Category: Logic | Page 3

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
June 9, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Physics

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

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?} _{Robert J. Marks
June 9, 2025

5

Logic, Physics}

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

Cityscape of the Flatiron Building (New York City)

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
June 8, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Aristotle, Perfection as concept, Triangle as concept}

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

_{Michael Egnor
June 8, 2025

3

Logic, Philosophy of Mind}

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?

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

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
June 2, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Probability

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

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} _{Robert J. Marks
June 2, 2025

5

Logic, Probability}

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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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
May 26, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Probability

Tagged
Micro Softies}

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

_{Does it make a difference when the sweepstakes hobbyist sends in her entries?} _{Robert J. Marks
May 26, 2025

5

Logic, Probability}

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

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

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post

Eric Holloway
Date
May 25, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Featured, Physicalism (and consciousness), Software as mathematics}

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} _{Eric Holloway
May 25, 2025

4

Artificial Intelligence, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

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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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
May 19, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
Micro Softies, Minkowski distance}

Micro Softy 27: Diamond in the Rough

_{Why did the mathematician want all the diamond rings — hundreds of fake ones, plus a real one — divided into two bags?} _{Robert J. Marks
May 19, 2025

5

Logic, Mathematics}

The solution to Micro Softy 26 lies in recognizing that there are different ways of measuring distance.

Interlocking triangles in primary colors layered with precision

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
May 12, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

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?} _{Robert J. Marks
May 12, 2025

4

Logic, Mathematics}

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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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
May 5, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics}

Monday Micro Softy 25: The Fishing Rod Blues

_{The Memphis bus driver was sympathetic but he couldn't let Johnny ride with his overlong fishing pole. Johnny solved the problem—but how?} _{Robert J. Marks
May 5, 2025

4

Logic, Mathematics}

About last week’s Micro Softy: You CAN have a tie in 3D Tic Tac Toe. We illustrate it. And we show what the 4D game is like.

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

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
April 28, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
3D Tic Tac Toe}

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} _{Robert J. Marks
April 28, 2025

5

Logic, Mathematics}

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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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
April 21, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
Featured, Monday Microsofties}

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?} _{Robert J. Marks
April 21, 2025

2

Logic, Mathematics}

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

Close-up photo of construction cones on the road against the background of a traffic accident

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
April 14, 2025

Categorized
Logic

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

Monday Micro Softy 22: Can There Be Two Daddies?

_{The solution to last week’s puzzler lies in things we can do with binary numbers} _{Robert J. Marks
April 14, 2025

4

Logic}

This week’s puzzler asks: Can a child’s father be dead and alive at the same time? Or is there another solution?

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

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
April 7, 2025

Categorized
Logic

Tagged
Micro Softies}

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…} _{Robert J. Marks
April 7, 2025

5

Logic}

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?

Oxycodone is the generic name for a range of opoid pain killing tablets. Prescription bottle for Oxycodone tablets and pills on glass table with reflections

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
March 31, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

Micro Softy 20: Which Bottle Holds the Deadly Fentanyl?

_{You can find out the answer, using advanced technology — but there is a price} _{Robert J. Marks
March 31, 2025

5

Logic, Mathematics}

About the “Bermuda Triangle” puzzle: Look closely. Are they both really triangles?

Abstract geometric background with triangles

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
March 24, 2025}

Monday Micro Softy 19: The “Bermuda Triangle”

_{Why does the strange triangle, rearranged, appear to have a bit of extra area?} _{Robert J. Marks
March 24, 2025

4}

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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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
March 17, 2025

Categorized
Logic

Tagged
Einstein's twin paradox}

Monday Micro Softy 18: The Twin Paradox

_{It’s not Einstein’s Twin Paradox but it will certainly set you thinking anyway} _{Robert J. Marks
March 17, 2025

5

Logic}

About the mixed-up bags of marbles: The key question is, from which bag would drawing a marble give you the most information?

Three fabric gift bags in gray, beige, and red, sitting on a marble surface against a bokeh background of Christmas lights.

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
March 10, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
Fluid dynamics, Torricelli’s law}

Monday Micro Softy 17: Mixed-up Bags of Marbles

_{The bags-of-marbles puzzle is comparatively simple: How many marbles must you pull from the mislabeled bags in order to relabel them correctly?} _{Robert J. Marks
March 10, 2025

4

Logic, Mathematics}

There’s a rough solution to the “leaky bucket” problem but an exact solution requires some use of fluid dynamics. And the Moon, surprisingly, changes nothing.

Colorful space galaxy cloud nebula. Stary night cosmos. Universe science astronomy. Supernova background wallpaper

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post

Peter Biles
Date
February 26, 2025

Categorized
Cosmology, Logic, Philosophy, Religion, Science

Tagged
Believe (Zondervan 2025), design in nature, Return of the God Hypothesis (Harper 2021), Ross Douthat, Stephen C. Meyer, Tao Lin}

Ross Douthat Makes the Case that Religious Belief Is Rational

_{His new book is written largely with the agnostic or full-on atheist in mind but believers would certainly also benefit, as I did} _{Peter Biles
February 26, 2025

5

Cosmology, Logic, Philosophy, Religion, Science}

He notes, if our brains evolved merely to help us stay alive, then it’s strange that those same mental states could invent the telescope to explore the cosmos.

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
February 24, 2025

Categorized
Logic

Tagged
Micro Softies}

Micro Softy 15: What Happens to the Hole in a Hot Washer?

_{When a washer ring is heated, does the hole in the center get bigger or smaller?} _{Robert J. Marks
February 24, 2025

2

Logic}

The answer to last week’s Micro Softy turns on the question of what form of currency Claire gave the blind ticket seller. Did you guess it right?

Facade of Grand Central Terminal at twilight in New York

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
February 17, 2025

Categorized
Creativity, Logic

Tagged
Monday Microsofties}

Monday Micro Softy 14: How Did the Blind Ticket Seller Know?

_{This puzzle doesn’t require math skills so much as advanced common sense reasoning} _{Robert J. Marks
February 17, 2025

3

Creativity, Logic}

About last week’s solution, given here: If you code, the second part of the puzzle could also be offered to a computer.

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post

Eric Holloway
Date
February 10, 2025

Categorized
Logic, Mathematics

Tagged
James R. Meyer, Kurt Gödel (1906–1978), Kurt Gödel and life after death, Kurt Gödel and unprovable statements}

How Mathematician Kurt Gödel Proved the Unprovable Proposition

_{He kicked over the mathematical sandcastles of those who proposed a mathematical Theory of Everything} _{Eric Holloway
February 10, 2025

6

Logic, Mathematics}

While Gödel’s technique was unheard of in his day, we are very familiar with it today. It is the same technique that computers use to store information.