TWCP OTD (The Who Cares Puzzle Of The Day) - 7th of February, 2017
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BOOK WORM On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)... A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part... How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
Was it an African worm or a European one?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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BOOK WORM On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)... A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part... How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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BOOK WORM On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)... A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part... How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
It is quite reasonable to not count book covers as pages, although they may be leaves of paper. The first part has 972 pages, making 486 physical leaves of paper that are pages. The second part has 864 pages, or 432 leaves of paper that are pages. If we don't assume, as it is not stated in the puzzle, that the worm burrowed in straight line through both parts, it perforated 1836 numbered pages, or 918 leaves of paper.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote:
but I do not think your answer is correct...
... because he forgot to count the covers.
Book covers are not book pages.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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It did not, it just said a book has n pages, not counting the cover. If you mistakenly consider a cover to a page of a book, then the puzzle implies you should include covers.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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A real oldie - the two book parts you noted are adjacent to one another on books "properly" shelved. If you don't count the covers as pages, the answer is "none".
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Please justify this answer. What difference does it make that the books are adjacent to each other, if the worm still burrowed through all of both parts, except maybe the back cover of the last?
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OK: Drawing in your mind's eye (illustration on bottom): Consider how a set of books is put on the shelf. Lowest volume number to the right and in sequential order. Next imagine your in the process of taking the first volume off the shelf. It's in your hand and the front cover is to your right. So it's not on the outside edge of the volume set. The back cover of book '1' the outside cover. In fact, for all books (not written in Hebrew or Arabic), when shelved, the left side is the back of the book and the right side is the front. Now - for the two volume set in the problem, the back of the second book, being on the left, is now touching the front of the first book.
| | | |
| Vol 1 | | Vol 2 |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
B F B F
a r a r
c o c o
k n k n
t tThis would still be true, by the way, for books written right-to-left as their order on the shelf would be reversed, too.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Very good, if the puzzle stipulated that the worm burrowed through both volumes in one straight line. In your drawing, the worm could very well have started between the two volumes, and burrowed to the left through the first one, then circled back to the right of the second one and burrowed left until the back cover of that one.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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It is quite reasonable to not count book covers as pages, although they may be leaves of paper. The first part has 972 pages, making 486 physical leaves of paper that are pages. The second part has 864 pages, or 432 leaves of paper that are pages. If we don't assume, as it is not stated in the puzzle, that the worm burrowed in straight line through both parts, it perforated 1836 numbered pages, or 918 leaves of paper.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
Even you are right about the confusion between pages and sheets, but that's intentional... And in your case it led you to the wrong answer... ;)
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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It did not, it just said a book has n pages, not counting the cover. If you mistakenly consider a cover to a page of a book, then the puzzle implies you should include covers.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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BOOK WORM On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)... A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part... How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Very good, if the puzzle stipulated that the worm burrowed through both volumes in one straight line. In your drawing, the worm could very well have started between the two volumes, and burrowed to the left through the first one, then circled back to the right of the second one and burrowed left until the back cover of that one.
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
The worm could also have eaten through the bottom, went out, bought a suit, and after being elected to office hired someone to rearrange the books. Or anything else you care type. Read the problem; whilst it is true that anything that is not excluded from the answer may come into consideration, don't embellish the problem. Also, see Occam's razor[^].
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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The worm could also have eaten through the bottom, went out, bought a suit, and after being elected to office hired someone to rearrange the books. Or anything else you care type. Read the problem; whilst it is true that anything that is not excluded from the answer may come into consideration, don't embellish the problem. Also, see Occam's razor[^].
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
Aah, yes, the Razor, one of my favourite philosophising tools, but occasionally shelved for playful pickiness. :)
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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Are we also not including other non-numbered pages like the preface, contents, 'This page intentionally left blank' etc?
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote:
not including cover, but anything else
...
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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BOOK WORM On the shelf there is a book of two parts. The first part has 972 pages (not including cover, but anything else), the second has 864 (same)... A curious worm ate itself thru the book starting with the front cover of the first part and until the very end of the back cover of the last part... How many pages it perforated on the way?
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
It depends on the order of the books on the shelf and also on the language of the book. (Left to right reading order or Right to left reading order) Either way, there are only 2 possible answers for the four possible scenarios: 0 or the sum of the pages in both books.
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Even you are right about the confusion between pages and sheets, but that's intentional... And in your case it led you to the wrong answer... ;)
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
Only wrong if we set aside Occam's Razor and consider that the worm did not burrow a straight hole through both parts in one go, as there is no such constraint set in the puzzle. :laugh:
Follow my adventures with .NET Core at my new blog, Erisia Information Services.
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It depends on the order of the books on the shelf and also on the language of the book. (Left to right reading order or Right to left reading order) Either way, there are only 2 possible answers for the four possible scenarios: 0 or the sum of the pages in both books.
The Lounge is an English site... :-D
Skipper: We'll fix it. Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this? Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Was it an African worm or a European one?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
