Ask Me Help Desk - A riddle for you

I missed all the fun. For you math haters, the wine puzzle wasn't really meant to be a math puzzle. I figured it out just by sort of picturing it in my head. Now I grant you, I'm not sure that I could actually explain the "why" part that way, but I knew it was equal fairly quickly. My brother did it in his head the same way, without all the math. Now both our "instincts" wanted to get it wrong, but then we got it once we thought about it just a bit.

(And yes, evaporation and all that rot was just complicating the puzzle. It wasn't really a chemical experiment. Alty had the right idea of a better chemical experiment. :D)

It's KP's fault. :o

Okay, on that note, I'm going to bed.

And the hole one was silly. You've definitely had two much wine.

The funny thing is I googled drinking riddles, just to keep with the theme. That was the riddle that came up first... and it made me giggle. :p

I was once alive but now I am dead,
Black as night and white as silk,
Though I am dead I still have breath of fire.
What am I?

Did we do this one? I'm getting confused cause I'm getting a bunch of these from another forum and I can't remember whether this was done or I just remember seeing it at the other place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Looking

Okay, either it is too late and my one glass of wine did me in (not unusual), or you have a slight math error.

soooo entirely possible after my maddening day... and I do

I'm going to approach this without looking at my last answers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Just Looking

I worked it out as follows:

You start with 100 ml of white and 100 ml of red.
5 ml of white is moved to the red, so you now have 95 ml of white, and 100 ml of red with 5 ml of white added..

this means you now have a "red" with 95.238% red composition...

Quote:

If you take 5 mil of this mix, 4.762 ml (=100/105*5) will be red and .238 (=5/105*5) ml will be white. This gets added to the 95 ml of white.

I didn't agree with this at first, but I think I have a sticky number pad key... my %s were completely off (a little) three out of four times... I agree with you here... 4.762 mL of the aliquot will be red...

Quote:

The original white is now (95 ml+ .238 ml) 95.238 ml white and 4.762 ml red.

yep. 95.238 white. Agreed. One of two critical numbers agreed upon.

Quote:

The red mixture is now (100 ml-4.762 ml) 95.238 ml red and (5 ml-.238ml) 4.762 ml white.

the red is now 95 mLs pure red with 5 mLs mixed mostly white aliquot added on, that being 4.762 white and 0.238 red... which means a total volume of 100 mL and it being 95.238 red...

which, is essentially tied.

I give up.

this can't be answered without the math. My sticky keypad and lack of attention missed this.

JL gets the prize.

Sorry morgaine... I was very very busy yesterday with homework. In simpler terms:

Say you take 5 'beads' from the white whine and put in the red wine glass and stir. The 5 white beads get distributed in the red wine. You take the same amount of beads, from the red mixture. You find that it is more likely that you end up with 4 red and 1 white beads. Result, you have 4 'foreign' beads in either glass.

(You cannot take 5 red beads because you ought to have at least some white [since all the white liquid is evenly distributed in the red wine], and the most likely between having 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 is obviously 1)

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgaine300

I was once alive but now I am dead,
Black as night and white as silk,
Though I am dead I still have breath of fire.
What am I?

Did we do this one? I'm getting confused cause I'm getting a bunch of these from another forum and I can't remember whether this was done or I just remember seeing it at the other place.

Sounds like a ember.

Someone on the group where I got the wine puzzle from used the bead example. Seemed a lot of people thought he was nuts, but it made sense to me. (I've noticed there's some people on that group who like to make everything way over complicated. One guy went off on a whole paragraph about the color of the glasses. Huh? There was no color of the glasses.)

As for the charcoal/ember -- I think that is right. Um... sorry, but I realized after I posted it that I'd never seen the solution posted. (Everyone was posting a million riddles at once and many of them sort of got lost in the crowd.) But I always thought it was charcoal. OK, too easy.

Comment on morgaine300's post

In fact, on my first reading, there was mention of red wine, then white glass then red glass, etc. I supposed the riddle was reproduced in such a way that some words were removed to make it shorter to type.

There was a detective, he was called in for a murder, when he reached the library, there was the assistant, the detective asked him what happened, the assistant said "well, I was locking the front door and my boss had an important paper and then a "guest" came over and shot him. The man with the gun fled from the scene and the paper was in my boss's hand so, I took it and hid it, but the gunman's partner struck me in the head and knocked me out. "Do you know where you hid the paper?" asked the detective. "Yes, in that shelf inside a red book exactly between pages 77 and 78." As the detective saw the boss dead on the desk, the detective soon realized the assistant was lying. How did he know?

This is... the one with the yes/no question, right?

Oh well...

Was there something else in the boss's hand?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown008

This is... the one with the yes/no question, right?

Oh well...

Was there something else in the boss's hand?

Hey Unky, I don't think this is really a yes or no riddle but I guess I could answer questions for you but I don't know if you could get the answer from asking questions like that but we can try if you want.

So if you wish, No

Oh, I thought so... It's just guessing until we get the answer then...

The boss wasn't killed with a gun, but something else.

No, he was killed with the gun.

Well, Unky, I actually can't answer most of these questions because since the guy was lying, I don't know what exactly he was lying about so I don't know what is yes and what is no. There is something that the assistant said that made the detective realize he was lying.

It could be about the locking the front door... the boss couldn't be in the library if it was being closed?

Nope, not it

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_89

...exactly between pages 77 and 78."

This. :)

Well, the whole thing is suspicious... only thing that I think remains are:

The assistant first said 'a' guest, then he said there was apartner.
The assistant had the time to take, hide, and look at what page he hid the paper in the presence of the gunman's partner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeedKarma

This. :)

Yes it is this, I figure you know why, so lets see if someone else can explain this?

Good job by the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown008

Well, the whole thing is suspicious... only thing that I think remains are:

the assistant first said 'a' guest, then he said there was apartner.
the assistant had the time to take, hide, and look at what page he hid the paper in the presence of the gunman's partner.

Unky, go off NK's answer, you might be able to explain why he concluded this from hearing that?

I know what he means, but can't there be any book where the page count starts on the left? :o

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown008

I know what he means, but can't there be any book where the page count starts on the left? :o

I am not sure Unky. As far as I knew every book started with 1 on the right page.

I'm pretty sure all books do start with 1 on the right. I caught that one immediately, but every time I know one, someone else always beats me. (That's what happens when you work weird shifts and don't get on until late.)

Did anyone ever figure out the sack one?

And has anyone but J noticed the new lateral thinking puzzle? Or are we pooped out on those?

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_89

I am not sure Unky. As far as I knew every book started with 1 on the right page.

As the official b@stard to stir the pot that was calm...

We don't know the language in which the book was written... if it was hebrew or persian the first page would be on the right and read "in reverse" order... so... it is entirely possible to have thy document 'tween those page counts.

I'm a snot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgaine300

And has anyone but J noticed the new lateral thinking puzzle? Or are we pooped out on those?

I've seen it. I'm just off the lateral thinking threads after my absolute mental flameout on the first one.

Quote:

as the official b@stard to stir the pot that was calm...

We don't know the language in which the book was written... if it was hebrew or persian the first page would be on the right and read "in reverse" order... so... it is entirely possible to have thy document 'tween those page counts.

I'm a snot.

Yes, you are. ;) That just ruins the joke of it. Or I should say, there wouldn't be any way to solve it unless we made the assumption that it's not Hebrew or something. A real detective would need to check such things, but in a puzzle we just assume we don't need to check.

Quote:

I've seen it. I'm just off the lateral thinking threads after my absolute mental flameout on the first one.

Well, just pour a little bourbon on the flame... oh wait, no, not good. Um, some baking soda then. Yes, but put some baking soda on the flame and all should be well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgaine300

Did anyone ever figure out the sack one?

I don't think I saw that... or was it something about an owner and a helper thing carrying a sack?
If that's it, then it was solved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kp2171

as the official b@stard to stir the pot that was calm...

we dont know the language in which the book was written... if it was hebrew or persian the first page would be on the right and read "in reverse" order... so... it is entirely possible to have thy document 'tween those page counts.

im a snot.

ive seen it. im just off the lateral thinking threads after my absolute mental flameout on the first one.

Well, all is fine by me and your added knowledge, but as said before I said this, since the answer to the riddle is that it could not be between those pages, it must be written in English so good try and you gave me a laugh anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgaine300

I'm pretty sure all books do start with 1 on the right. I caught that one immediately, but every time I know one, someone else always beats me. (That's what happens when you work weird shifts and don't get on til late.)

Did anyone ever figure out the sack one?

And has anyone but J noticed the new lateral thinking puzzle? Or are we pooped out on those?

I think all the ones in the lateral thinking puzzle have been solved so there has been nobody there and since my riddle wasn't really one like that, I posted it here, but anyway I like the ones in the other thread so please post more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown008

I don't think I saw that... or was it something about an owner and a helper thing carrying a sack?
If that's it, then it was solved.

Yes, that one. Solved when? I don't recall seeing it, or not anything that was correct.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_89

I think all the ones in the lateral thinking puzzle have been solved so there has been nobody there and since my riddle wasn't really one like that, I posted it here, but anyway I like the ones in the other thread soo please post more.

No, it's a new thread that's been mostly ignored, like it just hit page 2. Unky said he just now found it. (No one was posting so it wouldn't be showing up in subscribed lists. Er, sorry, alerts list. :rolleyes:)

I can post more on the other riddle thread, once I'm home and can get to them. I'm sure others have more.

I was not ignoring it just so you know. I keep checking it but there has been nothing new added so I therefore people don't go there and can't solve any riddles.

As for the one about the grain and the sacks. I believe it was Kit who said something about the farmer was carrying the grain and the helper carried two empty sacks. You then said, correct. I don't know if it was about that or not but I am sure it was assumed that way by others as well. If that is not the correct answer then, Sorry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgaine300

No, it's a new thread that's been mostly ignored, like it just hit page 2. Unky said he just now found it. (No one was posting so it wouldn't be showing up in subscribed lists. Er, sorry, alerts list. :rolleyes:)

I can post more on the other riddle thread, once I'm home and can get to them. I'm sure others have more.

Yes, it's been difficult to follow new threads on the ffStyle, but now that v2 is back, it's much easier! :p

Ok, lets bring this back to life here, I will start with an easy one:

I am the child of a father also the child of a mother, I remain to be no ones son, who am I?

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam_89

Ok, lets bring this back to life here, I will start with an easy one:

I am the child of a father also the child of a mother, I remain to be no ones son, who am I?

The daughter

A daughter?

Very good, told you it was easy? You want another easy one?

The person who builds it, doesn't want it. The person who bought it, doesn't use it. The person who sues it, never saw it. What is it?

This was said before I think. A coffin