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2005 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship
Fortran IV writes "Registration is open for the 2005 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship, Saturday, June 18. Two winners will join Team USA at the 2005 World Puzzle Championship in Eger, Hungary (tourist info here if you read Hungarian). If you're the type who plays 12 simultaneous chess games in your head while debugging code and memorizing logarithm tables, you might have a chance of teaming up with last year's champ Roger Barkan (previous Slashdot coverage). If you just like puzzles, register here for the most intense (and fastest) 2-1/2 hours of the year. For a faint shadow of the real thing, take the practice test, which Barkan can probably complete in about 8 minutes; for a true challenge, the complete 2004 test is still available."
What the hell is a transhuman, and why don't I have one??
If I understand Dirac correctly, his meaning is this: there is no God, and Dirac is his Prophet. -Pauli
I can't even figure out how to start the test. It reminds me of the joke where you paint on an index card on both sides,"How do you confuse a moron? Flip card."
Password:
The test is a PDF/Acrobat 5 file. You must have at least the Adobe Acrobat 4 reader (v5.1 not recommended). Download the latest Acrobat Reader here.
2. Read Preview Instructions Run Acrobat and decrypt the Preview Instructions file using the password shown above. You should print and read the Preview Instructions well in advance
God spoke to me.
and the answer was 42
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
They should invite Kim Peek. You know, the guy who inspired the movie "Rain Man."
http://users.lk.net/~stepanov/mnemo/kimpeeke.html
Or are idiot savants barred from such competitions?
http://augustwestproducts.i8.com
To download the files to disk:
On PC's - Right click on the link and save file to disk
I stopped here. How about you guys?
Sorry - you fail already.
Did you not read the bit where it said "Password (see notes below)"?
And below there was a link to follow to get the password. Clever password it was too - very apt for a challenging puzzle; a nice reference to those who came before them.
... I am an MBA student (honor student, at that) and I could not get close to any of these questions. I mean, it wasn't even approximately in my reach. F*ck.
No, just kidding. I got stuck on the practice puzzle when it asked for a password. I have my cluster working on that though.
...but way too slowly. I have no idea how the champions can churn through 25 of these in two and a half hours--that's one every six minutes. Yikes!
(Just to demonstrate that I have finished--the diagonal sums to 12 for the first one, and to 18 in the second, no hints on the third, the first three blocks sum to the size of the fourth block for number 4, and the diagonal on the last ends with "YES". You can probably get all these answers by pretending to have finished and looking at the answer key, but I haven't bothered trying that again, so I'm not really sure.)
I get the feeling that the "find the image that..." puzzles would be a lot easier if you printed out the document and cut them up. I wonder if that's within the rules?
Maybe this means they are not trying to find people who can come up with algorithmic solutions.
Or maybe they are but they don't want fast coding ability to be a factor.
Is Betteridge's Law of Headlines Correct?
Educators and psychologists often categorize people by the method of learning/analyzing that is most effective for each person. [visual, kinesthetic, and aural are the three common options] And unlike the vast majority of people, visual cues are not my primary method. In fact, visual reasoning is dead last for me. A few examples: word searches are incredibly challenging for me, if I drop anything in tall grass I have a difficult time finding it, I'm terrible at visually estimating volume, etc.
However, in most regards I would be considered to have above-average intelligence. Fantastic memory, strong lateral thinking, keen reasoning, etc. So I am continually aware that puzzles, IQ tests, and brain teasers always have a strong visual bias. Perhaps it is just a matter of convenience that visual puzzles are easier to represent on paper. But I wish that puzzles like this could incorporate more aural, kinesthetic, or narrative reasoning skills.
for the question that asks you to find the matching mirror image, tear out the original, flip it over, hold the page up to the light, and find the one that doesn't match. . .
Google didn't start this competition, they just started sponsoring it a few years ago.
There is a checkmark on the registration page that you check if you would like to receive notices of employment opportunities.
Since they give the directions to the puzzle in advance, most or all of them could also be coded in advance.
Oh yes? For the 2004 test, what kind of process would you create from the directions, "How many circles are either shown or implied by the diagram?"
Or take number 19, "Corral". From the directions and the example, how would you anticipate that the actual problem used a hex grid instead of a square grid, requiring a very different approach?
And even for the ones where the instructions are fairly clear, just how many of them could you really code (and debug!) in 24 hours? Number 22 for instance, where your program has to allow for competition-time entry of several different factors (the puzzle background, the totals, the circles for horizontal and vertical pairings).
For now, the human brain is still the most versatile (and most rapidly reprogrammable) problem-solving computer.
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.