Anny Puzzlers here?? And uhhh real puzzles!!

[Bidle]

Just wondering if there are any puzzlers among us. I mean real puzzels and especially sequential puzzles! Where you for instance need to disassemble a puzzle and with every step you find a tool or something else to be able to continue.

I like a couple of things from these puzzles, the creative engineering behind it and the finish of these puzzels. Most of them are pretty exepnsive and set you back for a couple of hundred dollars and sometimes even more.



Here just a few of mine to get an idea.


From Will Strijbos one of my favorite engineers:


Lotus 04 by Bidle, on Flickr


First Box 01 by Bidle, on Flickr


Aluminium Cross 01 by Bidle, on Flickr


And also from Wood,... for instance this Opening Bat:

Opening Bat 01 by Bidle, on Flickr

[Jeannie]

I'm not nearly so ambitious as you, but I love jigsaw puzzles and pretty much always have one in the works. I do them for relaxation so I prefer them to not be super challenging since the rest of my life so often is.

Jeannie

[Matt]

Ok, this isn't a physical puzzle, but it's one of my favorites:


A bottle and a cork together cost £1.10

The cork costs exactly £1,00 less than the bottle

How much does the cork cost?

(I'm not very good at maths)

[geoffbot]

Ok, this isn't a physical puzzle, but it's one of my favorites:


A bottle and a cork together cost £1.10

The cork costs exactly £1,00 less than the bottle

How much does the cork cost?

(I'm not very good at maths)

Not 10p?

[Matt]

Not 10p?

Well...

It is a puzzle!

[drunken monkey]

Related:
I'm a huge fan of those super cryptic puzzles where deciphering the question is half if not most of the challenge.

About ten-fifteen years ago, I was hooked on this thing called "The Stone" that was a series of these that got progressively moreobscure. I don't recall getting past the first series of them.

The official site was eventually taken down but it had been rehosted. Wonder if it's still around and if my login is still valid?

[geoffbot]

My favourite mental puzzle:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No.*1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No.*3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No.*2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

The answer is that yes it is. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

[Matt]

Well that's got me! I love the 10p one because it is so simple and yet there is this overriding certainty that it is 10p. But this one, I'm looking at it and despite the internet pushing and all the stuff about experts being fooled an all, I still think I can knock up a reductio - I'll have a go at it informally now and formally later

Let's imagine there are two players rather than one. Player one picks door one and player two picks door two. After the non chosen door is opened, both players, having read the internet, switch doors - so player one switches from door one to door two (and thus improves his chances) Meanwhile, contestant two switches from door two to door one, (thus increasing his chances). So at the end of this switching we have two people still holding the same two choices and yet the chance of both of them winning has increased. If they hadn't swapped, the odds would be lower for both of them despite the fact that both possible positions are filled.

Nope, not convinced.

At all.

[geoffbot]

Yeah but there's no guarantee that you're going to win, just a higher probability. Makes perfect sense to me.

[Hayseed Brown]

Well that's got me! I love the 10p one because it is so simple and yet there is this overriding certainty that it is 10p. But this one, I'm looking at it and despite the internet pushing and all the stuff about experts being fooled an all, I still think I can knock up a reductio - I'll have a go at it informally now and formally later

How is it 10p? If the bottle cost $1.00 more than the cork, that would make the price of the bottle $1.10, and together they would cost $1.20.

I think the answer is 5p, making the bottle cost $1.05, and together they would cost $1.10.

By the way, if I am completely wrong about the answer, I'm definitely deleting this post.