Google Puzzles

Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku: Hundreds of Puzzles Plus Techniques to Help You Crack Them All

2010-03-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

This book by Peter Gordon is pretty comprehensive. As an avid Soduku solver, I found tips that I never knew existed! Who knew they had names for solving techniques. If you love Soduku, you should give this book a read. Read more about the book including reader reviews at Amazon.

Google Bar Code

2009-10-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Google is celebrating the invention of the bar code on its home page.

If you have a bar code scanner on your iPhone or Android phone, scan the bar code and...

If you can figure this out, you may have a future with Google.

2009-09-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

8 M L D Q 6 T U I
6 T F M L R H A A
N R A 6 Q 8 E F L
D M Q 8 6 I I 2 O 3
2 S 5 J 1 3 J X O J

via TechCrunch's Google Is Searching For Beautiful Minds, But So Far No M.I.T. Students Have Broken Its Code.

Crop Circles. 51.327629, -0.5616088. puzzle?

2009-09-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

query: crop circles

clue: 51.327629, -0.5616088

Unexplained Phenomenon. Puzzle?

2009-09-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

query: unexplained phenomenon

Clue:
twitter @google: 1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 28

2006-12-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

Trilands:
You must flood the giant island until you are left with 6 islands, each with three huts.

Rules.
Touching lands are considered to be part of the same island.

How to Play.
You may click on a hut to flood it; click it again to unflood it.

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 27

2006-11-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

Bridges:
Construct bridges on the open sea so that each island has the specified number of bridges connected to it.

Rules.
Bridges go vertically or horizonally. If an island is numbered, that many bridges (and no more) must connect to it.

How to Play.
All empty water spaces must be labeled with a bridge before the puzzle can be considered solved. Click on a water space to cycle between bridges and water. The numbers will turn yellow-green or red (depending on whether it is satisfied) when you have constructed all the bridges around that island.

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 26

2006-11-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

Mini Kakuro 4:
Since so many users had problems with the puzzle rendering last week, I've decided to keep them here this week, with 12 more puzzles added for those of you who managed to make them work.

Rules.
Place the given digits into the grid so that no digit appears more than once in any "word" and that the sum of the digits in the word match the indicated sum. For example, a three-digit 8 might be "152", or "215", or "431".

How to Play.
Drag letters from the "palette" on the left into the grid to place them. You'll know you've solved it when all the sums turn green. Click on a cell to get a keyboard-sensitive cursor. You can click on "Shrink" to make the grid smaller (for those of you with small screens).

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 25

2006-11-10T22:49:00.000-08:00

Mini Kakuro 3: The twist in these Kakuro puzzles is that low numbers are used frequently, while you only have a few copies of the big numbers.

Rules.
Place the given digits into the grid so that no digit appears more than once in any "word" and that the sum of the digits in the word match the indicated sum. Sometimes there is one digit left over; don't let that rattle you.

How to Play.
Drag letters from the "palette" on the left into the grid to place them. You'll know you've solved it when all the sums turn green. Click on a cell to get a keyboard-sensitive cursor.

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 24

2006-11-03T23:31:00.000-08:00

Whyme Rhyme 2: Find the non-rhyming pairs of words that only differ in their first letter, such as LEMON DEMON.

Rules.
The words may or may not be proper nouns. Pronunciations are assumed to be standard American English, but these pairs will fail to rhyme in almost all dialects of English. (For more Whyme Rhymes, check out the archive.)

How to Play.
Simply type your guess in the box. Spaces and capitalization don't count, but spelling does! You can try as much as you want without penalty. If you have solved a puzzle already and want to see the original clue, try parking your mouse over the answer.

In the direction of milquetoasts
A serviceman stationed closer to the tropics
Description for teeth that could be a bit whiter
The right person to be reaching
Famous actor from Sheffield
Starbucks® concoction that isn't very shiny
Attempts to popularize grassy plants
What to press a doorbell with
A new sort of miserable dwelling
Pours out trigonometric functions
Mexican food from a city in central Texas
An amazing thing that one likes better

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 23

2006-10-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

October 27, 2006:

Hidden Insults:
Name the famous person, given a somewhat-insulting word hidden in their name. For instance, VIEW can be found in "SteVIE Wonder."

Rules.
The hidden word always spans a space in the original name, but there are no extra letters added or removed. You'll get 10, 7, 4, 3, 2, or 1 points depending on how many hints you've revealed. There may be more than one famous person with the hidden insult, but I've tried to pick the most famous one in each case. The first clue is always the (main) profession of the person.

How to Play.
Simply type your guess in the box. Spaces and capitalization don't count, but spelling does! You can try as much as you want without penalty. You can also switch back-and-forth between puzzles without penalty (assuming that the new Google Gadgets User Preference code holds up).

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Looking for a new blog owner

2006-10-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I have been really really busy at work and I am not able to contribute as much time as I would like to the Blog. :( If there is a puzzle Blog fan(s) that would like to pick up this Blog, let me know. I can give you all the stats on the Blog. Thank you and happy puzzle solving.

Puzzle Solver Wannabe

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 22

2006-10-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

October 20, 2006:

Mini Battleships:
Fifty small Battleships puzzles! Place the six-ship fleet into the grid.

Rules.
Ships can be oriented vertically or horizontally. The numbers along the side tell you how many "ship parts" are in that respective row or column. Ships are never adjacent to each other, not even diagonally. Some ship components and blank spaces are given to you and cannot be changed.

How to Play.
All 36 squares must be labeled before the puzzle is considered solved. Click on an empty space to mark it with a ship part. Click on a brown ship part to mark it with an ocean ('x'). Click on an brown ocean mark to make it empty. Right-click has the reverse effect of click. As you surround a ship part with ocean, it will be automatically shaped to fit. The numbers will turn green or red depending on how many ship parts you've

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 21

2006-10-14T17:12:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2006:

No fancy puzzle this week; I just got back from being part of Team USA at the 15th World Puzzle Championship. But here's a rather basic puzzle from the competition I can share:
What is next in this sequence? 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 30, 33, 120, ?

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 20

2006-10-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

October 06, 2006:

Mister Mind.

Introduction.
Mister Mind has challenged you to guess his secret color code. For each guess of yours he's given indicator pegs on the side; but, the evil Mister Mind always adds an extra peg just to keep things confusing. You only have one guess left, so you better make sure it's correct!

Rules.
The rules are similar to Mastermind®; a black peg indicates that a color is in the correct position, while a white peg stands for a color that is correct but in the wrong position. The only difference is that each row always has an extra peg, which can be white or black. No guesswork is required; there's always enough information for you to be able to deduce the correct code.

How to Play.
You may click on the cells of the rows to "make notes" -- the background can be cycled among three different colors. When you are ready to submit your answer, click on the colored pegs on the right to submit your answer. You may click the arrow to "backspace"; however, once you click the fourth color, it will be submitted instantly, so be careful! The stats are for entertainment purposes only, and are pretty easy to cheat -- so you're only cheating yourself.

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 19

2006-09-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

September 29, 2006:

Word Wreck Tangle: Drag the letters into the rectangle so that words read both across and down.

How to Play.
Purple letters only move up-and-down, while green letters only move left and right. Click and drag a colored letter to move it. You win if four five-letter English words read left-to-right along the rows and five four-letter words read down along the columns.

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 18

2006-09-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

September 22, 2006:

Last Chessman Standing: Invented by Vesa Timonen. Have the pieces capture each other until there is only one. No moves, only captures.

How to Play.
Click and drag a piece onto another to capture it. Pieces capture as in standard chess, but color can be ignored. When the button is held on a piece, the legal captures will turn black. You'll be notified if there are no more moves.

Answers / Solutions: Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 17

2006-09-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

September 15, 2006:

Pipe Spin: Spin the pipes such that all pipes become green.

Rules: One pipe has a "water source" (colored green), and anything connected to that pipe also gets water. To win, all pipes must be connected. On harder levels, pipes may "wrap around" (connections above reconnect to connections below, and same for left-to-right). To win, all pipes must get to the "water source".

How to Play: Click on a pipe to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. After choosing a new puzzle, you may have to resize your browser window a bit to force the refresh.

The pipe images are not showing as of writing this entry. Wei-Hwa, images are not showing...

Answers / Solutions:

Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solvepuzzles page.

Due to the random puzzles, answers will be different based on your pipe layout. Example of a solved puzzle:

I will post the solutions later.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 16

2006-09-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

September 08, 2006:

Mini Battleships: To solve these small Battleships puzzles, place the six-ship fleet into the grid.

Rules: Ships can be oriented vertically or horizontally. The numbers along the side tell you how many "ship parts" are in that respective row or column. Ships are never adjacent to each other, not even diagonally. Some ship components and blank spaces are given to you and cannot be changed.

How to Play: All 36 squares must be labeled before the puzzle is considered solved. Click on an empty space to mark it with ocean ('x'). Click on a brown ocean space to mark it with a ship part. Click on a brown ship part to make it empty. Click on "Reset" (in the lower-right) to reset the puzzle. The numbers will turn green or red depending on how many ship parts you've placed.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 15

2006-09-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

September 01, 2006:
Cross-O Change-O: I started with one category name and five items in the category, and I wrote their names across six columns. Then I mixed each group of letters in each column, and I also rearranged the columns. See if you can rearrange everything back.

Based on Cross-O, a puzzle type invented by Will Shortz in the 1980s. Drag on the blue column headers to rearrange them.

Hints:
This puzzle is hard. You really have to play around with the words. I wrote down the possible combinations and after a while, you will start to see a pattern.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 14

2006-08-25T17:00:00.001-07:00

August 25, 2006:

Mini Kakuro 2: Due to popular demand, here are some Mini Kakuro puzzles that have some more variety (and are a bit easier) than the last batch. Place the given digits into the grid so that no digit appears more than once in any "word" and that the sum of the digits in the word match the indicated sum.

Hints:
Click on the box until a grey box with a white question mark appears. Type in the number and it should appear. (Only works with main keyboard numbers. Not numpad). To delete a number, click on the number or replace it.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle OR The Official Page

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 13

2006-08-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2006:Confounded Compounds 2: This is just like the original Confounded Compounds, except that now I'm using nine-letter words, and the components aren't always four letters. But like the last one, the components won't have much relation to the actual word.

adorable
lady
affirm
literature
ambulatory
lowfat
barrow
nucleus
castigate
panorama
choose
pinnacle
complain
postpone
considering
pronounce
cultivate
raiment
devil
reassemble
docket
ringleader
elevated
speculate
entrust
straps
fellow
tessellate
frogman
underpays
groove
went on

When you think you have a 9-letter word, enter it here. If you're right, it will appear next to the appropriate pair.

Need help? Try dragging the words around to swap their positions. A correct pair will turn green, while a correctly-paired set in the wrong order will turn yellow.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle OR The Official Page

Code for Puzzle 12

2006-08-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

The optimal number of moves needed to solve puzzle 12 is 15. Here are some files for puzzle 12.

Perl Code by Dave at d0sboots
C Code and Java Applet by David at Puzzling Addiction
Solution Diagram by CoreyPlover

Hidden Puzzle 11:

Anyone solve hidden puzzle number 11?

Looking at the hint section for puzzle 11 at the official puzzle page, hidden characters were displayed as a different typeface. The typeface was a poor selection because the only clear difference is the i’s and l’s. To see this hidden message, highlight the text in the frame and rectangles will appear over these hidden characters. (Does not work with IE. Get Firefox with Google Toolbar)

Put these letters together (dont forget 'n' in'can' at the end of line 4) and it reads:

"HIDDEN PUZZLE IN HTML"

Still no answers. Join the Discussion.

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 12

2006-08-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

August 11, 2006: Bolt Swap: This little gem was shown to me by Markus Götz. Swap the positions of the white and black kings in as few moves as possible -- however, there is a hidden rule that governs whether a king can be moved or not. Try to discover the rule; it will be pretty hard to solve the puzzle without knowing it!

Hints:
I still cant figure out the hidden rule but it has to do with having all 3 pieces of the same colored kings connected with each other. With some luck, I solved it without knowing what I did. I am going to post my answer and if someone can clarify what I did and get the answer in fewer steps, let me know. I am curious to find out the hidden rule. I solved it in 24 but I think 24 is BAD.

Current Best: 15 (Dave)

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle OR The Official Page

A break from puzzles. Not!

2006-08-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Looks like we will have a break from puzzles. BUT! Looking at the source code there is a puzzle!

Good job finding the hidden message and this message too!

Here's your bonus hidden puzzle:

I have a card in my pocket with the numbers from 1 through 48 written
on it. Some of the numbers are red, some are blue.  They are arranged
in a grid like this:

14   25    8  ( 1)   4    5
41  ( 6)  35   30  (27) (26)
(29) (18)  47  (42)  39  (38)
21   32  ( 3)  10  ( 7)  12
(34) (23) (40) (45)  48  (43)
( 2)  37   20  (13)  16   17
( 9)  44  (15)  22  (19)  24
46  (11) (28) (33)  36  (31)

The numbers in parentheses are red.

What is this card used for?

(This puzzle is based on an actual card I got from Will Strijbos.)

Better Visual:

Red Numbers:
1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 38, 40, 42, 43, 45

Blue Numbers:
4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 30, 32, 35, 36, 37, 39, 41, 44, 46, 47, 48

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle OR The Official Page

Code for puzzle 10

2006-08-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

Adam sent me PERL code for puzzle 10.

Output for puzzle 1.

You will have to swap the grids at the end of the code for puzzles 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 10

2006-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

July 28, 2006: Mini Kakuro: For this variant of Cross Sums, place the digits from 1 through 6 in the crossword-like grid so that no digit appears more than once in any "word" and that the sum of the digits in the word match the indicated sum (on the left for "across" clues and above for "down" clues). No digit appears more than 6 times.

Drag letters from the "palette" on the left into the grid to place them. You'll know you've solved it when all the sums turn green. Click on a cell to get a keyboard-sensitive cursor.

Hints:
I must say that I like this puzzle. It was really fun to solve. As for hints, the wikipedia article for cross sums gives you several possibilities for combinations under the "Possible Sums" section.

Firefox allows you to type the answers in (Does not work on IE). Click on the box until a grey box with a white question mark appears. Type in the number and it should appear. (Only works with main keyboard numbers. Not numpad). To delete a number, click on the number or replace it.

An individual by the name of Adam sent me a PERL solver. I will test it out and post it later.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle

Code for puzzle 9

2006-07-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Puzzling Addiction is another great site that is covering Wei-Hwa's puzzles. David codes all the answers. Here is his latest TCL solver for puzzle 9.

There is a Perl solver for puzzle 9 written by Dave (d0sboots). He used Perl and /usr/dict/words

* Note: These are not full solvers.

If you like to read more about puzzles, check out MathPuzzle.com

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 9 by Google

2006-07-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

July 21, 2006: Give and Take: Add (or subtract) one letter from each word, and then rearrange each group of the resulting letters to form one word (which may or may not be a proper noun). The letters you add (or subtract) will spell out the name of the category that all the resulting words are in.

Puzzle 1:
"LEVEE", "ENNUI", "IMP", "BENT", "FORTUNE", "NERVES", "HANDOUT"
Puzzle 2:
"FINDER", "HAIRDO", "BONNETS", "RESONANCE", "HOMES", "FIREARMS", "AMUSED"
Puzzle 3:
"CLERICS", "LATHERING", "BOLOGNA", "TONNAGE", "HOMBRE", "SALVO"
Puzzle 4:
"LYRICS", "CONTINENTS", "INANE", "WADER", "SITUATING", "PRESET"
Puzzle 5:
"HERMIT", "MAKES", "BURNT", "LIVED", "FORAGED", "HERNIATE", "FAZE", "ELBOW"
Puzzle 6:
"EARTH", "HEAT", "RUSTIC", "ATHEISM", "OUNCES", "UNCROSS"

Inspired by the Family Reunions puzzles by Stanley Newman. Drag letters to swap them. Click on the plus/minus sign to change sign. Click on the "Mix" button to randomly rearrange the letters in that row. Click in this module and then on a letter to activate a "cursor"; arrow keys and typing letters will change the letters appropriately.

Hints:
To make things easier, use Webster's Online Dictionary to get sets of words that can be formed with a +1 / -1 character for the given words. You can get these sets of words from the Anagrams section of the definition. (Note: Not all have anagrams)

Example:

LEEVE
Words containing the letters "e-e-e-l-v"
+1 letter: eleven, leveed, levees, releve, sleeve.
-1 letter: N/A

ENNUI
Words containing the letters "e-i-n-n-u"
+1 letter: ennuis, undine.
-1 letter: nine.

IMP
Words within the letters "i-m-p"
+1 letter: gimp, impi, imps, jimp, limp, pima, pimp, prim, simp, wimp.
-1 letter: mi, pi.

Once you have all these words, try to pair as many words into categories. You will start to see the answers form before your very eyes. Eleven... Nine.. Pi.. Oooppss...

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 8 by Google

2006-07-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

Puzzle:

July 14, 2006: Knight Swap: Swap the positions of the white and black knights in as few moves as possible. There are 6 different challenges; click on the letters of the logo (at left) to change challenges.

Inspired by the work of Henry Ernest Dudeney and Serhiy Grabarchuk. Minimal movecounts generated by a program partially written by Jim Leonard.

Hints:
If you do not know chess, Knights move in an L Shape.

You will have to manually check your answer. Check your answer (number of moves) by clicking on the "best" button.

Moves to solve puzzle:

G = 22 Steps (Medium)
o = 8 Steps (Easy)
o = 8 Steps (Easy)
g = 16 Steps (Medium)
l = 34 Steps (Hard)
e = 20 Steps (Medium)

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Using the picture coordinates above, submit your answers based on the moves in list form (Exclude bracket information). Sample move using the red '0':

'0' Part 2 Example:
1. C1-D3 (White from C1 to D3)
2. B1-A3 (White from B1 to A3)
3. B4-A2 (Black from B4 to A2)

Solved: G, o, o, g , l, e
* As sad as this sounds, I solved 'l' in my sleep. Woke up and found out that Felipe Andrade beat me to it. I was hoping I solved it before an answer was posted. :) Great work Felipe! His answer is a little different but the piece movements are the same.

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers8

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/

Solving Old Puzzles

2006-07-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to archive puzzles for those of you who miss the older weekly puzzles.

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle

I have every puzzle but puzzle 1 and puzzle 3. Any volunteers to convert my html page for puzzle 3 into a Google Personalized Homepage module? Here is the link,

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/ifr_002.htm

If you have it working, email it back to me so that I can test it. Let others enjoy the older puzzles. :)

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 7 by Google

2006-07-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

July 07, 2006: US States Jigsaw Sudoku: My friend and current U. S. Puzzle Champion Thomas Snyder sent along this amazing variant where the region shapes might seem familiar to American cartographers. (Note to Sudoku researchers: This puzzle is not Sledgehammer-complete!)

Drag symbols from the palette on the left into the grid to place them. You'll be warned (in red) if you're trying to place the same letter in the same row, column, or region. You'll know you've solved it when all the lights turn green

Hints:
Solve your basic Soduku puzzle with a little twist. For me, 5's were the easiest to place.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section.

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers7

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 6 by Google

2006-06-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Puzzle June 30th, 2006:

Confounded Compounds: Each of these words is the synonym of a 4-letter word. Pair them up to create 8-letter words. For instance, if you saw "quotation" and "treatise", you could come up with textbook. Warning: These "compound" words are anything but textbook!

antiquated
genuine
blemish
harvest
chessman
inlet
chimney
innate
circlet
maiden
classify
municipality
completed
obligation
comprehend
oppugn
constraint
pinnacle
discomfort
placed
enthusiasm
platter
equitable
pome
fashion
remnant
fellow
spoken
forfeit
supplication
fulminate
unrestrained

When you think you have an 8-letter word, enter it here. If you're right, it will appear next to the appropriate pair.

Need help? Try dragging the words around to swap their positions. A correct pair will turn green, while a correctly-paired set in the wrong order will turn yellow.

Hints:
Use a Thesaurus or Dictionary.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section.

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers6

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 5 by Google

2006-06-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

Puzzle:
June 23rd, 2006: Three weeks ago I was playing in The Game. One particular challenge was a timed maze (written by Stanford students Rachel Weinstein and Frank Losasso) that we had to play on a dance pad. It took my team surprisingly long, probably because we hadn't slept for 20 hours and we had failed to notice an important rule...

Now, you can share a little bit of that experience. Start clicking and see if you can figure out the rules and solve the maze. When you win, you won't be able to reset the puzzle any more -- that's deliberate.

Hints:
Instructions are a little vague. Here are 3 to clarify the puzzle.

1. Only ten steps allowed to complete puzzle (11 is not accepted).
2. Map is an 8x8 grid. Plotting the map using hints below makes solving easier.
3. You start at (1, 1) or (1, A) with the end coordinate of (5, 5) or (5, E)
(See maze map below. I would have used coordinate (0, 0) but this is also for all non math people.)

Biggest hint to solve this puzzle (if you dont look at the code) is to plot the map based on your movements. Here is an example. x = confused person who needs to exit the maze, 1= valid movement, 0 = invalid movement, d = down, u = up, l = left, r = right, dl = down left, etc.

fig1: Start screen (left is game-pad, right is map plot)

We all start (1, 1) with the option of going 'down' or 'down-left' (game-pad). Plot the current possibilities on a map (map plot). We will move 'down' for this example.

fig2: 2nd Move (left is game-pad, right is map plot)

Relocate the 'person' to the new coordinate. Mark the old position as 1 (blue). Now that we have moved down, we are presented with three new options 'down', 'right', or 'up' on the game-pad. We know from fig 1 that there is a movable space on the left of the 'person' (yellow one). Since the current right (yellow zero) of the person was an invalid move in fig 1, there is only one way to draw the new map. New map is drawn using the green 1's/0's with 3 new possible movements (1's adjacent to the 'x'.

Update: Based on your selected movement, 'x' will face towards that direction. In the example above, since 'x' moved down, 'x' is now facing green 1. On the game pad, up = move forward to green 1 with options of moving right to yellow 1 and down to blue 1 (back to (1, 1))

Continue to build the map this way and rotate the map to let (1, 1) be the top left hand corner.

Colors do not get any more Google than that. :)

The Great Map of the Maze:

Answers / Solutions:
There are 2 solutions (10 moves).

Answers to puzzle 5: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers5

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Hints for Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Puzzle 4 - Minesweeper

2006-06-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

I received a few emails for puzzle 4. Some are disappointed, some love it, and some are confused.

For all you confused people, especially 'symbol' and 'knight' variations, here is a link to help you sweep all those mines away.

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers4

Love the minesweeper challenge? What to test your friends on 'symbol' and 'knight' variations?

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Google Minesweeper? Minesweeper and the "P=NP?".

2006-06-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Google Minesweeper (The web app)?

Video on the Web: Google Minesweeper Launches

Link To Game

Take note of the ads beside the screenshot. Mine sweeping by un.org. Ooooo. Of course this is not real (or is it, no its not, yes is it, no its not....)

Good at minesweeper?
World's First Global Minesweeper Competition. The Fastest, Best and Record Minesweeper Times.

Good at REAL mine sweeping?
A charity specializing in the removal of the debris of war.

Minesweeper and mathematics:
I have been reading a few interesting topics on minesweeper, here are links that focus on minesweeper and the "P=NP?".

Clay Mathematics Institute: Ian Stewart on Minesweeper
Richard Kaye's Minesweeper Pages
Richard Kaye's Minesweeper Pages FAQ

To think that minesweeper was just a bundled windows game that reduced office productivity. They even have a webring (Ah, the 90's).

Ok, what is next on Wei-Hwa's puzzle challenge?

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 4 by Google

2006-06-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Puzzle 4 is the classic mineswee... WHAT?! ... Ok, the twist is to find out the rules to the variants. Anybody? This is beyond me so never let me lead you through a minefield.

Solve Current Puzzle at: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Updates:
If you want to solve Old puzzles, visit:

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle

If you want answers to All puzzles (New/Old), visit:

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/answers

Puzzle:
June 15th, 2006: It's hard not to be tempted by parody. It will probably be a while until we can actually get online collaboration, but I was able to come up with some interesting variants of Minesweeper. You can try them out (as well as the standard game) this week:

Your puzzle, of course, is to figure out what the rules to the variants are. Shouldn't be too hard, although there are quite a few secrets to discover! If you'd like to have my Minesweeper game for longer than one week, please add my Minesweeper Gadget by clicking on this link -- I'll be adding new enhancements and variants as time allows.

Hints:
Read about Minesweeper (invented by Robert Donner in 1989) at: Wikipedia

If you are new to minesweeper: Google for "minesweeper tips"
If you are an advance player and need a new challenge, try 3D minesweeper:

http://web.aanet.com.au/robertw/Mines3D/index.html

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. If you want to share your answers, you can send me a screenshot by email/url of your proud achievement. I have a new link that will archive all the puzzles and answers at this link.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

JavaScript Solver for Puzzle 3

2006-06-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

I received an email from George at justwidgets.com who features a web page that solves Wei-Hwa’s puzzle 3 using JavaScript. It would be great if someone creates a ‘Distance’ puzzle solver that allows users to enter his or her own matrix and numbers. Do I hear summer (winter for you people south of the equator) time project?

Visit the solver here: http://www.justwidgets.com/puz03_release01.html

Looks like I have inspired my readers to solve Wei-Hwa’s puzzles using code. :-) Puzzle 4 should be out tomorrow. (Unless he is busy preparing for the Google US Puzzle Championship)

Problems with Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenges

2006-06-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Update: It was fixed yesterday afternoon (2006-06-13). Back to puzzle solving.

The puzzle is down. You can see the puzzle but the images will not render (except that photo of Wei-Hwa himself). If you view an image from the puzzle, you will get this error.

It is hosted on Google Pages and looks like the bandwidth exceeded. I did make a comment on the size of pictures for puzzle 1.

Note to Wei-Hwa, friends/colleagues of his if you are reading this:

The 4 numbers and 3 symbols are represented by 7 different image files with a total 250 Kb (it could have been done with 2 image files). This makes loading the page really slow!

And yes everybody, I am not Wei-Hwa. So stop sending his love letters/marriage proposals to me. Send them to weihwa.feedback@gmail dot com.

You will have to solve the puzzle manually or use code. Here is the link to the puzzle picture.

Answer to Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge 3 using PERL Code

2006-06-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

I received two sets of PERL code for puzzle 3. I am putting one on hold because he used a 4x4 matrix instead of a 5x5. I think it is a great way for all you computer science students/professionals to build up on those coding skills. As long as the puzzles can be logically solved / decoded / decrypted / calculated / mathematically represented (Don’t expect a computer to watch a video and count the amount of books in one segment of the video. At least not yet), you should be able to solve these puzzles using code.

Code by Adam B: p3-adamb.pl
Gives you a nice matrix. If you want to contact the author, you can get his email address from me.

Code in C by DavidB: PuzzlingAddiction

Keep up the good work! Love all that code. Puzzles 101 Part 3 will be up before the next puzzle.

Google US Puzzle Championship - June 17, 2006

2006-06-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Wei-Hwa’s Puzzle Challenges easy? Have a talent for solving puzzles? You (or a person you know) should enter the Google US Puzzle Championship. Closing date for registration is June 15, 2006. So hurry!

For more information, go to:

http://wpc.puzzles.com/google/

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 3 by Google

2006-06-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

As a reminder, if you want your friends who do not have Google accounts to play (or want a faster loading page) , go to:

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

Puzzle:
June 9th, 2006: The Google US Puzzle Championship is next Saturday, June 16th. It's used to select the US Puzzle Team, but puzzle-lovers of all sorts should find something interesting in the puzzles. Let's have a big "G" (for Google):

Here's a puzzle based on Erich Friedman's "Distance," from the 2003 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. Label 14 of the circles above with different numbers from 1 to 14, such that the distance between 1 and 2 is less than the distance between 2 and 3, and so on. Four circles should remain empty.

If the "±" sign is selected, you can click on the top part of a circle to increase it and click on the bottom to decrease it. Or, select a number in the palette and click on a circle to fill that number into the circle. Deselect the active selection to create a blank. You win if all the "distances" to the right turn green.

Hints:

Start with the big numbers and work your way downwards. :-)
If you want to practice on smaller puzzles (to get the idea), go to: http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/distance/

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. If you want to share your answers, you can send me a screenshot by email/url of your proud achievement. Last one is a rotten egg.

Here are solutions by two smart puzzle sovlers (same answers)

Test your friends! Go to:

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com

World Cup 2006 Hack: Live Streaming Audio outside the UK

2006-06-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

For all you world cup fans with no access to the TV (or at work) and want live streaming audio, here is a simple hack. BBC is providing live streaming audio for UK only IP Addresses. Here are steps to get around that restriction.

How To Get Live Streaming World Cup 2006 Audio:
Set your browser to browse using a proxy server located in the UK (Get your own. Don't take down my server.) :-)

Firefox: (Download using the link at puzzle page)

Menu > Tools > Options
Under the General Tab > Connection > "Connection Settings..."
Under the "Configure Proxies to Access the Internet" container > Select "Manual proxy configuration" (Red)
Enter a HTTP Proxy Server and Port
Verify that you have a network connection using the proxy server.
Connect to BBC radio Five Live
Select a game and you should get live streaming audio

Request => Internet Explorer: (43% of visitors, Firefox = 41%)

Menu > Tools > Internet Options
Select the "Connections" Tab on the top tab bar
Under the "Local Area Network (LAN) settings" container > Click on "LAN Settings"
Under the "Proxy Server" container > Check "Use a proxy server for you..." (Red)
Enter a HTTP Proxy Server and Port
Verify that you have a network connection using the proxy server.
Connect to BBC radio Five Live
Select a game and you should get live streaming audio

Enjoy!

To all you international visitors (about 7%), I understand if you did not participate in the last puzzle. It requires you to be somewhat fluent in English. Lets hope the puzzles are more generic and everyone can participate. :-).

Goooaalll. Germany! 2-1. Das ist gut.

Puzzles 101 Part 2: Anagram

2006-06-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

Topic: Anagram [Definition]

"An anagram (Greek ana- = "back" or "again", and graphein = "to write") is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once... "

Excerpt from Wikipedia. Read the full article at .

Examples:
- Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one
- Dormitory = Dirty room
- Debit card = Bad credit

More great anagrams at:

Get a list of anagrams at

Homework:
Can anyone come up with a good anagram that involves the word ?

Extra:
I stumbled upon GoogleFact, another great Blog that is covering Wei-Hwa's puzzle challenges and more. GoogleFact also pointed me to MSN's puzzle challenge called the "The Conspiracy Game". Read about it at GoogleFact.

Next puzzle should be this Friday.

vjbaqrevsjrvujnernqfguvfoybt. qbrfnalbarjnaggbuverncebqhpgznantre

Answers to Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge 2 using PERL Code

2006-06-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

There was a cryptography documentary on breaking the WW2 Enigma Code and I joked about solving puzzle 2 with code. I went snooping into the puzzle code only to find out that the answers were embedded into the code (I did some AJAX projects mid last year and realized that the answers were not pulled from a remote server). AHA! I turned puzzle 2 into a puzzle and set out solving this simple encryption using PERL. In about 2 minutes, I figured out how to answer puzzle 2 using PERL code (Using my knowledge of T9 text prediction). :)

Decryption How-To:
After looking at the code, here is the ALL IMPORTANT! Decryption key map (Sorry, do not know the correct definition - pair wise?):

Decryption Key Map (DKM):
Decrypted: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Encrypted: nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm
Note: a is n - n is a, b is o - o is b, c is p - p is c, etc.

Wei-Hwa's Code (Find under following comments in his code:
Clean other symbols: // We filter out any input that isn't a letter.
Decryption map: // build a map. (Not very efficient to do this every time, but what the heck.)
Answers: // should probably be a map, but I'm lazy.
Answer List:

qnhtugreynhtugre
srpnyqrpny
sernxoernx
travnyqravny
trahfzrahf
tebffpebff
yntrejntre
arhgreferhgref
cbfgntrubfgntr
ubfgntrcbfgntr
gbhpurfqbhpurf
ivfpbhagqvfpbhag
lbhatreybhatre

PERL CODE (Only 3 lines! Actually 2 lines if I did not care about lower case.): (Download code: puzzle2decrypt.pl)

my ( $encryptedWord ) = lc( $decryptedAnswer );
$encryptedWord =~ tr/a-z/nopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm/;
print "Decrypted Answer: $encryptedWord\n\n";
#Anyone want to fix this regex for me? How do you represent n-z and a-m in one line?

Execute Code: (Separate encrypted answers with space)
$ perl puzzle2decrypt.pl qnhtugreynhtugre srpnyqrpny sernxoernx travnyqravny trahfzrahf tebffpebff yntrejntre arhgreferhgref cbfgntrubfgntr ubfgntrcbfgntr gbhpurfqbhpurf ivfpbhagqvfpbhag lbhatreybhatre

Output:
You entered 13 encrypted answer(s) to decrypt.

Encrypted Answer: qnhtugreynhtugre
Decrypted Answer: daughterlaughter

Encrypted Answer: srpnyqrpny
Decrypted Answer: fecaldecal

Encrypted Answer: sernxoernx
Decrypted Answer: freakbreak

Encrypted Answer: travnyqravny
Decrypted Answer: genialdenial

Encrypted Answer: trahfzrahf
Decrypted Answer: genusmenus

Encrypted Answer: tebffpebff
Decrypted Answer: grosscross

Encrypted Answer: yntrejntre
Decrypted Answer: lagerwager

Encrypted Answer: arhgreferhgref
Decrypted Answer: neutersreuters

Encrypted Answer: cbfgntrubfgntr
Decrypted Answer: postagehostage

Encrypted Answer: ubfgntrcbfgntr
Decrypted Answer: hostagepostage

Encrypted Answer: gbhpurfqbhpurf
Decrypted Answer: touchesdouches

Encrypted Answer: ivfpbhagqvfpbhag
Decrypted Answer: viscountdiscount

Encrypted Answer: lbhatreybhatre
Decrypted Answer: youngerlounger

Cool! Must be the Mountain View air. Contact me if you have any questions.

vjbaqrevsjrvujnernqfguvfoybt. qbrfnalbarjnaggbuverncebqhpgznantre

Come back for my puzzles 101 series tomorrow. :)

Out of Topic Post - Google Spreadsheets

2006-06-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who crunch numbers everyday and would like to look into internet spreadsheet collaboration.

Tab your Google Personalize Homepage - Beta

2006-06-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, I posted "Improving your Personalized Homepage" with a request to have a tabbed page module. Presto! After a discussion in the Google forums with the module creator, we have a beta tab module (Within 5 days!). Since this is in beta, use at own risk.

Theory Behind Module:
All modules are loaded and managed within columns. Based on this fact, you can manipulate the modules to be visible/hidden within each column (display:none; for all you CSS gurus). Since there is no access to the backend of Google Personalized Homepages, the loading time will increase if you have lots of modules because all modules are loaded regardless of tabs.

Note: The module is undergoing lots of changes based on feedback. Screenshots might not reflect the current version of the module.

Adding the Module:

Fig 1. Tab Module/Tab Bar

When you add the tab module, a tab bar will appear between your search buttons and modules. (Fig. 1 - Circled in Red).

(Tab Module)

Adding a Tab:
Click “New Tab”. I added a tab called Knowledge (Fig. 1) and the first tab is All (Default: All Modules <= Must have at all times).

Moving modules between tabs:

Fig 2. Moving modules between tabs.

This is a little tricky because there is no feedback when moving modules.
Click “Show Setup” > Click “T” on the title bar to select the module (Fig. 2 - Circled in Red) > Click the desired Tab name (Fig. 2 - Circled in Blue). Module should disappear. Done!

Fig 3. Clicking the "Knowledge" Tab

To verify, click on the tab name and the module(s) should be there (Fig. 3).

Deleting/Renaming a tab:
Click “Show Setup” and options will appear below the tab.

Remember, this is still in beta and I have found a few bugs (nothing major yet) when deleting tabs. To send feedback, go to this forum post or email me (I will email Matt, module creator).

Stay tuned for 'Puzzles 101' part 2!

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 2 by Google

2006-06-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

We have puzzle 2! (Warning! Comments have answers.) I changed the puzzle group to a more popular group. For all of you who want to participate but do not have (or do not want) a Google account (Common people, Infinity plus one storage space!), go to:

http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/

Have fun solving the Why Me Rhymes.

Puzzle:

June 2nd, 2006: If a tree falls in the woods because of a wound, then what little object will not hear the sound?

A Why Me Rhyme is a pair of words that look like they should rhyme (after all, only their first letter is different), but don't really. For example, depending on the colorist, Etrigan could be considered a lemon demon. See if you can figure out these twelve Why Me Rhymes from their descriptions:

What is heard when your little girl is having fun - D L

A disgustingly dirty sticker - F D

A siesta for weirdos - F B

A friendly rejection - G D

Lists of all sorts of animals to be eaten - G M

An unrefined crucifix - G C

A type of bar bet, maybe? - L W

Makes a news agency irrelevant - N R

Stamps that someone refuses to return - H P

Makes contact with feminine hygiene products - T D

A price reduction given only to certain noblemen - V D

Newer style of patio furniture - Y L

Hints: All answers have 2 words. Hints are shown above (red) as the first character of each word

Answers: I have the answers (Email me if you want the answers). Since users are posting the answers in the comment page, I will leave it there instead of posting it on a seperate website.

Thanks to Joanna (Solved the puzzle in record time!), littlepigletta, Josh, and other anonymous puzzle solvers.

Hidden Answer:
The answer is hidden after the first question. Highlight the question and you will see the answer.

If a tree falls in the woods because of a wound, then what little object will not hear the sound?

Answer: a deaf leaf

Learning Puzzles Part 1

2006-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

While we wait for Wei-Hwa’s next puzzle, I decided to run a series on Puzzles using Wikipedia as a guide. This is targeted at puzzle newbies and will cover topics on puzzles (including famous people).

Topic: Acrostic [Definition]

"An acrostic is a poem or other text written in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message…"

Excerpt from Wikipedia. Read the full article at .

Example: (Improvised!)
COMA
- Click on my Links, do not delay
- On this great and wonderful day
- My puzzle blog will show you the way
- Ads by AdSense, I added in May

Note: Had to take the sentence out. :-). There is a hidden sentence in this acrostic.

Disclaimer: I AM not allowed (decided to obey the law) to use the acrostic before this because it violated AdSense Policies (under incentives). Having said that, this is still an EXAMPLE. :-)

Homework:
Can anyone come up with a good acrostic for the word ?

Playing with numbers - Wei-Hwa’s Puzzle Challenge Number 1

2006-05-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

Using the PERL code from a previous post. I Changed the numbers to 7-7-3-3 (and 5-5-5-1), executed the code and here are the results.

> perl 7733.pl (Download here)
7*(3+(3/7)) = 24

> perl 5551.pl (Download Here)
5*(5-(1/5)) = 24

Is there a theory for this? Does it work for all numeric combinations?

Improving your Personalized Homepage

2006-05-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

Need to get rid of the space between your search bar buttons and modules?

Fig 1: Less space between buttons and modules.

(No distance module)

Caution: The module is hidden. I have not found a way to remove it.

What is that arrow on the left? It’s a minimize/maximize module for all those clogged personalized homepages.

Fig 2: Maximized modules (Left). Minimized modules (Right)

It is a great module. It remembers the last state (min/max) of the modules. Here is the module's web site

(Update: Use to be customize Modules.xml. Per request by the module owner, it is now collapseModules.xml):

Collapse Modules web site

(Min/Max module)

All we need is a module for tabbed pages. I think it would be relatively easy to create. Notice that developer’s module lists your modules (except Google’s). If somebody can figure out a way to take that list and organize it into rendered tabs. Volunteers?

Solution for puzzle 1 in code.

2006-05-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time before a programmer writes code to solve the puzzle. I found a site that wrote code in TCL and a link to code written in PERL. I looked through the code. Very nicely done!

Here is the blog where the code is published

Here is the TCL code

Here is the PERL code

Keep up the good work.

No sign of new puzzles...

2006-05-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Little is known about Wei-Hwa’s Puzzle Challenges since its launch on May 26 2006. Given it was Memorial weekend, I anticipated a new puzzle today (May 30 2006) at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (Based on pervious Da Vinci Code puzzles release time). Minor disappointment.

Lots of us enjoyed the Da Vinci Code Quest puzzles and we can only hope to get the quality/standard of puzzles that mimic those of the Da Vinci Quest puzzles.

All that said, what do you all think?
Should it be released on a daily basis?
Should there be a specific time for the releases?
Should it be released on weekends?
Should there be a goal/incentive/prize for solving the puzzles?
Should puzzles make use of Google services?
Should I have more “Should” questions?

Leave some comments on “What should Google do to make this challenge exciting?”. If anyone has any info/tips on what is going to happen with the challenge, send me an email.

Some research:
Based on this statement on the Google Module,

While we're still getting some fancier stuff ready behind the scenes

We can only assume that the puzzle project is going through a fancy makeover. Currently, there are 2 ways (or URLs) to add the module.

One using the old Da Vinci Code module:

http://www.google.com/ig/modules/builtin_davinci.xml

And this module:

http://weihwa.feedback.googlepages.com/20060526.xml

Which ultimately links to this web site that is hosting the module.

http://weihwa.feedback.googlepages.com/

Stay tuned for more exciting things to come!

Launch of Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenges by Google

2006-05-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the launch of Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challange on Google's Personalized Homepage. This will be a portal to dicuss the hints, methods, answers, and solution to the puzzles

For all of you who do not have a Google Personalized Homepage, click on the add to Google link below. If you have a Google Personalized Homepage, add the module by clicking the link below.

Here is the Google Puzzle Challenge (GPC) number 1.

Question:

Using the numbers 3, 3, 8, 8 (in any order), make a mathematical expression that equals 24. You can use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (and parentheses), but in any order you wish. Note that you have to use all four numbers; otherwise 3 times 8 would be valid -- and that wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?

Solution:

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/64637.html

http://plus.maths.org/issue14/puzzle/solution.html

Good Luck.

PS: Feel free to discuss it by leaving comments.