Micro Softy 68: An Overcrowded Prison
When every flip counts, can Frenchy find his freedom?Problem: If we get one more prisoner, we have to start doubling up cells which is no good.
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Robert J. Marks
Micro Softy 67: Three Switches and a Song
A mind‑twisting challenge for curious thinkersThe other two switches turn outside lights off and on. Wide Clyde can’t see outside, so he can’t determine which switches control the lights.
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Micro Softy 66: Reducing Repetitive Repetition
The curious loop your calculator didn’t warn you aboutChoose any three-digit number, say 567, and repeat it: 567,567. Divide it by the prime numbers 13, then 11 and then 7.
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Micro Softy 65: Fathers and Sons
A classic riddle that proves numbers aren’t always what they seemTwo fathers and their two sons walked into the Bass Pro Shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Each man bought an AK47 rifle with ammunition and a 75-round drum magazine
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Micro Softy 64: Old Time Phishing?
When prophecy meets profit, only one thing is certain: someone’s being playedA few days later, a second note was received. It read: “In the BAA [now the NBA] finals, the Baltimore Bullets will defeat the Philadelphia Warriors to win the 1948 World Championship in Basketball.”
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Micro Softy 63: A Beggar’s Tale
A street‑corner encounter that tests your ability to read between the linesA shabbily dressed man with an unkept beard held up a cardboard sign saying, “Can you help? Please!”
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Micro Softy 62: The Ordeal of Sisyphus Fats
A hill, a bowling ball, and the mathematics of persistenceSisyphus Fats, exercises by pushing a giant bowling ball up a 100 foot hill. Every minute, he pushes the ball three feet closer to the top and then the bowling ball slides two feet back.
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125 Flubbed Headline Prompts to AI
Double meanings, double trouble: The art of reading between the linesFlubbed headlines are fun. There are typically two meanings. One is the obvious meaning, meant by the writer of the headline. The second is an interpretation, which can be hilarious.
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A Pioneer Ahead of His Time: Bernard Widrow and the Origins of Modern AI
While history has not always granted him the recognition he deserved, every modern neural network quietly echoes Widrow's ideas.Widrow called his learning machine a neural network because it was loosely based on the 1943 McCulloch-Pitts model of the biological neuron.
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Monday Micro Softy 61: Take Five
Crack the beat: a logic puzzle in rhythm and timeThe western scale is based on natural acoustic harmonics from the physics of vibrating strings and resonant acoustics from sound columns.
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Monday Microsofty 60: Here’s a Puzzle From Gunsmoke
Told to “get out of Dodge” after a shooting, a gunslinger does so at a nearly inexplicable time. Can you solve the puzzle?To solve Microsofty 59, recall that direction of air flow is due to pressure — not size. Which tire is under more pressure?
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Monday Microsofty 59: Alfred Hitchcock’s Low-Pressure Tire
Could the tire in the old Hitchcock film really be reinflated in the way shown?The solution to last week’s puzzle is to ask whether the way each of the relationships is created makes any difference.
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Monday Microsofty 58: Is a Famous Bassist His Own Grandfather?
A Rolling Stone bassist can make such a claim but how far can he take it? Is he also his own grandson?We are reversing our usual order and giving the answer to #57 first. Ben could have one of two possible family relationships to me.
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Monday Micro Softy 57: My Mother’s Mother-in-Law
Can you figure out this relativity puzzle?Part of the trick to solving Monday Microsofty 56 is to decide whether or not to give it a high five.
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Micro Softy 56: Elon Musk Parody’s Circle of Numbers
The circle of numbers looks pretty simple until you start thinking about it...If you suspected that last week’s talk of baseball was just a distraction from the real puzzle hint, now you can find out.
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Monday Micro Softy 55: “It Happens Every Spring”
Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball's favorite season, summerTo 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.
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Micro Softy 54: A Plane Problem for Aspiring Engineers
The senator is leaving Washington to avoid the governor and their planes are headed in opposite directionsToday’s Micro Softy tests whether you are clever enough with math to code computers or be an engineer. Here’s the story: Senator Kornn did not like Governor Friar. Both were from Texas. When Kornn learned that Governor Friar was visiting Washington, DC, Kornn said “This town’s not big enough for the both of us.” So Kornn decided to leave DC for that period. Kornn and Friar get on planes at the same time. One was at Reagan International Airport in DC and the other was at the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Airport. So each was flying to the other’s airport. Both planes took off at the same time. After a while, Kornn looked out of his first-class window and saw Read More ›
Monday Micro Softy 53: Kicking In the Door
To solve this puzzle, you will need to sharpen your abductive reasoning skillsThere are actually two possible solutions to last week’s puzzle, depending on how you interpret the pattern of the arithmetic.
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Monday Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk Parody Asks: Are You a Genius?
The puzzle comes from a parody X account but it is a genuine stumperLast week’s puzzle is easy to solve if we recall how many parents a child needs and of what type…
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Monday Micro Softy 51: A Tale of Two Auto Mechanics
I recognized the two mechanics when I went to the garage…To solve Microsofty 50, about cutting a loaf of cornbread into eight pieces by making three slices, try thinking in three dimensions.
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