| Author | Message | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 405 Registered: 2-2009 |
It would have been shorter than I thought. It would have been longer than I thought. | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 7655 Registered: 4-2010 |
Shorter: in length? In time? Longer: in length? In time? It 1 = it 2? Are both "it"s tangible objects? Objects, period? | ||
| Woodworm (Woodworm)
New member Username: Woodworm Post Number: 2291 Registered: 3-2006 |
The waiting time between Kalira puzzles? (Which are like buses ... you wait for several months and then three come along at once) Is there a Dickens allusion going on here? Anything to do with time zones? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 406 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Shorter: in length? hmm... yope In time? yes Longer: in length? ditto the yope from above In time? yes It 1 = it 2? yesish Are both "it"s tangible objects? no Objects, period? no Woodworm The waiting time between Kalira puzzles? (Which are like buses ... you wait for several months and then three come along at once) no :-) unfortunately, I don't have the stamina to keep puzzles going all the time, plus I tend to overthink my puzzles a wee bit Is there a Dickens allusion going on here? no, just a happy coincidence of writing Anything to do with time zones? nyet | ||
| Woodworm (Woodworm)
New member Username: Woodworm Post Number: 2315 Registered: 3-2006 |
Haircuts? | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 7708 Registered: 4-2010 |
Are it 1 and it 2 the same type of object? But different specific ones? Like two movies? Or two people? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 411 Registered: 2-2009 |
Woodworm Haircuts no Balin Are it 1 and it 2 the same type of object? FA But different specific ones? Like two movies? Or two people? no to rest | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 7717 Registered: 4-2010 |
Are it 1 and it 2 objects, period? Or are they actions? Or thoughts? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 416 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Are it 1 and it 2 objects, period? no Or are they actions? yes Or thoughts? no | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 7734 Registered: 4-2010 |
Are they the same action? Same type of action? Are they performed by one person? More than one? One at a time? Is it possible for anyone to do them? Can they be done by animals? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 418 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Are they the same action? the exact same action? not quite, but very close Same type of action? yep Are they performed by one person? a single person does it, but it is done by many more than one on a daily basis More than one? One at a time? Is it possible for anyone to do them? yesish Can they be done by animals? it is physically possible, but only allowable for certain ones | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 7741 Registered: 4-2010 |
Can only trained animals do this? Do the actions require a prop? The same prop? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 427 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Can only trained animals do this? only trained ones are allowed to -- I'll just tell you only service animals are allowed. This is probably not a helpful line of questioning other than finding that out :-) Do the actions require a prop? not a prop per se, but a certain object/element of the scene had to be there in order for this to be possible The same prop? almost exactly the same prop, with one inherent difference HINT (in white): Find out where this could have happened... | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8064 Registered: 4-2010 |
Service animals...as in guide dogs? Police dogs? Is following a scent relevant? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 430 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Service animals...as in guide dogs? Police dogs? I suppose either, yes Is following a scent relevant? no... to clarify my earlier answer, animals are not actually important to this scenario. I only meant it was helpful to know that only service animals were allowed because it might help narrow down possible locations for what happened | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8131 Registered: 4-2010 |
Did this only happen once? Can it happen again? Has it happened several times in the past? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 434 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Did this only happen once? Can it happen again? Has it happened several times in the past? I'm hoping the below will answer these BLOOPER ALERT I realized that I'm answering these questions a bit confusingly, and now I'm starting to confuse myself as well. My apologies. There are two actions, almost identical to each other, that are taken by several thousand people every day (and yes, possibly some service animals). Each involves a "prop" that is slightly different from the "prop" for the other (this is, in fact, the crux of the difference between the two actions). Aside from this, there was a certain occasion (actually, two -- once while I was performing one action, once while I was performing the other) where something happened and the actions were very nearly longer and shorter than they are on a normal basis. You need to find out: 1. what the nearly identical actions are 2. the intervening action that happened to me on two occasions 3. why the actions in (1.) would have been longer/shorter That being said, hopefully I won't confuse myself anymore... | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8271 Registered: 4-2010 |
Does one move while performing Action 1? Can one perform Action 1 while standing up? Sitting down? Same questions for Action 2? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 436 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin I'm assuming Action 1 and Action 2 are referring to the two "nearly identical actions." Does one move while performing Action 1? yope Can one perform Action 1 while standing up? yes Sitting down? no Same questions for Action 2? same answers | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8282 Registered: 4-2010 |
Does performing either of the two actions involve a certain skill? Juggling? Spinning plates on poles? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 439 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Does performing either of the two actions involve a certain skill? Juggling? Spinning plates on poles? no to all -- I'd be willing to bet everyone on this forum has done the nearly identical actions a number of times in their life | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8288 Registered: 4-2010 |
Does it involve locking something? Unlocking something? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 442 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Does it involve locking something? Unlocking something? no to both | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8291 Registered: 4-2010 |
Cooking relevant? Food? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 445 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Cooking relevant? Food? no -- you will not be at home when you do it... remember, only service animals are allowed to do the nearly identical actions (and I'm sick of writing that out, so if I need to from here on in, they shall be known as the NIA) | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8303 Registered: 4-2010 |
Will you be at a relevant location when you do it? Indoors? Outdoors? In a car? A public building? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 454 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Will you be at a relevant location when you do it? yes Indoors? most likely this Outdoors? In a car? no A public building? yes | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8328 Registered: 4-2010 |
In a store of some kind? A place of business? A library? A concert hall? A government building? A church? Driver's license relevant? Other types of license? Marriage license? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 462 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin In a store of some kind? most likely here A place of business? A library? A concert hall? A government building? A church? Driver's license relevant? Other types of license? Marriage license? no to these | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8403 Registered: 4-2010 |
Are you buying something? Selling something? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 466 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Are you buying something? Selling something? neither... the NIA are not the main action for the location they are at (e.g. shopping at a store, reading/looking for books at a library, taking a plane at an airport, etc.) but something you might have to do incidentally, depending on the construction of the place | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8667 Registered: 4-2010 |
Going to a certain location in the store? Hunting for a certain product? Sales relevant? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 468 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Going to a certain location in the store? yope Hunting for a certain product? no Sales relevant? no | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8676 Registered: 4-2010 |
A certain aisle? Corner of the store? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 471 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin A certain aisle? Corner of the store? no to both | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8681 Registered: 4-2010 |
Cash registers relevant? Self-checkouts? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 473 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Cash registers relevant? Self-checkouts? no... you were closer with the last set of questions | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 8987 Registered: 4-2010 |
Going to a certain department in the store? Paging someone over the intercom relevant? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 479 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Going to a certain department in the store? yope. This is definitely the direction to head, but remember it doesn't HAVE to be in a store, and the construction of the location is relevant... Paging someone over the intercom relevant? no | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9130 Registered: 4-2010 |
Going upstairs? Downstairs? To an especially cold part of the store? Especially warm? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 483 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Going upstairs? yes Downstairs? and yes To an especially cold part of the store? Especially warm? no to these two | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9139 Registered: 4-2010 |
Up/down a flight of stairs? An elevator? An escalator? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 484 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Up/down a flight of stairs? An elevator? An escalator? Eureka! Up and down escalators are the "props" involved in the NIA, which are now officially known as going up and going down an escalator. Major breakthrough props tonight! | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9200 Registered: 4-2010 |
"Shorter": going up? Down? "Longer": going up? Down? Walking in the same direction as the escalator relevant? In the opposite direction? If so, is one of these "shorter"? "Longer"? If so, which? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 486 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin "Shorter": going up? Down? this one "Longer": going up? this one Down? Walking in the same direction as the escalator relevant? yesish In the opposite direction? no If so, is one of these "shorter"? "Longer"? If so, which? | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9212 Registered: 4-2010 |
Does walking down a moving down escalator take shorter than would be expected because of gravity? Ditto with "up" and "longer"? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 488 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Does walking down a moving down escalator take shorter than would be expected because of gravity? Ditto with "up" and "longer"? I don't actually know if that's true, but that is, unfortunately for me, not relevant to the crux of the puzzle... although gravity IS heavily involved in why the puzzle statements say "would have been" (i.e., that number 3 above that you have to figure out) | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9218 Registered: 4-2010 |
Is the speed of walking relevant to either up or down? The length of the escalator? The speed of the escalator? Since this is a puzzle about escalators, I feel kind of obligated to quote Mitch Hedberg here: "An escalator can never break - it can only become stairs. You would never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there.'" | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 491 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Is the speed of walking relevant to either up or down? The length of the escalator? The speed of the escalator? the answers to these are all "no" or "not particularly" Thumbs up for the Hedberg reference, but unfortunately for him, the "broken" escalators I've seen actually have all been roped off with "out of order" signs... Now I feel the need to make a puzzle about club sandwiches :-) "How do you feel about frilly toothpicks?" | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9234 Registered: 4-2010 |
Number of "passengers" on the escalator relevant? For the "up"? The "down"? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 492 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Number of "passengers" on the escalator relevant? For the "up"? The "down"? no to all... the only relevant passenger was me | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9235 Registered: 4-2010 |
Did you ride the same escalator up and down? Did the escalator switch directions? (I've never heard of that happening, but with the LTPF, you never know....) Or were they two adjacent escalators? Were the escalators far apart? On opposite ends of the store? Was this in a shopping mall? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 494 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Did you ride the same escalator up and down? no Did the escalator switch directions? no(I've never heard of that happening, but with the LTPF, you never know....) Or were they two adjacent escalators? yes Were the escalators far apart? LAEFTR On opposite ends of the store? Was this in a shopping mall? actually, it was at a metro station in Washington, DC, but that's not particularly relevant. | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9236 Registered: 4-2010 |
Did you expect the trips to be the same length? Did you ride the escalators one after the other? One immediately after the other? After several minutes? Hours? Did you ride the up escalator first? The down escalator? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 495 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Did you expect the trips to be the same length? yes... there may be an FA brewing here Did you ride the escalators one after the other? One immediately after the other? After several minutes? Hours? the two incidents happened several days apart, though I did ride both escalators several days in a row, at the beginning and end of the day Did you ride the up escalator first? The down escalator? this, but largely irrelevant Also, somewhat of a BLOOPER. The only relevant passenger is me, but it really would have been possible for the rides to be longer/shorter in the way I imagined only if there had been few to no other passengers. | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9273 Registered: 4-2010 |
Was it only one trip that was shorter? Longer? Were all of them shorter? Longer? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 496 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Was it only one trip that was shorter? Longer? Were all of them shorter? Longer? let me quote my earlier ;-) "... there was a certain occasion (actually, two -- once while I was performing one action, once while I was performing the other) where something happened and the actions were very nearly longer and shorter than they are on a normal basis." Soooo, technically, none of the above, but it WAS only one trip in each direction that was nearly shorter/longer :-) | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9278 Registered: 4-2010 |
Were they nearly a lot longer? A lot shorter? The walk to the escalator relevant? From the escalator? Was the escalator the only way up/down? Was it the most convenient? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 503 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Were they nearly a lot longer? A lot shorter? difficult to say -- exact times are not important, as the "would have beens" were really in my head, so probably somewhat exaggerated with cartoon physics The walk to the escalator relevant? From the escalator? no to both Was the escalator the only way up/down? no, but irrelevant Was it the most convenient? yes, but irrelevant | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9327 Registered: 4-2010 |
OK, given that the puzzle title describes my brain state at the moment... =) Could you please recap? | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 505 Registered: 2-2009 |
I kind of figured you were going to call for one of these soon :-) You are not, however, terribly far from the solution... RECAP: Each sentence in the puzzle statement refers to a trip on one of a pair of escalators. I rode up and down the escalators several times, but only two rides are important. On one occasion, an intervening action occurred during the ride down, which caused me to imagine that the ride was very close to having been shortened by a decent amount of time. On another occasion, the same intervening action occurred during my trip up the escalator, which caused me to imagine that it could have taken a good amount of time longer to reach the top. Though there were others on the escalators, the only person involved in the action was me, and walking on the escalators is yesishly relevant. What you still have to figure out: 1) the intervening action 2) what I imagined happening that would make the trips shorter and longer, respectively | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9329 Registered: 4-2010 |
Intervening action - would that action have directly involved the escalator? You? Other passengers? Would the escalator have stopped working? | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9330 Registered: 4-2010 |
Ooh, random thought - did you almost fall down? And the escalator, on the down trip, would have assisted gravity, but upwards, would have made it longer? More comedians... "One time I was riding the escalator and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for an hour and a half." -Demetri Martin | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 506 Registered: 2-2009 |
Balin Intervening action - would that action have directly involved the escalator? You? Other passengers? Would the escalator have stopped working? we're just going to skip all these... Ooh, random thought - did you almost fall down? And the escalator, on the down trip, would have assisted gravity, but upwards, would have made it longer? You got it, Toyota! More comedians... "One time I was riding the escalator and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for an hour and a half." -Demetri Martin I told you you weren't far from the ********SPOILER******** The Demetri Martin quote above is quite apt, actually. I was on a business trip in Washington, DC for training, and to get where I needed to be each day, I had to take the metro. The closest station to my hotel was the Rosslyn station, which is home to a ridiculously long set of escalators. These get you from street level to the upper platform level, which is a vertical drop of almost 100 feet. In fact, it takes a full 2 2/3 minutes to travel in either direction. On my first day, while travelling down the escalator, I tripped a bit on the hem of my pants (I am not the most graceful person in the world, but I do have an excuse here -- they were boot cut pants, and my shoes were a bit low to the ground -- not that that matters in the long run ;-) ). I nearly fell, but regained my balance, thinking that, had I fallen, I would have gotten to the bottom much more quickly than it should have taken. On the last day of my trip, I managed to do the exact same thing (while wearing the same pant/shoe combo ::rolls eyes:: ), and it struck me that had I fallen, gravity would have made the trip up take a lot longer as I fell down a staircase that was constantly moving up. Many ridiculously large congrats to the ever-persistent Balin, who will one day, I believe, be the person who tests the upper limit on the "post number" number. | ||
| Balin (Balin)
New member Username: Balin Post Number: 9339 Registered: 4-2010 |
Oh my - wow. I have never seen escalators that long before. Long ones, yes - the ones at the old Giants Stadium - but not that long. Another awesome puzzle, and thanks for the complimentary laugh! | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 509 Registered: 2-2009 |
Yes, if ever there were a set of stairs you could actually fall down for an hour and a half, I believe those would be the ones. It's actually a bit freakier looking from the top down... This guy took one part of the way down Kind of a better perspective on just how long it is -- looks like the people are about as big as the number 2 that marks the escalators | ||
| Noel (Noel)
New member Username: Noel Post Number: 2099 Registered: 7-2009 |
What's scary is that Rosslyn's isn't even the longest escalator in the DC Metro system: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/06/03/CU2005060301365.html I grew up a few hours from DC, and for a child, the out-of-this-world ridiculously long escalators were always one of the highlights of a trip there. | ||
| Kalira (Kalira)
New member Username: Kalira Post Number: 511 Registered: 2-2009 |
Ahh, thanks for the graphic, Noel! I love how ridiculously low on that the average is, compared to the crazy-long ones. Interesting, though, that they have different numbers for length than other sources... Can't quickly find WMATA's official number for Rosslyn, but another WP article called Wheaton in at only 230 ft long (still the longest, though). Wonder how each of them measured... Now I'm confused (just realized I somehow managed to bring the title back in -- full circle, baby!) | ||
| Noel (Noel)
New member Username: Noel Post Number: 2103 Registered: 7-2009 |
Maybe the longer one measures length and the shorter one measures height? | ||
| Noel (Noel)
New member Username: Noel Post Number: 2104 Registered: 7-2009 |
Actually, no, that's wrong, because the Wikipedia article for Wheaton gives the length you have and a vertical rise of 115 feet. So I have no idea where the washington post graphic got its measurements from. Also confusing, the wikipedia article for Rosslyn says it's the 3rd longest in the world, but how is that possible if it's the 5th longest in the metro system? There must be some finer points about escalator measurements that we just don't understand ! =) |
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