One of my favorite pieces of trivia is that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. What’s truly remarkable about this is that it happened on July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the famous signing of the Declaration of Independence. John Adams’s last words are reported to be “Thomas Jefferson survives” – he did not know that his long-time friend and rival had died a few hours earlier. For us, then, knowing that Jefferson died first is an essential part of the story of these great founding fathers.

But what of the founding fathers of Western literature? Recently, we celebrated April 23 as Shakespeare’s birthday, but we also know it as his death day. Shakespeare died in Stratford on April 23, 1616. We do not know the time of his death, or his last words.

Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, might likewise be considered one of the founding fathers of Western literature. Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616. We do not know the time of his death, or his last words.

And yet, it is possible to say, with some degree of certainty, which of the two authors perished first. And that, dear readers, is today’s Conundrum.

Who died first: Shakespeare or Cervantes? How do you know?

Feel free to speculate as to last words too, if that sort of thing amuses you.

UPDATE: Question answered by Neel Mehta. See comments for answer.

The English department at the local university has nine professors. Each has been with the department a different number of years, ranging from the new-hire (zero years), all the way up to the chair who has been with the department for fifteen years. Since the university only hires at the beginning of the school year, the number of years that each person has been with the department can be expressed as a whole number.

This morning, the nine professors divided themselves into three committees and each of these committees held a meeting which lasted all morning. In the afternoon, the nine professors divided themselves into three different committees and each of these committees held a meeting which lasted all afternoon. At no point today did anybody meet with anyone outside of these six committees.

1. Irene met with Adam and Dr. Marshall in the morning, and met with Deborah and Dr. Smith in the afternoon. Both meetings were held in Conference Room A.

2. Dr. Osborne met with Charles and Dr. Kaplan in the morning, and met with Gerald and Dr. Lewis in the afternoon. Both meetings were held in Conference Room B.

3. Dr. Johnson met with Frank and Dr. Rogers in the morning, and met with Elizabeth and Dr. Nelson in the afternoon. Both meetings were held in Conference Room C.

4. Each of the six committees has the exact same combined number of years that the three committee members have been with the department, though no two of the committees are identical.

5. Harold has been with the department longer than Barbara has.

6. After the Shakespeare scholar, who has been with the department exactly four times as many years as Irene has, was hired, nobody else was hired until five years later, when the Romantic poetry expert joined the department.

7. Dr. Kaplan was hired one year before Dr. Peterson and one year after Dr. Lewis. Nobody was hired the year before Dr. Lewis. Nobody mentioned anywhere above has left the department.

The department is currently hiring for a tenure-track position for next year. They offer a competitive salary and an impressive benefits package. To apply for a position, determine the full names of all nine professors, and how many years each has been with the department.

UPDATE: Puzzle solved by ArtVark. See comments for answer.

A new type of game/puzzle for the blog…

I’m thinking of a character from Shakespeare. It’s a speaking role that is given no lines. Who is it?

If you know it, don’t post it yet. If you don’t know it, ask Yes/No questions to try to figure it out. Once you’ve got it, you can help me answer the questions as they come in.

Possible responses:

Yes – The answer to your question is Yes.
No – The answer to your question is No.
Irrelevant – The answer to your question won’t help you solve it.
Faulty Premise – Your question is based on an incorrect assumption.
I Don’t Know – I don’t know the answer to your question.
Misleading – The correct answer to your question would lead you in the wrong direction.

Let’s see how this goes!

In a normal “Pic Tac Toe” puzzle, there are nine pictures in a 3×3 grid, like Tic-Tac-Toe. In each of the three rows, three columns, and two diagonals, there is a common theme that unites the three pictures. The challenge is to find the eight themes.

In this “Pic Tac Toe” puzzle, however, there are twenty-seven pictures in a 3x3x3 grid, like a Rubik’s Cube. In each of the nine rows, nine columns, nine pillars, eighteen lateral diagonals, and four cross-cube diagonals, there is a common theme that unites the three pictures. The challenge is to find the forty-nine themes.

Imagine stacking the three levels below on top of one another. For reference, and notation guidelines, check out my last 3D Pic Tac Toe, including the comments. The rules here are identical to that puzzle.

You can click on each image to see a larger version:

Top Level – Level A

Middle Level – Level B

Bottom Level – Level C

Please post whatever you come up with in the comments section.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Correct themes provided by Neel Mehta (35) and Billie (7). Alternate themes suggested by Neel Mehta (2), Econgator (1), and Billie (2). See comments for discussion, or click here to skip right to the answers.

A game is considered to be “solved” when all of the possible moves have been mapped out in a mathematical tree and thus the perfect set of moves can be determined regardless of an opponent’s play.

Tic-Tac-Toe is a pretty easy one. You solved this as a kid. There are three opening moves – corner, edge, center. And then you work from there.

Connect Four was solved in 1988. That’s because those new-fangled computer thingies were starting to get some real power behind them. If you want to play Connect Four against the best opponent you’ve ever played in your life, check out the applet on John’s Connect Four Playground which is programmed to play flawlessly, based on a database of pre-determined best moves. But if you go first, and play just as flawlessly, you can beat it.

Checkers was solved this past April by researchers from the University of Alberta. You can play against Chinook, which will play flawlessly, but the best you can hope for is a draw. It doesn’t matter how amazingly good you are at checkers. You will never win. For me, there’s something a little disturbing about that.

Could chess be next? There are an incredibly large number of possible games, but it must be finite. And if it’s finite, then the tree must conceptually exist even if nobody has been able to come close to mapping it yet. Some see chess playing ability as intutive and creative, and not merely a number cruching process. But if number crunching continues to get better, it might evolve to the point where we get a chess-playing program as unbeatable as Chinook.

To be clear, we’re not talking about a really, really good chess-playing program. We have that now. We’re talking about a program that can access an exhaustive database of pre-determined best moves in order to ensure the most favorable outcome possible.

What do you think?

Will computers ever solve chess?

Last week’s Conundrum about kings named Henry reminded me of a Shakespeare final I gave about five years ago. This was for an advanced graduate course on Shakespeare, and I actually decided to give the final exam as a takehome. What’s more, the first five questions were True or False. Surprisingly, only two students got all five questions right. Sounds like quite a Conundrum to me…

TRUE or FALSE?

1. Twelfth Night is named after a holiday in December.

2. Gloucester (in King Lear) has two sons; the bastard one is named Edmund.

3. Katherine of Valois was wife to Henry V, mother to Henry VI, and grandmother to Henry VII.

4. Based on evidence in Hamlet, it is reasonable to assume that Shakespeare may have read at least some of the writings of Sigmund Freud.

5. The title of The Merchant of Venice refers to a Jewish merchant named Shylock.

I should point out that the five questions combined were ten percent of an exam that was ten percent of the final grade, so these questions alone were not enough to affect anyone’s final grade. I don’t believe in trying to trick students, but I felt that a takehome exam deserved a little extra bite. The rest of the exam was short answer and essay and was very straightforward.

Can anyone answer all five questions correctly?

England has had eight kings named Henry, all before Shakespeare was born.

How many of the eight appear as characters in Shakespeare’s 37 canonical plays?

For your answer to be valid, please list each such Henry, and at least one play in which he appears. It is not necessary to list all of the plays in which each Henry appears, but maybe we can do that after the Conundrum is solved.

Note: The Henry does not need to have been king at the time – nor, for that matter, called Henry.

UPDATE: Question answered by K-Lyn. See comments for answer.

Four poker friends played a hand of five-card stud. Each player was dealt one hole card face down, and then four additional cards face up. The cards were dealt, as in standard poker, one at a time around the table, from one regular poker deck. However, instead of betting each round, they decided to deal all twenty cards out in the beginning, and let winner take all!

1. As it turned out, any two consecutive cards dealt in this hand were either different color cards of the same rank or were consecutive ranks of the same suit, considering Aces as high cards only.

2. At least three of the four hole cards were Queens.

3. The last card dealt was a Heart.

4. At least one player was dealt more than one Ten. Nobody was ever dealt a Nine.

5. No Diamond was ever dealt immediately before or after a Spade.

6. Ron was dealt no Clubs, Lenny was dealt no Kings, Nick was dealt at least one Jack, and Frank’s hole card was a Spade.

Who won, and with what hand?

UPDATE: Puzzle solved by ArtVark. See comments for answer.

In a normal “Pic Tac Toe” puzzle, there are nine pictures in a 3×3 grid, like Tic-Tac-Toe. In each of the three rows, three columns, and two diagonals, there is a common theme that unites the three pictures. The challenge is to find the eight themes.

In this “Pic Tac Toe” puzzle, however, there are twenty-seven pictures in a 3x3x3 grid, like a Rubik’s Cube. In each of the nine rows, nine columns, nine pillars, eighteen lateral diagonals, and four cross-cube diagonals, there is a common theme that unites the three pictures. The challenge is to find the forty-nine themes.

Imagine stacking the three levels below on top of one another. For reference, and notation guidelines, check out my last 3D Pic Tac Toe, including the comments. The rules here are identical to that puzzle.

You can click on each image to see a larger version:

Top Level – Level A

Middle Level – Level B

Bottom Level – Level C

Please post whatever you come up with in the comments section.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Correct themes provided by Neel Mehta (35). Alternate themes suggested by Neel Mehta (6) and K-Lyn (1). See comments for discussion, or click here to skip right to the answers.

You may want to use a map for this one…

Imagine the 2008 Republican primaries are over, and only four candidates won any states. (DC, which is not a state, went to Ron Paul.)

1. Mitt Romney won more states than any other candidate.

2. Rudy Giuliani’s states included Massachusetts and Washington.

3. John McCain won all of the states beginning with one particular letter, and only those states.

4. Fred Thompson’s states included New Mexico.

5. Strangely enough, no two bordering states went for the same candidate. (Four Corners does not count as a border.)

Who won in Michigan? How do you know?

UPDATE: Puzzle solved by David. See comments for solution.