November 14, 2006
Ian McMeans Gets the Cocktail Party Conversation Permit
It was a close contest with much back and forth between me and a few dogged problem solvers in the CPCP challenge, but we now have a clear winner: Ian McMeans was the first to give all the right answers. Ian, I hope that you will agree to write something for us this coming Monday. I shall look forward to it.
Craig L. also got all the answers right, but was just a tiny bit too late.
Two people each got 13 of the 14 problems right: my old friend from the philosophy department at Columbia, David Maier, and George Dickeson.
Subodh C. Agrawal of Chandigarh, India, takes honorable mention with 12/14 correct.
I will post the answers next week, giving the rest of you a chance to work out the problems that you couldn't get immediately, and I will also post a particularly tough problem at that time. Thanks to the many other people who sent me lists of painstakingly expressed answers to the problem set.
Thanks for participating!
UPDATE: You can see Ian McMeans' Monday column for 3QD here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 02:06 AM | Permalink
Comments
Yarrr!.. so close.
Congrats to Ian :)
Posted by: George Dickeson | Nov 14, 2006 2:29:49 AM
I loved this puzzle post. Would you consider a semi regular fairly difficult problem/puzzle post? Monthly or something? - It's such a fun thing to mull over when on the train etc.
Posted by: anna | Nov 14, 2006 7:38:10 AM
I second anna's suggestion -- a regular puzzle would be fun. (I am still, er, "enjoying" a couple of the current set...)
Posted by: Bill | Nov 14, 2006 11:12:26 AM
Congratulations Ian! I'm thrilled to see that I got them all right, but I would have been nervous composing something worthy enough for the front page of 3QD.
Posted by: Craig L. | Nov 14, 2006 11:51:57 AM
While I certainly congratulate my worthy competitor(s), I also look forward to seeing what Mr. Smartypants has to say.
By the way, if we just invested more in our air force, we wouldn't have to worry about getting a plane all the way around the world with so little support. Just saying.
Posted by: Dave M | Nov 14, 2006 11:59:55 AM
Will there be a way for us plebes who cannot work them all out to find the answers to those particularly puzzling to us? I have an itch, and it needs scratching.
Posted by: smijer | Nov 14, 2006 5:06:37 PM
smijer, I can send you my answers to ones you wanted to know about, although since I didn't email them to Abbas until after this post, I don't know if I got them all right.
Posted by: Jesse M. | Nov 14, 2006 9:02:04 PM
Smijer and anyone else who wants the answers early, you can email me.
hbar1787 at yahoo dot com
Posted by: Craig L. | Nov 15, 2006 12:31:00 AM
Craig L. kindly sent me the answers, and I see I got 9 and 13 wrong, and 12 I had the right answer but my reasoning was off. But on #5, my answer was different than Craig's, and therefore presumably different from what Abbas defines as the "right" answer, but in this case I'm pretty sure that my answer was right and their answer was incorrect. Should I wait until Abbas posts his answers to discuss my objections here?
Posted by: Jesse M. | Nov 15, 2006 4:41:23 PM
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