New Neopian Times

GAMES ROOM - Many people, wanting to become rich, win another trophy, or prove their greatness, will stumble into the game of Lenny Conundrum. Most of those people, take one look, and say something along the lines of, "What the heck? No way am I going to be able to solve that!" However, for the few people who do stay to try their hand the puzzle, there is a discovery to be made. Not all of these puzzles are next to impossible! In fact, some can even be classified as easy. Yes, there may be the occasional stumper that even the most brilliant people can't solve, but most of the time, you just need to use your common sense. Take this puzzle, for example.

0100001001101111011000100110001001111001001000000111010001101 0000110010100100000010000110110100001101001011000010010000001 1010000110000101110011001000000110111101101110011001010010000 0011000010111000001110000011011000110010100101110001000000010 0000010100110111010101101011011010010010000001110100011010000 1100101001000000101010101110011011101010110110000100000011001 1101101001011101100110010101110011001000000100001001101111011 0001001100010011110010010000001110100011101110110111100100000 0110000101110000011100000110110001100101011100110010111000100 0000010000001001000011011110111011100100000011011010110000101 1011100111100100100000011000010111000001110000011011000110010 1011100110010000001100100011011110110010101110011001000000100 0010011011110110001001100010011110010010000001101000011000010 1110110011001010010000001101001011011100010000001110100011011 110111010001100001011011000011111100000000

You're probably thinking that I'm insane, to say that this problem is easy. In my opinion, however, this was the among the quickest problems I've ever solved. Yes, at first I was a bit confused. "Binary code!" was the first thought that popped into my head. I set to work trying to compute it, when I realized that the Neopets staff could never expect someone to solve a piece of binary code with 896 digits. Binary code is similar to the base ten system, except that each place is two times the previous one. Therefore, this number, to be decoded into our familiar number system would require a very cleverly written program.

I realized that solving it this way, was next to impossible, and that it just could not be binary. But it looked so much like it! In a last desperate attempt, I did a Google search on the internet, and after a bit of skimming down the list, discovered a choice titled "binary." I clicked on it, and found myself with a program that takes ASCII code, and transfers it to text. I decided that, though I was a bit skeptical, I would give it a try. Lo and behold! It worked! This extremely long number was translated into the following:

Bobby the Chia has one apple. Suki the Usul gives Bobby two apples. How many apples does Bobby have in total?

Simple, don't you think? The answer is obviously three. Now, you could either give the answer as simply the number three, or you could get fancy and try 011, the binary translation of three. It would all depend on what the staff in charge of the conundrum was looking for. My friend and I, intrigued by the puzzle, agreed to try the two different answers, to see which one was the right one.

But don't make the mistake of believing the conundrum is only for people who their way around the computer. Take a look at this problem as well. It requires nothing. In fact the answer to this puzzle can be found on the Neopets site itself!

Thyassa the Chia owned a boat, a big orange boat, and she loved to give people rides in it. Thyassa was sailing down towards Kiko Lake one day, when she stopped to pick up three Neopets. She sailed a bit further down the river, and four more Neopets got on. Suddenly one of the Neopets she had picked up, a Nimmo, jumped overboard looking for food. At the next stop, half of the Neopets got off, and then another six Neopets (mostly Chombies) got on. Three of the Chombies were red. At this point, a Pteri, who loved sailing, flew down onto the top of the boat. Suddenly, the Pteri and one of the Chombies got into an argument, and the Pteri flew off. The Chomby then decided to leave at the next stop, taking his friend with him. At that stop, eight more Neopets boarded the boat. At the next stop, half of the Neopets on board got off the boat, and one-and-a-half times as many Neopets that left on that stop got on board. A few minutes later, one of the Neopets on board, a Grarrl, felt very seasick and had to leave. I hope you have kept a count of how many Neopets are on the boat so far! Anyway, at the next stop a third of all the Neopets on board (rounding down) got off the boat, and seven more got on. Three Korbats then flew down from an overhanging branch and landed on the boat, scaring off one of the Chombies who jumped overboard. At the next stop, eighteen more Neopets got on the boat, which was a bit worrying as there was only really room for twenty! Fearing that it was going to sink, three Neopets got off at the next stop. Fifteen minutes later, when they were only about a mile away from Kiko Lake, six Neopets got off the boat as they wanted to go shopping, and three Draiks climbed aboard. Eventually they all arrived at Kiko Lake, and all the Neopets aboard left the boat. I wonder how many Neopets there actually were at this point... The Question Is : What colour was the driver's hair?

To solve this problem (and I admit, I had quite a difficult time with it), you have to use your common sense.

From the first two paragraphs, you can tell that there are eight neopets on board. In the next paragraph, you find that four pets get off, but that seven get on. This means, that there are now eleven neopets on the boat.

Next, we find that three neopets leave, while eight come on board. We now have sixteen neopets on board. Then, eight got off, but twelve more got on. There are now twenty neopets aboard the ship. However, one disembarks, leaving only nineteen. At the next stop, six neopets get off the boat, and seven more get on. Once again, there are twenty neopets. You are probably very confused by now, and wish for nothing more than to stop doing this horrible work. Well, by all means, go ahead. But that won't stop you from solving this puzzle. Indeed, this is the simplest puzzle of all. The question is simply, "What is the drivers hair?" Well, the driver is Thyassa the Chia, since she is the owner of the boat. As for the answer to the question, it's obvious isn't it? Thyassa the Chia is the driver, and she has purple hair!!!

In case you haven't fully grasped the meaning of this article, I am going to lay it out point blank. Lenny Conundrum isn't designed to be impossible, a game only for those few brilliant (and evil) scientists. If you use your common sense (you do have common sense, don't you?), and perhaps a bit of logical thinking, they really aren't that hard. So, the next time your reading the New Features, don't just skim over the part about Lenny Conundrum, click on the link instead, and try solving the problem. But before you move on to another section in the newspaper, why not try this for yourself!