I remember that we used to have a thread like this. It died. Here is a new one.
The premise is simple: A poster posts a situation (that must be escapable), and people try to escape it. Assume no inventory, walls on all sides (and ceiling and floor), no unlocked door right next to you, etc. The first person to escape makes the next one.
I'll start off easy. You have a long but thin stick and a sheet of paper. There is a door with an old-fashioned lock on it, locked, with the key still in the other side. Escape.
Before I developed the idea of chronospatial traversal phenomena, I naively thought that a chronogun would be able to solve the "key is on the wrong side of the locked door" problem. I tried making a time-lapse drawing of the situation and realized it wouldn't be possible for the same reason you can't use portals from Portal to escape an entirely enclosed (albeit portal-conductive) room.
Anyhow, my solution depends on too many assumptions. For instance, is the key on the floor, and is there a small space between the door and the floor like in most places, and can the key fit through that space if the space exists, and can the thin stick fit underneath, and can the stick reach the key? If the answer to all of those is "yes," then it's a simple matter of using the stick to slide the key underneath the door to your side, pick up the key, unlock the door with the key, and exit.
There is a long room with the default configuration of four walls, a floor, and a ceiling. The room is divided into four subrooms by three equally spaced walls. Each of the equally spaced walls have a door, and next to each door is one button similar to a doorbell. When the button is not being held down, the door remains closed. If the button is held down, the door will be opened and remain open until the button is released. The four subrooms are labeled Room 1, Room 2, Room 3, and Room 4. You are in Room 1 facing the door that leads into Room 2. Behind you is no entryway or exit: the only way out is to go forward. The end wall furthest from you, after the wall the divides Room 3 and Room 4 is a door that leads to freedom. You must go through this last door to reach freedom.
Aside from the floor, the ceiling, the walls, the doors, the buttons, the air which will not run out, and yourself, there is only one other thing: your Borderline Science Chronospatial Traversal Tool (a.k.a. your chronogun). The physics of the gun are described in my personal board, and all walls and the floor and the ceiling are portal-conductive.
I reused the puzzle for several reasons: I wanted to get my idea know outside of my board, I didn't want the puzzle to be too challenging, and I was just too lazy to come up with a different puzzle...
I didn't even read that, it's a direct copy-paste. ___________________________________
If you remember the old thread, the answer to this one is in there. even if you didn't, it's pretty easy: All four walls are unbreakable, unmovable, and impermiable. The same with the floor and the cieling. There is no door, there is no window, there is no opening of any kind in any of the walls, floor, or cieling. You have nothing with you (althought having something with you wouldn't help in this one). The room is totally empty except for an atmosphere resembling that of earth. You are not in a game, you are not in a dream, death is not the answer. Escape.
For you nit-pickers, "escape" is defined as physically leaving the room. All laws of physics apply.
... Sigh. No. Just no. Anyway it IS impossible Izacque. Anyway Qwerty you would decay, and "Quantum mechanic" is not an excuse for magically phasing through things. But izacque, noone even answered it in the old thread.
Poison glove, slowly robbing you of your health in a hail of poisonous punches.
Post by Anonymousperson5 on May 4, 2011 4:23:14 GMT
That's impossible. If there's no hole, you can't get out. There is no possible way for you to move out. OH WAIT. You would die quickly anyway, because the walls are given to NOT MOVE. Thus they cannot be pushed/pulled by gravity. Thus you'll freeze because no heat can get in anyway.
Also, you can hope quantum physics enables you to seep through the walls. But that's highly unlikely.
Actually, OBG, quantum mechanics would let you phase through something if you sat there for many times the age of the universe. It's not just an excuse, it's actual science.
...But, yeah, it's way more likely that I would simply decay in more ways than one in that time.
Unless I was never in the room to begin with, or unless the walls can be torn or stretched as opposed to broken, I don't see an answer.
You are in a really large room. The only exit is a locked door halfway up the room, although there is no platform underneath it by which you could access the door. You start at the bottom in the room. If, going clockwise around the room starting with the wall that has the door on it, the walls are labeled A, B, C, and D, then wall C and the floor are portal conductive. Walls A, B, and D and the ceiling are not portal conductive. On the floor directly underneath the door is a button. The button is an electronically Normally Open (NO) button, just like in the previous room. If the button is held down, the door will be unlocked and a grated platform will appear underneath so that someone on the platform would be able to walk to the door and escape. The door will be locked and the platform will disappear any time and every time the button is released - you have to be on the button in order to be able to go through the door and escape. The room is 78.4 meters high (it would take 4 seconds to fall from the ceiling to the floor), and the distance from wall A to wall C is barely less than 111 meters (i.e. of such a width that standard portal "flinging" would successfully get you from the top of wall C to the halfway point of wall A, where the platform would be if you were standing on the button, in about 2.83 seconds).
If you were to "fling" yourself from the top of wall C to the platform, then it would take 6.83 seconds to fall for the increased speed and to use that resulting speed to get from one side of the room to the other. You have an average human running speed of nearly 10 meters per second so that it will only take you 11 seconds to go from one end of the room to the other.
Escape from the room. Remember that creating a portal at t=0, creating another portal at t=10, and going through the second portal would bring you back to t=0, whereas going through the first portal would bring you back to t=10.
I forgot to mention that solvers of my room have the chronogun available to them, but nothing else, and I should indicate that one answer (more of a loophole) to Izacque's problem is that he didn't indicate that I was inside that nearly-inescapable room...
I'm going to assume that you are being silly and that my detailed mathematics concerning flinging conveys the message that the solution involves flinging, which it does...
Post by Fringe Pioneer on May 4, 2011 18:23:56 GMT
I would say that the lack of specification of a fifth wall implies that there is no fifth wall, and even if there were, I would ask how you managed to get up 39.2 meters onto the walls and past the locked door without creating time paradoxes, but you have a sarcasm tag.
Post by Anonymousperson5 on May 4, 2011 21:34:49 GMT
Herpaderp. I sit on the floor next to wall B. I place a portal on the floor in front of me. Then a portal on wall C. I put my legs in the portal on the floor, then I hold my and up. I shoot a portal towards my hand, but as I am halfway through the portal my body disappears. Thus the portal careens into wall B and disappears. Thus I have disappeared entirely. I have escaped all realities. Although I'm not sure that will work.
Post by Fringe Pioneer on May 4, 2011 23:32:53 GMT
AnonymousPerson5, that is similar to disobeying Cave Johnson when he warns that there might be "a little bit of time travel involved." As for escaping the room, that is similar to having a pistol available and shooting yourself in the head. Although you technically do escape the room that way, and although I never specified that death is not acceptable, I assumed that one would want to escape the room alive and be able to do more enjoyable things, like burn in an incinerator eat pie. We all know that cake is a lie, and pie is the opposite of cake, and truth is the opposite of a lie.
You shoot a portal at the floor of wall C first (let's assume this is at t = 0) and then shoot a second portal at the wall directly above the first portal (let's assume this is at t = x). These portals should be positioned so that, if you were to fling yourself and the platform was available, you would land on the platform. You remain on the button for four seconds after shooting the second portal (t = x + 4), thereby keeping the door unlocked and the platform available for four seconds after the creation of the second portal, and then you run to the first portal (t = x + 14). You appear at the top of the second portal back in time (t = x again) and fall into the first portal (t = x + 4). You appear again at the top of the second portal back in time (t = x yet again), but having gained momentum by falling first, you now have the necessary velocity to reach the platform (t = x + 2.83). Because one of you are standing on the button and another of you are falling from the second portal to the first, the door is unlocked and the platform is available, allowing you to reach your freedom. Because of these steps, all of you from an infinite number of timelines will forever be reaching freedom, thereby ensuring that the timelines don't prematurely collapse and wreak havoc on existence. There would be no need to toss the chronogun back in time to give it to your alternate - the solution takes care of itself infinitely in all timelines.
As for tossing the gun through a pair of portals instead, then assuming the same portal setup as the solution, there could be up to three chronoguns at a given time in between t = x and t = x + 2.83, and two chronoguns at a given time in between t = x + 2.83 and t = x + 4, and only one chronogun again from t = x + 4 onwards.
If you were to form a pair of portals, and toss the chronogun into the first of the pair of portals, and the gun were to go into an incinerator after coming out of the second portal, there would still be no paradox. Now, if instead you were to have created the portals x seconds apart, toss the gun in the second of the two portals, and the gun were to be incinerated before the second portal was created, then there would be a potential paradox because the gun would no longer exist to have created the second portal, potentially meaning you couldn't have thrown the gun into it to incinerate it to begin with.
Post by Anonymousperson5 on May 5, 2011 2:18:42 GMT
I don't see how I was brought up makes anything any more possible. If it's a pun or something, I would suggest not putting it here, this is a more scientific thinking game.
And as I was the first to technically solve the puzzle GV devised, here's another one.
You are in a room shaped like a dodecahedron. On every side, there is a number. Unfortunately, it is in a different language, so you cannot read it. You're going to have to do it the hard way.
You have a laser pointer.
Each number, from one to twelve, must be hit at a certain angle by your laser pointer. This angle is defined by an analog clock. Let's say there is side with number x. The angle is the angle between the two hands of a clock at the time X:X (i.e. 1:01, 10:10, 7:07).
Each face also corresponds to a zodiac sign. Astrological. Not Chinese. The one you are standing on is Aries. (Note you are facing towards a vertex of the pentagon) To your right lies Taurus. Now, turning clockwise, after Taurus comes Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. If you lie down in your original position, you see Libra on the ceiling, and Scorpio above Libra. Then, to the right of Scorpio, we see Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. If you organize these in alphabetical order, you get the order of each of the numbers.
Once you have hit all twelve sides at the correct angle, a trapdoor at the bottom of the floor will open and you will be free to escape.
Specify what angle compared to the floor you shoot the laser to for every side.
NOTE: You cannot kill yourself or manipulate the shape or orientation of the room in any way.
And as I was the first to technically solve the puzzle GV devised, here's another one.
I shall stress the word "technically." I assumed death would never be the answer, especially since I lay down so much math as to make the only difficult part the positioning of the portals and determining how long to stand on the button.
Each face also corresponds to a zodiac sign. Astrological. Not Chinese. The one you are standing on is Aries. (Note you are facing towards a vertex of the pentagon) To your right lies Taurus. Now, turning clockwise, after Taurus comes Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. If you lie down in your original position, you see Libra on the ceiling, and Scorpio beneath that. Then, to the right of Scorpio, we see Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. If you organize these in alphabetical order, you get the order of each of the numbers.
You mean dodecahedron, not pentagon, right? Also, which vertex am I facing? Since the shape has an even number of angles, there is no vertex directly in front of me or behind me if I am looking at the wall closest to me or at the center of the circumscribing circle, so there are 12 vertices for me to look at, or 2 if you mean the closest ones. Which one do I face?
Also, why is one of the 12 astrological zodiac symbols on the ceiling instead of by a face of the dodecahedron like the other symbols, thereby leaving one of the faces of the dodecahedron unlabeled?
Well, to solve part of your puzzle, I can tell you that you need to hit whichever wall is labeled x at 24x degrees from the floor. I.e. whichever wall is wall 1 would be hit by the laser at 24 degrees, whichever wall is wall 2 would be hit by the laser at 48 degrees, whichever wall is wall 3 would be hit by the laser at 72 degrees, whichever wall is wall 4 would be hit by the laser at 96 degrees, whichever wall is wall 5 would be hit by the laser at 120 degrees, whichever wall is wall 6 would be hit by the laser at 144 degrees, whichever wall is wall 7 would be hit by the laser at 168 degrees, whichever wall is wall 8 would be hit by the laser at 192 degrees, whichever wall is wall 9 would be hit by the laser at 216 degrees, whichever wall is wall 10 would be hit by the laser at 240 degrees, whichever wall is wall 11 would be hit by the laser at 264 degrees, and whichever wall is wall 12 would be hit by the laser at 288 degrees.
For angles above 180, I'm not sure whether you intend for the numbered wall to be hit by the laser, meaning the laser pointer itself would have to face away from the wall, or if the laser pointer had to face toward the wall like for the other angles, meaning that the opposite wall would be hit.
Post by Anonymousperson5 on May 5, 2011 4:34:48 GMT
Yes, but the floor is a pentagon, right? Thus you are facing the vertex of the pentagon, or an edge of the dodecahedron, which happens to be the edge between Leo and Virgo.
Oh well, you gave the answer to all of us anyway, and I was the first to give an answer. And I technically escaped all realities relating to that puzzle, ergo I didn't die, I escaped reality, which does not necessarily mean I am not in another reality that has never contained that room. Because I entered the stage "never in this reality" which meant I was never in the room.
Anyway, you have no chronospatial gun here, so no need for time paradoxes.
For clarity, Scorpio borders Leo and Virgo. Then, Sagittarius borders Virgo and Taurus, Capricorn borders Taurus and Gemini, Aquarius borders Gemini and Cancer, and Pisces borders Cancer and Leo.
You might imagine the floor as a pentagon in itself, then five pentagonal walls rising up from the sides. The floor is Aries. Then Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo represent the walls each, in clockwise order (if viewed aerially).
Now if you turn the ceiling upside-down and look at it aerially like above, the base is Libra, and there are Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces in counterclockwise order.
Then you dovetail the two parts together as stated above to get the dodecahedron.
Also to respond to your edit, I meant the minor arc.
Shoot the laser, reflecting it off the floor, at all of the walls until the door opens. Zing!
This one runs off Minecraft physics. Assume you are in a large, dark area with a hole in the ceiling (out of reach). The walls are all made of adminium (and the floor, and the ceiling save the hole). You are fighting an infinite horde of all types of monsters. You have diamond armor, a diamond sword, a bow with too many arrows to worry about, and assume infinite fighting ability. There is also a bed in there, so no respawning out of the room. No logging off or glitching out or any nonsense like that. Escape.
If the room is shaped like a dodecahedron, it cannot be the case that the ceiling, the floor, or any of the walls can be shaped like a pentagon. Now, it could conceivably be the case that the ceiling is shaped like a dodecahedron and the floor is shaped like a pentagon, although that would result in a shape of such mind bending oddity rivaled only by Escher-geometries.
If the floor and each of the walls are pentagons, then you could only get up to 10 sides (1 of 5 sides touches the floor, the 2 sides of the wall border neighboring walls, leaving 2 free for the ceiling), not the 12 required by a dodecahedron, and therefore a dodecahedron ceiling would be impossible, and so the room could not in any way be considered a dodecahedron or a prism resulting from such a shape.
Not having played Beta yet, I do not know the full physics of Minecraft. Is it possible to stack arrows upon arrows underneath you, thereby making a tower the same way you can build towers by jumping up and building a block underneath?
Post by Anonymousperson5 on May 5, 2011 5:07:04 GMT
I don't get that. I don't see how one could assume this is a prism. It's a regular dodecahedron, so I don't see how its sides are not physically possible to be pentagons. The pentagons are REGULAR. Everything in the problem is REGULAR. Regular dodecahedrons have pentagonal faces...right? If not, then everything I have been taught is a lie...
Well, I really need to review my geometric vocabulary.
Well, now that I have realized my grave error, I see how to solve the problem. I have the angles, but they are only relative to their respective faces. I have yet to see what that would be for each one relative to the one floor face. It's nice to be standing on tile 1, though. Just hit it at 24 degrees.
Face 11 (Taurus) gets hit at (22π/15 - 2tan-1φ) radians Face 5 gets hit at (2π/3 - 2tan-1φ) radians Face 3 gets hit at (3π/5 - 2tan-1φ) radians Face 6 gets hit at (4π/5 - 2tan-1φ) radians Face 12 gets hit at (8π/5 - 2tan-1φ) radians