-4

SafeCracker 3 enter image description here

Our Last Safe To Conquer

Ok, team, this one might give us a little trouble. Nothing we can't handle though... let's go...

This safe model is "The NevaCrak 9000" - the most secure safe there is.

Our only way in is to look at our puzzle, and simply find the block that doesn't belong.

A couple blocks are blank and are to be ignored. Only concern yourself with blocks with numbers and letters. Also disregard any of the flaire going on in the background.

THAT's IT

Everything is riding on you... go open that bad boy!

And here is the NevaCrak 9000

Which block does not belong??

( only one correct answer, no tricks or worplay involved )

The Safe

Community
  • 1
John S.
  • 2,145
  • 5
  • 20
  • We're looking for an individual block such as 'the yellow one with the C on it' ? – MichaelMaggs May 02 '19 at 16:15
  • @MichaelMaggs, yes, that is correct. – John S. May 02 '19 at 16:17
  • 2
    There are many correct answers... – Voldemort's Wrath May 02 '19 at 16:53
  • No, there is only one block that does not belong with the others. Of course, we could make up a thousand answers, like... the yellow one is 2 millimeters short on the letter T, or The yellow one is the only one that... But, focus on the data on the blocks. Don't get lost in the physical characteristics. If you take away all the bright graphics, this is simply a "What comes next number puzzle." :) C'mon Invent, if anyone can do this, I thought it would be you! you are closer than you know! – John S. May 02 '19 at 16:58
  • 7
    @JohnS. "What comes next number puzzles" can also have many correct answers... – noedne May 02 '19 at 17:25
  • lol, ok ok, you got me. But I didn't design this puzzle with more than one solution in mind. The answer will be painfully obvious. Again, it's in the data. I wish I knew how to post them hints, but everytime I try, it doesn't work. – John S. May 02 '19 at 17:34
  • Would I be right in assuming that all the data is relevant: the specific letters and the specific numbers? And that we can ignore the two blocks with pictures on them? – MichaelMaggs May 02 '19 at 17:43
  • Yes. I tried to make that clear in the question, those are just there to 1: Throw off and confuse , and 2: To fill up a square where I could not fit both a number and a letter on it, due to the positioning of the block. – John S. May 02 '19 at 17:53
  • @JohnS. As a hint (and for ease of access), could you post the two codes from the previous puzzles? You indicated on the last one that they might be relevant... – David K May 02 '19 at 19:56
  • 1
    Oh, yes - they will be relevant, but not now. I kinda spoiled that 4th one upcoming. So, it is not needed here. Just play with the numbers. Disregard everything else (just meant to confuse) – John S. May 02 '19 at 20:07
  • 1
    This should help – Luatic May 02 '19 at 20:51
  • @LMD thanks for posting a turorial , I don't think I explained it weil enough... ugh. – John S. May 02 '19 at 22:43
  • @JohnS. I appreciate your dedication to making SE fun and more inviting, but from the variety of (equally valid, imo) answers, the original puzzle appears to be under specified and possibly needs more information in order to be solved. Like Gareth commented below on one of the answers, a good puzzle should not simply be “guess what the creator is thinking”; a puzzle should be solvable using only the information contained within it. See here for more information. – HTM May 02 '19 at 22:52
  • Point taken, but what's happeing here is , my posts are being scrutinized to last pixel because I am new, and because I get to play most of the day at work, so I have been posting a lot of content. I am an old man, 47 - I am not going to go through beiing blocked or flagged because a particular user is frustrated with the new guy. Let's be real, given the strict environment here, I would wager almost every post could be subjectively examined to find some flaw. But no worries. Block me, delete it, throw it away, whatever. I am grateful for the people I met while trying this puzzle.Tx 4 the advi – John S. May 02 '19 at 23:09
  • 7
    @JohnS. This has nothing to do with being a new member but rather the content of the puzzle itself. We’re all trying to provide guidance on how you can improve your questions and what’s considered on-topic here. I sincerely hope you don’t take any of our criticism personally! :) – HTM May 02 '19 at 23:32
  • @PilsNot3, trust me, that was what exchange was about. It will not happen again. And I wholeheartedly disagree that this puzzle wasn't explained. How much clearer can I get... "Which of the blocks does not belong with the others? Why not just tell him the answer? And what happened? Just like I said, new guy, The behavior surrounding this has shocked our team which BTW we PAY for a 15 Seat Enterprise Support Membership here, and we have to deal with this? Childish. It boils down to, a couple users got frustrated the new guy stumped them. Period. Its the consensus here anyways. Lessons Learn – John S. May 03 '19 at 02:37
  • 8
    @JohnS. I understand your frustration. You wrote a puzzle with a solution that clearly works when you find it. But I encourage you to think for a moment from the puzzle solver's perspective. Ak19 came up with a rule that works perfectly well to find an odd block out. From their perspective, they have no way of knowing that this is not the solution you intended. When you tell them it's not what you had in mind, it may feel unfair that their valid solution is deemed incorrect. It's important for puzzles to have unique solutions, but it's easy to miss things no matter how good your intentions. – noedne May 03 '19 at 03:13
  • 5
    @JohnS. Compare the current question to a similar one: "What is the odd one out among the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5?" Without any additional specifications from the author, any number of answers would be equally valid (5, because it's the only multiple of 5; 4, because it's the only composite number; etc. etc.), and thus the "correct" answer becomes a subjective choice. It's not the task itself that is problematic, but rather determining whether a possible answer is right or not. Also, I'm not sure how being a paid member of SE is relevant to this conversation. – HTM May 03 '19 at 05:10
  • (I think we need to move this conversation to chat or possibly even meta if it were to continue...) – HTM May 03 '19 at 05:28
  • 3
    (Stock comment:) It's not sufficient that your intended answer fits the puzzle. If many answers could fit, then the puzzle is under-specified. A well-crafted puzzle will give enough information to rule in the intended solution while ruling out everything else. Also, potential solutions should be testable by referring to the puzzle, not by needing a response from the setter as to whether they're right or not. If the puzzle lacks enough specificity to make that determination, then it's probably too broad, and "hints" added to fix that aren't hints, they're a necessary part of the puzzle. – Rubio May 05 '19 at 22:51
  • 8
    @JohnS. Please realize that many people enjoy asking their questions here not only because they like seeing how people approach their puzzles and like to see their efforts validated when people get pleasure from solving them, but also because this community is good about providing feedback on how to improve puzzlecrafting. Nothing in these comments is singling you or your puzzles out, and none of the advice or responses to you given by the community is in any way out of place. Please take the advice you've been offered in the spirit in which it was given; it may even improve your puzzles! :) – Rubio May 05 '19 at 22:56

10 Answers10

10

The

green block with the number 5246

doesn't belong, because

it is the only number not divisible by 3 where all the others are.

Voldemort's Wrath
  • 3,114
  • 2
  • 12
  • 46
19aksh
  • 3,933
  • 1
  • 8
  • 35
7

The odd one out is the

green block with 5246.

This is because

for all the other numbers on the other blocks, combining the first and last digits and dividing by 2 gave the middle two digits. However, 5246 does not apply to that rule. To conform it to that rule, it would have to be 4248 (one of many possible fixes)...

Safe Cracked!

Voldemort's Wrath
  • 3,114
  • 2
  • 12
  • 46
  • The answer should be a single block (the ones that have a letter and number); not a complete group of blocks – Daniel Duque May 02 '19 at 17:52
  • Yes. Ok, I am giving a very small , yet critical Hint: It's all a numbers game, it's allll a numbers game. – John S. May 02 '19 at 18:32
  • Dah - now you tell us! I've spent a lot of time today trying to derive an algorithm for working out the specific letters based on the numbers. – MichaelMaggs May 02 '19 at 19:03
  • everything correct, except: the 1st and last number are combined. Divide that by TWO, and you get the middle Number. You wrote divide by 3 by mistake. GREAT JOB AGAIN Invent. – John S. May 02 '19 at 22:49
  • I will edit my response. Do you mind editing that picture that says "SafeCracker Progress?" :) – Voldemort's Wrath May 02 '19 at 23:23
  • 2
    @JohnS. Didn't Ak19 correctly identify this block in an earlier answer? – noedne May 02 '19 at 23:40
  • 3
    @JohnS. While Invent's original answer (divisible by 3) is an accurate pattern and a good find, Ak19 posted it first. It's also not the same as your "correct" answer. At all. You just got tired of waiting for someone to discover your solution and decided to give it away to someone. – David K May 03 '19 at 12:12
  • 2
    No, there are many correct answers, as I have been pointed out. I wlll never make a puzzle with multiple solutions again. Not intentional anyways. He got a correct answer, we can't take that away from him. I am new here, so this is a learning lesson. I will be more specific in the future if I submit more. Thank you for your comment, though. – John S. May 03 '19 at 18:28
3

I'm going to guess the:

Black block.
It's the only one that isn't a tetris piece :P

Smock
  • 940
  • 4
  • 12
3

My answer:

When arranging the numbers in the order of the word Stack Exchange, and then doing an absolute value of the difference between any number and the following number, I get a pattern that the difference value rises then drops alternatingly, except at the Black A where the value remains the same. (Differences: 4176,8214,8214,3150,5088,1950,5274,2152,4252,0,4224,3126 - rise fall neutral fall rise fall rise fall rise fall rise fall)

Below is Meant as comment, but alas

@John S posted the following in a comment at https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/83526/60039

[ {C, 8412}, {E, 174},{H, 5246},{C, 7398},{A, 9498},{S, 4236},{A, 198},{T, 8412},{N, 9498},{G, 5274},{E, 2148} ]

It is missing data.

The last three are the orange blocks, the second to last three are the black blocks, the third to last three are the green blocks and the first 2 are only half of the yellow blocks, the x and k are missing.

However:

There are two pairs letters with same numbers, 9498 and 8412.

Also:

John stated elsewhere its just a numbers game...which makes sense because the letters spell out Stack Exchange

wolfsshield
  • 261
  • 1
  • 7
3

I will guess that it is

Green block 5246

My reasoning is that

All other blocks have numbers that are divisible by 6, and it is the only block that has two prime factor other than 2 and 3. The prime factors of all other numbers are some number of 2s and 3s, and one other larger prime number. 5246 factorizes to 2, 43, and 61.

David K
  • 247
  • 1
  • 9
  • 1
    This is equivalent to Ak19’s answer, but worded in a more complicated way. – Peregrine Rook May 03 '19 at 02:21
  • 1
    @PeregrineRook It is an expansion of Ak19's answer, but they are not equivalent. The OP indicated that Ak19 was thinking along the correct path, so I dug deeper in that direction. – David K May 03 '19 at 11:53
  • 2
    Ah, I see.  OK, you’re right.  Your answer encompasses Ak19’s answer, but you found something more. (Now it turns out that Ak19’s answer was very close to what the OP was looking for, and yours was not, but that doesn’t reflect badly on your answer.  It just goes to support the argument that the question is too broad, because it has too many different answers.) I would upvote you, but I already did. – Peregrine Rook May 04 '19 at 16:17
3

The answer is:

The green block with the number 9498.

because

The average of the numbers on the green blocks is not a whole, even number (as it is for the other sets of blocks) and the number 9498 here is a duplicate of another block. This block could be 9496 which would make it valid.

Amru E.
  • 131
  • 3
2

I would guess it is the:

Yellow block that has the E and the number 174

Why?

All other group of blocks follow the pattern of increasing/decreasing the number as the letters advance through the alphabet.

Daniel Duque
  • 549
  • 3
  • 9
2

Answer:

The Black A

Reason:

It's the only one that has 11 as a factor

wolfsshield
  • 261
  • 1
  • 7
1

The answer might be:

The yellow one

Reasoning:

All the other blocks have only letters when looked at from a specific direction.

Krad Cigol
  • 1,141
  • 7
  • 12
  • No, sorry. We are looking for an individual block that just doesn't fit the criteria of all the others. - But that was a reasonable guess! – John S. May 02 '19 at 15:40
  • HERE IS THE DATA SET FOR THIS PUZZLE... Now, we are back to our regularly scheduled "What doesn't belong in this pattern?" puzzle.

    [ {C, 8412}, {E, 174},{H, 5246},{C, 7398},{A, 9498},{S, 4236},{A, 198},{T, 8412},{N, 9498},{G, 5274},{E, 2148} ]

     – John S. May 02 '19 at 19:06
  • Delete this question. Not editing it.

    ANSWER WAS SIMPLE:

    take first number and last number , combine.

    Divide by 2.

    will give you middle number.

    ONLY ONE block doesn't fit criteria.

    People had fun trying, you can delete. Thanks.

     – John S. May 03 '19 at 11:20
1

I noticed that

if you open out the net of each, centred on the side showing the letter, any numbers above, below and to the right are all aligned in the same direction as the letter; and the number on the left is on its side, with its top pointing to the left. The only exception is the Yellow K block, where the number on the right isn't aligned in the same direction as the letter.

MichaelMaggs
  • 1,374
  • 6
  • 17
  • That is a great guess, but sorry, not correct. Maybe focus on the data. – John S. May 02 '19 at 16:44
  • 1
    Looks like there is more than one valid solution :( – MichaelMaggs May 02 '19 at 16:51
  • no, only one. Don't give up, I told ya, you're on the right path. :) – John S. May 02 '19 at 16:54
  • 5
    If there's more than one block that's different from the others in a notable way and the challenge is to figure out what specific difference you had in mind, then the puzzle is basically "read the puzzle author's mind". Let's hope it turns out that the odd-one-out property John S intends is much more compelling than the two other perfectly plausible ones suggested so far... – Gareth McCaughan May 02 '19 at 17:42
  • It's hard, but it is the same as any other "whats next?" You can put five numbers in front of me, and I will come up a hundred answers. We're here to have fun, everyone knows what they are looking for here - what block and number doesn't follow the same algorithm (which you must figure out). A couple people are 99% there. LOL I thought this would last a day or so... these users are SMART. – John S. May 02 '19 at 18:21
  • I would love to show them hints, like I see other people do, but when I try... like now.. !> This is a hint

    It doesn't work!

     – John S. May 02 '19 at 18:24
  • 1
    It is the other way around >! This is a hint. – Daniel Duque May 02 '19 at 18:33
  • According to the help pages, only basic formatting is supported in the comments - not including hidden text. So I think that hints have to be added to the end of the main question. It's >! not !> though. And anyway I find it quite often doesn't work even where it should. – MichaelMaggs May 02 '19 at 18:34
  • 1
    @JohnS. typically we use Rot13 to hide hints or spoilers in comments. But I’d strongly recommend you put the hints in the original post, since they would be considered part of the overall puzzle – HTM May 02 '19 at 19:12
  • 1
    @JohnS. A "What's next?" like you describe should also be closed for being too broad... – noedne May 02 '19 at 21:24
  • lol, noedne - chill my friend, it's a puzzle. supposed to be fun and challenging. leave the drama and real world worries out there. Hang out in here and have fun. Sorry if a teaser like that "What's next?" got you all fired up. SIt back, relax, and slay one of these thousands of puzzles on here. – John S. May 02 '19 at 22:35
  • You’ve picked a pattern that all the blocks but one follow — but you could pick a slightly different pattern, and get a different result. Specifically, ROT13(X naq K ner gur bayl oybpxf jvgu n ahzore gb gur evtug bs gur yrggre. Fb vs lbh punatr gur ehyr gb fnl "gur ahzore gb gur evtug bs gur yrggre zhfg or iregvpny," gura K vf gur bar gung qbrfa'g pbzcyl.) – Peregrine Rook May 03 '19 at 02:06
  • Ironically, ROT13(EBG13(X) vf K naq EBG13(K) vf X.) – Peregrine Rook May 03 '19 at 02:06
  • TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED:

    I sincerely apologize for publishing my puzzle with so many different possible solutions ( based on my wording ). I initially intended the solution to be as I stated above:

    1. Take first and last digit and combine
    2. Divide in half
    3. That will leave the middle number.

    the rest , the letters, the blocks, the graphics were all red herrings, so to speak - just fluff.

    Again, to all of you who submitted a valid solution that was not mine, please accept my apologies. I will be more specific in the future. So stay tuned for my next one... :)

     – John S. May 03 '19 at 20:15
  • @EVERYONE - I have tried deleting these puzzles you guys don't like, but it says other people have invested time. No worries fellas, I am just here to read and attempt to solve YOUR puzzles. – John S. May 17 '19 at 17:40