Puzzle 92: Word Puzzle?!

Bonza Word Puzzle Arrange the pieces given into a crossword pattern, like in the game (or puzzle genre) Scrabble, such that every contiguous sequence of two or more letters read left-to-right or top-to-bottom spells out a word, which are thematically linked. Also see Grant’s take on this.

Expected difficulty Easy • Answer • Comment/E-mail if you want a solution to be published

Puzzle 92: Word Puzzle?!
Bonza Word Puzzle

Let’s say I’m not too inspired.

On the other hand, I actually have the game. Of course, I’m always biased, preferring free games way more than games that include necessary in-app purchases (this includes Bonza for locking some of its puzzles, even if there are packs available with coins), but I suppose I should stop here before trashing more on the business model which I myself can’t understand why I loathe so much. The idea itself about “jigsaw crossword” is amazing. (By the way, I should have put the genre name as “Jigsaw Crossword” if I want to be neutral, but eh.) I might tinker with the idea again some time in the future.

Puzzle 52: Poker Hands

Word Puzzle, which is not actually word puzzle like crosswords or word searches but more like presenting the puzzle in English form. Just read the puzzle.

As perceived by the author…
Difficulty: 3.5/10
Target time (after reading): 2:30

Sky has recently gotten a deck of playing cards; why only now, I don’t know. But he is definitely fascinated with it, although there might be not many people that can play. (Flygrass Town is a bit weird.) He is particularly attracted by Poker hands.
Anyway, he even managed to construct a puzzle involving Poker hands. Let’s see if you’re as addicted as him…

0. Familiarize yourself with playing cards and Poker hands as linked above.
1. There are 30 cards used to form 6 Poker hands. These 30 cards are all cards from Eights to Aces (89TJQKA), and the Seven of Spade and Seven of Heart.
2. The resulting Poker hands are a Straight, a Flush, a Full House, a Four of a Kind, a Non-Royal Straight Flush, and a Royal Flush.
3. Both the Flush and the Straight Flush are composed of only red cards.
4. The Straight is composed of only black cards.
5. The Full House doesn’t contain Spades.

What are the hands?

So it occurred to me that it’s Puzzle 52. There are 52 cards in a regular French deck, so…

Also this is made without writing anything down (everything is composed inside my head). Darn I need to be careful with cases; this is version 3.

Puzzle 30: Mini Legendaries, Maxi Pranks

Our six mini legendaries (Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Victini) have mastered the art of transforming. Each of these six legendaries decided to trick Arceus, transforming to the others for the five work days. Since Arceus doesn’t have good logic (Uxie holds it), it asks you for help. Can you help the God of Pokemon tackling this medium mishap?

Basic facts:
1. There are six mini legendaries: Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Manaphy, Shaymin, Victini.
2. There are five work days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, in that order from earliest to latest. Each of the work days are separated by a day; that is, Tuesday is 1 day after Monday, Wednesday is 2 days before Friday, and so on.
3. In each work day, each legendary transforms to exactly one of themselves. A legendary may “transform” to itself. No legendary may appear twice; that is, no two legendaries may both transform to the same legendary in the same day.

The puzzle:
1. Each legendary transform to five different legendaries in the week.
2. Mew and Celebi have a disagreement, and as the result, neither transforms to the other in the first three days.
3. Celebi blames the disagreement to Shaymin, and as the result, neither Mew nor Shaymin transforms to the other in the last two days.
4. On Tuesday, no legendary transforms to itself. On Thursday and Friday, each of exactly two legendaries transform to themselves. On Monday and Wednesday, exactly one legendary transforms to itself.
5. Manaphy transforms to Shaymin in some day and to Jirachi in another day. The difference between these two days is 4 days.
6. Shaymin never transforms to the legendary which never transforms to Shaymin.
7. Victini transforms to Jirachi, and Jirachi transforms to Manaphy. Both take place on Monday.
8. Shaymin transforms to Mew in some day.
9. None of Mew, Celebi, and Jirachi transforms to any of Manaphy, Shaymin, and Victini on Wednesday.

Well, good luck? It’s not that hard.

So I haven’t made one large puzzle for Puzzle 30; I can’t think of a genre. So here’s a word puzzle. I hope you know English.

I need to make more of these to practice my construction skills.

Puzzle 5: Word Puzzle

30-Jan-2014: The original puzzle is broken, so here’s a replacement.

Expected difficulty Medium • Answer and solution follow below the puzzle

On an island, there are two kinds of people: knights who answer questions truthfully and knaves who answer questions falsely. You encounter five people from this island, named Alice, Bob, Charlie, Dave, and Erin. As a bored person, you want to figure out whether they are knights or knaves. When questioned, these are the answers, each answer stated by a different person. Statements in parentheses are statements that you know to be true.

Alice: At least one of us is a knight.
Bob: Exactly two of us are knights.
Charlie: At most three of us are knights.
Dave: The number of knights among us is not four.
Erin: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Which of them are knights?

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Answer and solution; highlight below:

Alice and Charlie must tell at least one truth. If Bob is a knight, then Dave too; this is impossible as together with Alice and Charlie we have at least three knights. So Bob is a knave.

Since Alice and Charlie must tell at least one truth, there is at least one knight, so Alice is a knight.

If Charlie is a knave, then there are at least four knights. But Bob and Charlie are knaves, so there are at most three knights remaining, impossible. So Charlie is a knight. Thus the number of knights cannot exceed three, and so Dave is a knight, and so Erin is a knave.

Thus, the knights are Alice, Charlie, and Dave.