T puzzle

Oompa, Loompa, doompa-dee-doI’ve got a perfect puzzle for youRemember the disastrous “Willy Wonka Experience” in Glasgow a few weeks ago? Parents paid £35 per ticket, lured in by AI-generated ads depicting a lush candy paradise only to be greeted by a near-empty warehouse with a couple dinky decorations. Now nobody trusts Willy Wonka. Perhaps we never should have. After all, this is the man who invited five children to his factory and set them up to meet grisly fates. Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerThis week Wonka…

We all keep secrets. It’s easy to do once you’ve committed to it. Just don’t say anything. But it can be harder when you want to share a little bit of information, without your confidante inferring tea that you didn’t intend to spill. Computer scientists often draw this distinction between security and privacy. Security focuses on keeping sensitive data out of the hands of untrusted parties, full stop. Privacy, on the other hand, aims to give people fine-tuned control over how their personal data gets distributed and…

I adore Rube Goldberg machinesas much as the next puzzle-fanatic, but I never had the pleasure of playing the Goldberg-inspired board game Mouse Trap. As I understand it, the gameplay didn’t matter much. The joy was in building a contraption that, with the crank of a gear, set off a chain reaction in which a marble zig-zagged down a staircase, a diver launched into a bucket, and eventually a cage lowered onto a plastic pest. Apparently, when originally pitched, the president of Milton Bradley rejected the idea as “a lot…

One of the most famous logic puzzles of all time involves a fork in the road, where one path leads to freedom and the other leads to your death. Each path has a guard, and one of them always tells the truth and the other always lies, but you don’t know which is which. You get to ask one yes/no question to one guard to guarantee your road to freedom. What do you ask? It won’t work if you simply ask one of them, “Does your road lead to freedom?” because if they reply, “Yes,” then it could be a truth-teller setting you free…

It’s best to solve this week’s puzzle (really, three mini-puzzles) without an introduction. I’ll explain why after you’ve given it a shot.Alex Borstein’s Embarrassing Moment from Catwoman | io9 InterviewDid you miss last week’s puzzle? Check it out here, and find its solution at the bottom of today’s article. Be careful not to read too far ahead if you’re still working on that puzzle!Puzzle #8: The Cognitive Reflection TestA bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball…

You know that I love puzzles. And I know that you know that I love puzzles. Does it follow that you know that I know that you know that I love puzzles? No? Philosophers examine questions like this in the study of common knowledge. To solve this week’s puzzle, you’ll need to peer inside others’ minds and deduce what those minds know about other minds. Does your mind hurt yet? You know I know it does.Lower Drought Conditions In California | Extreme EarthDid you miss last week’s puzzle? Check it out here, and find its…

Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky LetaGames are a bottomless reservoir of puzzle inspiration. This is because games and puzzles both tend to be founded on a concise set of logical rules. This week’s puzzle concerns one of the simplest strategy games ever devised: tic-tac-toe. Don’t feel too assured, though. You may be a tic-tac-toe expert, but have you ever tried to play it backwards?Did you miss last week’s puzzle? Check it out here, and find its solution at the bottom of today’s article. Be careful not to read…

Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky LetaWelcome to the first Gizmodo Monday Puzzle, a new series in which I will pose thought-provoking challenges at the beginning of every week to jumpstart your brain. I am a lifelong puzzle lover, sometime puzzle creator, and new Gizmodo puzzle writer. Many of the teasers posted here will be difficult—but they will be solvable by the persistent among you, without the need for specialized knowledge or higher-level math. Some will be classics from the puzzle world, and many will be…