Wanna Know

Wanna know how to crack an old Indian Puzzle?

2008-02-07T02:06:00.000-08:00

They say there was a legend telling that many centures ago two powerful Indian governors (radjas) had an argument caused by some nonsense. They were about to declare a war, but one wise man interfered by meeting them in person. When he had one-on-one meeting he said the same thing to each of them: "Your enemy has sent a puzzle to you and if you succeed then your enemy will surrender!" So two governors started looking for solution. The task was just getting a ring released from a sword, but it turned out to be challenging. On teh one hand a sword's quard preventing from doing that and on the other hand a tricky device consisting of a thick rope, two balls and two discs.

Now you can compete with those radjas. Making this puzzle is not hard.

You will need a think wooden, plastic or alluminum board to make a sword. There is no need to make it sharp!!! If it looks like a sword then it is fine. The sizes are dependent on your preferences. Along the blade you need to cut a long slot (hole). Based on a task a rope and discs should go through this hole easily, but not balls. A length of a rope is two times longer than the sword.

Rope needs to be divided into three equal parts. Put it through a hole and fix two balls and discs as shown in the picture. In order to fix balls and discs each piece should be made of plastic and cut into halves. Then you need to cut groves for a rope in each half. The balls should have open ended holes but dics not. finally you need to glue them after inserting a rope between those halves. When they are ready remove extra drops of glue from them using a knife. All you have to do is to offer this puzzle to your frineds to crack. Contemporary young people should be as smart as tthose Indian radjas who (based on that legend's outcome) managed to solve it and almost at the same time. But while they were searching for solution they completely forgot their offences and made a piece.

Have fun!

Wanna know if you can crack these tests?

2008-02-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

Now you can test yourself if you are good at cracking tests. Do not take it too serious, treat them as logical exercises. Here you go!

Have a close look at following figures drawn in one row and add another one that continues the logical sequence. First three examples have solutions provided.

1) The first row has 4 rectangles that increase in sizes. So it is obvious that the last rectange will be the tallest one.

2) The second row contains some figures that form a spiral. If you notice every figure has the same right-angled element added but with larger size. So the fifth element will be a spiral consisting of 5 right-angled elements.

3) The third row has different figures with shapes of their facets: a cube has a square next to it, etc. So it is obvious what you get.

As you can see it is not hard.

Now it is your turn to add your figures to the fourth and fifth rows. It should not be hard for you.

Have fun!

Wanna know what Pete Hein's puzzle is?

2008-02-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

This puzzle was made up by Danish mathematician and writer, Pete Hein. They say it helps to improve your memory skills and 3D imagination.

A tower-pyramid you see in the picture consists of 7 figures. In its trn each figure consits of several elements. So cracking this puzzle is quite challenging but making it is not that difficult.

You will just need 27 wooden or plastic little cubes of the same size and glue them to make these seven basic figures.

First try to make a cube because this is the siplest one. But it has 480 options to make this. Try to find your way and you will get carried away by this puzzle. And it is more fun to solve this puzzle together with friends. You may also have a contest based on who is the fastest to make any shape. In order to memorize the steps, assign each of seven elements with its number. When you make something, draw it and mark facets.

Have fun!

Wanna know how to make a bird feeder?

2008-02-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Bird's Diner

If you like birds that may suffer from cold and hunger, then you may want to make a feeder for them. You can treat them with crumbles, corn, etc., but it is more comfortable for them to eat inside "their own diner".

Use the following drawing to build this diner.

You will need a piece of metal roof tile, eight wooden bricks, six sticks and eight plastic containers from soft cheese, yogurt or sour cream. Use screws to build this "construction" but make sure you file their sharp ends for birds not to get hurt. Use four eared screws to fix it to a horizontal beam using strings or chains.

Have fun and enjoy bird-watching!

Wanna know what the Napoleon's puzzle is?

2008-02-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

They say that in addition to math, chess and strategy games Napoleon used to like giving puzzles to his subordinates. One of them was how to make geometrical figures using nine pieces. But it was not that easy as it seems.

They also say that one of them managed to make a square, another was able to make rectangle and a star. But no one succeeded in making triangle or other shapes. Do you think you can?

So if you want to crack this puzzle you need to make 7 triangles and two rectangles of either plywood or plastic 3-6 mm thick (see the picture).

Its sizes may be 94 х 40 or 141 х 60 mm. Make exact drawings as it is shown and cut these figures out. File the edges and mark every piece from one to nine. our puzzle is ready! As it was mentioned above it is not difficult to make a square or star. But before you start pay attantion to angles in those details: 18, 36, 90, 108, 126, 144. Have you noticed they can be divided by 18? Why? Maybe it is a key? Who knows?

Try it and do not get upset if you fail. At least you will have a toy you can always use at leisure time

Author: E. Andreeva

Wanna know how to make a telescope?

2008-02-04T04:35:00.000-08:00

Always wanted to have your own telescope to see stars and moon close?

You can make a simple but functioning telescope. You will need:

1) thick drawing paper;
2) black ink;
3) liquid glue;
4) two otical lenses (+1 to make things look all right).
5) Diaphragm

Here are details on how to make telescopes with 30, 50 and 100% magnification. They differ in sizes and lenses used. Let's start with the one with 50% magnification. Using a thick drawing paper make a pipe 60 — 65 cm long. If you are going to use a lense used for spectacles, then a diameter of pipe should be larger than lense (about 6cm). Unfold this paper and color inside of it with black ink. Otherwise light blicks will affect your vision. Once you are done with coloring, you can roll this pipe again and glue it. A lense (+1 dpt) (can be purchased in Optics store) needs to be fixed at the beginning of a pipe with two spaper straps with serrated rims as it is shown in the picture.

Second pipe for should be made so it fits the larger one and can be moved, but not freely. A second lense can be purchased or taken from old broken binocular. When selecting this lense, put it into a light beam from a remote source and check where rays get focused. A distance between a lense and focus point is focus distance of this lense (f). For our telescope we need f=3—4 cm. As a rule such lenses have relatively small diameter therefore the way you fix it is different. Fold a carton pipe 6 — 7 cm long with such diameter so it fits this pipe. If it has metalic ring so it does not need additional fixation. A pipe with lense 2 is fixed inside of larger one with two carton circles having holes in the middle and cogs. You join them together and here you go! The object you see will be shown upside down, but this is not very important when observing sky ojects. However it is not very convenient when you observe something on the ground. You can fix this by adding additional lense with f=3—4 cm. Insert it into a smaller pipe and your vision will be better. You may want to make lense caps to keep them clean.

Have fun and enjoy observing the stars!

Wanna know how to make a paper baseball cap

2008-02-04T01:51:00.001-08:00

Are you good at making Origami toys? Now you can make something more practical and use it as a part of your Halloween costume. This baseball cap was an idea of Roman Sviridov (from Moscow Origami Club). Now you can make it too!

Here are the steps you need to take (click on image to enlarge it):

1. Take a piece of thick paper with a size of 60 х 60 cm. Fold it along a digonal.

2. Use a pencil to draw another diagonal and mark several dots at a distance of 7 cm.

3. Make creases as shown in the picture.

4. Fold a front corner.

5. Fold it in two halves.

6. Then fold this again.

7. Turn it by 180* and mark dots at a distance equal to your head's width.

8. Follow the instructions and fold two corners. Use pencil to draw a dotted line and fold your paper along them.

9. Unfold creases.

10. Fold your cap in two halves and fold a front part as shown (step 8) downward.

11. Unfold it again and lift a corner.

12. Hide prominent corners inside.

Your basebal cap is ready! Have fun!

Wanna know how to ski to climb up the hill

2008-02-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

A simple device set on your ski will allow you to climb up a hill as if you ski but upward!

In order to do that you will have to make two devices and fix them on the end of each ski. They look like door hangers (see the picture).

Screw them tight to your ski. Second half of device is loose and when you move forward they do not prevent you from doing that. At the same time when your ski starts moving backward that part works as a brake and alows you to climb up with confidence. For this purpose you may have to make them (see option A) or use some used for furniture (option B) by enlarging a second half with a plate made of steel (2mm thick).

Enjoy your skiing!

Wanna know how to make a "hat for your ski"

2008-02-04T01:18:00.000-08:00

If you have some problems when transporting your ski, your may find an invention of Slava Voronin (Moscow city) very handy.

You will need a piece of durable fabric (canvas) to make a small case for your ski. The sizes of this fabric should be 8-10 cm wide and 20-22 cm long. Fold it along on both sides and use a sawing machine to make it look right as detailed in teh picture.

When ready turn it inside out and iron it. Now you are ready to use it.

Enjoy skiing!

Wanna know how to cut banana without knife

2008-02-04T00:55:00.000-08:00

Do you want to play a trick with your friends? Here is one of those tricks.

You treat your friend to a banana, which looks all right and tell this person that he or she does not have to cut or bite off its pieces because "this banana has already been cut for you!". Your friend starts peeling banana and gets very surprised. Banana is split into even pieces!

In order to do that you have to be prepared before. Use a needle with silk thread and "saw" it around so stitches are not visible. See a picture below.

When you are finished make sure a needle comes out of the same entry point where you started. Once you pull two ends of the tread your banana is cut, but its skin will remain spotless. Repeat this several times at same (even) intervals.

To make it more fun you will have to prepare several "magic bananas and leave only one untouched for some unlucky guy. Have fun!

Wanna make some lace puzzles

2008-02-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

In this picture you can see seven puzzles with laces. They are very simple yet subtle. One needs to release some objects hung on those laces. You may copy this picture and enlarge it in order to make these puzzles. Then you may transfer enlarged images on carton, plastic or plywood to cut them out and adjust the legth of laces accordingly. Once ready you may give them to your friends crack these puzzles. In order to be able to crack them you need to take the following steps:
1) Puzzle 1: in order to release a lace one needs to pull a bundle through an "eye" of fish and then pull a loop through a hole in tail. Now you can push a button through this loop and pull the latter back (through tail and eye). That is all. It is very important to keep a loop loose otherwiase it will become messy.

2) Puzzle 2: As it is done in Puzzle 1 one needs to pull a loop through a hole A. Then you need to push a buttin through it and pull a loop back

3) Puzzle 3: in order to get a button released from clock face, one needs to pull a loop through a hole 10 followed by lace and then repeat it by pulling it through 9, 8, 7, 6 etc to relase the button. (When cracking this puzzle pay attention to a loop not to twist. If this happens you may fail).

4) Puzzle 4: Pull a loop through a hole A, then B. Push a button through loop and pull the latter back. So a lace will be released. As before watch a loop.

5) Puzzle 5: The task is to unchain two carriages. You may instanly guess that loop needs to go through a window and then you pull thorugh that loop a second carriage
.
6) Puzzle 6: The task is to unchain an anchor. One needs to pull a loop and then above a lace pull it back through hole B. Then an anchor's eye goes through hole B and gets released.

7) Puzzle 7: You needs to get a ring relesed. As in prevous puzzles a loop goes through a hole A . Then put this loop over A1 and pull it through a bundle A. Then pull it back. Do the same for a hole and bundle B to get the ring released. This one is the most difficult puzzle. So you will need some practice before you demonstrate it to others.

Good Luck!

Source: V. T. Vecherinsky, School games and activities for teachers. "Prosveshenie" , 1972

Wanna know top search engines in former CIS countries?

2008-01-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

Do you want to know what the most popular search engines in CIS (former USSR) countries? This information might be interesting to those who are planning to start some business in one of those countries.

Here is the top 5:

Do you find it useful?