Problematics | Poker cards with a dash of chemistry


On Diwali, would you have preferred simpler puzzles that wouldn’t take up too much of your time? My guess is that those who love puzzles will solve them anyway and still find time to celebrate the festival. This week’s puzzles, therefore, remain mildly challenging, like most of the previous ones.

The first one is about poker, the card game. We may go into the detailed rules in future puzzles. For today, all one needs to know is that a poker hand consists of five cards, and that the winner is the player who holds the “best combination” as defined by the rules.

#Puzzle 9.1
#Puzzle 9.1
#Puzzle 9.1
#Puzzle 9.1
#Puzzle 9.2
The chemical symbols for five elements use a total of six letters. If you write these six letters one after the other in a certain order, you will get the full name of one of these elements. What are the elements? This shouldn’t take much of your time. Have a Happy Diwali.
MAILBOX: LAST WEEK’S SOLVERS

#Puzzle 8.1  

Sir, 

It will take 7 trips. 

1st trip: Man (78 kg) come down with the help of woman (66 kg) plus 6 kg belongings 

2nd trip: Chimpanzee (36 kg) comes down with help of 30 kg bundle 

3rd trip: Bundle (30 kg) comes down 

4th trip: Woman comes down with the help of chimpanzee and 24 kg belongings 

5th trip: The 24 kg bundle comes down 

6th trip: Chimpanzee comes down with the help of the 30 kg bundle 

7th trip: 30 kg bundle comes down  

— Arnav Singh, DPS Indirapuram 

I adapted #Puzzle 8.1 from ‘The Captive Queen’, which appears in The Collected Works of Lewis Carroll, but which I gather was not a puzzle Carroll had created himself. I replaced the Queen with the male climber, the Queen’s daughter with the female climber, the Queen’s son with the chimpanzee, and a dead weight with a bundle of belongings. If the 30 kg in our puzzle were a dead weight, there would have been no acceptable solution given the other weights chosen. But a bundle of belongings gave us the freedom to manipulate its contents. 

#Puzzle 8.2 

The movie is Rocky. 

CY are in Candy; OC are in Havoc; RO are in Rambo; RK are in Shrek; KY are in Yanks. 

—  K Sridhar, Navi Mumbai 

Ravinder Gahlout identifies the movie as SCORN. While that is an obscure film, it has to be counted as correct.

Solved both puzzles: Arnav Singh (DPS Indirapuram), K Sridhar (Navi Mumbai), Nipun Bamania (Mumbai), Gaganjot Kaur (Mohali), Geetansha Gera (Faridabad), Ravinder Gahlout (Faridabad), Madhuri Patwardhan (Thane), Ayush Tandon (Delhi Technological University), Col (Dr) J S Sabharwal (Mohali), Sandeep Bhateja (Hoshiarpur) 
Solved #Puzzle 8.1: Gopal Menon (Mumbai), Sudesh Chandra Dogra
Solved #Puzzle 8.2: Dipendar Singh, Yash Fulfagar, Eva Anchal, Hardik Goel, Raunaq Nayar (Delhi), Jatin Davis (Jamia Millia Islamia), Sishir Gupta (Indore), Jasvinder Singh (Nabha), Avanti Kashikar (Mumbai)
Solved both puzzles: Arnav Singh (DPS Indirapuram), K Sridhar (Navi Mumbai), Nipun Bamania (Mumbai), Gaganjot Kaur (Mohali), Geetansha Gera (Faridabad), Ravinder Gahlout (Faridabad), Madhuri Patwardhan (Thane), Ayush Tandon (Delhi Technological University), Col (Dr) J S Sabharwal (Mohali), Sandeep Bhateja (Hoshiarpur) 
Solved #Puzzle 8.1: Gopal Menon (Mumbai), Sudesh Chandra Dogra
Solved #Puzzle 8.2: Dipendar Singh, Yash Fulfagar, Eva Anchal, Hardik Goel, Raunaq Nayar (Delhi), Jatin Davis (Jamia Millia Islamia), Sishir Gupta (Indore), Jasvinder Singh (Nabha), Avanti Kashikar (Mumbai)

Problematics will be back next week. Please send in your replies to [email protected]

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