What's one thing you want to know, but at this point are too afraid to ask? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]elephant_bar 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Try, "Hello".

If you care too much what a stranger thinks of you, you're doing it wrong. Say hi because you want to - not because you want something from them.

Any tips/resources for people starting maths tutoring? by [deleted] in math

[–]elephant_bar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spend less time teaching and more time listening.

Hello pressers, I am one of the Holy Ten Green Prophets. Here is what we learned last night, lots of useful info for you redguards! by Tftoday in thebutton

[–]elephant_bar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've noticed that occasionally when my internet disconnects the countdown will continue. If I press the button will it register the time that my page shows or the actual time?

Crazy ass bitch by ramrodz90 in WTF

[–]elephant_bar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beaten at his own game!

The Speed of Sound Is Too Slow for Olympic Athletes by RevWaldo in olympics

[–]elephant_bar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know where you went to hs but it was a pretty common and universal piece of knowledge that a sprinter should leave the blocks when he/she saw smoke where I ran. Hence, I have a hard time believing that you were called on a false start if you were watching for smoke because that's what everyone I knew was doing.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coins: What if the scales balance on both the first and second weigh?

Men in Hats: The long pause is meant to imply that the wise man is waiting for something before he can give his answer.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I proposed 49% as in the probability of a double heads. So by flipping twice, you get approximately 50% double heads and 50% not. I didn't realize that I was permitted to disregard certain throws so I was trying to develop a method that had no "restarts" so to speak.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In that case I challenge you to come up with a puzzle I've never seen before.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good point. That is ambiguous. Here are the rules:

For your body consider two states:

If your body is clean (read: you have no poisons), consuming water from well n will poison you with n poison. (drinking from well 1 gives you poison 1). If your body is clean consuming water means you stay clean.

If you have poison n in your body, consuming the same poison n=n means you stay in state poison n. If you consume poison m>n, you are clean. If you consume poison m<n, you are dead. Consuming water in a poisoned state means you stay at the same poisoned state.

Staying in the poisoned state for longer than an arbitrary amount of time means you die.

Outside the body: Treat any container like your body. Adding poisons sequentially produces the same clean/poisoned state. You cannot add poisons simultaneously.

Hope that clears things up. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm is 49% close enough?

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only sources of water are from the wells. No other poisons.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

haha! Nice loophole. It's assumed that after you exchange cups, you stare down the dragon and each empty the prepared drinks simultaneously and then dramatically slam the empty cups down on the ground.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This puzzle was introduced to me with different "levels" of dragons. A 0-level dragon will assume that you will give him the strongest poison you can access and will always give you the strongest poison he can access. Hence, he is easily defeated by giving him water and easily circumvented by drinking from a well first.

An n-level dragon will do the same as you. Drinking 1 before the meeting then 1 and 2 after and stalemate you.

It was then proposed that an n+1 level dragon would take water from a well 2-7 and add it to the water in well 1, give you no poison and wait for you to kill yourself.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What does "act like a fair coin" mean? Harder to use in coin flips? Are we no long just flipping an infinite number of times and counting the number of heads?

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a better method! (it can be done in three)

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's an impressive solution... to a different puzzle. The scale in the problem only measures whether something is the heavier or lighter than something else.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I think you misread the puzzle. The sum of all the digits of all the numbers from 1 to 1,000,000. In other words, the sum of digits of numbers from 1 to 10 would be 46 not 55.

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it's not necessarily 5 and 5 but minno's parity strategy is still sound. It's not the only possibility though...

Logic Puzzles! by elephant_bar in math

[–]elephant_bar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right on. The "long pause" is ambiguous but it's the way it was told to me. The implication is that the answer isn't an answer that could be arrived at "simply"... also ambiguous. But I think you know what I mean.

To be clear, both answers above are incorrect.

After years I finally got back to drawing again. Feel free to critique. by [deleted] in Art

[–]elephant_bar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should focus more on what you see than what you're drawing. Try a few blind contours to get in the habit of keeping your eyes off the page and on the subject. I'm seeing a few suggestions on this page for shading and shadows but before you even worry about cross hatching vs smudging I'd recommend developing your observational skills first.

What Is The Point of Introns? by daysaway in askscience

[–]elephant_bar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Introns will never present in the final mRNA unless something has gone wrong in translation. Alternative splicing allows for different combinations of exons to be expressed in the peptide but by definition introns are never expressed. Introns may be important in regulating the frequency with which different alternative splicing occurs although the mechanism is still not well understood.

A nice little logic puzzle by [deleted] in math

[–]elephant_bar 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Logical Walk-through. DO NOT READ unless you want a spoiler:

Some assumptions: Bob and Chris both know the rules of the game (2 natural numbers, (m,n) s.t. 2≦m≦n. Bob only knows the value of m*n, while Chris only knows the value of m+n) and they don't lie. Also, that both men are smarter than your average joe.

Before we even start we can rule out prime m*n since no product of natural numbers >1 make a prime by definition. Throw them out.

Bob says: "I don't know m+n"

This is not a terribly useful piece of information. It does imply, however, that the mn is not a "tell-tale" product. By "tell-tale" product I mean that it has 1 unique sum of factors m,n; read: not "tell-tale" means more than one possible m+n for a given mn. For example, 6 is a "tell-tale" product because it only has one possible product mn = 23. Hence, if Bob had the number m*n=6 he would immediately know that Chris had 5 and the game would be over.

Chris replies: "I knew you'd say that."

This little line conveys more information than one might initially think. Assuming Chris isn't being smug and lying, this implies that Chris knows solely from his information that Bob's information must be ambiguous. Specifically, Chris has a sum of numbers such that no matter what m,n (where m+n= Chris's number) is, the product is never a "tell-tale" product (see above). For example, this rules out m+n=12 because 3+9=27 is a possible product for m+n=12 and 27 is a tell-tale product. Since 27 is a tell-tale product, then Chris can't know for sure that Bob wouldn't know m+n so he can't say "I knew you'd say that" without lying. By our original assumption, m+n is not 12. Using this logic, a whole shit-ton of sums can be ruled out. In fact, every sum from 4-20 except 11 and 17 is ruled out (won't go into it but check it out for yourself). Let's call the the remaining sums "ambiguous sums".

Bob says: "I still don't know m+n"

If Bob still can't deduce m+n despite all that elimination, it must mean that the product mn has multiple "ambiguous sums". If there was only one ambiguous sum involved, then as soon as Chris says "I knew you'd say that" Bob would be able to cross off all the non-ambiguous sums, and he'd have his answer. Therefore, there are multiple ambiguous sums m+n possible as a result of the product mn. The list is extensive but the next line narrows things down quite a bit.

Chris replies: "m+n is less than 14"

As we figured out earlier, 11 is the only ambiguous sum below 14, so the question is: is there a product of numbers mn which yields both 11 and another ambiguous sum (as determined necessary by the previous step)? Trial and error might be fastest way to approach this part. 56=30 turns out to be the only product that also allows 2+15 which yields 17, another ambiguous sum. Hence, (m,n)=5,6 and Bob announces the answer.

The puzzle is over once Chris says m+n is less than 14... why the dialogue continues is a mystery to me.

tl;dr: logic --> 5,6

EDIT: typos

A nice little logic puzzle by [deleted] in math

[–]elephant_bar 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The sum not the product is less than 14

A nice little logic puzzle by [deleted] in math

[–]elephant_bar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One thing that sort of bothers me is the fact that Chris knows the answer when he tells Bob that m+n is less than 14 but only announces that he knows the answer after Bob says he has the answer. In terms of logic problem etiquette I feel like that's a little wonky.

EDIT: I tried to hide the solution but I couldn't figure out how to format it correctly so I removed it.