Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryLogic

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Desert Locust on Sand Dune with Green Vegetation in Arid Environment

Monday Micro Softy 36: A Glass Half Empty? Half Full? Too Big?

The professors on a research expedition must make sure that each glass of rationed water is exactly half full

Here’s our thirst-quenching Micro Softy for this week. Three professors were on a trip through the Sahara Desert. They had an NSF grant to study the sleep patterns of the Saharan Grasshopper (Heteracris littoralis).  They brought exactly enough drinking water with them to last for four days. To stay hydrated, each was allowed a half glass of water every hour during each sixteen-hour workday. The professors shared the water glass shown in the picture. To make sure the water lasted the entire four days, the professors made sure each portion of water filled the glass exactly halfway. There were no markings on the glass. How can they do this? We’ll give an answer next Monday right here on MindMatters.ai.    Solution Read More ›

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Montana

Monday Micro Softy 35: A House With a View

A billionaire, used to getting what he wants, demands a house where all the walls' windows offer a view in the same direction

The solution to Monday Micro Softy 34 is quite simple if we pay attention to the exact measurements of the poles and the wires.

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Mathematics lesson differential and integral calculus Chalkboard.

Monday Micro Softy 32: Elementary Calculus is Inconsistent!

This is a fascinating puzzle — one that usually stumps even my best graduate students

The solution to Micro Softy 31 is to work back from the end of the alphabet. You will soon notice a term you can easily solve.

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Frozen creek 7

Monday Micro Softy 30: Driving a Cement Mixer

Why did the car with leaky tires suddenly start handling like a cement mixer, and then, just as suddenly, handle normally again?

Micro Softy 29 shows that unambiguous facts can be stated in confusing language but cold hard logic can solve the puzzle.

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Cityscape of the Flatiron Building (New York City)

How Can We Conceive of Perfection When We Never Experience It?

Here’s a challenge to the materialist theory that every mental state is a brain state: How can a perfect thought be an imperfect brain state?

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People, sad and funeral coffin, death and grief in church during ceremony or service, depression or floral. Support, emotional pain and sorry with casket, mourning and man in suit at casket in chapel

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

The answer to Monday Micro Softy 28 shows that, where chance is concerned, even the advice given in books about beating the odds can be wrong.

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Bright red keyboard key inviting users to enter a competition or sweepstakes while highlighting the importance of participation

Monday Micro Softy 28: Beating the Odds of Winning Sweepstakes?

Does it make a difference when the sweepstakes hobbyist sends in her entries?

The solution to Monday Micro Softy 27 lies in appreciating the significance of Keith’s request for two bags instead of one.

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A hyper-realistic depiction of a small explosion caused by fireworks, capturing every spark and color detail in slow motion

How the Physicalist Theory of Mind Blows Itself Up

If we examine its basic premise that the brain is a computer and the mind is software we come across a startling contradiction

Mathematics is not material, yet artificial intelligence proponents believe that the mathematics of their neural networks is the seat of consciousness.

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Interlocking triangles in primary colors layered with precision

Monday Micro Softy 26: Arguing with Pythagoras

Will the diagonal of a triangle with sides of 3 and 4 feet be 5 feet or, as a visiting mathematician suggests, 7 feet?

The answer to last week’s puzzle lies in remembering what happens when you put a rod on a diagonal inside a square box.

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hand-made-wood-burn-tic-tac-toe-game-with-painted-rock-game-531760391-stockpack-adobestock
Hand made wood burn tic tac toe game with painted rock game pieces; yellow and red beetles and a wooden x and o game, sunset light

Micro Softy Monday 24: Have You Ever Tried 3D Tic Tac Toe?

To liven up a predictable game, try doing it in three — or even four — dimensions! You won't be bored

To solve the Barnum’s Circus ticket receipts puzzle, recall that X, Y and Z must all be whole numbers. Algebra then enables us to work out the solution.

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Circus lion. Ai art

Monday Micro Softy 23: Barnum’s Circus Receipts

Circus master Barnum's ticket seller had not kept proper track of the tickets sold. Can the limited information — and some algebra — help Barnum figure it out?

The solution to Micro Softy 22, given here, depends on the assumptions we make about Timmy’s surgeon.

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Multiple brown medicine bottles filled with yellow pills are arranged in a row on a reflective surface, creating a visually appealing composition

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills

The solution to last week's deadly pills puzzle can be found, as we'll see, by numbering the bottles. But this week we make the challenge tougher…

In this week’s challenge, you don’t know how many pill bottles, if any, have been laced with fentanyl. Can you still discover the truth with a single weighing?

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Abstract geometric background with triangles

Monday Micro Softy 19: The “Bermuda Triangle”

Why does the strange triangle, rearranged, appear to have a bit of extra area?

The solution to the Twins Paradox lies in considering the possibility that Curt and Rod were not alone in the womb.

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