Image by Hill via Wikimedia Commons

OK I have to admit we had a lot of fun down here at GeekDad Puzzle Central testing out all the solutions you sent in this week. Our random number generating monkey’s had to lend a hand, and the occasional tail, in order to expedite the process. After all that ale I can assure the choice was random as well as our ability to focus on the name of the winner. So it is with bleary blood shot eyes and a headache that would make a cave troll cry I announce this weeks winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate is Drake P. who is a mathematician in training.

So to recap the story so far we have a tired inn keeper and two hobbits who refuse to leave unless they get two pints to go. The inn keeper has:

• A 4 Pint container
• A 5 Pint Container
• 2 Full 40 Pint Kegs

Here’s how he did it ….

1. Fill 5P from K1
2. Fill 4P From 5P
3. Empty 4P into K1
4. Fill 5P from K1
5. Fill 4P from 5P This leaves 2 Pints in the 5P container
6. Empty 4P into K1
7. Fill 4P from K2
8. Top off K1 from 4P leaving 2 Pints in the 4 P Container
9. Give the hobbits their drinks and get some shut eye

Thanks to everyone who participated in this weeks puzzle. Dave Banks is preparing another brain busting workout for next week so stay tuned. I’m going to sleep this weeks puzzle off, if I live through this I swear I will never write another puzzles involving ale for the rest of my life … yeah right.

Image by Hill via Wikimedia Commons

OK I have to admit we had a lot of fun down here at GeekDad Puzzle Central testing out all the solutions you sent in this week. Our random number generating monkey’s had to lend a hand, and the occasional tail, in order to expedite the process. After all that ale I can assure the choice was random as well as our ability to focus on the name of the winner. So it is with bleary blood shot eyes and a headache that would make a cave troll cry I announce this weeks winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate is Drake P. who is a mathematician in training.

So to recap the story so far we have a tired inn keeper and two hobbits who refuse to leave unless they get two pints to go. The inn keeper has:

• A 4 Pint container
• A 5 Pint Container
• 2 Full 40 Pint Kegs

Here’s how he did it ….

1. Fill 5P from K1
2. Fill 4P From 5P
3. Empty 4P into K1
4. Empty 5P into 4P
5. Fill 5P from K1
6. Fill 4P from 5P This leaves 2 Pints in the 5P container
7. Empty 4P into K1
8. Fill 4P from K2
9. Top off K1 from 4P leaving 2 Pints in the 4 P Container
10. Give the hobbits their drinks and get some shut eye

Thanks to everyone who participated in this weeks puzzle. Dave Banks is preparing another brain busting workout for next week so stay tuned. I’m going to sleep this weeks puzzle off, if I live through this I swear I will never write another puzzles involving ale for the rest of my life … yeah right.

Image by Hill via Wikimedia Commons

It’s closing time at the Prancing Pony and the inn keeper is trying to get his last two customers to go home. Merry and Pippin refuse to go without one last drink. If they weren’t such good friends of Gandalf they would be out on their little hobbit butts. To avoid any trouble the inn keeper gets them to agree to take their drinks to go. The hobbits each pay for two pints to go.

When the inn keeper looks he finds out he has a bit of a problem. He only has two containers to give them to go. He also is down to two full kegs of ale. How is he going to give each of them two pints when all he has is:

• A 4 pint conatiner
• A 5 pint container
• 2 kegs with 40 Pints of ale in each one

Send your solutions to Geekdad Puzzle Central. If your answers is right not only will you be helping a very tired inn keeper, you will have a chance at winning a $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate. They have cool Lord Of The Rings stuff too.

Image by Flickr user random letters'

I have a huge bookcase. It’s stacked with trinkets and framed photos, Photoshop reference books and tons of O’Reilly guides. There are books I’ve read and ones I’m planning on getting to … one day. But the bulk of my bookcase is devoted to my true love: comics.

In the center, are five first editions from some of my most favorite comics, which I’ve had bound in different colors of soft, Corinthian leather. (What can I say? I’m obsessive.) Assigning each book a letter to identify them, the books are of two different heights, with three standing a little shorter – books B, C & E. Then, books A &D are taller than the others. These books are placed in the following order on my shelf: A, B, C, D, E. Need some more info?

1. Y: The Last Man is taller than the one in the red leather, which is next to and left of The Walking Dead.

2. The book in the black leather is farther left than Northlanders, but farther right than Preacher.

3. Punisher has green leather and is a different size than the book in blue leather, which is farther right than Punisher, but farther left than the book with brown leather.

With these hints, can you identify – from A to E – the color and title of each comic book? Email your solution by Friday at 10:00 pm EST for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from ThinkGeek!

Image by Flickr user mharrsch.

Greetings Ferengi Business Kindergarten applicants. After reviewing millions – well, hundreds, but who’s counting besides me – of applications and using the latest in random number generator technology, the wired monkeys with dice again. The winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate is Lawrence Walton who used our friend algebra to get the correct answer of 24 Bars of gold pressed latinum

Puzzle:
Nog has one bar, three cubes and twelve marbles all made of the same precious metal. He also has a balance scale to weigh the items. Here are the results of two of his weighings

1. When he has the bar and three cubes on the left and twelve marbles on the right the scale is balanced.<br 2. When he has the bar on the left and 1 cube and eight marbles on the right the scale is balanced.

He knows the bar is worth 9 bars of gold pressed Latinum by weight. How much is everything worth all together?

Lawrence’s solution to the puzzle:
If we let x = the bar, y = a cube, and z = a marble then we have the following:

So, the total value of everything is 24 bars of gold pressed Latinum (9 + 3(1) + 12(1) = 24).

Thanks to everyone who played this week. I don’t know know what Dave Banks has in store for you, but down here in Geekdad Puzzle Central I can hear him laughing maniacally in his cell … I mean cubicle.

Image by Flickr user mharrsch.

Greetings Ferengi Business Kindergarten applicants. After reviewing millions – well, hundreds, but who’s counting besides me – of applications and using the latest in random number generator technology, the wired monkeys with dice again. The winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate is Lawrence Walton who used our friend algebra to get the correct answer of 24 Bars of gold pressed latinum

Puzzle:
Nog has one bar, three cubes and twelve marbles all made of the same precious metal. He also has a balance scale to weigh the items. Here are the results of two of his weighings

1. When he has the bar and three cubes on the left and twelve marbles on the right the scale is balanced.<br 2. When he has the bar on the left and 1 cube and eight marbles on the right the scale is balanced.

He knows the bar is worth 9 bars of gold pressed Latinum by weight. How much is everything worth all together?

Lawrence’s solution to the puzzle:
If we let x = the bar, y = a cube, and z = a marble then we have the following:

So, the total value of everything is 24 bars of gold pressed Latinum (9 + 3(1) + 12(1) = 24).

Thanks to everyone who played this week. I don’t know know what Dave Banks has in store for you, but down here in Geekdad Puzzle Central I can hear him laughing maniacally in his cell … I mean cubicle.

Image by Flickr user mharrsch.

This weeks puzzle is so easy a child could do it. At least a Ferengi child should have no problem.  This little puzzle is part of the entrance to Ferengi Business Kindergarten. Give it a shot and you may just win a $50.00 gift certificate from Thinkgeek.

Remember the 74th rule of acquisition “Knowledge is profit”.

Nog has one bar, three cubes and twelve marbles all made of the same precious metal. He also has a balance scale to weigh the items. Here are the results of two of his weighings.

1. When he has the bar and three cubes on the left and twelve marbles on the right the scale is balanced.
2. When he has the bar on the left and 1 cube and eight marbles on the right the scale is balanced.

He knows the bar is worth 9 bars of gold pressed Latinum by weight. How much is everything worth all together.

Email the correct answer to Geek Dad Puzzle Central for your chance to win.

Photo by Benutzer:Priwo used under Creative Commons License

Ken, Matt, Dave, and Curtis got their kids together for a play date. The dads dressed their kids in their finest geek t-shirts. The kids brought along their favorite building toys and had a great time building different things. See if you can match The dads to the kids and the kids to their shirts, toys and what they built. Email your solution by Friday at 10:00 pm EST for a chance to win a $50 gift certificate from ThinkGeek!

1. Ken and his boy Anakin, who was not wearing the “Child Process” shirt did not bring Tinker Toys. The child with the LED shirt made a DNA Molecule.

2. Ender whose dad was not Matt wasn’t wearing the Superman shirt and did not build a submarine. Curtis’s Child did not own a “Han Shot First Shirt” and decided to leave his LEGO’s home.

3. Dave thought the moon rover had more parts than his child’s design but his child’s shirt had more stains than the Superman Shirt that Matt put on his little one.

4. Neither little Issac or Anakin built the moon rover or the space station . Dave did not put the “Hahn Shot First” shirt on his kid but he did pack the Erector Set.

5. The child that built the space ship, who was not Curtis’s wore the “Child Process” shirt.

6. Coraline whose whose dad was not Curtis, brought Capsela but didn’t build a submarine.

Image by Flickr user "sparktography" – used via Creative Commons license.

Congrats to Jeff L. who nets himself a $50 gift certificate from ThinkGeek! Keep reading for his unexpected solution.

Puzzle

Super spy extraordinaire Pedro Vex is in deep trouble. During what was supposed to be a covert operation, he’s just walked into a room full of underpaid henchmen ready to take him down. It’s a set-up! Pedro stands in the doorway and prepares to fight. He quickly takes a mental inventory of the position of the henchmen, their weapons and any visual weaknesses. He also wonders how a spy of his caliber can fall into such a trap. He only has seconds before battle, these are his split second observations. Can you determine the position of each idiot in the room, their weakness and their weapon?

The sleeping henchman is not standing by the file cabinet and he’s not holding a katana.
The henchman sitting at the desk isn’t holding a machine pistol.
The henchman who is clearly drunk isn’t standing at all. And he has a battle axe.
The henchman in front of the window isn’t as cross eyed as the guy standing in the middle of the room.
The flipper armed henchman is not holding a mace or standing next to the file cabinet.
The henchman with the katana is standing by the radiator.
The short henchman is not holding a 2×4, neither is the cross-eyed henchman.

Solution

While the solution can be presented in a basic logic chart (there were enough clues and other points of logic to build the table with the use of keen powers of deduction) Jeff had a completely different, though logically correct solution, which is presented in full below the chart. He also was kind enough to include his own completely geeky illustration of the puzzle solution.

Solution Logic Grid

Jeff’s solution

Okay, quite simply, this puzzle deals with concrete facts and assumptions that are irrelevant. Simply because someone is NOT holding a mace, for example, doesn’t mean a mace IS being held by anyone. It could be a herring, or a dolphin, or any other equally-proficient bludgeoning instrument; all we know is that it is not being held… possibly not present at all! Whoa.

Without further ado, below please find the aesthetically-pleasing graphic illustration that melds all known factors from the eyes of Pedro Vex into one cohesive, accurate solution of the puzzle at hand (explanation follows illustration):

The questions requiring answers and those answers in short, are:

1. Can you determine the position of each idiot in the room? YES.
2. Can you determine said idiot(s)’s weakness? YES, given a degree of assumption.
3. Can you determine their weapon? Of the henchmen, YES, but not that of Pedro Vex.

1. The position of each idiot. There are two possibilities, or, everyone is an “idiot”:

a) From the eyes of Pedro Vex, we ASSUME the “idiots” are the two henchmen, although the intellect of the henchmen were never given, suffice to say being drunk and asleep isn’t the best method for ambushing and taking-out a super spy extraordinaire. ASSUMING the idiots are the henchmen, one is asleep in front of the window at the desk under a window, drunk, and the other is standing in the middle of the room by a radiator.

b) From the eyes of the henchmen, clearly the “idiot” is Pedro Vex as he has fallen into such a trap – sprung by a drunkard and a cross-eyed evil-doer, nonetheless. The only conceit is that Pedro is either “standing in a doorway” or “he’s just walked into a room,” which appears to be a logical fallacy. However, for the sake of argument and a potential unreliable narrator we’ll say Pedro has “just walked into (the) room” allowing him to be a potential idiot as he is in the room.

2. Determining the idiot(s)’s weakness. (Following the same rubric established in question one:)

a) From the eyes of Pedro Vex, the chief weakness of the henchman in the center of the room, Jimmay, we’ll call him, is that he is cross-eyed. Timmay, of course, is both drunk and asleep at the desk, thus he is presently combat ineffective. Intellectually, they are idiots since they are but mere underpaid henchmen – opposed to crime bosses or crime lords or something equally savvy.

b) From the eyes of the henchmen, the chief weakness of Pedro Vex is both his ineptitude for falling into traps and wearing a ridiculous costume which would constrict movement, to say nothing of not allowing him to maintain an espionage persona, unless his cover is a Dragon Con attendee.

3. Determine their weapon.

a) Jimmay is holding a katana. Timmay has a battle axe.

b) Pedro: we are not given sufficient information to determine if he is armed.

The meat of the matter.

To substantiate the illustration above, artistic license notwithstanding, we deduce what we know from we do NOT know. Again, simply because someone is not standing by a file cabinet does not mean that someone is standing by a file cabinet. Hell, we can only assume a file cabinet is present at all. This is just fluff, trying to throw us critical thinkers off the scent. For grins, we’ll keep the cabinet but only because the pet headcrab likes to hang-out up there. Take away message: cull the fluff from the substance. What we know for certain is that there are AT LEAST TWO HENCHMEN that are armed at two separate parts of the room. All else is unsubstantiated speculation.

Jimmay, the cross-eyed henchman is standing in the center of the room next to a radiator, holding a katana. His position, disposition, description, etc., are all substantiated by the following numbered bullets (reference below): #1 (he isn’t asleep), #4 (he is cross eyed guy standing in the middle of the room and he is not the henchman in front of a window), #5 (either has a flipper for an arm or is armed with a flipper… unclear, possible… but again, not concrete and allows for a flipper and katana weapon as both can be operated with one arm each, perhaps), #6 (the henchman with the katana standing by the radiator)

Timmay is the drunkard in the chair, fast asleep at the desk which is positioned underneath a window. This claim is substantiated by the following numbered bullets: #1 (sleeping), #1 (not standing), #1 (not holding a katana), #2 (sitting at the desk), #2 (not holding a machine pistol), #3 (clearly drunk, not standing at all, has battle axe), #4 (in front of window, not as cross eyed as guy in middle of room, so there is a guy in the middle of the room), #5 (either has a flipper for an arm or is armed with a flipper… unclear, possible… but again, not concrete and allows for a flipper and battle axe weapon as both can be operated with one arm each, depending on model of the axe… and flipper), #7 (not holding a 2×4… but also isn’t holding the grand canyon or a lightsaber; worthless information aside from the fact that he isn’t the cross-eyed henchman, of course)

Given information:
1. The sleeping henchman is not standing by the file cabinet and he’s not holding a katana
2. The henchman sitting at the desk isn’t holding a machine pistol
3. The henchman who is clearly drunk isn’t standing at all. And he has a battle axe.
4. The henchman in front of the window isn’t as cross eyed as the guy standing in the middle of the room.
5. The flipper armed henchman is not holding a mace or standing next to the file cabinet.
6. The henchman with the katana is standing by the radiator.
7. The short henchman is not holding a 2×4, neither is the cross-eyed henchman.

In sum, the logic fits the puzzle and is not speculative. There are only two henchmen for certain in the room.

Stay tuned next week for another fun puzzle!