Questions tagged [optimization]
A puzzle where you have to optimize a certain objective function (maximize profit, minimize cost). There should ideally be a provable best answer, to avoid making the puzzle into an [open-ended] game.
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Finding the 9 chapters
Suppose that you have a book of 1000 pages.
You know the book has 10 chapters and know each chapters has at least 10 pages, i.e., as chapter 1 starts at page 1, chapter 2 can only start at the page 11 ...
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Identical cubes in a sphere
Suppose that you have a sphere of radius 10cm. At most how many cubes of side 1cm can you fit in the sphere such that:
A cube can touch another cube (share a face, an edge or a point) but cannot ...
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Identical squares in a circle
Suppose that you have a circle of radius 10cm. How many squares of side 1cm can you fit at most in the circle such that:
A square can touch another square (share an edge or a point) but cannot ...
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How many uncoordinated cubers does it take to solve a Rubik's cube with multiple solutions?
Inspired by Rubik's cubes with multiple sets of colors or stickers. Suppose there's a Rubik's cube with multiple solutions (represented by multiple sets of colors) made with special paint that reflect ...
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What’s the highest salary the greedy king can arrange for himself?
A little kingdom contains 66 people, a king and 65 citizens. Each of them, including the king, has a salary of one gold piece. When democracy comes, the king is denied a vote, but he has the power to ...
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How to match pairs on raw tables?
The idea for the puzzle came from working with test score tables. In this case, the raw tables indicate an internal identifier that differs from user_id. To match, you have to download solutions and ...
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Visiting every digit
A clock uses a seven-segment display as following:
Each move involves adding or removing a single segment. Starting with the digit 0, what is the fewest number of moves needed to visit all the ...
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Balls of different weights: how few balls can there be?
This puzzle was inspired by the one in this posting by Hemant Agarwal.
There are n balls. Their weights are distinct positive integers which sum to W. The balls have the property that, if any one of ...
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Prisoners and warden game, again?
Source:
There are 100 prisoners in a prison. As usual, there is a warden who loves to play games, hence offers the prisoners a chance to free themselves.
He says
There is a room with a whiteboard, ...
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Largest sequence of adjacent numbers less than 11 such that adjacent number divides the other
Friday writes different positive whole numbers that are all less than 11 next to each other in the sand. Robinson Crusoe looks at the sequence and notices with amusement that adjacent numbers are ...
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Find the longest English anagram-homophone chain
Construct the longest chain you can by appending a new word based on the properties of its predecessor:
Same pronunciation but different spelling to the predecessor.
An anagram of its predecessor.
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Rats & Snakes: Avoid being eaten, escape unharmed
I'm trying to create a puzzle for an RPG that involves a classic lever puzzle.
It is presented as follows:
There are four rooms, you start in the southern-most room (S).
In this room are two closed ...
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The prisoners and the switch
After studying for a math exam some months ago, I fell in an uneasy sleep and had the oddest dream.
I dreamt I was part of a company of soldiers captured in enemy territory, imprisoned for weeks.
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What is the maximum number of fish possible in your tank?
You want to put some fish in a square tank. But these fish fight whenever they are in the same tank. Sadly, you have only 1 tank, but you can put glass panes inside the tank to divide it, not ...
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Make exactly 101 squares using as few lines as possible
With how few straight lines can you make exactly 101 squares? The squares don’t necessarily have be the same size.
Clarification 1: By lines, I mean you can use mathematical line segments and/or ...
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