Thanks for doing the sums Billl.
Course, if his first pen was round, (or a twenty sided polygon-which is round enough for farmers,) then the assumed 50 square hurdles needed is wrong.
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Thanks for doing the sums Billl.
Course, if his first pen was round, (or a twenty sided polygon-which is round enough for farmers,) then the assumed 50 square hurdles needed is wrong.
Yes, well, we'll work THAT scenario through soon enough.
You're all being far too complicated - this is Kasie, remember, who can't do Maths. This is a theoretical puzzle, they are theoretical sheep, very small theoretical sheep, so don't think animal welfare and how much room a real sheep would need, think x number of units arranged to make a four sided shape the area of which is doubled by the addition of a minimum number of further units.
Please - someone work it out - I'm already packing for New York, I'll be off on Saturday, I'll have to tell you the answer, oh, I wish I hadn't started this one.
If it comes down to it, you could PM me or someone else with the answer!
But what's wrong with the answers given so far?
The question was: what's the least number of hurdles he needs to buy to double the area of his enclosure? So far no one has come up with the (very small) number he need buy.
Fair enough. They're wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by kasie
Was the original enclosure a square or rectangle? Was it 5 x 5? Or could it have been 1 x 9, for example? Or a pyramid?
Definitely a square?
At no point is that made explicit. So I'm starting from the assumption that we can't make that assumption.Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
With 20 hurdles (also unfamiliar with this usage of the word) he can make a rectangle that is 7 by 5: area is 35.
XXXXXXX
X..........X
X..........X
X..........X
XXXXXXX
I guess the dots are sheep poop.
With forty sheep he needs an area of 70, 7 by 10.
That's 30 hurdles
XXXXXXXXXX
X................X
X................X
X................X
X................X
X................X
XXXXXXXXXX
And looks like a lot more poop.
Didn't someone already give this answer?
Come to think of it, wouldn't the biggest enclosure be a circle?
How to draw that, and measure the area?
Didn't somebody else also have this idea before me?
Darn it! I'll assume the 20 sheep can fit in a 9 by 3 enclosure:
XXXXXXXXX
X..............X
XXXXXXXXX
Area, who cares?
Double size:
XXXXXXXXX
X..............X
X..............X
XXXXXXXXX
2 more X's
jajdude, you are a genius
Hooray - he's right! The original enclosure was a rectangle 9 x 1 (20 hurdles altogether.) By adding one hurdle at each short end to make a rectangle 9 x 2 (22 hurdles altogether) the farmer has doubled the area of the enclosure at the expenditure of only two further hurdles. (It's hard to draw using only keyboard symbols because the hurdles would join corner to corner and edge to edge.)
Thanks, jj, now I can go off to NY and miss the groans that will be hurled in my direction. See you in a week's time, folks - try to behave while I'm away. Or on the other hand, you could just have fun.
yeah, stumbled for a while on that one because was thinking too mathematically I guess, which seems to have thrown others off too. Forgetting about "area" seemed to help find the answer.
Will try to think of a new one soon. Don't really have any ideas.
This is an interesting feeling. I'm simultaneously pissed off and impressed.
Actually, there is way in which a farmer could have doubled the area of his four-sided enclosure without the addition of any hurdles. If he had begun by enclosing the first 20 sheep with the enclosure's four sides in the shape of a parallelogram with corners set at 45 and 135 degrees, he could double the area of the enclosure simply by shifting the four sides into the shape of a rectangle (ie. setting all the corners at 90 degrees).
A number with two digits is equal to five times the sum of its digits. If you add 9 to the number, the order of its digits is reversed. What is the number?
Except that he didn't know when he bought the hurdles that he'd buy more sheep, so he'd have been unlikely to have arranged the hurdles in such a way that.... Actually I'm not sure we want to get into the possible motives and geometrical inventiveness of the fictional farmer...Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
45...Quote:
Originally Posted by jajdude
yeah, too easy.
It's an interesting one, and a little easy is a nice change of pace.
Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
Whereas all the above is true, jajdude was able to find the sheep in amongst all that wool.
Mpe od yjr eomyrt pg pit fodvpnyrmy. ,sfr h;ptopid si,,rt nu yjod dpm pg Uptl/
smf s;; yjr v;pifd yjsy ;pit#f i[pm pit jpidr,
s jptdr" s jptdr"
(smf dp pm)
Shall we say this one's solved, in which case I'll give the solution - or would others like to have a go at it, although Mick'll be taken as the winner?
Here's my lame assent to Mick's victory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU
Yeah, alright.
Mpe od yjr eomyrt pg pit fodvpnyrmy. ,sfr h;ptopid si,,rt nu yjod dpm pg Uptl/
Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York.
Typed using the key to the right of the correct one on a standard QWERTY. Mick responded using the key to the left of the correct one.
next one Mick?
Its another one of these. BUT this time here are the rules.
Fill the empty squares with numbers that will make the across and down calculations produce the results shown along the bottom and far right. The numbers 1 -9 must appear once only. The calculations should be performed from top to bottom and from left to right (rather than strict mathematical order)
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...mathsquiz2.jpg
may be wrong
I know it, but will not say.
276
389
415
A quick one. Which is the odd-one-out?
gland
terror
pretty
flash
salads
Pretty - it being the only adjective?
Nope.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cunninglinguist
Well, I mean - yeah. But no.
Pretty.
The others have words within words: land error lash lads.
Nope, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
My feeling is that when respondents come up with a plausible answer, I should not just say they're wrong, but feedback a further clue that demonstrates that it's not that; it's something else. When I said 'yeah' to the first guess, I meant, "Yeah - that's true, but it's not the right answer..." (I won't say whether or not it was the right word.)
So, in response to both the guesses so far....
pure
could be in there, but would not be the odd-one-out...
Remember the great Roy Walker of Catchphrase.
"That's a good answer........But not right!"
I'll go with "terror."
The others are not as scary.
Still wrong I know.
"Salads"
Only one with a repeated vowel in it.
This answer is unbelievably boring and undoubtedly wrong, but it (and jajdude's) might help earn us another example like "pure".