Comments on Travels in a Mathematical World Blog: Puzzle from Maths Jam Nottingham: Jon's coloured b...

Yes that's cheating! You also, presumably, can...

2012-01-25T16:14:00.878Z

Yes that's cheating! You also, presumably, can't tell which is heavier as you're lifting them to put them on and off the scales.

See my piece on constrained reality in puzzles.

Wouldn't the minimum number be 0? You can dro...

2012-01-25T13:51:40.735Z

Wouldn't the minimum number be 0?

You can drop the balls a set distance and measure the speed at which they fall.

Or is this cheating?

I think this is true for a lot of puzzles. There&#...

2012-01-25T10:20:13.108Z

I think this is true for a lot of puzzles. There's no possible interest in saying "Weigh each pair individually. Done." The anthropic aspect comes from the fact someone has chosen to show you this puzzle (cf., say, problems that arise in a real-world context). You're right that if you're going to get all meta on me you could design a puzzle to exploit this!

and in re solutions: I forgot last month that I...

2012-01-25T10:10:34.413Z

and in re solutions: I forgot last month that I'd installed a spoiler-hiding plugin on my blog. This month solutions will be hidden until you ask to see them.

You seem to be applying something akin to the anth...

2012-01-25T09:40:41.668Z

You seem to be applying something akin to the anthropic principle to puzzles lately, i.e., using the fact that you're being told the puzzle to infer something about its solution.

Now I must concoct a puzzle which takes advantage of this fact to confound you!

PS: hooray for more MathsJam blogging!