NeoPets Riddles (Lenny Conundrums) and Answers Here

fuzzy math
The answer I came to was 22.07.

What I did was made an excel spreadsheet and figured out how much surface space was taken when each level including the tops of that level was covered with sand. At the level where the 66 blocks level is covered I came at just under the target number of 12616.8676 so I then divided the remainder (82.1881) by 65*65*.97 to get the height of the sand on the 65 block level(.0200). So then to finish it off I took the number of blocks high covered by the sand(35) * .63m tall(22.05) and then added the .02 for 22.07

I wouldn't put too much faith in my work though because I have two little boys and a football game that were constantly interrupting my train of thought... :wink:

Fuzzier math
Oops I forgot a second .97 in my 65*65*.97

Now I'm getting a headache...
Looking back at the whole 65 * 65 * .97 * .97 I'm not sure what I was even thinking. I think it should have been 4 * 65 * .97. Which means I should add .328 to 22.05 for an answer of 22.38 (rounded up).

And with that I'll stop posting before I find even more stuff wrong with my math.

So the moral of the story is... don't trust my answer.

I got 22.38 as well.

Count me as a third vote for 22.38

Eh.... >.> I deleted this

tops
my question is do we think logically about this in that the tops of more then just the lower levels would be covered by sand? for example the top block would have sand on it and the levels below that as well.

So should we figure the surface covered as being the tops of all blocks subtracted from the total surface covered and then work our way up to determine the level were the sand stops?

I also got 22.38

My calculations were helped by the fact that I had missed the trick whereby you could get the top surface areas of the pyramid by just working out the area in effect of the bottom layer, instead I had done the last one by working out the exposed surface area for each layer as I went along! Felt a bit then, but glad of it now!

I still had my excel spreadsheet from last time so just adapted it. I had already worked out the surface area of each layer [(area of four sides) + (the area of the top of the layer) - (the area of the top of the layer above it)]. I simply then worked out the % of the total surface area for each layer and added the % area values up starting at the bottom. This gave me

Layer | # blocks per side | total % area
35 | 66 | 57.62217961
36 | 65 | 58.91055025

So therefore the sand comes to between layer 35 & 36, layer 35 will be 35*.63=22.05m high. I then increased the height 1cm at a time adding on the increase in surface area by going up 1cm of layer 36 and hence working out the % surface area covered, leading to my answer

I don't know about everyone else, but I only got 871 np...

Ah, there's proof that they haven't gotten their act together yet [must be too busy with this plot nonsense]. 2,000,000 / 871 = ~2296 per person. So it was actually 2296 people got it right for 871 each, and 7252 liters does NOT equal 752 litres

*sigh* I shouldn't complain, though... I got the prize

and the asnwer?
so what it the answer? :wink:

anyone know?

That shouldn't have been very hard in Excel, no reason to feel stupid about it. Anyway, there are still closed form ways to calculate all the covered surface areas.

If the sand's height is H, then L = floor(H/.63) is the number of levels completely covered. The first (partially) uncovered level is B=(100-L) blocks to a side. D=H-.63L is how high the sand is on that level.

tops = (.97)^2 * (100^2 - (B)^2)
sides = (.63)(.97)*4*(100+B+1)(100-B)/2
partial side = (D)(.97)*4*B

H = 22.38
L = 35
B = 65
D = .33

tops = 5433.6975
sides = 7100.982
partial side = 83.226
total covered area = 12617.9055
percentage = 100*12617.9055/21753.22 = 58.00477%

in meters?

nevermind

I put 22.38 and just got a neomail saying I won.

Dear Tiffany,

Congratulations! You have guessed correctly in the Lenny Conundrum game (round 133). You have won 2151 NP!

Yours Sincerely,
The Neopets Team!

Dear Tiffany,

Congratulations! You have guessed correctly in the Lenny Conundrum game (round 133). You have won 2151 NP!

Because you were in the first 250 to guess correctly, you also have been awarded a Sand Blade, and receive a trophy and the Lenny Conundrum avatar!

Yours Sincerely,
The Neopets Team!

Got similar e-mail too - just the neopoints for me unfortunately... but still

Seems strange though that they have ended it on a wednesday, have they done that before? Not been having a go at it for long overall, and has always been thursday before

Having got the neopoints though, I'm not complaining

I think they only just recently slipped later into the week for the Conundrum. I think Wednesday had been the regular day for some time before. I could be wrong, though....

Eliz.

round 133
i put in 22.28 and i got it right,,,but i only got the neopoints,,i was too late,,sadly

As far back as I can remember, it's always been Thursdays [if at all!!!], but they tend to operate on their own weird interdimensional time schedule as it is