I'd do it with a Markoff chain, which is easy for the square, but gets large for the other shapes. Is there a trick that saves work? (Except just identifying equivalent states in the chain.)

-- Simon

The example looks like the attachment for me (Firefox 3.5)... in the CSS, I didn't touch anything for the related tags, I just increased the overall font size.

Even if there were an existing workaround with physical markup, a logical markup would really help.

-- Simon

I believe post background colors aren't universal when people select a different number of posts per page, but I haven't tested.

geoo and I use a custom stylesheet that colors the post backgrounds lighter than usual for legibility, which I value over inlined spoilers. >_> I didn't alter the layout of quote boxes, so the existing spoiler method still works.

Another drawback is that you have to explicitly tell people that there exists hidden text in the post, otherwise they won't highlight it.

You'd also have to remember the exact color number and tag syntax, although it allows inlining.

-- Simon

The notation from the PM was merely binomial coefficients, with (n k) as shorthand for binom(n, k) = n! / ( k! * (n-k)! ). I still used brackets for grouping all over the place, so a space between two numbers was actually important. The usual notation in plaintext seems to be binom(n, k), which I will use in the future for clarity.

-- Simon

Hi,

marking text as invisible, unless selected with the mouse, is currently done by [quote][color=#dee7ef]bla bla bla[/color][/quote]. Drawbacks of this method:

• There is no obvious incline why either color="#dee7ef", color="dee7ef", color=#dee7ef, color=dee7ef should be right (only the third one works), people must rote-learn this.
  
• People also have to learn by rote the hex number in the first place.
  
• Always generates a new paragraph and a box, even for just a single word.
  
• Depends on the global choice of layout colors (though this is unlikely to change).
  
• Such workarounds are always physical markup, not logical markup.
  

I therefore wish for an explicit spoiler tag, [spoiler][/spoiler] or something. It should be applicable to inline text. The easiest method might be to make the background the same color as the text (set both to black).

-- Simon

Hmm, I had

166,668,666,667,000,000

I sent the method to Steve via PM, the multiplications are broken into hand-computed steps, so maybe he'll find an error later.

Edit: Yeah, found the mutliplication error myself, so cc's number is verified. As I already wrote in the PM: The deem careful bookkeeping a major part of intelligence as they don't allow computers, but require everything computed by hand.

-- Simon

How do I dig up the way?

-- Simon

Going Up was the first idea, so I'll guess Down, Along, Up, in that Order.

-- Simon

Suspected there was some deeper meaning in the particular choice of level names, but nice http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

Next clue: 0-0

-- Simon

I'm all for Spinning Hamsters as the name, but Suicidal Rodents is good too. I always deem that too cliché, but for non-Lemmings people it's probably a good funny name. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

-- Simon

Lost something?

-- Simon

Our puzzle team The Suicidal Rodents takes part in regular puzzle competitions.

Team board http://thesuicidalrodents.proboards.com/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">thesuicidalrodents.proboards.com

Puzzle hunt websites (these redirect automatically to the latest contest):
CiSRA http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">puzzle.cisra.com.au
ΣUMS http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/sums/puzzlehunt" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/sums/puzzlehunt
MUMS http://www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~mums/puzzlehunt" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~mums/puzzlehunt

We are going to participate in the http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Cisra Puzzle Contest 2012. This discussion originated in http://www.lemmingsforums.com/index.php?topic=533.msg14703#msg14703" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Logic Puzzles, but we should make a separate thread for this.

The team is Insane Steve, geoo, Proxima, and me. However, unofficial helpers are fine, and we aren't eligible for winning a physical prize anyway. If you're into solving amazingly hard puzzles without instructions, but with a lot of lateral thinking, feel free to participate.

http://thesuicidalrodents.proboards.com/index.cgi" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Our private discussion forum for solution ideas
http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/teamstats.php?team=The+Suicidal+Rodents" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Our team's page (The Suicidal Rodents)
http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/2011/puzzles.html" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Example puzzles from the 2011 round
http://puzzle.cisra.com.au/news.xml" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">The site's RSS feed

-- Simon

I shall offer myself as the 4th person. I cannot tell how much time I'll have available, and I'm probably also not the brightest at solving without instructions or making words from random things. If someone would like to join, he can certainly do so instead of me.

The puzzles seem to be shower puzzles (you might get an idea while showering just as well as while pondering about them full power), so time shouldn't be an issue.

Steve's and Proxima's solutions to the 6-ball weighing puzzle were correct!

-- Simon

The Prison?

-- Simon

I've known "12 balls, weigh 3 times" since high school, but never went into it in detail since it seemed tedious, but also never read a solution since it's a beautiful puzzle. I've finally done it on my own today. No new information here, except that I'm doing a different second weighing in case I) a) than geoo.

12 balls, one is either lighter or heavier than all others.
Use a scale three times to determine which ball has what exact quality.

We call a ball "normal" if it is certainly not the single odd ball.
We call a ball "red" if it is either normal or heavier than the normal balls.
We call a ball "blue" if it is either normal or lighter than the normal balls.

Weighing I:
    Put 4 balls on each side.

Case I a: Both sides are equal.
    We now have 8 normal balls and 4 unknown ones.

    Weighing I a II:
        Put 3 unknown balls on one side, and 3 normal balls on the other.

    Case I a II a: Both sides are equal.
        We now have 11 normal balls and 1 unknown one. Weigh the unknown ball
        against any single normal one for the end result.

    Case I a II b: The 3 unknown balls are heavier than the 3 normal ones.
        Weigh one of the red balls against another red ball to see which of
        the 3 red balls is heavy.

    Case I a II c: The 3 unknown balls are lighter than the 3 normal ones.
        Weigh one of the blue balls against another blue ball to see which of
        the 3 blue balls is light.

Case I b: One set of 4 balls is heavier than the other.
    We now have 4 red balls, 4 blue ones, and know for sure that the unweighed
    4 balls are normal.

    Weighing I b II:
        Left side: 2 red, 2 blue
        Right side: 1 blue, 3 normal

    Case I b II a: Both sides are equal.
        All balls from weighing II must now be normal.
        We have 2 red balls and 1 blue ball remaining from weighing I which
        were not part of weighing II. Weigh the 2 red balls against each other.
        If one is heavier, it's the odd ball, otherwise the blue ball is light.

    Case I b II b: The left side is heavier.
        The red balls from the left side stay red, all other red balls become
        known as normal. Weigh the 2 red balls against each other. If one is
        heavier, it's the odd ball. If they are equal, then the single blue
        ball from the right side of weighing II must be light.

    Case I b II c: The left side is lighter.
        Weigh the two blue balls from the left side against each other to see
        which is the light ball.

New weighing puzzle:

You have 2 black balls, 2 grey balls, 2 white balls. Among each color, one ball is heavier than the second. The three light balls are all of the exact same weight, as are the three heavy balls.

Your task to label each ball as heavy or light. You may use an ordinary balance scale (telling which side is heavier, if any) a total of two times.

-- Simon