Hey cousins, I've been preparing a "trivia contest" that I will cross-post with INTPcomplex. Given minor inconveniences to online trivia like Google, it will be trivia with a twist, with more puzzle-like elements.
I will post on February 9th, 18:00 UTC.
Umm, since I'm new to the forum forgive the dust if I use some test posts here to check that I can post the images, videos, etc.
Seems that until I reach 12 "normal posts" the software considers me too ignoble to post links and images and such.
So how are we all doing today? Anyone ever been to Chile? What's your commute like? How many pillows do you favour when sleeping? Are bananas really herbs?
I only use one pillow while sleeping... I've never really understood why some people need more (not a judgement; I legitimately have no clue and it seems pretty superfluous).
Hear hear! I don't think I could sleep on two pillows if I tried.
I know though that there must be a reason hotels put the pillows two deep. I just haven't managed to figure it out yet. Maybe the extra pillows are for sexing better or something?
you guys are missing out on the best parts of life. I have two pillows under my head, two pillows under my knees, and I have a full-length body pillow if I want to sleep on my side.
20 points awarded for each question to start with.
Points increase with time: 25 points after 12 hours, 30 points after 24 hours, 35 points after 36 hours, 40 points after 48 hours.
You may use Google.
For answers that are "guessable" (i.e., have limited possible answers), you need to explain your answer to get the points to show you're not just guessing.
First to post the full answer gets the points.
I believe that all questions have a uniquely satisfying answer. Otherwise I might award partial points for good alternative answers.
Moaning about some question or other is allowed but I reserve the right to ignore you if you don't have a valid point. :P
Quiz ends 24 hours after last correct answer is posted (I may post hints after that for partial points or just end the quiz).
Winner gets a user badge and the honour of hosting the next one. :P
A tie for winner will be broken by number of questions answered, if still equal, by last to start answering.
"It is atypical for you to display contrition
I was expecting an alternative narrative
On this occasion I am at fault
For furnishing you with a heart that merits debilitating
I have been unsound and I have been despondent
I have drunk quite egregiously
But constantly a phrase in my mind
Shrieks "are we entertained yet?"
Mxx (20): Nickelback: How you remind me.
It's not like you to say sorry
I was waiting on a different story
This time I'm mistaken
For handing you a heart worth breaking
And I've been wrong I've been down
Into the bottom of every bottle
These five words in my head
Scream Are we having fun yet?
From which 1950's novel is the following paraphrased exerpt taken:
"I asked you what do you mean by his nationality? A flag invented centuries ago? The head clergy debating marriage and the government ministers railing each others with yeahs. Or do you refer to the institutions of public transport?"
"I asked you what do you mean by his nationality? A flag invented centuries ago? The head clergy debating marriage and the government ministers railing each others with yeahs. Or do you refer to the institutions of public transport?"
Set in the Caribbean, British author.
Dirac (20): Our Man in Havana (Graham Greene)
I said what do you mean by his country? A flag someone invented two hundred years ago? The Bench of Bishops arguing about divorce and the House of Commons shouting Ya at each other across the floor? Or do you mean the T.U.C. and British Railways and the Co-op?
Image a weird cube like a 3x3x3 Rubix' cube but weird. It's weird because the 54 labels are either black or white. Also it's weird because you cannot rotate anything. All you can do is toggle a band. Wtf does "toggle a band" mean? A band is a strip of 12 labels in a row (like any 12 labels that you could precisely cover with a single rectangular strip of paper 1 label wide and 12 labels long). Toggle means turn black labels white and white labels black. You can only toggle the entire band. There's an example below. The red line indicates a band and the cube immediately to the right shows the result of toggling that band; you have to imagine the band gets toggled all the way around. This is harder to explain than I thought. Maybe I'm being too detailed. Maybe it's obvious what I mean. I just want to avoid deliberate misinterpretations. You know you you are.
Anyways, so imagine a two player game. Player 1 sets up the cube however they want in terms of which labels are black and which are white. Player 2 then has to get that cube either all black or all white, whichever is easiest for them. Is there always a solution for Player 2 no matter how devious Player 1 is?
Horatio (20): Each "toggle" always preserves parity: if there's an even number of a colour on a band there will be an even number after a toggle, if there's an odd number of a colour there will still be an odd number after a toggle. Consider a cube with one black tile, the rest white. We have an odd number of black (1) and white (53) tiles and can never turn either number even. Hence we can never reach 54 of one colour and 0 of the other in any case starting with odd numbers.
Think of a man who perturbs the jimmies of all and only men who do not perturb their own jimmies. That is not him, though he did postulate a lack of refreshment between Earth and Mars.
"Some unspecified time into the future, a meeting is called amongst all the tribes of the city to stop their feuding and unite to overthrow the police. Each tribe sends nine men. The leader who called the meeting is killed and one tribe is blamed. Now they must get home through enemy territory. One dude gets thrown in front of a train."
Why has this particular black caused a lot of butthurt recently:
█████
Horvack (35): It's Vantablack (#020003). It's the blackest artificial substance currently known, using carbon nanotubes to trap and absorb 99.965% of visible radiation.
The controversy was due to the material being exclusively licensed to Anish Kapoor's studio artistic use. Other artists were pissed that he'd be the only one to have access to that colour (though there's precedent for such licencing of pigments in the past).
"The light fades once more but now I understand
That 2000 years of petrified slumber
Were cursed to fearful dreams by a swaying crib,
And what vulgar fiend, its moment now upon us,
Lurches to the house of war to emerge?"
C.J.Woolf(20): William Butler Years / The Second Coming:
"The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
Consider a hypothetical flask with three types of hypothetical particles: A, B and C. Initially there are 2⁸ particles of type A, 2¹⁶ particles of type B and 2³² particles of type C. When any two particles collide they produce the third type; for example, if an A particle and a C particle collide, they produce two B particles. Now the flask is heated up to create collisions. As the number of collisions approaches infinity, which type of particle is most probable to be left (and why)?
EDIT: To clarify, the only true stable state is possible when only one type of particle is left. No matter how improbable it be reached, infinity is a long time. The question then is: what stable state is the flask most likely to reach (if any)?
EDIT2: To clarify a little more, the question really boils down to: is it possible (no matter how improbable) that one type of particle is left in the flask? Can you give an argument why/why not?
pensive_pilgrim (30): C is the most likely to be left since after 21760 collisions between B and C particles, there will be 43776 A particles, and 43776 B particles. Colliiding these together will cause C. Note that as the series progresses, A, B, and C will reach equality, so the initial condition is enough to give C the highest probability.
This was not what I intended to ask though. If the difference in all pairs of numbers of particles were not divisible by 3, it would not be possible to reach a state with one type of particle since, taking the difference between A and B, for example, it can only change if A collides with C (A-1, B+2) or B collides with C (B-1,A+2), meaning the difference between A and B can only change in steps of 3. If the difference is not originally divisible by three, the numbers cannot equalise. If the different between no pair of particles is not originally divisible by 3, then all three particles will always remain.
I kinda fucked that one up thinking the differences between powers of 2 were not divisible by 3 (dumb), but pensive_pilgrim's answer is good for what I asked.
MarkovChain (20): Hawaii during Lahaina Noon (when the sun is directly overhead and no shadows are cast by poles, etc.). This is the only US state in the tropics and thus the only one that can experience this.
Some dude on a street corner flags you down for a game of chance. He tells you he has a 48-sided die. He tells you he's gonna roll that bad boy 48 times and will give you even odds on a bet where you can choose: that the number 42 comes up or it doesn't come up. He seems legit. Assuming you wanted to bet, which should you bet on and what are the odds?
pensive_pilgrim (20): You should play for 42 to come up. The odds are ~63.21%. (It's easier to compute the odds of 42 not coming up: (47/48)^48. Then the odds of 42 coming up are 1 − (47/48)^48.)
Additional info: the limit as n (48) tends to infinity is 1/e or 1 − 1/e (for e the natural log). A fairer game would be log_{47/48}(0.5) ~= 32.92327 turns or 33 turns.
In which country in 2016 did beggars finally start rattling their cans?
LowIQLogan (20): “Persons in Destitution (Protection Care and Intervention)” Model Bill, 2016 was made to abolish the The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 under which violators could serve up to 10 years in a beggars' home.
It's a country in the Eastern bloc. There were beggars before and they had cans, there was no problem there.
stigmatica (10): A country with no coins until then
Horatio (20): Belarus issued coins for the first time in 2016
Assuming as fixed the number of atoms in the observable universe (which we will take as 10⁸⁰), the number of atoms in the human body (which we take as 7 x 10²⁷) and the human population growth rate (which we take as 1.11% per year), how long more will it take for humankind to use up all atoms in the observable universe assuming a current base population of 7.5 x 10⁹?
pensive_pilgrim (20): About 8770 years.
(Sorry if it's hard to see in the darkness profile but it seems no colour packages are loaded for TeX
stigmatica (40): Cheetah (image is a pun with two cheaters: a forged Vermeer painting by Han van Meegeren; also the painting is of Christ and the Adultress)
... simultaneously sounds like a seagull, a turkey, a pig, ...
pensive_pilgrim (20): For getting close with a feline: Margay.
He starred in a movie of the same name as a later movie directed by Clint Eastwood.
He starred in another movie of the same name as a later (hit) culinary show.
He starred in yet another movie of the same name as a later (hit) crime show.
Who is he?
Horatio (20): Ronald Reagan: Million Dollar Baby / Hell's Kitchen / Law & Order
Wow, I suck at these. A lot of pop culture and media references.
I would have only of gotten 3 or 4 from that list (using hints). However; I only did give each question 15-30 seconds of thought, and just glazed over logic puzzle ones because I’m lazy right now.
Yep, they're designed that way: they're not supposed to be gotten immediately but rather the whole thing should unfold over a few days. You can see that the contest took a good few days the last time with about 10-15 members contributing. Getting maybe a couple on the first pass is par for the course.
But, they are intended to be achieveable with some research and patience (to have an "in"), and to have satisfying answers. Sometimes it takes a bit of collaboration too. As you can see, the majority above (eventually) fell without hints.
edit: oh and there'll be no forum-specific questions this time obviously.
I only use one pillow while sleeping... I've never really understood why some people need more (not a judgement; I legitimately have no clue and it seems pretty superfluous).
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