Instead of a group puzzle-solving party, Sunday Puzzle is now mainly featuring puzzles suitable for individual solving. Nice easy puzzles.
But in the nine and a half years that Sunday Puzzle has been running here at Daily Kos, I am not aware of a single instance in which Donald Trump has successfully managed to solve any of these puzzles. (To be fair, neither has Sarah Palin.) Total failure! Sad.
(In contrast, I am not aware of a single instance in which either Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders came up with the wrong answer to any of these puzzles. Not once, in almost a decade!)
Last week was no exception to Donald Trump’s record of failure. Even though I re-posted the pair of easy puzzles from March 12 to provide a second chance and posted a new quartet of easy puzzles, there is no indication that Donald Trump managed to come up with the correct answer to any of these. (Check last week’s comments for yourself if you doubt this.)
So tonight I’m providing the answers to those 6 puzzles, along with an even easier new puzzle for you to enjoy. Come on down and show Donald Trump how easy it is to come up with correct answers to problems if one takes the time to think.
Here are the two word puzzles originally posted here two weeks ago:
Suppose I gave you the following list of words:
- confederate
- conman
- irresponsible
- outsider
- anti-environmentalist
- bedchamber
- slugfest
- imprisonment
Looking at the words on the list, can you think of the name of a well-known person which would go with these words?
To make the puzzle a little easier, here’s a list of names to choose from. One of these names — and only one — is the answer. Which one?
- Trump
- Obama
- Winfrey
- Einstein
- Tubman
- Angelou
- Madonna
- Longfellow
- Rockefeller
And:
Here’s another list of related words:
- prideful
- somnolent
- xenophobic
- misunderstood
- masturbatory
- overstated
- post-menopausal
Which well-known website would go with these words?
Once again I’ll make things easier for you by providing you a list of choices. One of these — and, again, only one — is the answer. Which one?
- Snopes.com
- Alternet.org
- Politico.com
- Jezebel.com
- DailyKos.com
- Breitbart.com
- TalkingPointsMemo.com
Looking closely at the words on the second list, the answer is obvious:
- pri def ul
- so mno lent
- xe nop hobic
- misunde rst ood
- ma stu rbatory
- ove rst ated
- post-me nop ausal
Each word in the list contains a sequence of 3 consecutive letters of the alphabet. The only website listed with a name that has that property is Snopes.
Once you’ve solved that puzzle, the solution to the other puzzle is also obvious:
- con fed erate
- c onm an
- irres pon sible
- o uts ider
- anti-envir onm entalist
- b edc hamber
- slu gfe st
- impris onm ent
Every word in the list contains a sequence of 3 consecutive letters of the alphabet in reverse alphabetical order. The only name in the list provided which shares that property is Longfellow.
.
Last week I posted four puzzles. Here’s the first one:
In a box in an attic you discover 3 old records from the 1950s. One is a 33 RPM record; it’s 12 inches in diameter. One is a 45 RPM record; it’s 7 inches in diameter. And one is a 78 RPM record; it’s 10 inches in diameter.
What is the ratio of the number of grooves in the 33 to the number of grooves in the 45 to the number of grooves in the 78?
All records have one long spiraling groove. So the ratio of the number of grooves on the 33 to number of grooves on the 45 to number of grooves on the 78 is 1:1:1.
.
I also posted a trio of sequence puzzles, in which I provided sequences of numbers and asked you what the next number in each sequence would be.
Here the 3 sequences are.
Here’s the first one: 1, 4, 7, 11, 14, …
Here’s the second one: 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, ...
And here’s the third one: 0, 3, 6, 8, 9, …
One thing which should pop out if you look at all three sequences is that these are all the numbers from 0 to 14 and that no number appears in more than one sequence. That suggests that there is some common property the numbers in each sequence share which determines which set they go into.
And once you realize that, the answers should be obvious. All the numbers in the first sequence consist exclusively of straight lines; therefore the next number in the sequence is 17. All the numbers in the second sequence contain both straight and curved lines; therefore the next number in this sequence is 15. And all the numbers in the third sequence consist exclusively of curved lines; therefore the next number in this sequence is 30.
.
All right, here’s a new puzzle:
Donald Trump is forming a new advisory group to help him figure out how to deal with people who refuse to accept alternative facts. He’s looking for people who always lie to be in the group, but has had to settle for some people who alternate lies with the truth.
Friday morning he had to add another alternator to the group. That made the group composition half consistent-liars and half alternators. But that afternoon he was able to find and add another consistent-liar to the group, bringing the fraction of consistent-liars in the group up to 4/7.
What was the fraction of consistent-liars in the group Friday morning before he added the alternator?
NOTE: Last week I returned to posting Sunday Puzzle on Sunday morning, and intended to do that again this week but I’ve been short of time and running a bit late this weekend so did an evening posting again. Next weekend I hope to return to Sunday morning posting.
You can, of course, drop by any time of the day (or any day of the week), copy down the puzzles, and play with the puzzles at your leisure.
Have fun, and I’ll be back next Sunday with the answer to tonight’s puzzle (for Donald Trump and Sarah Palin’s benefit) and more new puzzles.