Puzzles and Riddles

Fine, I will not be a smart-ass. Separate the cubes into three groups of three. Weigh two groups. If one group is heavier than the other, take the heavier. Otherwise take the group not weighed. Repeat the process with the heavy group.

yeeeessss.... that far I can follow.


Here it gets a bit fuzzy. I think you cut a corner in your mind there.
But I'll assume you mean the correct thing (most likely).

If you do, please proceed.

To clarify: set the lighter two groups aside and split the heavier group into its three component parts. Weigh two. If the scale is imbalanced, the heavier block is the impure one. Otherwise you are holding it.


As for my puzzle:

A hacker is searching for important data in a terminal. He comes across three seemingly identical files.

If file 3 contains a virus that will completely wipe the system if opened, file 2 contains what he seeks.

If file 1 contains what he seeks, file 3 contains a virus that will completely wipe the system if opened.

If file 2 contains a virus that will completely wipe the system if opened, file 1 contains what he seeks.

Knowing this, and knowing that not all that is said can be true, which file contains the data?

Great, the goddess is pleased so you're next.

If I'm understanding this right, my answer is the middle one, since both listed results show up twice.

file 1 contains what he seeks, file 3 contains a virus

But if File 3 contains a virus, File 2 contains what he seeks. So the correct file can't be in File 1, because if it was, File 3 would have the virus - and File 2 would have the file also. Surely there's only one correct file?

If FILE1 = GOOD, then FILE3 = VIRUS
If FILE3 = VIRUS, then FILE2 = GOOD
Therefore if FILE1 = GOOD, FILE2 = GOOD
Therefore FILE1 = [NOT GOOD]

If FILE2 = VIRUS, then FILE1 = GOOD
Therefore FILE2 = [NOT VIRUS] (FILE1 cannot be GOOD)

If FILE3 = VIRUS, then FILE2 = GOOD (FILE2 *can* be GOOD)
If FILE1 = NOT GOOD, then ??? (unspecified, but FILE1 is NOT GOOD - but not necessarily VIRUS)

I predict that FILE3 = VIRUS, that FILE2 = GOOD, and that FILE1 = EMPTY (or second VIRUS).

Very good. Proceed.

Did you mean file 2 by "the middle one", Neila? If so you ask.

Nope. I bolded my answer, but it doesn't really show.
Either way, I was wrong on this one.

Then you are up, tadpole tech.

Hm. Well.

A very old-fashioned volus lives on the tenth sub-floor of a dingy Omegan apartment block. Every morning, he takes the elevator (which is very slow and has rather horrendous music) to the ground floor, and goes to work. At the end of his shift, he comes back to the apartment; if (which, for the purposes of this tale, sometimes happens on Omega) it's been raining acid - or if there are other people in the elevator - he goes to his floor directly.

Otherwise, he goes to the seventh floor and walks up three flights of stairs to his apartment. And it's not for the exercise.

Can you explain why?

Oh, that's an old one. He's volus - he's too short to reach the top of the control panel. If there are other people in there, they can push the right button for him. I guess the acid rain part is because if he were carrying something on his person, like a rainshield, he could use that.

He could just install a stepladder in the lift, you know. As he uses it regularly, and all.

Quite correct! That's long been a favourite of mine.

And let's not forget that this is a volus; installing a stepladder would be expensive. Besides, it would be destroyed by vorcha within a month.

Your turn.

Not trying to force anyone out, but if someone wants to go now, I have another riddle ready.

Probably a good idea, to dodge planetary timezones issues. Shall we say anyone can post a riddle at any time, but only one per user at a time, until it's solved? There's not so many of us that that'll deluge the thread, I'd imagine.

I'm salarian, I don't sleep that much. So here I am.

I've got one, I think. This one I used quite a bit back in the day.

Okay, so there's a C-Sec officer who has to write a report to a superior. He has a list of names he needs clearing or something. Here it is:

Jennifer Caulder (female human)
Mohammed al-Haroun (male human)
Su Chen-Mai (male human)
Vrexus Satario (male turian)
Adress YiBrixus (female turian)
"Salav Vestii" (male salarian)
"Gossemas Fenten" (female salarian)
"Linron Essemilor" (female salarian)
Gho Bjir (female volus)
Lon Norlos (male volus)
Yerk Fost (male volus)
Girissikal Bansanni (asari)

One of them has been identified as the guilty party.

Unfortunately, there's been a massive file corruption and only isolated fragments of data have been saved. So only isolated fragments of information about the people in question are left to him, and it doesn't say who is who or which one's guilty. He knows that the following facts each relate to a person confirmed as being innocent, and each relates to a different person on the list:

One of the salarians is a dalatrass
The male turian is married to a minister
One of the turians has a daughter
One of the humans has at least one son
The female volus has a prior conviction
One of the salarians has a son
One of the volus is engaged to one of the humans
One of the humans is engaged to one of the volus
The asari has an alibi but the female turian refuses to confirm it
One of the volus has two children
The female human has no daughters

The C-Sec officer confirms that he's identified the guilty party. Who does he name in his report?

I've got it down (I think) to either of the two human males, but I can't figure out how to zero in on which one it is. Ah well, it's bedtime in Nos Astra (salarian ancestry doesn't quite do the trick, I need my beauty sleep), so hopefully one of you will have figured out the missing link by morning. (Or figured it all out, if I'm off base completely anyway.)

I...have clearly not spotted the trick yet, but I'm going to pick the male salarian, because I don't see how any of the things COULD apply to him. All marriages and kids.

I think the male humans are covered between having a son and being engaged to the volus and it doesn't matter which is which.

You got it.

It's a weird one, I know, but I used it back when I first started living among humans. You'd be surprised how deep their assumptions about family run. Simple facts like "salarian males have no fathers or sons" is something they often miss. So it's not exactly a good riddle, I know, but there were more than a few humans who didn't see the obvious point that the male salarian isn't covered. The rest is just camouflage.

I guess it's more to catch out human co-workers than something actually clever. Sorry about that.

I can't even figure out how I ruled the male salarian out now. :/ Must've just misread 'human' as 'salarian' on one of the lines somehow... I shouldn't attempt these late at night, clearly. :)