Here’s a puzzle that’s distributed during the conference Combinatorial Algebra meets Algebraic Combinatorics (January 26-28, 2024). You can find below the puzzle, some hints, an answer-checker, and a few extra puzzles.
The Puzzle
Can You Solve This?? 99.99% of People Fail!!
Do you spend too much time browsing math memes?
Let’s see if you can solve these potentially “viral” puzzles.
Will you be the first to solve all these problems after so many people failed?
🔲 🔲 🔲 🔲 🔲 🔲
You can also download the PDF version by clicking here: PDF puzzle
Credits: puzzle created by Vivien Ripoll. Playtesting: Josef Tkadlec, Henri Mühle, Gwendal Collet, Yvonne Kemper. Originally created for, and with the support of, the conference AlCoVE 2022.
The final answer of the puzzle is just one word. You can check your answer in this form.
If you are correct, your name/teamname will then appear on the leaderboard.
Advertisement: if you’d like to spice up your online meetings, with a novel/custom/puzzling/clever/entertaining/social activity like this one, feel free to contact me! I create custom puzzles in English, Spanish or French. You can see the list of past events I organized there.
Hints
Self-revealing hints are available below. I recommend looking at them one at a time, and only in case of frustration. Do not spoil yourself the satisfaction of the aha!
Mini-puzzle 1: (click to display)
It’s a simple geometric shape.
Mini-puzzle 2:
Rome doesn’t refer to the Italian language, but to a specific number system.
Mini-Puzzle 3:
What are the sounds in English that make your lips touch each other? You’ll need to count pretty far.
Mini-Puzzle 4:
Write the name of the sequence (or of the depicted mathematician) on top of the numbers. Follow the red arrow.
Mini-Puzzle 5:
This is not a mistake of order of operations. The answer is really 4!.
Mini-Puzzle 6:
Note that some emojis are upside-down or somehow transformed. And that the numbers are written like in a digital display.
Final step:
Use the percentages, and the italicized words in the last sentence, to extract one letter per answer.
Extra Puzzles
In March 2022 and 2023 I participated in EnigMarch, a daily puzzle design challenge. I constructed many puzzles, of diverse difficulty and quality, inspired by a daily prompt. They are all publicly available there: EnigMarch2022 and EnigMarch2023.
For math-inclined people, I’d recommend in particular the following puzzles: spell, hex, mirror, irrational, dots, tracks, translate, bird, phantom, chance, escape, light, bold, tower, second, shell, halve, dice, diagonal.
Feel free to contact me for hints or for checking your answers.
For more of my public puzzles, you can also scroll down in Solving Fun’s Facebook page. I’m currently based in Mexico, so some puzzles are in Spanish (and also occasionally in French!), but there are many in English, including:
– three Christmas puzzles from 2022, and two Christmas puzzles from 2023
– an ambiguous math puzzle
– a Halloween puzzle with zoombies
– a puzzle about physical distancing in the supermarket
– an Easter puzzle
Solving Fun 