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I'm being driven crazy...

I

iMacZealot

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
2,237
3
My entire class is crazy...it happened to me this morning, when I saw the attached symbol on my first period board. It said that whomever can draw it without picking up your pen or retracing over a line first gets $5. (Later on, I found out that the source of the puzzle is my eccentric theology teacher from last tri, who's giving $10 to the winner, but one of her current students is trying to shortchange my first period class, if that makes sense.)

It's driving me crazy. Sometimes I think I solved it, but then I forgot how I did it about three seconds later. :mad: I thought you could be driven crazy, too.

If you solve it, don't tell me because this faith teacher would instill guilt in me if I used help from someone else.

EDIT: Oops, I didn't even draw it right on my computer! Here it is:
 

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The trick seems to be to start from the center and finish 3 of the 4 "x" legs, and then finish the last leg for your final move.
 
Well to make your life easier and to stop driving you crazy the answer is it is impossible. You have more 4 nods that have 5 lines coming into them. For it to be possible you caan only have 2 nods that have an odd number of lines coming into them.

The 4 nods I am talking about are the 4 corners of the square. The reason your teacher is offering 5 bucks is he knows no one will get the answer and he is going to get a few good laughs out of it.

I do hope me blowing the cover on it wide open will end you and a bunch of other people going crazy.
 
It can be solved if you're ambidextrous and use 2 pens at the same time. You won't have to retrace or lift the pen. There you go, problem solved :D
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Well to make your life easier and to stop driving you crazy the answer is it is impossible. You have more 4 nods that have 5 lines coming into them. For it to be possible you caan only have 2 nods that have an odd number of lines coming into them.

The 4 nods I am talking about are the 4 corners of the square. The reason your teacher is offering 5 bucks is he knows no one will get the answer and he is going to get a few good laughs out of it.

I do hope me blowing the cover on it wide open will end you and a bunch of other people going crazy.
Click to expand...

This is pretty typical of her. She's actually offering $10, but one of her students wrote it on the board in another classroom offering to split it with whomever can solve it. This is one of her lessons to show how far people will go for money. She's rather resilient.

Oh, and I feel a little stupid for asking, but I couldn't find any information pertaining to this: what is a nod? I feel as though I should be able to explain why it's impossible when I confront her tomorrow.
 
I followed the rules I saw.
trick it to start one side do centre, do three sides, then circle then last side. no retracing. no picking up pen.
 
iMacZealot said:
This is pretty typical of her. She's actually offering $10, but one of her students wrote it on the board in another classroom offering to split it with whomever can solve it. This is one of her lessons to show how far people will go for money. She's rather resilient.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you ought to offer her a puzzle of your own.

Place six dots in rows of 3 like so:

* * *

* * *

and tell her to connect the dots on the top row with the dots on the bottom row (dot 1 in the top row to dots 1, 2, and 3 on the bottom row) without intersecting lines.

Although knowing her, she's already seen this one.
 
Had the same challenge in high school. I believe it is possible if you get a little creative. I've seen it "done" using the hint below in white.




Try folding the paper.
 
Marble said:
Had the same challenge in high school. It is possible if you get a little creative. Hint below in white.
Click to expand...

Well naturally that isn't allowed as it would break the spirit of the game.

But, if this was a creative thinking exercise, that would be a great idea! :)
 
CalBoy said:
Well naturally that isn't allowed as it would break the spirit of the game.

But, if this was a creative thinking exercise, that would be a great idea! :)
Click to expand...

duh its a creative thinking exercise.
had one similar to this forgot what it was but the answer was retarded (or i was retarded for not thinking of it)
 
benlangdon said:
duh its a creative thinking exercise.
Click to expand...

Not really. It's an exercise in problem solving with specific rules and parameters in place (much like a Sudoku puzzle except more spatially based).

Other puzzles test your ability to think about things outside the box which are more traditionally referred to as 'creative thinking' exercises.
 
CalBoy said:
Not really. It's an exercise in problem solving with specific rules and parameters in place (much like a Sudoku puzzle except more spatially based).

Other puzzles test your ability to think about things outside the box which are more traditionally referred to as 'creative thinking' exercises.
Click to expand...

ok ok you got me.
this is more a riddle but still outside the box.
how can you make 30 cents in change when the first one is not a nickel
 
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