Answer: Though we can
not provide such clear answers on the problem, we think some informative
explanations to it can be found on Ivars Peterson's
MathTrek, specifically
here. There are several more references to the problem at the bottom
of the page.
Question: i'm
having trouble with a puzzle similar to the 9 dot puzzle it looks like
this
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
i have to connect all 12 of those dots with 5 lines with out lifting up my
pencil AND starting in the same place....help me? i know this isn't really
one of your puzzles...but maybe you could help me and add this to your
list of puzzles?
Meeki L.
Answer: This message has
inspired us to include the problem into our Puzzle Playground sector. You
can find it
here. Thank you!
For more information on the Dots Puzzle Family, read
Item
#065.
Question: Any suggestion to solve this one?
Tx,
Sjoerd
Answer: Unfortunately,
we can not come up with a definite answer to this puzzle right away. But
maybe you, our fellow puzzle friends, could help us with this request? We
will be very grateful for any your help in this.
Question: I was
told to go to your website to create a word search for second graders for
their upcoming Halloween party. How do I get to that area to be able to do
this? I want the word search to include the children's names and Halloween
words.
Please respond as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Gail Elkus
Question: Someone
told me that at Puzzles.com you can create your own crossword or word find
puzzle. Is that true? If so, how do I do it?
Jod
Question: I'm a
second grade teacher and someone told me that I could come to your site
and create word searches to use in my classroom at no charge. Well, I
can't find where to go in you site to do this. Would appreciate it if you
could e-mail me the directions to create your own word searches.
Thank-you,
Brenda C.
Answer: Unfortunately,
we don't provide such a service ourselves, we only link to the respective
sites providing it. At the moment our best tips for the word search
engines allowing you to create your own word searches would be the one at
edHelper.com. The service can be found
here.
The other one is from
Discovery School's Puzzlemaker. The service can be found
here.
See also
Item
010 and
Item
030 for more information on the custom word puzzles.
Modified: February 5, 2007
Posted: October 1, 2006
Question: I got
this puzzle, but I dont understand the rules and I cant solve it. Can you
please please help me?
Kind regards
Christina
Answer: An informative
interactive tutorial to the Paint by Numbers (a.k.a. Nonograms) puzzles
can be found
here. While at the page, please scroll it down and click the "Pic-a-Pix"
link in the list.
One more example of an illustrative tutorial, though non-interactive, can
be found at
pbn.homelinux.com, specifically in their "Rules
and How to Play" section, and with more practical examples in their "Tips"
section.
Question: Hi there.
I am really confused by this riddle. I really want to get it. Can you
please help?
Thank You
DQ...
"As old as time, as new as the dawn,"
"As dark as the mood of a new demon-spawn."
"As green as the fields, as small as a fly,"
"I am but one thing, yet many am I."
Answer: Unfortunately we
weren't able to find the answer to this riddle. Thus, we've decided to
contact Shelly Hazard from
PuzzlersParadise on it and she prompted us to a
Forum. Though there is no clear answer on the discussion board, it
seems the closest one to the right answer is "Locust", which can make
sense.
Question: ALL THE
DIGITS FROM 1 TO 9 ARE WRITTEN ON A BLACKBOARD.
PETE ERASES SOME OF THE DIGITS AND WRITES THE PRODUCT OF THE NUMBERS HE
HAS ERASED. IN ADDITION, HE CAN WRITE NEW DIGITS.
AFTER SOME OF THESE OPERATIONS ONLY ONE DIGIT REMAINS ON THE BLACKBOARD.
PROVE THAT THE REMAINING DIGIT IS 0.
Can you help me on the above puzzle?
Regards,
Balraj
Answer: hi,
i have a solution to item 134.
Pete begins with some even digits on the board, 2,4,6 and 8. if he ever
removes an even digit, it is multiplied with at least one other number to
yield and even product whose final digit is also even and is written on
the board. therefore, there is always at least one even digit on the
board, Pete can't get rid of all of them. This means that if there is only
a single digit on the board, it must be even.
Pete started with a 5 on the board. It is odd which means that at some
point in time it was removed. when the 5 is removed it is multiplied by
either and even or odd number. the product of 5 and an odd number will end
in a 5 so this too will need to be removed from the board. eventually,
Pete has to multiple a 5 with an even number which will end in a 0.
From here on, whenever the 0 is removed, it is multiplied with other
numbers to give 0 and written back onto the board. therefore, the 0 cannot
be removed and will always be on the board. therefore, the last digit is
always a 0.
Cheers,
Jensen Lai
Answer: Here is the
prove why the last digit is zero.
First, Pete must write the product of the numbers he erased. And the trick
to getting 0 is to erase the number 5. If he erase 5 with any odd number,
he will still get back 5 but if he erase 5 with an even number, he will
get a zero.
In short the product of 5 with any number is either X5 or X0.(X represent
a number)
And second, the product of an odd number and a even number gives u an even
number. For example 2 * 3 = 6. So the five will definitely have a chance
to be erased with an even number to get a number ending with 0.
The product of 0 with any number is still 0. So the numbers will all be
erased and 0 will remain.
Wai J.S.
Answer: Solving this
puzzle requires using the multiplicative properties of even numbers and
five. Start by considering the even numbers. Because multiplying an even
number times anything yields an even number, there will always be at least
one even digit on the board.
An example of this can be seen by trying to remove all the even digits...
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 erase (2,4,6,8) 2*4*6*8 = 384, so write (3,4,8)
1,3,3,4,5,7,8,9 erase (4,8) 4*8 = 32, so write (2,3)
1,2,3,3,3,5,7,9 now... no matter what you multiply the 2 by, there will
always be at least one even number on the board.
Now consider the properties of five. It is impossible to get rid of the
five by multiplying it by an odd number.
This is because five times any odd number will yield a five in the ones
place requiring you to write a new five on the board.
Now... we know that there will always be at least one even digit and a
five that has not yet been multiplied by an even number. To reduce the
number of digits on the board below these two digits to a single digit, we
will eventually need to multiply them (because there is no way to remove
the even digit, and five times the a non-even digit doesn't remove the
five).
Five times an even digit will always results in a zero in the ones place.
We have now been forced to write a zero on the board, and it should be
easy to see from here that no matter how you deal with the remaining
numbers, you'll end up multiplying them by zero and writing a zero on the
board.
133 The 1-8 Number Grid: No Two Adjacent
Numbers Touch Each Other
Question: Hello
I have been given a puzzle and I have tried for ages to complete it so i
was wondering if you would be so kind to help me. I have attached a copy
of what it looks like below then an example:
I have been told by using numbers 1-8 I must then fit all of these in the
grid without two numbers next to each other touching for example 2 can not
be in contact with 1 and 3, Im really starting to doubt if this is
possible. I have also been told 3 goes in the top left hand corner and
there is only 1 way of it working???? As you can see if 3 goes in the top
boxes that only leaves 3 boxes possible for 2 and 4 to go into and what
every combination I try it still leaves 2 touching it driving me crazy
now. I think im being wind up but could you please take a look and confirm
or inform me of an answer please!
Many thanks
Connie M.
Answer: Yes, the puzzle
has a solution, though the solution scheme, if not counting rotations and
reflections, is unique. We already have this puzzle included into our
Puzzle Playground collection -
The Number Grid Puzzle.
