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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:   https://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Oh shucks — I guess thinking is obsolete.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

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