Richard Wiseman's Blog, page 13

It’s Friday Puzzle!

If you are up at the Edinburgh Festival, I shall be talking about the strange science of sleep and dreaming on August 14th.  Do come along, much fun will be had. Details here.

Here is this weeks puzzle.  Two cyclists are racing around a circular track.  Jon can race around the track in 6 minutes and Eric can race round in 4 minutes.  They start the race on opposite sides of the track.  How many minutes will it take before Eric overtakes Jon?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

If you are coming to the Edinburgh Festival, I am performing ‘And the goat remained a goat‘, with musicians The Creative Martyrs at 5pm each day in the Voodoo Rooms. There will be amazing magic, creepy music, rare film footage, and several paranormal happenings (photo by Gordon Rutter).

So, to the puzzle.  On Friday I set this puzzle…..

Can you create a 10-digit number, where the first digit is how many zeros in the number, the second digit is how many 1s in the number etc. until the tenth digit which is how many 9s in the number.

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else, the answer is after the break.

One answer is 6210001000 – did you come up with any others?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

First, a little plug. If you are coming to the Edinburgh Festival, I am performing a show ‘And the goat remained a goat‘, with musicians The Creative Martyrs (‘darker than the inside of a bowler hat’) at 5pm in the Voodoo Rooms. Based on the real-life adventures of 1930s psychic investigator Harry Price, there will be prestidigitation, creepy music, rare film footage, and paranormal happenings. Here is a photo from one of the lighter moments in the show…

OK, onto the puzzle. Can you create a 10-digit number, where the first digit is how many zeros in the number, the second digit is how many 1s in the number etc. until the tenth digit which is how many 9s in the number.

Solution on Monday!

Photo by Gordon Rutter.

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

On Friday I posted this puzzle.

I have just made this video containing 10 bets that you will almost win (kinda).  About 1 min in I present one of my favourite puzzles – the vanishing square.

You can download your own version of the puzzle here.

So, the puzzle is….why does a square seem to vanish?

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

The following video explains the puzzle, albeit with a slightly different set of shapes.  Basically, the top shape is not an exact triangle, and so when the pieces are rearranged, the area that makes up the ‘missing’ square are redistributed in a different way.  Did you solve it?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

 

A very different type of puzzle this week.  I have just made this video containing 10 bets that you will almost win (kinda).  About 1 min in I present one of my favourite puzzles – the vanishing square.

You can download your own version of the puzzle here.

So, the puzzle is….why does a square seem to vanish?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Answer to the Friday Puzzle!

On Friday I set this puzzle…

Imagine the Earth is perfectly circular and has a circumference of 24,000 miles.  If you had a piece of rope stretched around it, touching the floor, that rope would also be 24,000 miles long. If you were to add 3 feet to that rope and then make it hover above the ground until it’s a perfect circle again, approximately how far off the ground would it get?

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break….

 

The rope would raise 6 inches off the ground if you added 3 feet to it! Can anyone explain why and what is surprising about this answer?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Here is a lovely puzzle sent to me by Ashley F.  Solution on Monday.

Imagine the Earth is perfectly circular and has a circumference of 24,000 miles.  If you had a piece of rope stretched around it, touching the floor, that rope would also be 24,000 miles long. If you were to add 3 feet to that rope and then make it hover above the ground until it’s a perfect circle again, approximately how far off the ground would it get?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Answer to the Friday Puzzle…

On Friday I posted this puzzle…..

What do the following words have in common?

DEFT

FIRST

CALMNESS

CANOPY

LAUGHING

STUPID

HIJACK

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

Each of the words has 3 consecutive letters from the alphabet! Did you solve it?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Solution on Monday.

What do the following words have in common?

DEFT

FIRST

CALMNESS

CANOPY

LAUGHING

STUPID

HIJACK

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Bug video

David B sent me this and it is rather curious – anyone know why the bug is avoiding the line?