The worlds first riddle!

Craven

With all due respect, the Nazis were somewhat more than heavy handed.

Labelling a piece of flowery speech - flowery speech of no great relevance or consequence either - as a lie; that, IMHO, comes closer to what heavy handed means.

But that, of course, is only my opinion.

I think you operate with a different meaning of "lie" than I do.

The riddle was a lie. The "answer" to the "riddle" was that it was a lie.

If that's "heavy handed" then calling a spade a spade is as well.

craven

I have already expressed my opinion and feel there is nothing I can add to it or detract from it, so as far as I am concerned there is little point in continuing this exchange.

I thought the whole "heavy handed" bit was pointless to begin, so I agree, of course.

Craven

At least we are agreed on "I thought the whole "heavy handed" bit was pointless to begin" though I suspect we are each reading diffent thuings into those words.

We are then agreed I think, without differing interpretations, that the subject is closed.

Better forgotten too IMHO.

In an effort to make amends for inadvertently causing a degree of confusion, may I propose a diversion that will exacerbate the situation:

‘Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted’
-Albert Einstein (1879-1935)

I have four faces in a vertical row.
Each face with a letter on it faces south.
Read downwards they spell WARY.
A ring of teeth surrounds every face.
From the top they have,
22, 35,143 and 39 teeth respectively.
Each is joined to its neighbour.
The problem is my name is MARY.

The question is how many times does the largest face have to revolve before my name is spelt correctly.

I think you guys are reading animosity where there is none. That's what I was getting at earlier when I said we interpret "lie" differently.

To me "lie" is not value laden. Every human is a liar or will be if they grow old enough to communicate. What one lies about is what's important and a tricky riddle that deceives is not an issue to me.

In short I have no beef with you guys. The talk of putting it behind us makes it sound so much more serious than it is. ;-)

Tryagain, well done! That was very clever.

Now for your second one;
The largest face is the R with 143 teeth. The minimum number of turns needed in order to get the M is 105. This gives 682.5 turns of the W leaving you with an M, 429 turns of the A and 385 turns of the Y.

Another good one! Keep 'em coming.

You hung me up for a minute there, but the answer is 12,705

Nice try Adrian, but no coconut.

‘Each is joined to its neighbour’….. Turn one and they all turn.
The question is how many times does the largest face have to revolve before my name is spelt correctly.

Do tryagain.

Hi Bill,

Take another minute, you are way too high. :wink:

You are right, as usual Adrian. Some how I passed the correct answer 121 times! When attempting to reduce my answer; somehow I forgot to check the prime #11, or I would have come up with your answer. Damn it. Good Job! Obviously I couldn't remember how to write the formula, so I opted for multiplying and then reducing by prime #s
May I see your formula?

Tryagain, I think my answer is correct. The ring surrounding the R is the biggest with 143 teeth, that ring needs to turn 105 times to leave you with MARY. If I am wrong can you please explain why. (I'm interested.)

Bill, I am crap at maths. I don't use formulas if I can avoid it. I just looked for multiples of 143 that ended in a 5 and divided by 22,35,39 till I got the right answer. (Well I THINK it's right, Tryagain doesn't.)

Now I'm really confused. How could Adrian's answer (105) be wrong? His answer aligns everything correctly and the answer can not be reduced because there is no common denominator. It has to be correct. The answer is: 105

I haven't run any of the calculations but are you sure the other letters are lined up?

And do you understand what Tryagain means when he says "facing south"?

I won't be tackling this one but maybe that'll help you.

Okie Dokie......

I make it 105 turns of the largest wheel, but if anyone thinks they have a better answer . . .

My reply was written without reading the more recent posts so I think it therefore counts as being an independant confirmation of Adrian's answer.

I have checked the figures and I don't see how Tryagain can disagree with it. 105 times 143 gives 15015, which is the lowest common denominator of 143, 39, and 35, and which also divides by 11 an odd number of times.

Only one thing is for sure, and that is we all can not be right.
Therefore, before I hurl the P.H.D. in the bin, I give you my
Answer. If we still do not agree, I will print the formula. :wink:

‘Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted’
-Albert Einstein (1879-1935)


My answer is the year of Einstein’s death minus 1920.

Einstein died in 1955. 1955 minus 1920 is 35.

If the largest wheel rotatates 35 times that will mean 5005 'tooth steps' took place. (35 times 143)

This implies that the wheel with 39 teeth has rotated 128 AND A THIRD times, which hardly qualifies as all of the letters being aligned, does it? (Excuse the upper case letters but I wouldn't know how to do italics here)

I could give you the factorial argument, where all of the factors reduce to 3, 5, and 7. Your 35 ignores the 3 whereas Adrian's answer is precisely 3 times 5 times 7. And it is the same 3 that is needed to make the number of rotations of the 39 toothed wheel come out a whole number.

On the other hand, your post - contrary to my recollection - says that Eistein died in 1935. (Google agrees with me BTW) The difference - if 1935 is to be taken as the date of Einstein's death and the large wheel therefore turned 15 times - is that the 7 factor has been ignored rather than the 3 and the 35 toothed wheel does not rotate a whole number of times but rotates 61 AND ONE SEVENTH times.

Of course I have been known to be wrong before!