NeoPets Riddles (Lenny Conundrums) and Answers Here

Oh, that is so annoying. I've never seen an LC that went off-site like that. Wonder what in the world they were thinking?

And you can't even link to the site from Neopets, according to their terms of service!

much agreed, Lennyfan!

the solution to this week's puzzle is an outrage.
they have never sent us off-site before. and that video was horrible.

i don't understand.
hope they bring back something that actually takes some Thought for the next one.

You know, I've never seen a binary converter or a semaphore guide on the site before.

[/just sayin']

Hmm, interesting comment. Let me see if I can figure out why this feels so different.

I think it has to do with the difference between a puzzle and a riddle. You are right, the puzzles often require knowledge that isn't on the Neopets site. Math formulas are a prime example of this. On the other hand, the riddles almost always have an answer from the Neopets site.

Looking at the last 11 puzzles before this:
401: Semi-random - most common answer to previous LC
402: Finding matching images on Neopets site
403: Finding matching images on Neopets site
404: Hidden image plus finding page on Neopets site
405: Finding pattern on Neopets site
406: Basic math
407: Finding a pattern on the Neopets site
408: Random - guess about something on Neopets site
409: Finding a pattern on the Neopets site
410: Basic math (I'll complain about this one in my next post)
411: Counting letters with a minor unscrambling

Wow, not even much off-site math knowledge required in that collection. But notice how all the riddle type questions depend on the Neopets site.

Thinking back to the semaphore problem, you are right that that one required additional knowledge. I think the difference for me is using the additional knowledge to solve a puzzle as opposed to just looking up an answer somewhere else.

In my previous post, I said I would complain about LC 410. That LC said:

Suppose you only have 10 Neopoints, but you really want a Portable Kiln. How many tosses in "Double or Nothing" must you win in order to be able to afford a Portable Kiln in the Hidden Tower?

A Portable Kiln costs 3,158,000 NP. If you double your money each time, you would have 20 NP after 1 throw, 40 NP after 2 throws, and 5,542,800 NP after 19 throws. This was the answer that they accepted.

The problem is that "Double or Nothing" on Neopets gives a huge advantage to the house. If you start with 10 NP, play one round and quit, you end up with 10 NP on hand. You don't get to 20 NP until after two rounds, so every amount is shifted 1 and it really takes winning 20 rounds to make sufficient to buy the Portable Kiln.

The current prize for the first 250 correct entries is a Kepru.

A frugal Neopian decides to buy a Kepru companion. He pays 5,112 NP for it, and he is very content with his new Petpet. A few months later, though, the value of Kepru has increased to 6,070 NP and he decides to sell it to someone else. A few days later he realises that was a mistake. He really misses the Kepru so he buys it back. Unfortunately he has to pay 6,516 NP to get it back, so he loses 446 NP. After another year of owning the Kepru, he finally decides once and for all to sell it for 7,555 NP and make a tidy profit.

What is his total profit after all is said and done?

Looks like trivial math to me. Of course, you have to ignore the extraneous information.

Wow, not an impressive run for the LC creators recently.
410: Wrong answer accepted
411: Good problem, although very straight-forward solution
412: Off-site answer
413: Trivial math

i agree again, about #410, Lennyfan.

i submitted 20 as well, since i took into consideration the way the game worked.
the answer they accepted was in fact incorrect.

Funny thing - I made an error in my calculations, submitted 19 and got a gold trophy. Realized my mistake shortly after. The one time being too quick to submit paid off.

NOOO. I put "It has a silly name" as my answer. i was like: No way, jose. i won't be cause it's close to us. NO WAy.

But it was.

HEEHEE.

But I'm SURE I did it well this time so like yeah.

The current prize for the first 250 correct entries is a Poogle Races. You will also get a cool trophy that people can see when they do a user lookup on you! And all correct entries will split the 2,000,000 Neopoint prize pool.

THIS WEEKS PUZZLE - ends next Wednesday, most likely

The Neopian Runners Club held a race last Thursday (all proceeds to benefit the PPL). Unfortunately, there's been a bit of a mix up with the results. All the race officials know is that the runner who came in three places in front of the runner who finished last came in two places ahead of the runner who came in seventh. (They're runners, not record keepers.)

How many finished the race? Enter an integer.

This one is even more trivial than last week's.

Last week's answer:

Treat it as two separate transactions. He bought and sold, then bought and sold. On the first transaction, he made 6070 - 5112 = 958 NP. On the second transaction, he made 7555 - 6516 = 1039 NP. 958 + 1039 = 1997 NP. The 446 NP it says he loses is just a red herring.

So 6254 people got the right answer last week. That's the most I've seen in the last 120+ LC's. And this week is even easier, so we ought to be seeing a record high number of solvers and a record low NP award.

Question: Does three places in front of mean three people in between or two people in between, because i took it to mean three. :/

i haven't submitted just yet.

I interpreted three places in front as two people in between. Count 1 person in front, 2 people in front, 3rd person in front.

The current prize for the first 250 correct entries is a Maths Nightmare. You will also get a cool trophy that people can see when they do a user lookup on you! And all correct entries will split the 2,000,000 Neopoint prize pool.

THIS WEEKS PUZZLE - ends next Wednesday, most likely

There is a three-digit number containing three different digits where the first digit plus the number formed by the second and third digits, the first digit multiplied by the number formed by the second and third digits, and the sum of all three digits are all perfect squares.

What is the number? Enter ONLY the number.

Another math problem

do you think it means the sum of the second and third digits when they are "formed" or do you think it could mean placing to numbers by each other. for example 123 when you add 2 and 3 together the number twenty three is formed? this is confusing

For example, 1 + 23

Since no ones posted it yet:

The current prize for the first 250 correct entries is a Adventures In Space. You will also get a cool trophy that people can see when they do a user lookup on you! And all correct entries will split the 2,000,000 Neopoint prize pool.

THIS WEEKS PUZZLE - ends next Wednesday, most likely

As Grimilix makes another trip through space, keeping a vigilant eye out for his missing leader, he happens to glance at the odometer. (Space ships have odometers, okay?!) As of that moment, he'd gone 14,941 billion kilometers. This, of course, is a palindrome. Two hours later, he looked again and the odometer showed a new palindrome.

What was the average speed of the ship, in kilometers, in those two hours?

...
I'm not even bothering with these math ones . :/

Pretty simple math. All the issues were in interpreting the problem.
1. Distance is only a palindrome if you ignore the billion part, so we will work with only the 14941.
2. It was not clearly stated which palindrome was actually visible, so I took a chance and selected the next palindrome. Turns out this was the one they wanted. So the next palindrome was 15051.
3. Taking the difference, 15051 - 14941 = 110.
4. The LC asked for the average speed over two hours. Dividing the 110 by 2 gives 55.
5. Now the issue is how to format the submission. The LC says to submit the average speed in kilometers. Unfortunately, you can't measure speed in kilometers, so I treated this as a typo that should have said kilometers per hour. Since the original statement said that the distance was "14941 billion" kilometers, I submitted my answer as "55 billion," which was accepted as a correct answer.

Going back a couple of weeks, we were looking for a 3-digit number "containing three different digits where the first digit plus the number formed by the second and third digits, the first digit multiplied by the number formed by the second and third digits, and the sum of all three digits are all perfect squares."

So if the number is abc, where a is the first digit, b is the second digit, and c is the third digit, then the conditions say:
a <> 0 (three-digit number)
a <> b, b <> c, c <> a (three different digits)
a + 10 * b + c (first digit plus the number formed by the second and third digits) is a perfect square
a * (10 * b + c) (first digit multiplied by the number formed by the second and third digits) is a perfect square
a + b + c (the sum of all three digits) is a perfect square

There are a number of ways to go about solving this. I used a partial trial and error method. The answer is 916. Checking the perfect squares, you get:
9 + 16 = 25
9 * 16 = 144
9 + 1 + 6 = 16