** chestnut warning ** few quickies (?)

[ctrlaltdel]

i wasn't sure where to post this, because they are really chestnuty puzzles, so as an explanation and an excuse i give you the big picture:

i am going to organize a sort of treasure hunt game in my city where on different places the players will have to solve something and move on to the next stop. i need to know the TIMES it would take them to finish the puzzles, because it will help me organize the whole thing.

knowing all the answers its hard for me to judge the times. so more important to me than solutions (which no doubt you will find) are the times it took you to solve them. if you can put those times in your posts pls. if you know these than don't bother to post stuff like: 0.02 seconds.

oh and one thing... this is NOT a contest!!! so if you put the times (please do!), be sincere about it, anyway i need to know the average not the genius times.

enough chat, here goes:

1. you have 3 matches in one row, 4 matches in the second, and 5 in the third row. two players take turns taking matches. you can take any number of matches from any one row. the player who takes the last match loses. if you are the first to go, what is your winning move?

2. you have 4 beer bottles. arrange them on a table so that each of the corks would be the same distance from any other of the four.

3. 149, 162, 536, 496, x

4. give me one word for each group of colors:
red, yellow, green
black, red
white, black
white, red, black, yellow
white, blue, red (leave this out - slovak flag)
red, white
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet

...ok, thats enuff - the rest is too local/language/culture based...

[Tahnan]

I decided not to try to solve these, mostly because

1. Man, it's Nim again. I can never, ever remember the strategy for Nim.
2. Do you mean "...from any of the other three?" This was enough of a chestnut that, assuming the answer is <put three in an equilateral triangle and turn the fourth upside down at the center of it>, it took me no time at all.
3. No real reason not to try to solve this one.
4. I'm not sure what you mean "one word for." I assume the last one is <rainbow>, but I don't know a single word for "red and white." <Carnations>? <Switzerland>? <Wine>?

But I figured the feedback was necessary.

[ctrlaltdel]

well thnx, yes i welcome any form of feedback

ok, so you don't play nim, didn't bother with the number sequence, solved the bottles in no time (hey that's good to know), and you were not sure about the 'one word for' - ok i might think about rephrasing that... anyway the last one was correct, and for the red and white the answer is the third of your choices. if you got the rest of them too, how long did it take you?

[Tahnan]

I actually didn't try the others, because as I said, I had no idea if this is what you meant. Black/red is immediately a <checkerboard>, r/y/g is--now that I'm thinking--immediately a <stoplight>. I suppose w/b is a <chessboard or just 'chess'>, but the other rings no bells (and note that I got 'red and white' on my third try).

[ctrlaltdel]

well in the original 'version' they know the number of letters for each word. you got those fine except for black/red - for this the word is 5 letters.
and the last one is 5 letters too. or it can be 6 letters if you use plural (so obviously the potential 6th is 's')

thnx for trying at least!

edit: add the 6th letter...

[This message has been edited by ctrlaltdel (edited 04-07-2002 07:02 PM).]

[Death Mage]

1) Punch the other player in the face and force him to make only moves you want him to.
4) Oh that's easy. One word for all of them, "colors"

:P

[CrystyB]

Nim? Lovely game. The strategy for it however would not be a chestnut. It's pretty damn hard to get to it if you don't know a thing about it. In general, it goes like this:
Covert the three to base 2 and modify one of these numbers so that the XOR-sum of them would be 0. e.g. for 15, 19 and 7, 01111+10011+00111=11011, so take 11 from the second one, giving 01111+01000+00111=00000. In the 3-4-5 case, take two from the first.

On reviewing the problems, neither are chestnuts!!! (IMO i mean)

[ctrlaltdel]

well, nim rules might be hard to break in general if you don't know anything about them... however, im not asking for this at all - luckily for the players i just want to know the solution to this case - which they can gain in any way they see fit. they can sit there and try a frew dozen combinations for all i care.

and the answer you gave is one of the correct ones.

[ctrlaltdel]

-bump-

yea yea yea, im bumping my own thread. i really need to find out about those times.

[Alter Ego]

Just passing through - busy lately - but here's the answer to 3) 481. Took me about 20 seconds. But I guess I was looking for a trick.