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1500 questions
52
votes
8 answers
James Bond : No Access
James Bond, while working on a top-secret case for many weeks in deep enemy territory, finally collected and stored lots of critical files on his tight-security Linux system. Even though the system was on the internet, no unauthorized user could…
Prem
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51
votes
3 answers
“I just can’t solve this easy puzzle!”
“Yuh can’t solve this easy puzzle?”
“Bah, it’s already solved!”
“Nah, it’s so easy it only looks solved.”
$ \require{begingroup}\begingroup
\def \a #1#2#3{ \abc {three}{#1}{nine} {#2}{thirteen}{#3} }
\def \b …
humn
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51
votes
1 answer
I'm half of a hundred
I'm half of a hundred and both halves of a Belgian detective, two thirds of solar exposure and one eighth of an Age.
If you know who I am, post your answer, plus your explanation for each of the clues.
Good luck! (Although of course luck has nothing…
clayRay
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51
votes
6 answers
Eight coins for the fair king
You are responsible for creating new types of coins for the court.
King respects the forgetful: he wants you to create 8 coins of different value, no more.
King respects the feeble: he wants that any (integer) sum of money (price) could be paid…
Thomas Blue
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51
votes
2 answers
Six pyramids in a cube
This question is from the German mathematics competition Känguru der Mathematik. In this competition students have to solve 30 mathematical tasks like this in 90 minutes without calculator. Actually they are given 5 possible answers, but for this…
A. P.
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51
votes
8 answers
29 - 1 = 30 how?
How is 29 - 1 = 30?
If also
14 - 1 = 15
11 - 1 = 10
9 - 1 =10.
Hint:
Guess the answer and be like Minerva
Amruth A
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51
votes
10 answers
My Puzzling Girlfriend
So it's my birthday yesterday and my girlfriend comes over. We're kidding around and I asked her if she'd gotten me something good. She said: "Oh, yeah! Big time!"
Well, of course I wanted to know what it was. She went over to my computer, typed in…
Hugh Meyers
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51
votes
5 answers
A man possesses a large quantity of stamps
James Joseph Sylvester was one the greatest British mathematicians of
the 19th century, who made many fundamental contributions to number theory,
combinatorics, and invariant theory.
In 1884, he posed the following mathematical puzzle in the…
Gamow
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51
votes
2 answers
Extreme Gerrymandering
It is election season in Puzzlevania. There are two candidates: the incumbent and a challenger. Of the $20$ million citizens, only $1$ percent support the current president; the other $99\%$ favoring the challenger.
Here's how the election system in…
Mike Earnest
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51
votes
1 answer
Self-referential Sudoku
I built this a while back but never had a good forum for it; this seems like the perfect spot to turn it loose. This is a 'traditional' Sudoku; cells are filled with numbers from 1 through 9, and all usual Sudoku rules apply.
As far as I know…
Steven Stadnicki
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51
votes
1 answer
Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022) - a Puzzling tribute
Across:
1. 1962 hit for Elvis Presley: Return to ______ (6)
5. Capital city of Jordan (5)
7. Birthplace of Albert Einstein (3)
8. Member of the Royal Military Police (6)
9. Major US retailer, Home _____ (5)
12. Capital city of the Seychelles…
Stiv
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51
votes
4 answers
What was I supposed to do?
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #49: Pub Quiz Camouflage
I've had the strangest day. Today I was invited to play in a chess tournament (or so I thought). As a keen (and pretty good) chess player, naturally I accepted and made my way to the…
Stiv
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51
votes
3 answers
Where is Jennifer's husband?
Jennifer is 21 years older than her son Douglas.
6 years from now, Jennifer will be 5 times as old as Douglas.
Question: Where is Jennifer's husband most likely to be right now?
cissharp
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50
votes
1 answer
The answer is a girl's name (my future granddaughter) - can anyone help?
I'm a villain who will have you up the wall.
I go into your veins, green, brown - well read.
But you have to be great to get into me.
Only other clue I have is it's not related to Game of Thrones...
654654654
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50
votes
1 answer
The Thirteenth Arrow
The mysterious man motioned Walter into a small room. "Here", he said, "is where we test how smart our applicants are." Walter died inside. He had been told that the applications were tough - after all, being part of first contact with another…
Tryth
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