The worlds first riddle!

Ain't a lot of zeros in that number -- and if I remember my factorial tables (have one around here somewhere!) -- after about 30! the zeros at the end start to really add up.

Is that it?

For the clock one you need 3 segments because 78/4=19.5.
So, draw one line from below the 11 to below the 2 giving a top segment of 26 (11,12,1,2). Then draw a line from above the 8 to above the 5 giving you a mid segment of 26 (10,9,3,4) and a lower segment of 26 (8,7,6,5).

Dats whats I gets too.

OK then, this factorial 50 business is a bit too much like real maths for my liking but heres what I'm thinking.

The last real number in any factorial has to be a multiple of 2, except of course factorial 1. The last real number in Try's string is a 7, therefore that is not factorial 50. In fact it is not factorial anything... I think.

Looks like you have been on that wine already! The names, I can assure you were chosen at random. :wink: Both the barrel and clock were correct. For anyone else following these wild ramblings the full workings are;

All of the numbers on the clock add up 78. 78 divides by 3 evenly but not 4 meaning that there must be 3 sections each adding up to 26. So the 2 lines can not intersect.
Now, since we have 2 lines crossing the clock, either they will meet at a point between two numbers, dividing the clock into 3 segments of contiguous numbers, or the 2 lines do not meet meaning that there will be 2 contiguous segments and one with numbers on either side of the clock. So we at least must have 2 contiguous groups. Now to find them.
Starting at 1 does not work because 1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28. 2 no because 2+3+4+5+6+7=27. 3 no because 3+4+5+6+7+8=33. 4 no because 4+5+6+7+8=30. 5 YES because 5+6+7+8=26. 6 no because 6+7+8+9=30. 7 no because 7+8+9+10=34. 8 no because 8+9+10=27. 9 no because 9+10+11=30. 10 no because 10+11+12=33. 11 YES because 11+12+1+2=26. 12 no because 12+1+2+3+4+5=27.
So there are only 2 contiguous sequences which add up to 26. 5+6+7+8 and 11+12+1+2. Drawing a line below the 11 on the left over to below the 2 on the right and a line above the 8 on the left to above the 5 on the right divides these two sequences out. It leaves the numbers 9+10+3+4 in the 3rd group which add up to 26.

I will leave you with;

A solo dice game is played thusly: each turn, a normal pair of dice is rolled. The score is calculated by taking the product, rather than the sum, of the two numbers shown on the dice.

On a particular game, the score for the second roll is five more than the score for the first; the score for the third roll is six less than that of the second; the score for the fourth roll is eleven more than that of the third; and the score for the fifth roll is eight less than that of the fourth.

What was the score for each of these five throws

50!: The last digit would have to be a 5.

To avoid any confusion the result is as follows;

Question.
Is it possible to reason why
304140932017133780436126081660647688443776415689605120782910270000
Cannot possibly be the value of 50 factorial, without actually performing the calculation.?

Answer.
50 factorial includes, as factors, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50.
Therefore, the value of 50 factorial must end in at least five zeroes. The number given only ends in four zeroes. The correct value of 50 factorial is close to this, however. It's 30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000

Easy peasy. :wink:

First roll = 10
Second roll = 15
Third roll = 9
Fourth roll = 20
Fifth roll = 12

Edit: Well, my guess was well wrong.

dice: 4; 9; 3; 20; 12 would do it.

50! Whoopps! I rushed it and took it as the SUM of the numbers up to 50.

I have however the perfect excuse. I am a registered idiot.

I cannot get over that I actually made a guess about 50! that ended up being close to the answer.

Hooray!

Might want to check your dice rolls one more time too. (Good natured chuckle, good natured chuckle.)

Oh, and welcome Lacomus. Hope you like the place.

edited to correct spelling of Lacomus.

I sent you my solution and reasoning for the car average speed puzzle by PM.


Working on the other one.

Does any of this really matter?

Oops; that wasn't a comment; that was my answer to the riddle!

I just sent you my solution to the clock problem also.

Boy, I hope I am right on these.

I feel like a genius.

Frank, that about as close as you're going to get!
enjoy it

The last question comes in three parts.

1) On a man's tombstone, it is said that one sixth of his life was spent in childhood and one twelfth as a teenager. One seventh of his life passed between the time he became an adult and the time he married; five years later, his son was born. Alas, the son died four years before he did. He lived to be twice as old as his son did.

How old did the man live to be


2) While vacationing in Puzzland, you return to your hotel room to discover that you have been robbed. All of your possessions you were not carrying have been stolen- your wallet, cash, souvenirs, everything.

You report the theft to the concierge who, after he finishes laughing, demands that you vacate your room immediately, since you cannot pay for a longer stay.

"Well I'll simply wire my family for the funds," you reply.

"Ha-ha!" the ever-jovial concierge continues, "This week is fête week in Puzzland all businesses except hotels and bars are closed. You will not be able to receive any money for seven days. Since it is hotel policy to not extend credit, you'll have to leave."

In desperation, you search your pockets for some form of currency. At last, you realize you are wearing a precious solid-gold bracelet given to you by your long-lost love.

"Here, this gold bracelet has seven links. Each link is easily worth enough to pay for a night in your hotel."

After examining in the bracelet he replies, "Fine. I'll take the bracelet as collateral until you can pay in full."

Already severely unimpressed with his manners and now beginning to suspect he might have had a hand in the disappearance of the rest of your belongings you pause, "No. I will only let you have as much collateral as you are due on any given day. Today you may have one link, tomorrow two, the next day three, until the week is up when you will have all seven. Then I will return to pay in full and retrieve my bracelet."

This agreed to, you prepare to cut the bracelet. Considering its high emotional-value, you want to do as little damage as possible so it may be easily repaired.

What is the fewest number of cuts you can make so the hotel may hold onto all the collateral they need, but no more, with method.?


3) "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen- core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface."
- From Finnegan's Wake, by James Joyce

Who could forget the opening to James Joyce's postmodern classic, Finnegan's Wake? Probably a lot more people than could claim to understand it. Written in a combination of English, Gaelic, and fictional words, strung together in a stream of unconsciousness, the work is almost completely inaccessible to all but the most tenacious scholars.

If you go through Joyce and Pynchon like Reader's Digest, try out this excerpt from another classic:


"Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
Wan moaning, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset. "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groinmurder hoe lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper laundry wrote! Dun stopper peck floors! Dun daily-doily inner florist, an yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet strainers !"
"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle basking an stuttered oft. Honor wrote tutor cordage offer groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof. " Wail, wail, wail ! " set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?"
"Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."
"O hoe! Heifer gnats woke," setter wicket woof, butter taught tomb shelf, "Oil tickle shirt court tutor cordage offer groin-murder. Oil ketchup wetter letter, an den - O bore!"

What is the name of this classic

I've sent you my solutions for the first and third puzzles by PM.

I'll simply say this for the 2nd puzzle:

I can do it with one cut.