Skip to the Main Content

Note:These pages make extensive use of the latest XHTML and CSS Standards. They ought to look great in any standards-compliant modern browser. Unfortunately, they will probably look horrible in older browsers, like Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x. Moreover, many posts use MathML, which is, currently only supported in Mozilla. My best suggestion (and you will thank me when surfing an ever-increasing number of sites on the web which have been crafted to use the new standards) is to upgrade to the latest version of your browser. If that's not possible, consider moving to the Standards-compliant and open-source Mozilla browser.

May 12, 2007

Puzzle #12

Posted by John Baez

Here’s one of my favorite puzzles, perhaps not rendered too easy by Google (unless you cheat and look on my website):

What is the size of New Jersey, shaped like a dog bone, and named after a famous woman?

Posted at May 12, 2007 5:11 PM UTC

TrackBack URL for this Entry:   http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/MT-3.0/dxy-tb.fcgi/1274



8 Comments & 0 Trackbacks

Re: Puzzle #12

its the first thing coming up when one googles
size New Jersey+dog bone

Posted by: lieven on May 12, 2007 5:45 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

Oh shucks — I guess thinking is obsolete. Too bad. One may not get the precise answer by thinking, but one can certainly make a lot of progress. There really aren’t that many types of entities that could meet all 3 conditions…

Posted by: John Baez on May 12, 2007 6:46 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

You can tell Google not to index your puzzle answers by using a robots.txt file. See here for details on how to write one and where to put it.

Posted by: Mike on May 12, 2007 6:57 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

The trick to render the puzzle Google-proof would have been to have found something the same size as New Jersey, and then use transitivity.

But maybe not so many geographical regions are bone-shaped and the right length.

Posted by: David Corfield on May 12, 2007 7:04 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

You could always get us working on another gnarly issue, then we’d have to think.

Posted by: David Corfield on May 12, 2007 6:56 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

I’ve got lots of gnarly issues. But right now I feel like something more light-hearted. I’ll post it soon.

Posted by: John Baez on May 12, 2007 7:12 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

You don’t even need the New Jersey to google it - it’s the sixth hit for ‘dog bone shaped’(without the quotes, that too)

Posted by: Martin DeMello on May 14, 2007 4:14 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

Re: Puzzle #12

Thank goodness for Google! I actually figured I would be able to come up with this on my own… but after an uncomfortable amount of time in which I came up with not one reasonable answer, I had to look it up just so I could sleep tonight. I love puzzles though… so thank you!

Posted by: Kim on May 21, 2007 10:28 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

Post a New Comment