Talk:Puzzles/Riddles

Format

The format effecively treats the whole set of riddles as a single puzzle. People should be able to check their guesses, or even add new riddles, without accidentally seeing the answers to the ones they haven't yet thought about or are still thinking about. I therefore suggest that we split up the answers into one page per riddle. -- Smjg 14:57, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sounds great. It would also handle the problems of the huge ToC and the oversized page. - SamE 05:16, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Logic puzzles has a good format for this. -160.36.157.78 05:47, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Does it seem navigable now that I've put the solutions on individual pages? It might be good to split the riddles themselves into groups of 10, so that the table of contents will fit within the page. (e.g. riddles 1-10 on Riddles, 11-20 on Riddles 2, etc.) -Tormod 06:40, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The only objection I have is that we have many incredibly small pages; then again, that's the only way to do it (that I know of). One other way I found in a riddle book was to title each and every riddle and organize them alphabetically for the answers and by difficulty for the riddles. I do like your plan for splitting up the riddles; see Chip's Challenge for a way I did this. - SamE 02:06, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Does it take up a lot more memory to have many little pages than one big one? I think hyperlinking is easier for the reader than looking through an index like the book of riddles you mention. Chip's Challenge looks good. -Tormod 19:08, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I ran into the many-little-pages problem with SMW: Yoshi's Island 1. I tried to explain the walkthrough using what would have ended up becoming about 100 pages. I wanted to make it completely comprehensive, but that took so long to copy-paste, rewrite and test, that I gave up on it and put the 30 or so pages I had written on VfD. I don't know if it takes more memory or what, but it sure takes a lot of time and energy to make them all work. This especially applies when you want to make a change to all of them at once and you don't have a bot. So I would go with the strategy I used on Chip's Challenge. - SamE 03:44, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I actually really like the format now - as a user, it's super-convenient to click on the link to see the solution. If there was a hints/discussion page for each one, that'd be perfect! -PK

I came to this page to have a look and was totally put off. No one wants to see "Riddle 1, Riddle 2" all the way down to 40. No one, equally, wants those riddles just listed off underneath. Furthermore, some of the riddles are pathetically easy (eg the first) and some are really quite hard. If someone's looking for a hard riddle, how are they going to find it? They can't read every one.

I suggest that the riddles be split up by difficulty: Very-Easy, Easy, Average, Hard, Very-Hard. Aesthetically, it would also be nice to give each riddle a title rather than a number. A hints/discussion page for each one would also be extremely nice. However those are extraneous. The splitting into difficulty categories is essential. --212.135.1.84 18:49, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hints?

why are you giving hints before giving people the chance to figure things out? put the hints in a link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.241.16.59 (discuss • contribs) 02:50, 10 September 2005

Hiding the answer in a template instead

In an attempt to help fix some of the problems with the solutions being deleted by over zealous administrators seeking to delete very small pages, I've tried to put the answers into a special template called Template:Riddle.

I've also gone and deleted the first two solution pages, and it would be useful to transfer the talk pages that may have been started for each answer to be here instead as well. I'm not going to go any further at the moment, but instead I'm looking for general input in this matter before I add this template to all of the rest of the answers. --Rob Horning 15:56, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Since there hasn't been any arguments either for or against this proposal, I'm going to go ahead and make the changes and delete the various Riddles sub-modules that are mostly one or two words anyway. --Rob Horning 16:57, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

The title stays as one line regardless of line breaks in firefox. --Hagindaz 04:45, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Discussion about Each Riddle

Riddle 2

This riddle could mean anything black on white, eg text, an oven, washing machine, etc...

scholar

The word scholar suggests that the answer is supposed to be book. huhahua

Riddle 9

Thats a sick riddle.

Really? I think is pretty cool.

Riddle 12

How does a shadows footsteps talk?

Riddle 14

My best guess is: bokrage

Bok is Afrikaans for antelope. The springbok is the best known.

Okra is a pepper-like vegetable.

Rag is a bit of a stretch for a utensil, but it's the best I can do.

While by some definitions a person's age does change from year to year, it can also mean forever, which shouldn't change. (Ago could also fit here, but I don't think it works any better.)

Brilliant work, but I don't think it answers the question - 1234567 was supposed to be a 7 letter word, too, and as far as I can tell, it's not.

I have also seen this riddle saying "changes every year" instead of being the same every year. Age would fit very well there.
The answer is Cabbage - Sudhish

---

Other suggestions that I've seen:

PROPEND

PRO = professional sports teams get named after animals (lions, bears, ducks) -- doesn't really work

ROPE = slang for licorice

PEN = a writing utensil

END = December 31st

GARBAGE

GAR = A fish

ARBA = American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) -- doesn't really work

BAG = A Bag is a utensil

AGE = Age itself does not change just the ###'s that represent our age or Age of our waste is unproved.

---

Has anyone worked this one out?

Riddle 15

This can also be the wind.

I agree most with wind. Mostly because of the breathing and how dying down doesnt really mean ending with wind.

I disagree. The wind doesn't breathe, because it IS breath, actually. Though it may breeze. In order to breathe, you need another substance to breathe. The wind is made up of air, so it can't also breathe air. Fire, however, is kept alive by the oxygen in the air, so it breathes.Balthus 07:40, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

• I believe something is wrong with the format as I can't see anything on firefox or internet explorer Aznph8playa 04:43, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Riddle 16

and

other suggestions:

death -Jahrl Eriksen

the later A

air

Riddle 17

A Window

Other suggestions:

Smith's Patented SpectroGasmic, Cold Fusion Powered, X-ray Goggles (the oldest, functional pair were uncovered in an Egyptian tomb in Thebes c. 1942)

Riddle 18

Lighthouse

--Frontier 12:30, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Other suggestions: the Sun

"[B]lue fields" can be interpretted as either a body or water or the sky. problem: the sun burns.

The North star or big dipper

A compass needle "never moves" applies to the needle, while the compas moves, the needle, when working properly and without too much interference from local magnetic sources, does not move or turn. It only appears to turn when you move the compass.

---The Day.---

Guides travelers... Rises East, Sets West

never moves... As opposed to day being in the nighttime.

Always turning... Time of day

never looks... Just to confuse the issue, from the phrase "turn & look"

Always shining... The Sun

never burns... It never burns out.

Looks on blue fields with each of its turns... The Sky is Blue. Each of it's turns just means the day.

---Dylan Campbell---

I vouch for the North Star.

Guides travelers, never moves. - It is stationary in the sky. Always turning, never looks. - It is (from our perspective) revolving 360 degrees per day because of the rotation of the planet, though we can't really tell because it's a sphere. Always shining, never burns. - It is always shining, and doesn't burn anything on the Earth, unlike, say, the sun. Obviously it is burning because it's a star, but... You could apply this to lighthouses too. Stand directly in front of the light and tell me it doesn't burn. Looks on blue fields with each of its turns. - Referring to blue sky during the day.

--70.127.189.112 06:42, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Riddle 19

Bowling

Ok, then, what's the 3 black eyes?

The holes in the bowling ball, of course! -star882

Riddle 20

It's a dictionary, or you're holding the book upside down.

You could be in east asia, they format their books to be read back to front, relative to our norm. -Jahrl Eriksen

Riddle 21

I am confused. Lungs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.94.120.197 (discuss • contribs) 9 November 2005

"I feast on your body, your soul, and your mind," This doesnt make any sense for a shadow, or am I missing something?

     um i think because little kids, (and even adults) play games with shadows and avoid them or whatever. also, the later in the day it gets, the farther up your body a shadow would be if someone walked past you. ;)

Deletion and undeletion

Three times, users created this page and wrote "shadow" or "a shadow". Twice, sysops deleted the page, but missed it the third time. I decided that this page was okay, so I undeleted the older versions. See deletion log.

Generally, a page containing only "a shadow" is nonsense, and eligible for speedy deletions. What those sysops did not know is that this page, Riddles: 21, is linked from Puzzles:Riddles. "A shadow" is the answer to riddle 21.

However, visitors to Riddles: 21, unless they come from Puzzles:Riddles, have no idea what this page is about. There is no link back to Puzzles:Riddles or anywhere, and the module title does not show that module is part of the Puzzles book. This is another reason to support the requirement for slash convention in Wikibooks:Naming policy. --Kernigh 05:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Riddle 22

Pearl white connotates lustre, an egg shell has no lustre, its is dull. I'm just bitter because my best guess was a tooth with a gold crown. -Jahrl Eriksen

Riddle 33

I don't understand, "But many have the strength to lift a man", having to do with a human hair.

Perhaps if you made a rope out of the hair. Or Perhaps the hair of a woman could "lift" the man if you catch my drift -Jahrl Eriksen

Riddle 39

Ridonculous -Jahrl Eriksen

Riddle 41

I don't get it. Elton John? I was expecting something else. --Rob Horning 04:33, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

major formatting errors

using latest firefox.

Template:Riddle doesnt appear to work. and its not exactly printworthy.

but "not work" i mean all the text on this page is being bunched together and overlapping. in short its totally gone wrong. suggest this:

Riddle

Answer

• I as well am having errors with this template while using firefoxAznph8playa 03:41, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
• I'm using Internet Explorer and also having these problems.

Riddle 6

Both Dreams and Stars come at night without summons and flee the world in the morning, so I added dreams to the answer Aznph8playa 03:52, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

We are tall, straight and upright. Who are we?

Discussion: We are tall straight and upright. What are we? GiftyOxox (discuss • contribs) 16:22, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

Completely clean up

Hi guys, I think , I might re-do a complete makeover to the riddles. Encik Tekateki (discuss • contribs) 02:03, 25 May 2019 (UTC)