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1500 questions
85
votes
16 answers
A camel transporting bananas
A somewhat well-known puzzle is described as such:
You have a pile of 3,000 bananas. You wish to transport them to a place 1,000 miles away on the back of a camel; however, the camel can only carry a maximum of 1,000 bananas, and will eat one…
user88
85
votes
1 answer
Redundancy
Your final answer should answer the question "What is something you could get after solving this puzzle?"
noneuclideanisms
- 6,268
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85
votes
1 answer
Why did they close my riddle?
So I came up with this -at least what I thought to be a- great riddle and posted it on this site.
Within minutes, it was closed by the community. It said:
This looks like a puzzle you found somewhere. For the content you did not create proper…
DrD
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84
votes
2 answers
How many questions are there on Stack Exchange?
Stack Overflow, Ask Different, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Drupal Answers, Linguistics, Islam, Movies & TV, Drupal Answers
MathOverflow, Tor, Sound Design, Vi and Vim
Puzzling, Emacs, Mythology & Folklore, Esperanto Language
Rand al'Thor
- 116,845
- 28
- 322
- 627
84
votes
1 answer
I assure you — This Is A Puzzle
Let us consider the role of the hyphen. The all-important hyphen—which we use use on a daily basis. The no. of hyphens that we see everyday may well surprise you. They are ever-present, don't you think? They are not merely semi-useful. They can…
Chowzen
- 25,660
- 5
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- 220
84
votes
2 answers
My God, it's full of stars!
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #32: Grid Deduction Hybrids
My dear friend, unknown to us, may have relocated again. He sent me imagery and constellation maps indicating that a distant red spiraling galaxy was at his zenith, and nearly…
paramesis
- 4,619
- 17
- 34
84
votes
11 answers
Correct way to add 22 to 4 to get 82
Inspired by this other puzzle, tell me a correct way by which adding 22 to 4 will give 82.
As in that other puzzle, these numbers are all expressed in base 10.
Trevor Powell
- 5,751
- 2
- 21
- 27
84
votes
8 answers
Three voting prisoners
Three prisoners have a brief strategy meeting, and then are not allowed to communicate.
Each night one of the three has steak for dinner, while the other two have fish tacos. Also each night, each of the three prisoners votes for one of the…
Tyler Seacrest
- 9,174
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- 62
83
votes
5 answers
What characteristics of a ciphertext can be indicators of a particular cipher?
If I have a ciphertext, what information about the probable ciphers used can I infer from the ciphertext itself? For example, information from:
the length
the spacing / grouping of characters
the range of characters used
frequency counts
and any…
A E
- 8,802
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83
votes
5 answers
Can you fold a square into a square of one-fifth the area?
I love origami, and it recently gave me an idea for a very hard but beautiful puzzle. I'm really curious whether anyone here can solve it.
So here's the puzzle. You are given a large perfectly square piece of paper with no marks on it. With this…
Mitsuko
- 2,035
- 10
- 24
83
votes
2 answers
A Bomber Maze™™™
To help you solve the maze, you are given 3 bombs. A bomb can be used to destroy one wall in the maze.
Your goal is to get from the start to the finish, with the help of your bombs. There is only one correct solution, so good luck!
thesilican
- 2,516
- 7
- 29
82
votes
1 answer
What number is hidden in this card?
The puzzle below is part of a Puzzle Crime Story I have started on my website, but will skip the details here (you can see other puzzles from the series here and here). In short, you have the following rectangular card which has the word "SIN"…
Puzzle Prime
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82
votes
2 answers
A good puzzle is a double-edged sword
A rare double-edged sword is currently on loan from the British Museum to the Magna Carta exhibition.
The sword itself is described as likely made in Germany around 1250-1330 and includes the inscription pictured below.
So what does…
Richard
- 5,320
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82
votes
2 answers
What famous line does this Linux command line represent?
The following shows a Linux command line with a # prompt:
#
echo -e 'AAAAHHH!!!\a' > /dev/null
#
It represents a famous line from a work of fiction. What line is that?
pacoverflow
- 15,204
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81
votes
10 answers
10 Prisoners, 10 Keys, and 7 Years
One day, the warden of a prison is, like most wardens in puzzles, feeling a little bit capricious and decides that he wants to get rid of his prisoners, one way or another. He gathers all the prisoners in the yard and explains to them - "Tonight, I…
Milo Brandt
- 7,881
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