Puzzles

[Hat-Kun]

I'd say T is the next letter on the basis that lower-case versions of the letters have curves, but capitols do not. However, K doesn't fit in unless you use a fancy one with a flick at the end or a loop on the top-right arm.

[Andrick]

Hat-kun, you've overthought this one. You have the right answer but only for part of the reason you gave. The letters I gave were, indeed, in the alphabetical order you and Randyg supposed for your analysis. Those letters were also the only ones made with straight lines up to that point. If I had eliminated K, then you would need to have figured out why.

Next:
I am thinner than any book, yet I contain volumes.

[Randyg]

Everything smaller than a book, but existing, contains volume. :)

So I pick... an electron.

--Randy

[Randyg]

(an index/toc would also count, but doesn't involve physics!)

--Randy

[Andrick]

Hmm... Lemme' clarify this. It, for it is an object, is thinner than any book, yet it contains all the information from many, many books.

Teaches me for purloining a riddle from a French source; somehow I knew it wouldn't translate well. My source for this is one Darthen Wulf by name and the riddle was lifted from his comic "Las Vegas Supernatural" which is in hiatus.

[Micro_Fur]

French huh?

Tell ya what my Russian is much better than my French, but I'll take a stab at it. How about 'tome'?

*Pounces at the riddle and stabs it with an answer; jumps back and asks, "Is it dead?"*

[Randyg]

A hologram containing a binary representation of many, many books stored on a single thin sheet of uber-high-resolution holographic film.

Or, simpler, the pages of those many, many books, all taped together at the edges and laid out flat like a giant quilt. :)

EDIT: Hell, a dvd-r disc can contain a vastly huge number of books, and the actual data layer is very, very thin. :)


--Randy

[Andrick]

Congradulations, Randyg. You got the answer with your edit. zthe substrate media of a CD/DVD disk.

Your turn.

[Alfador]

The original wording of the puzzle had bigger tolerances for the weight, but it's impractical/improbable that she'd be able to juggle 15 pound balls of gold.

A non physics based one:

A hunter wakes up at his camp and begins looking for a bear. He goes roughly one mile south and spots a bear. He then follows it one mile east, where he shoots and kills it. He then moves one mile north, and arrives back at camp.

How is this possible?

If you can't just guess it, feel free to ask questions. It's part of the joke. I also have a more specific, yet obscure hint, that I will PM to those who want it.

I've got a variation on that. If this hunter shoots a BIRD, then it was a penguin, and he went south to NEAR the South Pole, CIRCLED THE GLOBE latitude-wise, then went back to camp.

There are also an indefinite number more answers for the bird one which put him closer and closer to the South Pole as that one mile east takes him more and more times around the pole. But when you get close enough, it becomes highly improbable that he'd chase it in circles for a mile of walking and then shoot it pointblank a few inches from the pole, when he could simply reach out and kill it with a melee weapon.

Hat-kun, you've overthought this one. You have the right answer but only for part of the reason you gave. The letters I gave were, indeed, in the alphabetical order you and Randyg supposed for your analysis. Those letters were also the only ones made with straight lines up to that point. If I had eliminated K, then you would need to have figured out why.

Next:
I am thinner than any book, yet I contain volumes.

My answer would have been a floppy disk. (I'm not counting those "Little Golden Books" that are about the same thickness as a floppy disk. I think my family still has some of those as Christmas tree ornaments.)

[Randyg]

A disk partition table contains volumes. :)

--Randy

[Andrick]

*playfully swats at Randyg* You got it, already. Next riddle is yours to present.

[Micro_Fur]

I came across someone wearing a shirt this riddle at the mall today, I thought it was rather funny. My friends were a tad confuzed until one of them saw and figured out WHAT I was laughing at but not why 'till I explained, so here you go:

IF ONLY YOU AND DEAD PEOPLE CAN READ HEX, HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN READ HEX?

Micro_fur - I really miss my old job.

[Nyamaza]

57006 (base 10)
DEAE (base 16)
1101111010101110 (base 2)

((just being through))

[Micro_Fur]

Very good Nyamaza, not even 12 hrs and you answered correctly. Then again from what I just leared about where you work I shouldn't be so surprised that you were the first to answer correctly.

Micro_fur - Maybe I should've just left it alone after all.

[Maximuscoolman]

I think Nyamaza has got AND mixed up with ADD.

1101 1110 1010 1101
AND 0000 0000 0000 0001
= 0000 0000 0000 0001

[Allan_ecker]

I came across someone wearing a shirt this riddle at the mall today, I thought it was rather funny. My friends were a tad confuzed until one of them saw and figured out WHAT I was laughing at but not why 'till I explained, so here you go:

IF ONLY YOU AND DEAD PEOPLE CAN READ HEX, HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN READ HEX?

Micro_fur - I really miss my old job.

...

Oh dear GOD that's awful. I love it.

[Micro_Fur]

No Allan, this is awfull:

I think Nyamaza has got AND mixed up with ADD.

1101 1110 1010 1101
AND 0000 0000 0000 0001
= 0000 0000 0000 0001

LOLZ to you Maximus! Great catch on a math/grammar interface incongruity (is that a word?), if it was taken for literal applying said opperand you would be the winner. It would sound rather off as 'YOU AND/OR DEAD', not to metntion a *reeeal* dead (LOL, no pun intended) giveaway. Looks like you left yourself wide open to that one Nyamaza.

Micro_fur - What have I done

[Nyamaza]

actually, I would consider that interpretation not to fit into the proper english mode being used. See, YOU is not a hex number. thus, it would not make sence to be considering the two to have a strict numeric logic relationship.

Example: if only you and 15 people understand decimal, how many understand decimal

as you is not a number, but a word, then the operation must consider both you and 15 to be words, and the AND in question to be an operator between two words. (Note, numeric representations of values are words. 2 and two mean precisely the same thing, and both are words [symbols used to represent a concept] A numeric expression can be treated as both a number and as a word, but not all words can be treated as numbers)

now, if we were working with a base 35 or higher numeric system, then y, o, and u would validly translate into numeric expressions, and "you and dead" would consider "you" and "dead" to be numbers, and thus "and" would be an operation between expressions (wherein doubt could be cast between the and or plus operations). however, as we're working in hex you cannot be a number, and thus "and" must be an interaction between words. And the only operation supported by the english language for "and" and either words or numbers/words operations is the "plus" operation.

*does NOT think he's saying this quite right, but hopes he gets hsi point across*

EDIT: mind you, the only reason that you can be interpreted as a number at all is by translating it after the words->number restriction. This also shows a flaw in the question, ans "you" is rather undefined, able to indicate both a single entity, as well as a group. In this case, as "you" could be indicating the entirity of the UH forumites, it could actually represent a dozen or more.