We do not know where this puzzle originated from. If you have any information, please let us know via email.
Can you arrange 6 new identical pencils in space such that every two of them touch each other? What if you have 7 pencils?
Remark: The construction doesn’t need to be stable.
Below you can see solutions for 6 and 7 pencils. The construction with 6 pencils is stable, the construction with 7 pencils – not.
You have unlimited number of knights, bishops, rooks and kings. What is the biggest number of pieces (any combination) you can place on a chessboard, so that no piece is attacked by another one?
If we put 32 knights on all black squares, then no two pieces will attack each other. Now let’s see that if we have more than 32 pieces, then there will be two which attack each other. Split the chessboard in 8 rectangular sectors of size 2×4. It is not hard to see that if we have more than 4 pieces in the same 2×4 sector, then 2 of them will attack each other. Therefore we can place at most 4 × 8 = 32 pieces on the chessboard.
A man stands in the center of a circular field which is encompassed by a narrow ring of water. In the water there is a shark which is swimming four times as fast as the man is running. Can the man escape the field and get past the water to safety?
Yes, he can. Let the radius of the field is R and its center I. First the man should start running along a circle with center I and radius R/4. His angular speed will be bigger than the angular speed of the shark, so he can keep running until gets opposite to it with respect to I. Then he should dash away (in a straight line) towards the water. Since he will need to cover approximately 3R/4 distance and the shark will have to cover approximately 3.14R distance, the man will have enough time to escape.
The following game is played under very specific rules – no pinned piece checks the opposite king. How can White mate Black in 2 moves?
First, White plays f3 and threatens mate with Qxe2. Indeed, blocking with the black rook on d4 will not help, because it will become pinned, which means that the rook on d6 will become unpinned, which will make the bishop on b6 pinned, and that will unpin the knight on c7, resulting in a mate. Below are listed all variations of the game.
1. … Rd5 2. Qxe2#
2. … Bxa5 2. Kc8#
3. … Bxc7 2. Nxc7#
4. … Bxe8 2. Kxe8#
5. … Qxe7+ 2. Kxe7#
6. … Rd2 2. Bxd2#
7. … Rxd6+ 2. Qxd6#
On the ground there is a stick and 10 ants standing on top of it. All ants have the same constant speed and each of them can travel along the entire stick in exactly 1 minute (if it is left alone). The ants start moving simultaneously straightforward, either towards the left or the right end of the stick. When two ants collide with each other, they both turn around and continue moving in the opposite directions. How much time at most would it take until all ants fall off the stick?
Imagine the ants are just dots moving along the stick. Now it looks looks like all dots keep moving in their initially chosen directions and just occasionally pass by each other. Therefore it will take no more than a minute until they fall off the stick. If any of them starts at one end of the stick and moves towards the other end, then the time it will take for it to fall off will be exactly 1 minute.
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.
