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From: kjfair@midway.uchicago.edu (Kenneth Fair)
Subject: Re: What makes a good puzzle?
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Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 04:02:39 GMT
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In article <4nlep7$kej@news.lth.se>, mol@marvin.df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) wrote:

>In article <4nj98i$qht@paraguay.it.earthlink.net>,
>Cardinal Teulbachs <cardinalt@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Puzzles involving bells, books, and candles
>>are better than puzzles involving hadrons and muons if, for instance,
>>the player must know a particular decay mode of the K-particle in
>>order to figure the thing out or get the joke (funny stuff, that).
>>
>>Related to this: know the difference between "hard" and "obscure." The
>>K-particle puzzle is not hard, it's obscure. 
>
>....unless, of course, it involved figuring out the transition amplitudes
>for that particular decay mode, in which case it would be both hard
>and obscure. :-)
>
>As has been stated before, it is very hard to postulate general rules
>about what makes good puzzles and what doesn't. Here is one, though:
>unless you're aiming at a very limited audience, any puzzle requiring
>intimate knowledge of the theory of electroweak interactions is probably
>not a very good idea.  (Another one for your .sig, Cardinal? :-) ).

Well, it seems there's at least three of us who'd be interested in the
puzzle.  Now just throw in a good quark gluon plasma and I'm there!

--
KEN FAIR - U. Chicago Law  | <http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/kjfair>
Of Counsel, U. of Ediacara | Power Mac! | CABAL(tm) | I'm w/in McQ - R U?
   When you go for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if
   they ever press charges.
