PXC: Green Puzzle Cards-New

#108 - Green - My Three Children

mensamoo@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:11:28 +0000

During one of the weekly tutorials I give in basic puzzle design, one of my students arrived early and we started chating about my kids. "I think you mentioned you had three children, how old are they now?" she asked. Sensing the opportunity to give a bit of extra tuition here, I replied, "The product of their ages is 36. Oh, and the sum of their ages is this room number."
She glanced up at the door, mulled this over for a while and eventually said, "I still can't work it out with that." "You're absolutely right. Did I mention that my youngest daughter has blue eyes?" I said helpfully. And with that, she'd worked it out. Can you figure out how old my children are?

Puzzle set by Anna.
Unable to scan, background shows Anna and student in the room, but no number visible on door. The puzzle is written in a font similar to StudlyCaps, but only size of letters changes not the case - and is consistent, eg. all lower case e's are the same size as Capitals.(sorry, I expect someone knows the name of this font, but not me)

Map shows Aurora Lane, Sidney Lane, Free Flow and Anthro Replication building.
Grand Frederik's Station.
Grand Frederik's Station is the new central hub for rail and subway transportation in Perplex City. From the air, the station has a wasp-like shape with a black climate-controlled semipermeable roof and two transparent retractable wings for shelter against weather.

#113-green-star set-a capital idea

pineapplejellynotloggedin@forums.unfiction.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:30:44 +0000

The word capital is derived from one of the names of the seven hills of rome. The original city is said to have been founded by romulus on the palatine hill, with the other six hills being the aventine, the quirinal, the viminal, the esquiline, the caelean and the capitoline.

There are seven countries below-what are their capitals.

see card catalog

no da

#124 Dream Ticket

Eugenes Lair@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:11:26 +0000

the main picture is of a billboard poster
card author caine

the text on the cards reads
a weekend of love and music
the beatles
the who
the jimmy hendrix experience
led zeppelin
the rolling stones
the mind benders

july 20th and 21st

in what year could this fantastical concert have taken place

[S2] [Dice Set] #104 - The Pickle King

pineapplejelly@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:10:19 +0000

Sorry, my scanner is at college and I'm not returning until Monday.

Front

Rob the pickle king loves pickles. He keeps a large collection of them in his larder in carefully labeled jars, including a jar of REGULAR pickles, one of SWEET pickles, and one that ontained a mixture of BOTH. Unfortunately, his flatmates BILL and COREY played a trick on him one day and mixed up the labels on these 3 jars so that every label was WRONG. Rob hated to waste pickels but really wanted to put out some sweet pickles for a PARTY that evening. He quickly realised, however, that he could work out which jar was which by tasting a single pickle from just ONE jar. WHICH JAR DID HE PICK ?

Back

When he did not return at dinner my wife fretted greatly but I consoled her saying that the boy would come back as soon as his stomach comanded him. We dined upon mutton cooked with potatoes and kept by a great portion for him for he would be hungry from his exertions. The hour grew later and I joined with my wife in her concern. We went calling for the boy in the street but he was not to be found. At length we summoned the constable who hemmed and puffed his pipe and declared that the boy had but played too long in the cold and had repaired to the home of one of his playmates for the night.

The next morning he did not come, nor the next afternoon. We looked for his play-fellows and found them scattered, not playing together as they had done the day before.

The first we found was Harriet Greasley--it was she told us the names of the others: William Oxbow, Sarah Profit and Anders Lee.

Harriet Greasley is a simple lass, not above the age of seven. She told us what she had seen, in simple words which she never afterwards changed.

"A man," she said, "from the Academy. A man from the Academy at him."

Unpleasant story aside, I can confirm that the answer is:

The one labeled Mixed.

Since all the labels from the jars are swapped, if he pulls one out and tastes...

SWEET, then that means the jar labeled MIXED is actually SWEET.

REGULAR, then that means the jar labeled MIXED is actually REGULAR, the jar labeled SWEET is actually MIXED, and the jar labeled REGULAR is actually SWEET

[S2] [Card set] #099 Countered

DrKra37@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 28 May 2007 03:58:43 +0000

Another Kurt card - one of those irritating-yet-compelling Flash games, by the look of it.

Front

26 pieces remaining

Instructions

You can swap horizontally or vertically adjacent pieces to form rows or columns of 3 or more identical pieces. When you do so, these rows or columns will vanish and any pieces above will fall down. If this creates a new row or column of 3 or more identical pieces, these too will vanish. If a piece simultaneously forms part of a row and column, each of 3 or more, the piece counts in both directions.

What is the fewest number of swaps required to make all the pieces vanish?

Back:

1.

My doctors say I shouldn't mind having Morgan's. That it isn't so bad. That when I leave school there are lots of jobs that Morgs can get now. Except they don't say Morgs, Ever, They say 'people with MHBS'. This is called person-centred terminology, by the way. It is meant to make being a Morg sound sort of all right, like Morgan's is something you choose to have, like a pretty new handbag or a pet chinchoa.

But I do mind. The doctors don't get it. I don't want everyone rallying around me, feeling sorry for me, coddling me because I'm poor little Pippy, who can't even unscramble an anagram. And, sure, I don't think any of my friends would be rude about me to my face. But that's not the point.

The point is I live in Perplex City and, really, it is far better not to have Morgan's around here. It just is. Having Morgan's is, like, a joke. Okay, making Morg jokes might be seen as sort of bad taste but most people still do it. I don't want my friends laughing behind my back because I can't figure out what the deal of the day is at Whipsmart, or what record is at the top of the charts. Even if they are nice to me to my face .

So I try and pass. I have to check and double check everything. I have crib notes written everywhere that they can't be seen: between my fingers, on the inside of my wrist, the crook of my elbow. They tell me how to get hexadecimal, binary and multiple-language decoders on my key quickly, so I can translate any shop fronts that don't make sense, cope in a puzzle bar, tell time. It's like a checklist of all the things that norms would do without thinking about it. All stuff I need to know without looking like I have to think.

Interestingly, although it hasn't come out at all on the scan, the back has extra stuff apart from the text. The left edge of the back looks like the tattered edge of a book page and there is faint mirror writing that fades as you get closer to the centre of the page. The typeface in the headline is very old and finishes with the letters 'ERCHI'. I can't make out much of what's happening elsewhere on the page, there seems to be a very small script typeface too, and the initial 'R' as a signature, with a small circle above the leg of the letter.

[Solved] #103 (Green) - Sudoku

seasononepuzzler@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:49:39 +0000

Having attempted this card and spotting one breach of sudoku rules, I asked the main guys if there were any corrections:

Their reply:

the card has the following corrections to it:

(1,E) Deadly Sins

(3,F) Atomic Number of Lithium

(8,I) Continents on Earth

(6,A) Groundhog Day

#128 Perplexing Portraits

smartyman@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:30:03 +0000

card author sente

card text reads

Whilst attending the opening of the new "perplex city today" exhibit at the maitland museum, i noticed a large group of academy fellows gathered round a painting. moving closer, i saw that it was the latest work from the renowned artist hugo bonvini.
"Apparently hes painted 140 of us and the picture changes to a different one every minute its completely random though, johnstones come up twice in the last ten minutes!" explained one fellow.
"bonvini's a genius with a brush . i'm not leaving until i see my picture cant be too long now!" exclaimed another
Just then the picture changed once again to johnstone and i realised how long the fellow could expect to be waiting for his portrait to appear.
laughing to myself at how clever the artist was, i walked away, making a mental note to check none of the group belonged to the mathematics department.

How long should the fellow expect to wait on average?

[S2] [OXO Set] #105 Home Town

Catherine@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 18:41:19 +0000

Guest Puzzle Architect: Peter Blake
The card reads: "In which cities did these cars originate?" and the 5 licence plates read:
NOK-9O1 (with a circle of stars and the letters FIN beside it)
WR35 STR
1129 CNT
OR-14-GE
DNE 414
H12 YWD (with a picture of the state of Florida behind it)

And the back:

6am. time for the early service. my morning begins here each day. everyone who lives in the compound gathers for the first prayers of the day in the main hall. i like this time. it lets me see all of my friends gathered together and remember that we are all part of a family, of a whole.

when the leaders gather on the dais, everyone goes quiet. now, we all close our eyes. for minutes we sit in silence, purifying our minds and communing with the Cube. as individuals we speak to It but, as a group, we walk together following Its guidance.

on occasion our leader will speak of our relations with the city. he asks us to pray for our brothers unable to live with us in the compound, he asks us to pray that they be given fair treatment by others. others seem to fear us, to hate us, to be worried by our very presence.

i pray for them all.

[S2] [Card Set] #097 - 6000 Words

Catherine@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:26:57 +0000

Puzzle by Sente

Front

Can you identify these 6 books from the pictures below?

Back
- A clipping from the Perplex City Sentinel front page

www.perplexcitysentinel.com

A Revolutionary Cure for MHBS

Cognivia has announced a revolutionary implant for treating the brain disorder MHBS, or Morgan's. The pre-frontal cortex implant enhances degraded neurological signals and will revolutionise life for hundreds of Morgan's sufferers, giving them normal puzzle-solving abilities.

Work on this remarkable cure began after the famous case of Fiona Gint, a woman who suffered serious head injuries in a boating accident and then presented with Morgan's symptoms. Miss Gint's injuries led neuroscientiststo a series of major breakthroughs - pinpointing the exact area of the brain that was malfunctioining and causing Morgan's.

Patrick Albright, the scientist leading the project said: 'This new implant will give MHBS sufferers a new lease of life. The implantation procedure is straightforward and afterwards the patients will be able to return to participate fully in society. My dream is to see an implanted MHBS sufferer winning the PCAG."

However some vocal opposition to the cure has come from Fabian White of the pressure group Morgan Pride. Mr White said: 'This implant is dangerous and unpredictable. The procedure is difficult and, if mis-aligned, the implant would cause horrendous side effects, needing more surgery to correct. Rather than trying to find a so-called cure for MHBS, funds should be diverted into Morgan's awareness.'

My favourite card so far, some of these had me groaning out loud! Careful you get the titles exactly right though.....

[S2] [OXO Set] #107 Question of Sport

Sophiecat@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:50:34 +0000

Front:

Lots of unusual words and phrases, such as albatross and ape hangers, are featured in sports around the world. Can you match up the sports to the unconventional terms below?

1. Hog Line
2. Bully
3. Lona
4. Cesta
5. Chukka
6. Double Diamond
7. Mulligan

A. Jai Alai
B. Golf
C. Curling
D. Polo
E. Hockey
F. Kabaddi
G. Croquet

The back was seen at the S1 end party, see here .

[S2] [Dice Set] #103 - Bush Bakery

The_Cube@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:37:03 +0000

Wow, I can actually contribute, usually days late to the party being a small retailer in the US getting my cards later...

Puzzle Text is in all caps:

In anticipation of a hard day's prospecting, Bob is preparing some damper for he and his mates to eat. The damper will take 30 minutes to cook in the campfire's ashes.

Bob doesn't have a watch, but he does have two spare fuses from his explosives. Each fuse takes 40 minutes to burn completely when lit, but neither burns at a constant rate.

How can Bob measure 30 minutes using the fuses?

[PUZZLE] #119 - Green - Mind the Gap

YahwehTzVaoth@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 11:12:15 +0000

Which tile fills the hole and yields a solveable maze?

Guest puzzle architect: Andrea Gilbert

Map shows Newguard Seven Bridges.

#099 Well Red Ad (Green Ivy Card Set)

YahwehTzVaoth@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:15:44 +0000

Im Really Stuck on this card.

i gathered you had to re-arrange the card like a jigsaw to get the full picture then to get the answer

Im sure it is right but it rejects my answer of

Which Magazine?

Can any one show me where i am going wrong as i am new to all this

thanks frup

P.s. I would put an image of the card up but have no scanner

[S2] [Dice set] #102 Portrait

Eugenes Lair@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:41:52 +0000

Guest Puzzle Architect: Eric Harshbarger

The card just says: "Who?" and the picture is composed of various letters and symbols.

It snowed hard all that morning and was very cold, and my nose was much swelled with cold. I took breakfast with my wife, Jean, our son Kit and our servant Maud, and from thence repaired first to the Refectory where amoung the other Academicians took sack-posset and talked of the war. Hard news had come from the east. My Lady Percine's line was broke, and the City had not time enough to do much in her own defence. We members of the Academy are gossiping creatures, and the sombre news did not stop up our tongues.

Rauncibald, who tinkers with mechanical men, declared that her work would bear fruit within a year, and that we should see a great army of metal soldiers defeat our enemies. This was greeted with much hilarity.

Etting, a historian of beady eye reminded us of wars past, and made much of her certainty that no war could touch the City itself. At this, much general agreement.

Maleverer the mathematician kept silence through this debateand at length, young Crews, the organ player jested with him that he was struck dumb with fear.

Maleverer, a haggard man, spoke at last. His eye was grim and his brow furrowed as he said that we should soon see that he had no reason for fear, but that our enemies would know it and that right soon.

[S2] [Dice set] #101 Per Ardua Ad Astra

AtionSong@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 02:00:44 +0000

Guest puzzle architect: Peter Blake.

Wheeeeee! Paper aeroplanes!

Front:

Which combination of folds makes this origami travel furthest when thrown?

- - - - mountain fold
____ valley fold

a) 1,3,4
b) 1,3,5
c) 1,3,6
d) 1,2,3,4
e) 1,2,3,6

Remember, we expect all puzzles to be tested under rigorous scientific conditions. All paper planes should be made with the same size and weight pieces of paper.

Back:

Maleverer would not be drawn more and we soon made sure it was but one of his pronouncements, great in words but small in action. It is for this reason, as well as his stern demeanour that Maleverer is invited but little to dine in the homes of the Academicians.

By noon, the snow lay thick upon the ground I went back home, calling first at Mrs Maye and Dr Whores to play at cards but left within two hours much troubled with my nose, which was much swelled.

At my house, we dined upon a dish of steaks, a rabbit and part of a turkey-pie and were much pleased. My son Kit told me that he had passed his morning not at his studies but frolicking in the snow with some of the children from round about our house. I spoke to him sternly but at length relented and told him that if he would but learn one of Varkin's passages by-heart he might pass the afternoon in similar fashion. After an hour he had got the passage word by word and ran into the street where his play-fellows awaited him.

He pulled on his coat in such haste that he did not notice at first that he had got it on inside-out, such was his excitement to be away. I watched him greeted by his fellows and returned once more to my study and my books.

I never saw my son more, after that day.

The card title, for them as don't know, is the motto of the RAF and various Commonwealth air forces.