The first is “ieee”
http://community.engineering.com/puzzler/ieee/

The clue is that the paragraph says to the right and down. Ieee are the last letters in each line.

The second is “leonardodavinci”
http://community.engineering.com/puzzler/ieee/leonardodavinci/
The clue is that the paragraph says “flip things around” and “great engineer.” Leonardo Da Vinci was an engineer that was known for writing his notes backwards.

I don’t know the next one yet. Any ideas?

Ok. The puzzles I’ve posted links to lately have been pretty easy. Here’s a harder one. I have the answer to the first part, but I haven’t figured out the second part yet. I don’t know if I will by next Saturday. So post your solutions and hints. The first one might be easier for an electrical engineer than a civil engineer. But give it a try. This one comes from engineering.com. Puzzle 5

The picture below is how I’m numbering the frogs. You can only move 1 frog at a time. My solution is the list of frogs that you click on in order.

4
3
2
4
5
6
3
2
1
4
5
6
2
1
6

Here’s a fun little puzzle.  Give it a try.  Second grade Chinese test? Can you solve it in 2 minutes?

Last week’s puzzle was a classic logic puzzle that has been around for years.  It may be easier to solve if you make a chart.  Here’s the thought process for the solution.

We have three cities, three businessmen and three train workers.  The assumption that needs to be made is that each businessman lives in a different city.

After you read through the list you immediately know that Smith is not the fireman based on clue 5.

Clue four tells us about the brakeman’s neighbor.  We know that Mr. Jones is not the Brakeman’s neighbor because of clue 3.  20,000 divided by 3 equals 6,666.666666… Since 1/3 of 20,000 is an irrational number we know that the brakeman can’t earn 1/3 of Mr. Jones salary.

We also know that Mr. Robinson is not the brakeman’s nearest neighbor since Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit (clue 1) and the brakeman doesn’t (clue 2).  The brakeman’s nearest neighbor is Mr. Smith, who must then live in the town between Chicago and Detroit.

For Clue 6, Mr. Smith doesn’t live in Chicago and Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit, thus Mr. Jones lives in Chicago.  So Jones is the Brakeman.

Since Smith can’t be the fireman (because he beat the fireman in billiards) and he can’t be the brakeman (because Jones is the brakeman), Smith must be the Engineer.

Here’s an old logic puzzle.  The solution is available online, but if you haven’t seen this puzzle before, then give it a try before looking up the solution.  I’ll post my solution next Saturday.

On a train, Smith, Robinson, and Jones are the fireman, brakeman, and the engineer, but NOT respectively.  Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. Smith, a Mr. Robinson, and a Mr. Jones.

1. Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit.

2. The brakeman lives exactly halfway between Chicago and Detroit.

3. Mr. Jones earns exactly $20,000 per year.

4. The brakeman’s nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.

5. Smith beats the fireman in billiards.

6. The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman’s lives in Chicago.

Who is the Engineer?

By the way, I found this puzzle at http://www.misronet.com/puzzles01.htm.  You can check your answer at the site.  You can also find more puzzles there.

Feel free to post your solution.

Here is the solution that I have for Puzzle Number 2

if x=1 and y=1

(1+1)=1

Step 5 is where the mathematicians scream.  After all, can you really put x-y in the denominator if you know from step 1 that x=y?  Most math puzzle like this and 2+2=5 use a mathematical side step like that.  What do you think?  Can we get away with that?

It’s Saturday.  I was convinced that another puzzle was the way to go.  For this one, simply use basic math and algebra steps to show that 1+1=1.  There are several methods to do this.  I’ll post the method that I have next week.  Post your method.  I’m interested in seeing what people come up with.

It’s Saturday, so I figured fun and games are in order. Here’s a little math puzzle. It’s been around the internet so you may have seen it, but if not take a crack at it. Time yourself. If you’re brave enough, post your time. Be careful. When I did this I punched the wrong number into my calculator. That cost me precious seconds.

The file is in Microsoft Excel 2007 format. Here’s the file: Puzzle July 11, 2009

Here are the instructions as I originally received them.

Easier than it looks
It is said that engineers take 3 minutes to resolve this, architects 3 hours and doctors 6 hours. If you guess what the 6th number is, you’ll be able to open the excel file. Once you discover it, put your name, save it and send it on

Which is the 6th number?
1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, ___???

By the way I hate spam, but if you know someone that might find this fun then send it to them.

Have fun. Back to business next time.