Solve Enjoyable Enigmas with Mr.E's Challenge

  • Thread starter Enigman
  • Start date
In summary: Four princes approach the king vying for the hand of the princess. In order to choose the best among the four suitors the king and the princess arrange a test: the suitors are brought to a large rectangular hall. The floor is covered with a carpet all over except at the corners- where there are four squares of bare floor and the suitors are told to stand at these corner. Each suitor takes a corner and stands there while the princess stands at the center of the hall. The king then proclaims the prince who without leaving their respective squares shall put a ring on the princess's hand will be declared to be the bridegroom of his daughter and the heir to Enigmania. No ropes or rods are
  • #141
zoobyshoe said:
Wow, then he goes and ironically dies in a plane crash.

I wonder if that means Enigman will ironically die in an enigma.

Sincerely hope I do...Perhaps a 'And there were none' scenario where I will be the judge...
Another one:
After a typist has written ten letters and had addressed the ten corresponding envelopes, a careless mailing clerk inserted the letters in the envelopes at random, one letter per envelope. What is the probability that exactly
nine letters were inserted in the proper envelopes?
 
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  • #142
Enigman said:
Sincerely hope I do...Perhaps a 'And there were none' scenario where I will be the judge...
Another one:
After a typist has written ten letters and had addressed the ten corresponding envelopes, a careless mailing clerk inserted the letters in the envelopes at random, one letter per envelope. What is the probability that exactly
nine letters were inserted in the proper envelopes?

By "exactly" you mean nine out of the ten make it into the right envelopes, no more, no less?
 
  • #143
Yes...
use spoilers when you* give the answer...
Edit:*
 
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  • #144
Enigman said:
Yes...
use spoilers when give the answer...
Good idea.

I think there's a zero probability of that happening.
 
  • #145
Yep.
And now:
You are taking a vacation on an island in the middle of a lake. The lake is in a remote part of Maine and there has never been a bridge connecting the island to the land. Every day a tractor and wagon gives hay rides around the island to all the children. Puzzled as to how the tractor had gotten onto the island, you ask around and find out that the tractor was not transported to the island by boat or by air. Nor was it built on the island. The island has always been there. Explain how the tractor may have gotten there.
 
  • #146
Enigman said:
Yep.
And now:
You are taking a vacation on an island in the middle of a lake. The lake is in a remote part of Maine and there has never been a bridge connecting the island to the land. Every day a tractor and wagon gives hay rides around the island to all the children. Puzzled as to how the tractor had gotten onto the island, you ask around and find out that the tractor was not transported to the island by boat or by air. Nor was it built on the island. The island has always been there. Explain how the tractor may have gotten there.
My guess would be that the lake was created by a flood. What is now the island was high ground, and the tractor and wagon happened to be on that high ground when the flood occurred. So, the 'Island' has always been there, but the lake now surrounding it hasn't.
 
  • #147
Nope that's not the actual answer though quite imaginative. Focus on the words which seem extraneous those are invariably a clue to the answer.
Edit: The Island ceases to be an island if its not surrounded by water but the island had always been there and so the lake too.
 
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  • #148
Is the transportation limited within Maine itself?
 
  • #149
Enigman said:
Nope that's not the actual answer though quite imaginative. Focus on the words which seem extraneous those are invariably a clue to the answer.
The lake is in a remote part of Maine...
The tractor was carried to the island by the resident lake monster!
 
  • #150
This is physics forums not fantasy forums...
Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
 
  • #151
It floats?

.. . :biggrin:
 
  • #152
Nope, it drives...
over water that you cannot drink
 
  • #153
Enigman said:
Nope, it drives...
over water that you cannot drink
Maine: freezing winters. They drove the tractor over in the winter when the lake was frozen!
 
  • #154
Yep. I am running out of puzzles...anyone else have anything?
 
  • #155
Enigman said:
Yep. I am running out of puzzles...anyone else have anything?
Where are you getting these? You have a book of them?
 
  • #156
Memory- All of these have been asked of me and solved by me (well, mostly). I have been addicted to them since I was a kid.
 
  • #157
This is the famous Chinese murder mystery that has been claimed to be the first instance of forensic science in recorded history:

In a rural village a farmer is found dead. The local law officer determines he was killed by a savage blow from a shovel.

He orders all the village farmers to assemble in the town square with their shovels, and they are required to stand at attention holding their shovels with the spade end up in the air.

He paces back and forth, back and forth, for half an hour, studying the shovels. None of them shows any sign of blood or tissue. Then, he stops in front of one man, and orders him arrested for the murder.

What did he see that tipped him off?
 
  • #158
mmm...
no mud?
 
  • #159
Haha! Nice!
 
  • #160
Enigman said:
mmm...
no mud?
No, something more interesting and damning than that.

Edit: something that developed over the half hour they stood there.
 
  • #161
P. :biggrin:
 
  • #162
Gad said:
P. :biggrin:
P? Eh?
 
  • #163
:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #164
So, is it the right answer, Zshoe?
 
  • #165
Gad said:
So, is it the right answer, Zshoe?
I'm afraid not.

Were you trying to say "pee"? As in, the murderer peed himself? If he did, it wasn't till after he was caught.
 
  • #166
A spot of the victim's blood on him?
 
  • #167
Probably more in the lines of blood clotting...
EDIT: or perhaps all others except the murderer became tired of holding spades up in the air and dropped them while only the murderer kept the spade up in air so that he doesn't seem suspicious...but that's more 'criminal mind' than 'CSI'...
 
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  • #168
My imagination is running wild...
The murderer broke his shovel and then glued the spade and handle together...the glue melted off.
They probably didn't have luminol, did they?
 
  • #169
Or probably villagers start to cover up from the sun using their hands except for the murderer cause he doesn't want to show scars/swellings in his hands...Zshoe, where are you?

Edit: I had 3 cups of coffee and I am getting no sleep.. that's just perfect.
 
  • #170
Or perhaps they used a dog to smell him out by the smell of blood.<It does go against the storyline but that's what I would have done.>
 
  • #171
Okay, until Zshoe tells us who's right, I have another puzzle. A stingy man managed to marry a very rich woman, and his next step was to get her killed so he inherits her wealth as she has no relatives. So, he convinced his wife to go for a vacation in the mountains in some other country, which rarely has tourists at that time of the year. Anyway, he booked the round trip tickets and everything was smooth as planned. Once they got there, there were no one around. They went out for a walk and, of course, the lady fell of a cliff and died. Investigations were held and nothing proved that the husband is guilty. And he was sent to one officer for one final investigation before going back home. The officer did not ask him a single question. Instead, he looked through the case papers, and conducted one phone call. He hanged up the phone, and ordered to arrest the husband. What was the phone call about? :biggrin:
 
  • #172
Number of tickets that were booked?
 
  • #173
Is it supposed to be hard evidence?
yea, I was thinking about the number of tickets that were booked, but he booked a roundtrip - any smart murderer would book both tickets for both flights.
 
  • #174
Enigman said:
Number of tickets that were booked?

How did you Know! I thought this one would last for a while, or at least until Zshoe shows up.
 
  • #175
so he's a dumb murderer
 

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