Holiday Contest

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I had assembled a few puzzles for your holiday enjoyment when I thought, “Let’s make this interesting.” So, here it comes…

The Asymptomatic Holiday Contest 2004

I’m giving away prizes for correct solutions to my puzzles!

Contest Rules

Each puzzle is worth one $20 Amazon gift certificate.

In the event that no correct answer is submitted, no prize will be awarded, except in those puzzles specifically marked as “the closest answer will be accepted”.

If more than one correct answer is submitted by different entrants, one prize winner will be selected at random from the correct answers to maximize prize distribution.

You may not win more than one prize, but don’t let that stop you from attempting answers to every puzzle, since a winner will be selected from multiple correct entries.

You may answer a puzzle multiple times, but only the last answer you submit for each puzzle will count. Submitting a correct answer and then later changing it to an incorrect one will cause you to lose the contest.

If more than one correct answer exists for a puzzle (due to the nature of the wording, for example), only the answer that I have previously devised for the puzzle will be accepted.

Family members are welcome to guess but won’t get squat, correct answers or not.

Do not post answers in the comments of this post, only questions about the puzzles as may be required for clarification.

Submit your answers and the email account for your gift certificate to: contest {at} asymptomatic {dot} net.

On with the show…

Puzzle One

  • 5.972 × 1024
  • 2.71828183
  • 16.628944
  • 88.90585
  • 20.1168
  • 8.314472
  • 1
  • 32.065
  • 2204.62262
  • m
  • 74.92160

Get the message

Puzzle Two

Carolers can to the house the other day - a rare sight in these times. Mostly it was kids from the neighborhood (Gail, Will, Cindy, and Dana). This year I took it upon myself to give them all scarves, and I guess the parents (in that weird parenting mindset) wanted to show me that the scarves were being worn. At least that once.

Anyhow, it was pretty cold, so the kids were all bundled up (and making good use of my scarves). They were so bundled up, in fact, that it was difficult to tell who was who underneath all of the scarf and hat and puffy winter jacket.

With the help of some logic, I finally deduced who was who. See if you can figure out which kid was what from these clues…

Gail’s scarf was a lighter color than Will’s.

I dare not give Will a green scarf or his dad might infer that I was promoting the Eagles, did not have the black or green scarf.

Puzzle Three

One of the gifts I’ve received early for Christmas is a box of assorted chocolates. Inside the box there are small chocolate bars with different fillings. You can tell which chocolates have which fillings by the color of the foil they are stamped in. Green foil trees contain caramel, red foil wreath/bows contain peanutbutter, and white foil snowflakes contain marshmallow. Each candy bar is one inch wide and two inches long.

The producer of this assortment has taken great care in its chocolate packaging. All of the trees are oriented the same way vertically, and all of the wreaths and snowflakes are oriented the same way horizontally. Even though wreaths and snowflakes are always packed horizontally, you’ll never find a wreath above a wreath or a snowflake above a snowflake. Still, they seem to have paid more attention to orienting the bars in the box than the actual ratio of one type of filling to another.

The box containing the bars is two inches long and ten inches wide, which is enough to hold ten bars flat, and is deep enough for two layers. In total, the box holds 20 bars of any assortment that will fit in the configuration described above.

Question:Assuming the orientation I’ve described applies to every box of chocolates (no wreath or snowflake bars will be oriented vertically and no trees will be oriented horizontally), how many ways are there to pack the box?

Some box content examples, valid and not valid:

Valid - This is an example of a properly packed box.
Valid - This is an example of a properly packed box. Note that you can put wreaths next to wreaths horizontally, as in this example.
Valid - This is an example of a properly packed box. Note that you can put snowflakes next to snowflakes horizontally, as in this example.
Not Valid - You can't put two wreaths next to each other vertically.
Not Valid - You can't put two snowflakes next to each other vertically.
Not Valid - You can't leave spaces anywhere in the box.