Questions tagged [puzzle]
Tag for questions meant as a puzzle for the Mathematica.stackexchange.com public or about solving puzzles using Mathematica.
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CRAZY EIGHTS puzzle
The Sunday New York Times magazine has a puzzle, CRAZY EIGHTS such as this:
The goal is to fill in the $4 \times 4$ unfilled squares with letters to make valid 8-letter words reading both ...
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9
votes
1
answer
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JUST SAYING puzzle
The Sunday New York Times magazine has a new puzzle (June 26, 2022), JUST SAYING by Will Shortz, with the following rules:
Change one letter in each word to spell a new word. Then arrange the new ...
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answers Solving puzzles with Mathematica [closed]
Hi, I want to calculate the values of these numbers a, b and c.
The only information I have:
a = √((b-c)²)
b = a * c
c = (a+b)/2
Anyone knows where to begin?
11
votes
3
answers
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"Sit for a spell" graph search
The December 12, 2021 New York Times Magazine puzzle section introduced a new type of word search puzzle, called Sit for a spell. It consists of an undirected graph of 13 vertices labelled by English ...
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4
votes
1
answer
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FindPath with required Edges
Suppose I have a graph g with some edges reqEdges (in the example code here, just one edge). I would like to use ...
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3
votes
1
answer
157
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Solving calculation puzzle [closed]
I recently got asked how to achieve a result of 100 only using the numbers {1,7,7,7,7} (the number 1 can be used only once and ...
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1
vote
2
answers
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Translating MATLAB code into WL code [closed]
I want to solve the following problem by simulation.
There is a bus with 100 labelled seats (labelled from 1 to 100). There are 100 persons standing in a queue. Persons are also labelled from 1 to ...
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9
votes
2
answers
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Solving a rotating combination lock puzzle
The following puzzle appears in The House of da Vinci II and I thought it might be interesting to tackle in Mathematica:
There are numbers marked on four rotating cylinders. These numbers must add up ...
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2
votes
1
answer
75
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Strategies for making a cellular automaton puzzle
I am making a cellular automaton secret message puzzle for my kids, and am looking for help on strategies to make it. I am relatively new to Mathematica, thank you for your help!
The puzzle is a grid ...
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4
votes
1
answer
108
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KenKen Puzzle Helper - Dropping order-less sequences
In the following example, I am generating all the variants of a $9 \times 9$ KenKen puzzle that come in groups of three using addition that result in $18$.
...
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3
votes
3
answers
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Find rules for the similar "Conway's Game of Life", and initial input on an 11x11 torus board. Descripted on the "Puzzel Chalenge IBM May"2020"
I solved on May 2020 this using mma . I am aware of
this command - Cellular automata.
But I can't use it on this challenge, because there's no concept of "Torus" in the CellularAutomaton . ...
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vote
0
answers
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Place the numbers 1-7 in the squares so that each row and columns adds up to the same total [closed]
A F
B D E
C G
A+B+C = B+D+E = F+E+G
Numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
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votes
5
answers
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If someone would want to think about the question: mathematical-optimization "Banknote"
I solved the puzzle of IBM Ponder This September 2019 by my code written with mathematica.
I would like to share this code after the solution that will come as soon, and discuss it.
In the meantime, ...
- 417
4
votes
3
answers
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A sudoku-like collection puzzle
I have a puzzle. I'm given a collection of $n$ lists, all of equal (but arbitrary) length $l$. These lists are made up of 0s and a few filled in numbers, like so:
{ {0, 2}, {0,0}, {6, 0}, {0,0} }
...
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0
votes
0
answers
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Word search puzzles
I saw the entry Solving word search puzzles and I wonder if it is possible to:
Search for words that exist not only in diagonals but that turn like a snake (left, right, up, down)?
Search for all the ...
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4
votes
1
answer
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Linear Integer Programming for solving Sudoku
I have generated sudoku solver using a recursive scheme, however, i wish to find a more mathematica like solution to solving sudoku. I tried using FindInstance but ...
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vote
1
answer
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Jug pouring puzzle in Mathematica
Using two unmarked 5 and 3 gallon jugs, obtain exactly 1 gallons in one of these jugs by filling, pouring, and emptying operations. Assume there is an endless supply of water.
My approach:
I use the ...
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3
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Solving a cryptarithm
This problem appears on the mathematics stackexchange, which I summarize here as:
12 letters (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, k, l, m, n), are used to represent single digits, i.e., {0-9}. Given the ...
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0
votes
2
answers
231
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Puzzle 2: Sum-Till Forty (Something Funny)
I am learning Mathematica because I love it. I also love solving puzzles so I think it would be a nice way to learn Mathematica through puzzles. This is the second puzzle in a series I intend to solve....
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votes
5
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Puzzle — 20 People to consume 20 units of food under constraints
I am learning Mathematica because I love it. I also love solving puzzles so I think it would be a nice way to learn Mathematica through puzzles. This is first puzzle in series I intend to solve.
So ...
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7
votes
2
answers
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Solving puzzle with sum
My dad really likes to play this kind of puzzle. And I've tried to help you get the values to my level of knowledge.
The puzzle looks like this:
The rule is to use numbers from 1 to 9, but it is not ...
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17
votes
4
answers
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Solving chess bishop problem
I have generalized the problem in this way where I have a list
list=Tuples[Range[8],2]
I want to find the largest sublist in which the addition of the two ...
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votes
3
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Crack it if you can? But in the best way
From the Wolfram Community posted by Helen:
A little while ago I was asked to solve this "safe cracker" puzzle, a sweet example of a coffee table puzzle. The basic gist of this puzzle is ...
15
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2
answers
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How to fill a grid make its total be largest
I have a blank grid whose dimension is 5*5.
I want to fill it with some number using 1, 2, 3 and 4. But in every blank space if you fill 2, its neighbor (include four direction, such as left, right, ...
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25
votes
1
answer
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How to divide the wine into two equal portions?
There is a 8-liter bottle is full of wine. There are two empty bottles that have capacity 5-liters and 3-liters. How can these three bottles be used to separate the wine into two 4-liter portions?
...
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18
votes
6
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Puzzle with Mathematica
Hello everyone,
This is a puzzle I got from someone via social media. Basically, we need to fill up the boxes with the numbers 1-9 (no repetitions) that fit the multiplication and addition operations.
...
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2
votes
0
answers
96
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Where do the radicals end?
In an early iteration of this question on the Mathematics SE, the radicals weren't properly formatted, so they only had the √ symbol with no indication of which terms were supposed to be ...
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3
votes
2
answers
304
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Solve the "Cheryl's birthday" puzzle using mathematica
The "Cheryl's birthday" puzzle has been circulating around, the backstory is available via wikipedia. The puzzle itself is reproduced here:
Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and ...
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Twilight Zelda Guardian Puzzle : Shortest Path Proof [closed]
I'm playing a video game right now and in it is a puzzle (see here). There are solutions to solving it (see here) on the Internet, but I'd like to know if this path is the shortest path (least amount ...
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Solving puzzles with Mathematica
I would like to be able to solve logic puzzles such as the one described here using Mathematica.
I have copied & pasted the listed example below to save on jumping about with hyperlinks:
The ...
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36
votes
3
answers
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How many triangles are there?
Some time ago I found a puzzle and it stopped my work until I solved it.
One of the possible solutions:
Let us sum upright and upside down triangles whose top lies in the $i$-th row.
$$
N=\sum_{i=1}^...
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15
votes
3
answers
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Solving the magic backyard puzzle with MMA
I was trying to solve this puzzle using mma
It looks like the generalization of the magic square. Anyway here my attempt:-
There are four columns $(x,y,z,w)$ and nine rowa which are denoted by the ...
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4
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Elegant solution to the Zebra [logic] Puzzle ("Einstein's Riddle")
The famous Zebra Puzzle (Wikipedia), often called "Einstein's Riddle," is a logic puzzle that can be solved deductively by applying a list of logical rules.
One version of the riddle (from Wikipedia) ...
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4
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How many Christmas gifts?
This question is based on the old song, The Twelve Days of Christmas
In a comment made on a recent question, Yves Klett remarked, "no seasonal questions this year?" This reminded me of one I ...
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Insert $+$, $-$, $\times$, $/$, $($, $)$ into $123456789$ to make it equal to $100$
Insert $+$, $-$, $\times$, $/$, $($, $)$ into $123456789$ to make it equal to $100$.
Looks like a question for pupils, right?
In fact, if the available math symbols are limited to addition ($+$), ...
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13
votes
3
answers
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How do we solve N-Rooks variation using primes?
Using a $p_n $x $p_n$ matrix, how can we solve the N-Rooks problem to find a prime in every row and column?
...
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39
votes
3
answers
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Tiling a square
I wondered if there was a way to automate the process of finding a way to tile a tile into a square.
The idea is to represent the tile with a matrix of $0$s for blank space and $1$s for filled spaces ...
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56
votes
2
answers
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How can I calculate a jigsaw puzzle cut path?
I want to generate a path to cut an arbitrary shape into a set of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
All pieces must be unique to preclude placing a piece in the wrong spot.
Pieces must be interlocking such that ...
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votes
4
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Finding all dictionary words that can be made with a given set of characters (Wordfeud/Scrabble)
This is a slightly more involved variant of this recent question. By sheer coincidence I happened to have been building a Wordfeud (Scrabble clone) game in Mathematica.
My interactive Wordfeud board ...
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