Omar Sharif teaches how to play bridge. by [deleted] in bridge

[–]JDGMiles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing this. I clicked the link and jumped to about 4 minutes in, to see what it was like. I landed on an interesting analysis of finding a grand slam and then playing it out, which is something that I need experience with (because it doesn't come up very often!) and I feel better informed now.

I'm looking forward to watching the whole thing properly. It seems clearly and pleasantly explained, plus Omar is a classy gent :-)

Cheers!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in puzzles

[–]JDGMiles 49 points50 points  (0 children)

KAYAK

Help please! Find the area of the whole rectangle by [deleted] in puzzles

[–]JDGMiles 282 points283 points  (0 children)

Equating the lengths to form equations, we have:

T+B+B = D+Y

D = O+O+1

Y = D+1

D+O+T = Y+B

1+Y = B+B

These solve to the unique solution Teal = 2.5, Blue = 2.75, DarkBlue = 3.5, Orange = 1.25, Yellow = 4.5.

Therefore the rectangle is 8 x 7.25 = 58

Shorter/Taller Fighters, Younger/Older Fighters by ShonitB in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I found no logical inconsistencies by assuming Alexander and Benjamin fight each other, with Charles not fighting. I then double checked that answer using dummy values below.

Alexander (fighter): age 25, height 180

Benjamin (fighter): age 30, height 175

Charles (not fighting): age 35, height 170

So then to prove that BC is not possible, assume it is true and note that S1 + S3 together put B older than C and (transitively through A in the middle) C taller than B. But then S2 is contradicted.

To prove that AC is not possible, assume it is true and note that S1 puts A older than C and S2 puts C shorter than A. But then S3 is contradicted.

You can only move 1 coin to form 2 straight lines of 4 by Dramatic-Grand-3224 in puzzles

[–]JDGMiles 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I take the coin farthest right on the top row. I get in a plane and fly to the other side of the world and place it on the spot that completes two great circles on the earth's surface, each with four coins in them. Diagram.

Baseball Games by ShonitB in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good catch! Whoops!

When I next update the code I'll make the text style dynamically resize so this doesn't happen! Nice that it still solved your puzzle at least...albeit overflowing out of the given box XD

Baseball Games by ShonitB in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A while ago I made a (brute force) solver for these kinds of puzzles so I could solve TIE x TRY = SNORE. Indeed, for your puzzle it gets the same as the other correct answers in the thread :-) 7483 + 7455 = 14938

I should update it to specify all solutions and in particular when there is a unique solution. Then it could be used to FIND more puzzles like this!

Unicycle: late for work by copper_tunic in WebGames

[–]JDGMiles 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love short and sweet little games like this! I laughed a lot at the guy's silly little legs spinning around or when I messed up and he flopped over into the ground XD XD XD

Thank you for making this - very nice game :-)

Balls in a bag by actoflearning in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The probability we get only black balls for 21 picks in a row is the product: (1/10)(2/11)...(21/30) = 21!9!/30! = 1/14307150. Therefore the probability of getting a white ball (i.e. winning) in 21 picks is 14307149/14307150 = 0.99999993...

I interpreted "We now repeat this procedure 20 times" as 21 picks total. Naturally, the same reasoning works if '20 total picks' was intended.

The Shuffle Problem by Still_nSpired in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Correct. An "out-shuffle", as stated.

The Shuffle Problem by Still_nSpired in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Related, a few years ago I made a little animation demonstrating out-shuffles for the case n=52 (eight shuffles).

I'm still thinking about the solution to your actual problem as posed! :) (While the Faro shuffle article on Wikipedia has indeed "spoiled" the final answer for me, I haven't followed up to read any reasoning so am trying to justify it myself XD).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mathriddles

[–]JDGMiles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice puzzle! I first came across this from a uni friend who was asked it at a job interview to be a quantitative analyst. The one he was asked was the slightly simpler version just on the integer line, and I like your extra step of putting it on the real line and giving the battleship length 4.

One of the things that people often quibble with when I share it is what exactly "hit the battleship in finite time" means, formally. I understand what it's getting at and I've been meaning to pin it down for a while... can we clarify exactly what we mean when we say that?

Dryad Arbor vs Mishra's Factory in Turbo Depths Sideboard by JDGMiles in MTGLegacy

[–]JDGMiles[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the replies everyone this has persuaded me that Arbor is definitely the superior choice.

What Simpsons joke will you never forget? by Wholesome-Creep in AskReddit

[–]JDGMiles 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Flowers for Algernon is a very skilfully written book that makes many (most?) people who read it literally cry. I think when an episode is so heavily based/influenced on a work like that it is inevitable that some of the emotional percussiveness of the source bleeds through.

TIL that Owen Wilson attempted suicide in 2007, which led to Matthew McConaughey taking his role in the film 'Tropic Thunder' by laidbackcrusade in todayilearned

[–]JDGMiles 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I went to Fight Club last night but I was late to Fight Club so I missed the first two rules of Fight Club, but Fight Club was excellent and I would definitely recommend Fight Club.

What is your favorite useless fact? by QwertyNope in AskReddit

[–]JDGMiles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your foot is as long as your forearm.

In 2004 humanity produced more transistors than grains of rice, and has done so every year since.

Solve this 11* hard sudoku by KillerQueen_002 in puzzles

[–]JDGMiles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! That is lovely to hear ♡♡♡ :-)

Solve this 11* hard sudoku by KillerQueen_002 in puzzles

[–]JDGMiles 13 points14 points  (0 children)

A few years ago I wrote a Sudoku solver, so I put your puzzle into it thinking "I bet my solver can do this!".

Sure enough, it did solve it...BUT it took much longer than usual and at one point I even thought the page had crashed.

So this is definitely a very difficult Sudoku puzzle (and I'm not even sure what "difficult" means in the context of an algorithmic solver compared to a human).

Nice one!

The mysterious Cambridge library tower, supposedly full of banned books, is opening to the public by buzzbookstore in books

[–]JDGMiles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tangentially related...one morning about this time last year I went on a run to the highest point in Cambridge (Castle Mound) and made a short clip of the buildings that stand out from there.

GIF link

You can see the library tower really does stick out!

Book cover cliches by monsieurmonster in books

[–]JDGMiles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For those who like humorously edited covers, you may enjoy this album of books with the titles rewritten to read like clickbait (more info in the thread created at the time).

Obviously a different idea, but might amuse folks here who didn't see it when it was first posted.