Projects - Puzzle Help - Items 025-036

	Items 025-036

Home / Projects / Puzzle Help /

036 Twelve Crayons - MC6

035 Puzzle Definition

034 Bridge Puzzle - MC5

033 Bears & People - MC4

032 Walls & Lines

031 Grandfather's Breakfast - MC3

030 Making Your Own Puzzles

029 Alexander's Star

028 "Hasty Retreat"

027 How to Recognize a Puzzle, or What Puzzle is your Query About?

026 Send More Puzzles!!

025 Rubik's Cube

036 Twelve Crayons - MC6

Question: If you have 12 crayons arranged to make four perfect squares and take away three crayons to make three perfect squares can you answer that?
David V.

Mini-Contest 6 is Finished
It was our sixth mini-contest. Now we have the first six correct answers and propose this contest's results and some details about the puzzle and its solution. With this Mini-Contest 6 is finished.

Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Nicole Takahashi.
2. Joao Paulo.
3. Jensen Lai.
4. Alex Packard.
5. Federico Bribiesca Argomedo.
6. Jeffrey Czarnowski.

top

035 Puzzle Definition

Question: What is your definition of a visual puzzle?
Ebrahim M.

Answer: A visual puzzle is an image containing a hidden information (solution) that you need to reveal using just your eyes and interpretation of what you see.

top

034 Bridge Puzzle - MC5

Question: I have a math puzzle that I just can't get.

You have 4 people (A, B, C and D) that need to cross a bridge under 13 min and only 1 flashlight. You can only go with the flashlight, no more than 2 persons at a time, and always as fast as the slowest person. To cross the bridge persons need:
A=1min; B=2min; C=5min; D=6min.
How do you get all 4 of the across in only 13 min?

P.S. they can't go on each others back!
A.

Mini-Contest 5 is Finished
It was our fifth mini-contest. Because of some technical problem now we have the first six+one correct answers and propose this contest's results and some details about the puzzle and its solution. With this Mini-Contest 5 is finished.

Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Jensen Lai.
2. Hüsnü Sincar.
3. Nicole Takahashi.
4. Tanya Bulls.
5. Nigel Wilson.
6. Terry & Lisa.
7. Alex Packard.

We got an almost correct solution from Jennifer Ormos, but in this solution its left (timing) and right (persons) parts don't correspond in some steps; persons A and B show another time than it's stated in the puzzle description.

top

033 Bears & People - MC4

Question: You have three bears and three humans. The bears and humans have to take a boat from one island to another island. One bear is a special bear who can drive the boat. The boat can hold no more than two - 2 bears, or 2 humans, or 1 bear plus 1 human. There can never be more bears than humans on either island or the human will be killed. How can this be done?
P.

Mini-Contest 4 is Finished
It was our fourth mini-contest. This puzzle wasn't as easy as it might seem at first sight, but finally we have six+one (last minute) correct answers. Now we propose this contest's results and some details about the puzzle and its solution. With this Mini-Contest 4 is finished. We thank you for your active participation, and look forward to the next Mini-Contests. Happy Puzzling!

Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Husnu Sincar.
2. Nicole Takahashi.
3. Xiner.
4. Marie Sabbe.
5. Katherine Cardiff.
6. Adam Dutke.
7. Kaj Braek.

top

032 Walls & Lines

Question: here is an attachment that i hope you will open and i hope you will tell me if this is unsolvable. ive been trying to solve this puzzle for 7 years and please just look at the setup for the puzzle. You have to touch every intersecting line with one continuous line without touching each intersecting line twice. here an example on paint. and please tell me if you understand or if you know about this puzzle. please give me some answers

Arthur M.

Question: I was wondering if anyone saw this one. I am told it is solvable. The object is to bisect each line without lifting the pencil, without crossing / touching any given line twice.
Michael S.

Question: I've been working on this one for a while and don't see the possibility. There is 2 rectangular boxes on top of 3 square boxes, you need to draw a line through each line of the boxes without overlapping any lines or going through them twice and the line needs to be continuous. Any ideas? Thanks
Gary J.

Question: Hello, Any idea where I might find the solution to this puzzle? You are supposed to draw a line through each square without crossing a line twice. Thanks!
Rachel A.

Question: hi i have a puzzle that i have been trying to figure out for about 4 months now and i have asked many people around me for their help but no answer. it is a long rectangle with a horizontal line going completely through the center of the triangle, on the top of the horizontal line is a vertical line going from the center of the top of the rectangle to the center of the horizontal line, on the bottom half of the rectangle are two more vertical lines going from the bottom line of the rectangle to the horizontal line they are on the side of the center vertical line on the top half of the rectangle. now the trick is you have to draw one line going through this rectangle so as to pass through each line (there are 16 lines) but you may not pass through the line being drawn and you cannot pass over a line twice. PLEASE HELP!!!! please help me with this puzzle it is driving me carzy. thank you so much send me a solution when possible. sincerely,
A.

Question: MY teacher showed the class this puzzle last month and still nobody has figured it out yet. It is this box with a line going strait through the center .Then on one side of the line is a line going to the wall of the box and on the other side is two lines going to the other wall. The object is to draw a line going through each line segment without crossing one line segment twice.Although,you can cross your own line twice. The line is also aloud to swerve or whatever you want it to do.My teacher says it's possiblle ,but I'm not to sure.If you guys have any idea of what im talking about,please tell me what the answer is because its driving me insane.
Jesse

Question: I am having trouble finding a puzzle that has 2 boxes on top of three boxes and you have to make a long line that goes through every line on the boxes and you cannot go through a line twice.
K.

Question: This puzzle was given to a friend of ours some years ago. He has never been able to solve it and he doesn't know if it has a solution. Does it? I am starting to think that this puzzle has no solution. I have been playing with it with no luck.

The idea is to cross each line (segment) with a continuous line without crossing any segment twice or the continuous line itself.
Rafael R.

Example

This solution is wrong,
because the line crosses
one segment twice!!

Question: My teacher gave me this puzzle and she said no one in 15 yrs has ever figured it out. She told us that we would have to draw a continuous line through each wall without tracing over a wall and entering the wall twice*. Can you help me? The puzzle looks like this.
T.

* Walls that have to be passed are marked with a circle.

Answer: Unfortunately, this, one of the most popular classic puzzles, has no solution. At least, one wall always will be left unpassed.

It was easy proved by Martin Gardner. The proof (adopted to our case with the walls and rooms) is as follows: <<A continuous line that enters and leaves one of the rectangular rooms must of necessity cross two walls. Since the three bigger rooms have each an odd number of walls to be crossed, it follows that an end of a line must be inside each if all the 16 walls are crossed. But a continuous line has only two ends, so the puzzle is insoluble.>>

Answer: Just an observation you or your visitors may appreciate.

there is a logic problem that goes like this: draw a square, divide in half horizontally, divide the top half in to two equal parts with a vertical line, then divide the bottom portion into 3 equal portions with 2 vertical lines.

the task is to draw a continues line through all lines without ever crossing your own line or crossing any line two times. The problem is presented on this sight. Now according to conventional logic this problem seems impossible because line always needs an entry and exit but there are an odd number of spaces and an odd number of segments in three of them.

The real difficulty here is that an assumption is made, creating an unwritten rule. This unwritten rule, this self imposed limitation forces the problem solver to focus on the problem, NOT THE SOLUTION. By recognizing the problem (NOT FOCUSING ON IT) - a long line cannot enter and leave each space enough times without making an illegal crossing- we can find the solution. The solution is this: use a very wide marker of brush and cross the entire box in one diagonal line. All stated conditions are met, the problem is circumvented and the solution is found. Clearly this is not the intended answer, but it is indisputable.

Comment: Puzzle 32 walls and lines. The solution presented that says one should use a large brush because it fits within the “rules.” However, the definition of a line says that it is only one (1) dimensional, a line there for cannot have height and width it would then be a plane. So the “solution” presented where this individual accuses people of not being able to “focus” on the solution is in fact not focusing enough on the “rules”

The first time I was told the puzzle it was told to me to cross each line once and only once. So I crossed every time (picking up the pencil each time). However when the rules say make a line this does not work since this makes several lines.

Modified: May 27, 2007

top

031 Grandfather's Breakfast - MC3

Question: I was wondering if you can help me solve this puzzle:

Grandfather is a very hard-boiled customer. In fact, his eggs must be boiled for exactly 15 minutes, no more, no less. One day he asks you to prepare breakfast for him, and the only timepieces in the house are two hourglasses. The larger hourglass takes 11 minutes for all the sand to descend; the smaller takes 7 minutes. What do you do? ...Grandfather grows impatient...
Corrine

Mini-Contest 3 is Finished
It was our third mini-contest. Now we have the first six correct answers and propose this contest's results and some details about the puzzle and its solution. With this Mini-Contest 3 is finished.

Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Jensen Lai.
2. Hüsnü Sincar.
3. KT - "ktendall".
4. Tamie D.
5. Jane Average.
6. Nicole Takahashi.
7. Matt Kaspar.

We got an almost correct solution from Sandra Payne, but she did say nothing about the moment when to put the eggs into the boiling water. See details at the solution page.

Also we got a correct solution from Matt Kaspar before our Mini-Contest 3 was finished, but accidentally his message was put into a folder with another contest, so when we posted the results and the names of the first six correct solvers his name wasn't included. Our apology. We add his name to the winners list.

top

030 Making Your Own Puzzles

Question: We were wondering if you might be able to help us. We are trying to complete a word search and find for our elementary school newspaper. We have come up with the topic and have a listing of words we'd like to use. Can you put them together for us? A teacher suggested that we contact you. Thank you,
TJ and Ashton

Question: Several years ago I was able to log on and input my choice of words and you would create a puzzle for me, do you still offer that service.
Franklin

Question: I want to create a puzzle of my own search a word for church how do I go about it please let me know I need it by tonight
Janet

Question: How Do I make my own puzzle
T.

Question: Do you know the name of a website that allows you to create wordsearches. Thanks
Sinead

Question: Do you know where I can find a website where I can make my own crossword puzzles or wordsearches?
Brianna

Question: How do you make a puzzle?
W.

Question: I would like to know the address-website to create my own puzzles...Do you have that website.?
Jane T.

Question: I would like to know how to create my own word search, with my own words that I chose.
W.

Question: how can I get help wih making my wordsearch on here?
E.

Question: I am looking for word search puzzle on "nutrition". Can you help?
Joycelle J.

Question: i have a report due on friday the 12th and i have to do some puzzles for English~would u be able to give me some if i tell u the headings?? well write back soon please
thank you
K.

Question: I want to no how to create my own puzzle
G.

Question: we are having to make an activity sheet for our class and my teacher suggested this site but i cant find a page were u make your own puzzles with your help can you please direct me to a page which will help me?
S.F.

Question: I was under the assumption that I was able to make my own puzzle at your web site!? Upon pulling your web site up, I was unable to see how this was accomplished. Can you help me? Am I at the wrong site? Confused.
K.

Answer: You may take a look at the site http://www.puzzlemaker.com/ which proposes some great possibilities to make different puzzles with words.

Answer: Here is a message from our visitor with the very useful information on the matter. Thank you very much for your help, Lisa!

<<I happened to be reading where some students had questions about how to create their own puzzles. There is a site called, edHelper (www.edhelper.com) where you can create your own puzzles. I hope this can be of some assistance.
Lisa Melvin>>

Answer: We suppose that there is something in the name of our new section "Puzzle Help" that gives the idea that we may help you to make your own puzzles with our help. If you mean customized puzzles - we can't do this, and this never was our intention. Actually, we created this section first of all to help you be oriented in the wonderful and vast Puzzle World. There is much our team knows about puzzles, but nobody knows and can do everything.

On the other hand we have at our PuzzlePLAYGROUND sector a huge variety of cool puzzles you may choose from, print them out and have really your own puzzles.

In any case every your question is considered as a very important thing and for each of them we are trying to find as precise answer as possible.

See also Item 010 at this section.

Modified: November 29, 2005

top

029 Alexander's Star

Question: I bought an Alexander's Star puzzle at a thrift store and it is unsolved. I know this sounds lame, but do you have a picture of what a solved puzzle of this sort should look like? It would really help me get off to a better start. Thanks.
Kathy D.

Answer: Congratulations on such a wonderful purchase! The Alexander's Star puzzle is one of the most beautiful sequential movement puzzles similar to the famous Rubik's Cube puzzle. It's based not on a cube, but a great dodecahedron. The puzzle has ten pentagonal faces with ten stars which protrude from the faces. The object is to make every pentagonal side (better say its visible part that consists of five triangles) monochromatic.

A picture of Alexander's Star, its description, notation and how to solve it you can see at Jaap's Puzzle Page with this puzzle.
Also a short solution to Alexander's Star can be found here.

top

028 "Hasty Retreat"

Question: I am in search of a picture puzzle I did as a child. It's a very exciting one, filled with the drama and romanticism of an old time adventure story. Essentially there are 4 participants. A North American Indian man and women in traditional dress, a dog, and a grizzly bear. The dog is on the right side, bristled and snarling. The female, startled/terrified is standing in a buckskin dress and moccasins with one arm raised in alarm, on the left. The man is bare chested/muscular and reaching for his bow and arrows, located in their canoe which is only partially shown in the foreground, both on the left and moving toward center. The forest, on either side, leading into the clearing, is thick and vibrant green. The grizzly is reared on hind legs, preparing for attack, mid center/mid back. The mountains in the background suggest late afternoon in their paleness of color. This picture story has a timeless nature and is frozen on the canvas of the artist as well as in my mind. I do not know the artist or manufacturer, or title, but in subject should be easier for you to find then myself, if you keep a picture archive by subject. (I have had no luck). Although I only want to give this to my sister as a 50th birthday present, I have at least 10 others I would love to present it to. If there is anything else I can do besides identify it, please let me know. I estimate that it was produced in the 1950's, and my mother bought it at a church auction in Barton, Vermont. Can you help me? If you cannot, perhaps you could make some helpful
suggestions. Sincerely,
Suzen A.

Answer: Thank you very much for your very interesting message and request. Our puzzle friends - Anne Williams and Chris McCann - helped us to identify this puzzle. We are grateful to them for their help. The puzzle you are searching for can be seen at the following URLs: http://oldpuzzles.com/416.htm or http://www.oldpuzzles.com/416.htm. The title is "Hasty Retreat", and the artist is Walter Haskell Hinton. The puzzle consists of 1203 pieces with a lot of amazing, "non-standard" pieces. We hope this information will be helpful for you.

Last but not least. Your detailed description of this nice picture puzzle is as impressive as the puzzle itself. :-)

top

027 How to Recognize a Puzzle, or What Puzzle is your Query About?

Very often we are receiving your messages with requests to help with some puzzles. But sometimes they describe such puzzles in general and thus we can't even understand what puzzles you mean (please see below). Apparently this prevents us to help you with your troubling puzzles.

In all such cases we may just recommend you to give us as many details on the puzzles you want us to help with as possible. Don't hesitate to send us these puzzles' names, producers, publishers, sources, their authentic texts or descriptions, any other details that may be helpful when we try to recognize the puzzles and help you with your queries.

Good samples of such detailed descriptions are Items 028 and 029.

Question: i need help with a dell crossword puzzle called, cross sums, could you help me out. or where can i find the answer to the puzzle
Gail B.

Question: I was given a 3D puzzle but it has no directions. I have tried putting them in numerical order and that doesn't work and I have also tried putting them together by shape. I am very confused. I love puzzles and also a challenge but this makes absolutely no since to me. I appreciate any guidance you can provide. Thanks!
Jackie

Question: I have a puzzle about cars, colors, states, and parking spaces? I can't figure it out. Where can I find the answers?
C.

Question: I don't remember how this puzzle is call but I saw it like a year ago i been trying to find it. I don't know if you could help me. It comes with a pink circle and three yellow lines that you got to put the three lines together and the circle it slides to the side three times and the two row from the bottom to the top and they slide at the same time.
Annel Q.

Question: do u have any celestial puzzles. If not can u tell me where i might be able to find some? thanks
Crystal

Question: I need help solving a del logic puzzle. it is called pass the egg by glen schoen. please help me because i don't understand it. this is due this tuesday so write back asap. thank you.
S.

Question: While visiting El Salvador I found a young man selling interesting wire puzzles that had degrees of difficulty, #4 was a bicycle, which I was able to do but #5, consisting of a Y with rings and springs, I have been unable to do. He told me I could find the answer at www.puzzles.com, but I have been unable to locate it. Can you help me, this is driving me crazy! Thanks
P.

top

026 Send More Puzzles!!

Many of you ask us to send different puzzles (please see below). We must say that at the moment the only way how to deliver new and challenging puzzles and other cool things is sectors, sections and pages of our Puzzles.COM site. We're preparing one more way for this - our E-PuzzLETTER for the members of our PuzzleCLUB - but these are our future plans.

Question: Can you send me all kinds of puzzles
P.

Question: Send puzzles to challenge the mind. Thanks
Steve

top

025 Rubik's Cube

Question: I have a rubix cube and I need help I put one side together!
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gary M.

Answer: To learn how to do one face of a Rubik's Cube (and much more) go to the site http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm. You'll find at the site everything about this phenomenal puzzle, including two complete solutions to solving the cube from any legal position. Also it has a lot of links to other places about Rubik's Cube on the Web.

Or visit another excellent site "The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube" at: http://www.olympus.net/personal/prmhem/.

Also there is a comprehensive page about Rubik's Cube 3x3x3, its notation, solutions and very useful links at Jaap's Puzzle Page with this famous puzzle.

And, last but not least, you can use the Rubik's Cube Solution - the newest solution guide, recommended for everyone, directly from the official Rubik's site - Rubiks.com. Also there you can play the Virtual Rubik's Cube online and solve it from some scrambled position. Additionally, the Virtual Rubik's Cube has a very clever and useful feature (it's accessible under some special conditions, though) that allows you to solve your real Rubik's Cube 3x3x3 from any position you can simply paint at the screen sample of Rubik's Cube.