Chork's Puzzles


Welcome to Chork's Puzzles (Revived)! Feeling inspired to create my own puzzles again, I've decided to set new challenging puzzles to boggle you all once again! (:

To ask for hints, or to give the answer to a puzzle, post in the "comments" section at the bottom right hand corner of each puzzle! Solutions to a puzzle can be found on the solutions site, chorkssolutions.blogspot.com (:

Happy solving! (:

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 43

Difficulty Rating: 4

Previous hanjies: Puzzle 09 | Puzzle 16

Hanjie is a fascinating Japanese picture puzzle. Each puzzle consist of a grid of empty white squares. At the bottom and right hand side of each puzzle are a set of numbers which dictate how many cells in that row or column must be coloured in. Shading the grid according to this set of numbers will reveal a picture! (:

Now, if the bottom of a column says "5", it means that in that column, 5 consecutive cells are coloured. If a row says "2, 3, 4", it means that in the row, there are 3 discrete sets of cells to be coloured, and each set of cells are 2, 3, 4 cells in length, and in that order. There must be at least one empty cell between each set of cells to distinguish between them (ie the 2, 3, 4 cannot be joined together to form a long 9 cell set).

Using logic, you should be able to deduce which cells in a particular row or column should be coloured in. You may, however, need to use cross referencing with different rows and columns or elimination.

And here's the hanjie for puzzle 43!



What is the hidden picture?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 42

Difficulty Rating: 4

To commemorate the 42nd puzzle, Chork has decided to pack 42,000,000 gems to be given away. He decided to pack the 42,000,000 gems as such: In bag #1, he places 1 gem. In bag #2, he places 2 more gems than he did in bag #1. In bag #3, he places 3 more gems than he did in bag #2. He continues this process until he can no longer place x more sweets in bag #x than in bag #(x-1). The remaining gems then go back to his treasure trove.

How many bags of gems did Chork manage to fill?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 41

Difficulty Rating: 3

Chork is very mad that his puzzles are getting solved so quickly and scowls.

@1^2!2%1*1@2%1^2#1!2
%1(1&3*1#3^3&1&3%3#1
$1(1$2%1^2#1^3(1%3(2
#1%2!2@2@1^2*1#3^2*1
@2*1^3%1^2#1@2!2&3#1
)1#1$1*1(1#2!2@2#3^2
(2(1$1*1^3#1)3

What is the answer?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 40

Difficulty Rating: 6

The emperor gathered the 100 wisest men in his empire and set them a task. If they manage to complete the task impressively, they will be generously rewarded.

The task is as such. The 100 men will be placed in a straight line and either a black hat or a white hat will be placed on their heads. Once they are lined up, they are not allowed to
(1) communicate amongst themselves
(2) turn back and look behind them
(3) remove the hat on their heads

The wise men will be able to see all the hats in front of him, but not the colour of his own hat or the colours of the hats behind him. They will, however, be able to hear the answers of the people behind them.

The king will then start with the man right at the back and ask: "What is the colour of your hat?" The wise man is only allowed to answer "black" or "white" and nothing more. After which, the man is not allowed to say anything more.

The king will the move on to the next man in line and ask the same question, all the way until he reaches the last man. Each man can only speak up when the king asks him the question and can say nothing more than "black" or "white". At the end of the whole task, the king will then tally the number of correct answers.

Before the wise men were lined up, they were allowed to get together and strategise, but they were told that the king would randomly line the men up.

What is the maximum number of correct answers that is GUARANTEED if the men strategise correctly?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 39

Difficulty Rating: 3

On a recent trip to USA, Chork decides to go shopping with Thomas, Alexander and Benjamin. He had quite a lot of money with him but couldn't seem to find anything worth buying. At last, Chork spotted a shop selling odd gadgets and gizmos and was very interested in this spy kit which was on sale in the shop. Imagine all the mischief he could do with the kit!

He headed over to the counter to check the price of the spy kit and realised, to his delight, he had just enough money for 4 spy kits! He promptly paid for 4 spy kits and left the shop feeling very proud of his purchase.

How much did a spy kit cost?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 38

Difficulty Rating: 2



What is the hidden message above?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 37

Difficulty Rating: 5

Actually, Chork lied in the previous puzzle. He doesn't take Biology so that could not be his notes. This looks more like his notes: (He's not lying to you this time! He really is trying so hard to remember these facts! And Chork has checked to make sure the information in his notes is correct!)

---------------Chork's REAL Science Notes---------------

Electric potential of a point is the work done by external force in moving a unit positive charge from infinity to that point.
Reduction of a primary amide using LiAlH4 in dry ether gives a primary amine.

Condensation polymerisation is the combination of monomers with the elimination of small molecules.

For an object undergoing uniform circular motion, speed of the body is constant but velocity is not.
Diffraction is the bending of waves through an aperture or around an obstacle
When charging a capacitor, the energy does not increase instantaneously.
Eddy currents are induced currents circulating in solid conductors when there is a change in flux linkage.

Metals emit electrons when electromagnetic waves of sufficiently high frequency are incident on their surfaces.

Chlorine is a stronger oxidising agent than iodine.
Inertia is the property of a body that resists change in its state of rest or motion.

Simple harmonic motion is the motion of a body whose acceleration is directly proportional to its distance from a fixed point, and is always directed towards that point.
Le Chatelier's Principle states that when a system in equilbrium is disturbed, the equilibrium will shift to annul the effect of the change.

---------------------------------------------

Chork thinks that Chemistry notes are long and draggy while Physics notes are to the point. *hint* (:

Anyway, back to the puzzle. Chork gives another grin and tells you to work out the names of 2 Greek goddesses from his notes this time.

Which Greek goddesses are he referring to?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Chork's Puzzle 36

Difficulty Rating: 5

Chork gives a really knowledgeable look and hands you the next puzzle. You look at it and gasp. Isn't this science notes? ): "Well, not really," grinned Chork, "if you are quick enough you can solve for the names of a Greek god and a Greek goddess."

---------------Chork's Science Notes---------------

Girls are generally born with more fat cells than boys.
Ornithology is the study of marine animals.
Decibels is the unit of measurement for the frequency of sound.
Dynamos were invented by Ernest Rutherford.

Epsilon, the 5th letter of the Greek alphabet, is used as the symbol of the permittivity of a medium.
Stratosphere is higher up in the Earth's atmosphere than mesosphere.
Strontium is more chemically reactive than calcium.

Ohm is the unit of measurement for reactance.
Filaments in light bulbs are usually made of nickel.
Deimos is a moon orbiting the planet Uranus.
Electroscopes are used to measure static charge.
Solder is an alloy of copper and zinc.

Infra-red has a higher frequency than microwaves.
Radius is a bone in the forearm.
Ethology is the study of insects.
Argon is the most common noble gas found in the air we breathe in.

Nb is the chemical symbol for niobium.
Dimenhydrinate is the scientific name for a drug used to prevent hair loss.
Bacillus are straight and rod-shaped.

Etymology is the study of word origins.
Ailurophobia is the fear of dogs.
Ungulates are animals with toes.
The explosion that is said to have begun the universe is the Big Bang.
Yttrium has atomic number 39.

Which Greek god and goddess is he referring to?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 35

Difficulty Rating: 3

43 843 3433373623 2389336 896 6862377 47 896 263 843 786 63 84347 7782737 378257 2 4863733 263 844789 9428 47 843 7763828 63 843 896 6862377

What is the answer?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 34

Difficulty Rating: 2

Gareth loves entertaining his friends with endless mathematical conundrums. When he was asked his age, he remarked, that the cube and the fourth power of his age contain each digit from zero to nine exactly once.

How old is Gareth?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 33

Difficulty Rating: 3

Starting from the top left hand corner (S), you are to move to the bottom right hand corner (Y). However, there are a few rules which you must obey when moving through the grids:

1. Each time you make a move, you can only move to an adjacent grid, ie. one grid to the left, to the right, on top, at the bottom, or diagonally across.
2. You may not move to a grid which you have already stepped on previously.
3. When you trace the words of your route in the order which you take, you will form ONLY proper English words.
4. None of the English words should be repeated in the route which you traced


What is the largest number of words will you form in all?
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Chork's Puzzle 32

Difficulty Rating: 5

Part 3 of the square-circle-triangle trilogy

The last puzzle of the set of 3 square-circle-triangle puzzles! (: Unfortunately you won't see much of the trio in future puzzles anymore!

Inscribed in a square is a circle, as shown below:



Suppose an equilateral triangle is fitted into one of the space bounded by the circumference of the circle and the sides of the square, such that one vertice of the triangle touches a corner of the square, and the other vertice just touches the circumference of the circle. (Diagram above)

Now, k = Area of circle / Area of equilateral triangle

Find, to the nearest integer, the value of k.
If you know the answer, post it in the comments section of this post.