Math Puzzle Wiki - User contributions [en]

User talk:Oscarlevin

2010-10-12T02:09:14Z

Test1:

== Solutions over multiple lines ==

I visited the site following the link in your comments on Richard Wiseman's most recent Friday Puzzle solution, and thought I'd see if I could contribute.

However, I can't contribute a solution because the wiki won't accept a solution that takes more than one line. For example, this doesn't work:

<pre>{{Solution |
solution
over
multiple
lines
}}</pre>

Pretty much all solutions will require multiple lines, so this is a real problem. I assume a "solution" means an answer with working, whereas an "answer" is just the answer by itself.

Below is my solution to the "7_orbs" puzzle, which I tried to contribute:

<small>
:Let A = set of orbs for which there are 3 or more others the same colour.
:Let B = set of orbs for which there are 1 or 2 others the same colour.
:Let X = set of orbs for which there are no others the same colour.

:Goal is to prove that some orb is in A.

:Possible combinations:
:(using the shorthand that A denotes an orb that's in A, etc)

:A A A A A A A
:A A A A A A X
:A A A A A B B
:A A A A A X X
:A A A A B B B
:A A A A B B X
:A A A A X X X

:Label the orbs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and test 1&2, 3&4, 5&6.

:Comparing the results of testing those three pairs with the possible combinations, you can easily show that:

:If two tested pairs glow the same colour, all members of those pairs are in A
:If only one of the three tested pairs glows, members of that pair are in A
:If two tested pairs glow different colours and the other doesn't glow, orb 7 is in A
:If no tested pairs glow, orb 7 is in A.

:In all cases, three tests suffice to prove that some orb is in A.

:The only other thing required is to prove that two tests are not necessarily sufficient, which is trivial.
</small>

Is that the sort of thing you're looking for? [[User:Zerrakhi|Zerrakhi]] 12:16, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

: Yes that is the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'll see if I can fix the multiple lines problem. [[User:Oscarlevin|Oscarlevin]] 15:06, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

: So I can't seem to replicate your problem. Is it just that the lines are not breaking? Like this:
{{Solution |
solution
over
multiple
lines
}}
: Because that can be fixed will a line break between them, as in:

{{Solution |
solution

over

multiple

lines
}}
: Or is there some other problem? [[User:Oscarlevin|Oscarlevin]] 15:25, 11 October 2010 (EDT)
::The problem wasn't with your multiple lines, it was with the = sign. Templates allow you to have named parameters, which you assign with =. I don't know if there is a workaround for this. [[User:Oscarlevin|Oscarlevin]] 15:41, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

::: Ah. Never thought of that. I just tested in preview mode, and found that nowiki tags around the = sign seemed to work. I've written something up on the [[Help:Editing | Editing Help]] page. [[User:Zerrakhi|Zerrakhi]] 19:27, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

== No link in email ==

The email received upon registration, the one containing the words "open this link in your browser", does not actually contain any links or URLs to open! [[User:Zerrakhi|Zerrakhi]] 12:27, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

: Did the email you get contain a bunch of <nowiki><math></math></nowiki> tags? I'm using an extension that switches dollar signs to math mode (ala LaTeX), and it has screwed up a lot of the system messages. I'll see if I can fix this too. [[User:Oscarlevin|Oscarlevin]] 15:06, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

:: Yes, that's right. [[User:Zerrakhi|Zerrakhi]] 19:27, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

::: This should be fixed now. Just testing a few things out. [[User:Test1|Test1]] 22:03, 11 October 2010 (EDT)

User talk:Oscarlevin

2010-10-12T02:03:15Z

Test1: