Perplexed Potatoes

Here are links to some of my favorite puzzles (and websites) from over the years:

Quick Solves: Here are some quick puzzles to get your brain warmed up before you dive into the longer problems later. You might not even need a pencil for these.

This 10 digit number which has the first digit as the number of zeros in the number, second digit as the number of ones in the number, third digit as number of twos in the number and so on with tenth digit as number of 9s in the number. ID the 10 digit number.
Fill in the blanks with 2 letters to make a longer word. When completed, the eight added letters
should make a word reading downwards.
_ _ ACTOR
_ _ TEN
_ _ SPEND
_ _ FIT

(Courtesy: Balls by Picasso, NIT Trichy’s Literary and Debating Society)

Puzzled Pint
Difficulty: 3/5
Monthly puzzle event that takes place across the world on the same day (you can also print and solve them at home, although it’s a lot more fun in the venue!)
Grab a beer, catch some of your fellow cryptographers on your way and sit with a few puzzles at a bar in your city for a couple of hours on the second Tuesday of every month. It is a wonderful event that’s always well set and conducted.
Website: http://www.puzzledpint.com/
Blue Eyes puzzle: Single epic puzzle

Difficulty: 4/5
This classic puzzle retold by xkcd makes it an even better, crisper version which can’t go wrong. It might take anywhere between a few minutes to a couple of days so don’t leave your patience behind when you look at this one.
Website: https://xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html
Logic Puzzles collection
Online: Yes
Difficulty: 1-3/5
Simpler set of numerous logic puzzles that promise to give you entertainment when you want to cool off at work:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/logic-puzzles-index.html
Einstein Puzzles
Difficulty: 4-5/5
A whole lot of Einstein puzzles – some may take you a couple of hours, some shorter and some…may just not be solvable with the given information. Can you rack your brains to solve some? By the end, you’ll be a pro.
https://www.mathsisfun.com/puzzles/einstein-puzzles-index.html
A King’s Dilemma
Online: Yes
Difficulty: 4/5
Here’s a puzzle I particularly like. It isn’t easy to solve until you solve it after which it becomes blatantly obvious and you’ll never ever forget it. I wish I could go back to pre-solving time to remember all the things I tried before giving up and checking the answer but if you solve this one I am certain you will feel incredible after!

The King of a small country invites 1000 senators to his annual party. As a tradition, each senator brings the King a bottle of wine. Soon after, the Queen discovers that one of the senators is trying to assassinate the King by giving him a bottle of poisoned wine. Unfortunately, they do not know which senator, nor which bottle of wine is poisoned, and the poison is completely indiscernible. However, the King has 10 prisoners he plans to execute. He decides to use them as taste testers to determine which bottle of wine contains the poison. The poison when taken has no effect on the prisoner until exactly 24 hours later when the infected prisoner suddenly dies. The King needs to determine which bottle of wine is poisoned by tomorrow so that the festivities can continue as planned. Hence he only has time for one round of testing. How can the King administer the wine to the prisoners to ensure that 24 hours from now he is guaranteed to have found the poisoned wine bottle?

You can find a link to this puzzle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qmN6pYhi0
A quick list of puzzle based boardgames:
- Dimension: This is a competitive board game where you race against friends and foes to follow spatial rules in arranging spheres. Sounds simple? The timer is your primary enemy and your optimization skill is the best friend. It’s easy to learn and I found it remarkably simple to teach my 9 year old niece and start playing.
- Ricochet Robots: A classic puzzle game that barely passes as a board game. Players compete to form the shortest path for pawns on the board to reach a target. Everyone controls the same pawn, and most of the game is spent in thinking of solutions and bidding for the shortest. This makes it a very cool single player game as well, and there are plenty of mobile applications that ape this game.
- Chessformer: This is a mobile game you can play on rob1221.itch.io which is a 2D chess game where the pieces fall down after moving to the lowest level. Aim is as always to capture the opposing King (who, to make things easier, never moves)
- Letter Jam: If you like a good word puzzle and anagramming game, Letter Jam is perfect for you! You’ll need a few friends who are equally enthusiastic, or very strong persuasion skills. This is a co-operative word puzzle game where groups give clues to each other to solve each of their letters that are hidden from them and seen by everyone else. Once you have all your letters, anagram them to create the final solution. You score points based on how many in the group got their entire words right, so make sure you’re all moving together co-operatively!