Here’s this week’s problem:

A number of gold coins are spread out on a table while you are in another room. The exact number is irrelevant. Some are heads-up and some are tails-up. You are told exactly how many coins are showing heads. A sheet is placed over the coins and you enter the room.

Image generated with ChatGPT

Without revealing any coins, you place your hands under the sheet. You cannot distinguish heads from tails by touch or by any other method.

With your hands under the sheet, your task is to separate the coins into two groups so that each group contains exactly the same number of heads. For any coin, you may either leave it as it is or flip it over.

You separate the coins into two groups while your hands remain covered. When you are finished, you remove your hands from the table and the sheet is lifted. What remains are two groups of coins, each of which shows the exact same number of heads.

How can this be done? We’ll give the solution to this intriguing Micro Softy problem next week.

When you find out, you can impress your friends and family like I’ve impressed mine.

Solution to Micro Softy 87: Ciphering

Here’s last week’s Micro Softy: The number 7 is represented in code by the sequence 13, 9, 99, 9, 12. The number 2 is coded as  3, 1, 0.  What is the code for the number 10?   

Image Credit: BreizhAtao - Adobe Stock

Here’s the answer.

1. “Seven” = S-E-V-E-N

Letters → S, E, V, E, N
Correspond to the numbers → 13, 9, 99, 9, 12

So:

• S = 13
• E = 9
• V = 99
• N =12

2. “Two” = T-W-O

Letters → T, W, O
Correspond to the numbers → 3, 1, 0

So:

• T = 3
• W = 5
• O = 0

So here’s how we solve for encoding of “Ten” = T-E-N

We already know:

• T = 3 (from “Two”)
• E = 9 (from “Seven”)
• N = 12 (from “Seven”)

So the word “Ten” would be represented by the code: (T-E-N → 3, 9, 12)

Let’s extend this. Given the additional information that:

• 5, 0, 99, 86 represents the number 4
• 9, 6, 98, 87, 3  represents the number 8

we see the number 5 (F-I-V-E) is encoded as: 5, 6, 99, 9

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Microsofty 86: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find puzzles 77 through 85 here as well.

Image Credit: nimito - Adobe Stock

Monday Micro Softy 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find puzzles 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!