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Paul Erdös was a prolific mathematician who published over 1500 papers. The Erdös numbers measure how mathematicians collaborate. Erdös had an Erdös number of 0. Mathematicians who co-authored a paper with Erdös received an Erdös number of 1, their co-authors who didn't co-author with Erdös got a number of 2 and so on.
Across 1. Brake heard during a take (5) Down 2. A servant remains when a son leaves a troubled US president (4) Warning: There is a trick that can be used to solve both of these clues that I don't think I have seen in other cryptics. Hint
Where do I go and what do I do? This is not a true story So, it turns out I'm not very good at this spy training stuff... I've been passing all the tests (thanks to the PSE community!) but this latest test has me stumped! For my latest spy training, I have been sent to a University campus and told to go to the cafe and
Bored of games with an ID number? Want to stop collecting points? Sick of being told the plan? Tired of "give wool to the weaver, get a suit (or coats)"? Here's a tip, a dot of code to wow your mother: try to plow the fuzzy green stuff in our latest release . Swoop in! There's lots; it's a top period to do a job. And i
This puzzle challenges players to deduce the precise alignment of a linear sequence (displayed in the cartouche) mapped into a continuous circle. Because displaying the exact numerical terms directly on the wheel would leave no challenge, the sequence values are expressed algebraically. The primary objective is to prov
The magic of flags As with all of my [story] based puzzles, the story here is entirely fictional. There may be some truths lurking in places, but that is not part of the puzzle. The Melbourne branch of the International Association of Vexillological Associations (yes, such an organization does exist ) arranged a tour o
I'm sharing another puzzle idea. It's played on a grid. The goal is to draw rectangles using lines that connect the centers of some cells following the following rules: Rectangles could be of any size Perpendicular lines can cross but not turn on intersections Numbers indicate how many orthogonally adjacent cells conta
This story is completely ficticious. I wrote it. I have used a mixed format, script-like and story-like, only because I thought it would be easier to identify the speakers. The Meeting At The Table They came together in a smoke-filled room, thrust together for the latest phase of an ongoing concern. Each of the four to
This is a generalization of this question and this one . In those cases, 100 zebras were trying to escape from either 1 lion, or a group of 100 lions, on an infinite plane. In both cases, and those below, the Lions and the Zebras act as two teams. First the Lions choose their positions freely on the plane, then the Zeb
We saw in a beautiful recent question by @Bubbler how to tile some rectangles with copies (including rotations and flips) of a hook, i.e., the four-celled polyplet shown below. Sadly, some rectangles can’t be tiled with hooks : these are the 8k × 3 and 8k × 5 grids for any positive integer k. That made me wonder if the
Imagine a door in front of you, but it requires a 9 digit code to open. There is a panel of 1’s and 0’s in a 3x3 grid. 1 means ON, 0 means OFF. Your goal is to make them all 0’s. The following grid represents the panel: 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 Determine the code to unlock the door by which digit, between 1 or 0, is used each
Consider the following sequence: 000000001 = 1 000000010 = 7 000000100 = 13 000001000 = 19 000010000 = 25 000100000 = 31 001000000 = 37 010000000 = 43 100000000 ≠ 49 So… 100000000 = ? What number should replace the question mark, and why?
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