Challenge Your Mind: Solve These 7 Christmas Puzzles in 10 Minutes – Only for Geniuses!

1. Snow Problem

Raymond gazed out his window and admired the snow-covered garden, where a perfect layer of 5 centimeters blanketed everything except the path. The snow was already beginning to melt.

The rectangular garden measures 16 meters on its longest side and 10.5 meters on the shorter side. The path is a narrow rectangle, 0.5 meters wide, leading from the street to the entrance.

Raymond started some rough calculations. We built a snowman made of three spheres, where the volume ratio of base, thorax, and head is 3:2:1.

His calculations use a simplified method which takes 4 times the cube of the radius for the sphere’s volume and overlooks snow compaction.

Based on this method, can you determine the radius of the snowman’s base sphere?

Scroll down for the answer!

2. Insulation Calculation

Sven Svendsen is almost ready for his North Pole expedition. An essential part of his preparation involves gaining weight for warmth.

Beginning today, he will start with his normal daily intake of 2,540 calories and will increase his calorie consumption by 100 calories each day over the next 20 days.

Sven plans to gain weight solely by consuming Wazoo multi-nutrient bars, each containing 140 calories.

How many days can he stick to this plan, only eating Wazoo bars?

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I dance without legs, ripple without wind, light up the polar night – what am I? Answer: Northern Lights – Photo Credit: Getty

3. Advent Attempt

In December, a daily contest challenges players to guess a number between 1 and 10,000. A single lucky number will win a prize, remaining unchanged throughout the month. Incorrect guesses allow players to try again the next day.

In one household, Steve guesses daily, while his daughter Lottie has an advent calendar with 24 doors but doesn’t understand numbers yet. She can only open one door each day.

After Steve guesses three numbers and Lottie opens her three doors on December 3rd, who is more likely to have chosen correctly: Lottie with her doors or Steve with his numbers?

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4. PIN Puzzle

Janice, in a rush for Christmas shopping, was asked for her four-digit credit card PIN but struggles with memory.

Fortunately, she excels at solving mathematical problems and remembers the correct method to determine her PIN. She decisively calculates all unique three-digit numbers that sum to eight and contain no zeros.

These three digits together equal her four-digit PIN. Can you figure it out too?

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5. Word Play

  1. Rearrange the letters to form three scientific instruments: TER TEL ABE OMEAST OPE BAR ESC ROL
  2. Decode the names of three scientists: Zulksus, Chumnyeol, Ichimunichi
  3. Rearrange the letters to create three geometric shapes: GLE TRA REC IUM OID PEZ TAN IPS ELL

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Until the moment I’m torn apart, I’ll be guessed and never seen – what am I? Answer: Present – Photo Credit: Getty

6. Mysterious Gift

Zack forgot to label his Christmas presents. He recalls that silver gifts are not for his mother, and his father’s gifts are either gold or red.

The blue present is for his sister or brother. If his mother’s gift is red, then his sister receives the gold, and if his mother’s gift is gold, then his sister receives the blue gift. Who gets which present?

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7. Test the Metal

A chemist, physicist, and biologist were asked to complete a survey on their favorite metals. It turns out neither Ben nor the chemist likes tin, and biologists aren’t Kim, nor do they prefer iron. Gold is the favorite metal for both Mary and Kim. Can you uncover each scientist’s favorite metal?

Scroll down for the answer!

Answers

Snow Problem

Solved: 1 meter

Explanation: The garden’s area measures 168m² (10.5m x 16m). The path, being 0.5m wide and 16m long, occupies 8m². Thus, the snow-covered garden area is 160m². At a depth of 5 cm, the snow volume equals 160 x 0.05 = 8m³.

To find the snowman’s base volume, half of the snow (4m³) is used. The formula for a sphere’s volume leads to the equation 4r³ = 4m³, resulting in a base radius of 1 meter with a diameter of 2 meters.

Insulation Calculation

Solved: 3 days

Explanation: Begin by determining a target calorie value that divides evenly by 140. 2,940 is one such number (140 x 21). You can increase this by adding or decreasing 100 calories weekly. Thus, 2,240, 2,940, 3,640, and 4,340 are attainable calorie goals. By starting at 2,540 calories and incrementing daily over 20 days, you can reach 4,540 calories. The viable calorie values therefore yield three days of consuming only Wazoo bars.

Advent Attempt

Solved: It is more likely that Lottie opened the correct three doors in any order.

Explanation: Lottie opened three out of 24 doors on day one, two out of 23 on day two, and one out of 22 on day three. The probability of her correctly opening the doors multiplies, giving 6/12,144. Conversely, the chances of Steve guessing the lucky number are only 3/10,000. Therefore, Lottie has better odds of success.

PIN Puzzle

Solved: Janice’s PIN is 3552.

Explanation: To find a three-digit number, valid combinations must not include digits greater than 5. Acceptable pairs like (5,2,1) and (4,3,1) yield 6 permutations each. The sum of all configurations is calculated to determine her PIN as 3552.

Word Play

  1. Telescope, Barometer, Astrolabe
  2. Faraday, Pasteur, Einstein (using letter shifting techniques)
  3. Ellipsoid, Rectangle, Trapezoid

Mysterious Gift

Solved: His mother receives the gold gift, his father gets the red, his sister has the blue, and his brother receives the silver.

Test the Metal

Solved: Ben—Physicist—Iron; Mary—Biologist—Tin; Kim—Chemist—Gold.

Read more:

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Review of Wilmot Works It Out: A Relaxing Puzzle Game Transforming Jigsaw Puzzles into Artistic Masterpieces

WAnthropomorphic squares have a strange but not undesirable presence. He lives in a spacious empty house, where Sam, the friendly local postman, regularly delivers tiled puzzles. A subscription that never expires. Wilmot unpacks each new shipment and scatters the pieces on the bare floor. Then shunt, grab, and rotate each piece to form a coherent picture. Each picture is drawn by British illustrator Richard Hogg. Once the matching pieces snap together and your artwork is complete, you can hang it on Wilmot’s big empty wall. As soon as one puzzle is completed, Sam arrives with another, and soon Wilmot’s walls are as cluttered and colorful as a search gallery.

Usually, when you finish a painting, some debris will remain, so identify these rogue debris, put them aside (you are free to organize the floor space according to your organization’s requirements) and move them back to their original location. Part of the challenge will be to bring it back to . Once you have all the necessary components. Eventually, you’ll be able to do several puzzles at once, each with varying degrees of completion. It’s this arrhythmia that gives the game its unique feel and makes it more than just a digital jigsaw simulator.

Postwoman Sam’s breezy dialogue tells a tender story through lively exchanges, adding a touch of human warmth to the relentless inscrutability. But as well as Witch Beam’s zen 2021 Bafta winner Unpacking, Willmott works fine. It’s almost a therapeutic approach. The puzzles are not difficult or complicated. Rather, it’s a slow, satisfying game that feels like untangling a complicated knot. This effect is calming, like a jigsaw, but there is a little more room for creative flair when it comes to placing artwork.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Bumblebees Learn from Each Other to Solve Complicated Puzzles

Bumblebees may be capable of advanced social learning

David Woodfall/naturepl.com

Bumblebees can teach each other how to solve puzzles that are too difficult for them to solve alone. This finding suggests that these insects may use advanced social learning that has previously been demonstrated only in humans.

Previous research by alice bridges Queen Mary University of London has proposed that bumblebees could teach each other how to open lever puzzles to obtain sweet treats. And they preferred solutions they learned from their peers to solutions they had come up with on their own, as if the techniques were a cultural trend.

Now, Bridges challenged the bees to a more difficult puzzle box that required them to operate a blue lever and then a red lever in order. Even after 12 to 14 days of trying, the bees from three different colonies couldn’t figure it out on their own.

The researchers then taught nine bumblebees the key. But the training was so difficult that the animals initially refused to participate until the humans provided additional sweet rewards along the way, Bridges said. Once reintroduced to the colony, the skilled bee passed on its new knowledge to five other bees who had never seen the puzzle box before.

“suddenly, [naive bees] We were able to learn everything from trained demonstrators,” Bridges said. “When I could barely train, [the demonstrators] To do that. “

Until now, there was little evidence that non-human animals are capable of cumulative culture (defined as the ability to learn skills from other animals that cannot be acquired through a lifetime of independent trial and error). This feat allowed humans to create complex knowledge systems like modern medicine.

These findings “raise serious questions about this idea of human exceptionalism,” they wrote. alex thornton At the University of Exeter, UK his explanation on paper.

But we shouldn’t praise the cumulative culture of bees just yet. Elisa Bandini At the University of Zurich. She is not convinced that the experiment shows a behavior so complex that individual bees cannot develop it on their own. If the untaught bees had received additional rewards in the same way as the trained bees, they might have solved the puzzle on their own.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Researchers unravel enigmatic lunar geological puzzles

New research from the University of Bristol has revealed the origin of titanium-rich basaltic magma on the Moon.



A map of titanium abundance on the moon's surface from NASA's Clementine spacecraft. The red area shows a very high concentration compared to terrestrial rocks. Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

The presence of surprisingly high concentrations of the element titanium (Ti) on parts of the moon's surface has been known since NASA's Apollo missions back in the 1960s and 1970s. The mission successfully recovered samples of solidified ancient lava from the moon's crust.

Recent maps from orbiting satellites show that these magmas, known as titanium-rich basalts, are widespread on the moon's surface.

Professor Tim Elliott and colleagues at the University of Bristol have used advanced isotopic analysis of lunar samples in a series of high-temperature lava labs to identify key reactions that control the composition of these characteristic magmas.

This reaction occurred about 3.5 billion years ago deep inside the moon, replacing elements of iron in the magma with elements of magnesium in the surrounding rock, changing the chemical and physical properties of the melt.

“The origin of the Moon's volcanic rocks is a fascinating story involving an 'avalanche' of unstable, planetary-scale piles of crystals produced by the cooling of a primordial magma ocean,” Professor Elliott said.

“Central to this epic history is the presence of a type of magma unique to the Moon, which explains how such magma reached the surface to be sampled on space missions. It was a tricky problem to solve. I'm really glad we were able to resolve this dilemma.”

“Until now, models have not been able to reproduce magma compositions that match the essential chemical and physical properties of high-titanium basalts,” said Dr. Martin Claver, a researcher at the Institute of Mineralogy at the University of Münster.

“Explaining that low density made eruptions possible about 3.5 billion years ago has proven particularly difficult.”

“We successfully mimicked high-titanium basalts in a laboratory process using high-temperature experiments,” the researchers said.

“Measurements of the titanium-rich basalts also revealed a unique isotopic composition, a signature of reactions that were reproduced in experiments.”

“Both results clearly demonstrate how melt-solid reactions are essential to understanding the formation of these unique magmas.”

of findings Published in today's diary natural earth science.

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M. Claver other. Titanium-rich basaltic melts exist on the lunar surface, conditioned by reactive flow processes. nut.earth science, published online on January 15, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41561-023-01362-5

Source: www.sci.news