Free Puzzles
December 27, 1999
Probably the simplest way to add fun to your site is to add some puzzles
or brainteasers.
You need no special technology
(except perhaps JavaScript to pop up the answers)
and there are so many classical (i.e. well -- known)
puzzles in the public domain that you generally won't need to worry
about copyright or patent infringement (but check each site for
specific notices).
<a title = "...answer..."
href = "javascript:alert('...answer...')"
>Answer</a>
Try these, and feel free to use them on your own site!
A man walks one mile due South, then one mile due East,
and finally one mile due North, and ends up where he started.
He's not at the North Pole. Where is he?
Answer
How many letters are there in the answer to this question?
Answer
Three switches outside a windowless room are connected to three light
bulbs inside the room.
How can you determine which switch is connected to which bulb if you
may enter the room only once?
Answer
A man is replacing a wheel on his car,
when he accidentally drops the four nuts
used to hold the wheel on the car,
and they fall into a deep drain, irretrievably lost.
A passing girl offers him a solution which enables him to drive home.
What is it?
Answer
The Clinton Brothers (Bill and Ben) are identical twins.
Ben is known to be totally truthful, and the other is a politician.
You meet one of them at a fork in the road,
and there's no sign to indicate which is the road to Washington
(your destination).
What single question can you ask the brother who is there,
to discover the correct road?
Assume that you don't know if it's Bill or Ben,
and that politicians always lie...
Answer
Who's bigger: Mr. Bigger, Mrs. Bigger or their baby?
Answer
What's the next letter in the sequence?
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O T T F F S S E ?
Answer
P O I U Y T R E W ?
Answer
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Puzzles needn't be only text. Here is a graphical one.
Move just two sticks to put the cherry in the wineglass.
Answer
You can find puzzles at many sites, e.g.
Java Puzzles
The following are Java-based puzzles and single-player games.
- Fiver
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Applet by MazeWorks.
The goal is to convert all of the White pieces on the board to Black
pieces.
- The Towers of Hanoi
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Applet by MazeWorks.
The classic puzzle, a favorite of programmers and Buddhist monks.
- Peg Solitaire
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Applet by MazeWorks.
The goal is to remove pegs from the board by jumping over each peg with another peg; this removes the "jumped" peg (similar to Checkers jumps).
- WordSearch
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Applet by Mike Hall.
Find words in the grid that are listed in the panel.
Topics are animals, countries, measures, movies, nightsky.
JB
- Rubik Unbound
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The famous frustrating colored cube.
Twist or rotate by pointing and dragging in "natural" directions.
Press s to scramble and r to restore
(while positioning the mouse cursor somewhere in the applet region).
By
Karl Hörnell.
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- 15-puzzle
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Scramble |
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Solve |
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Toggle control |
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The pieces are to be arranged in ascending order,
with the hole in the bottom right corner,
as shown. Start by scrambling the pieces.
Slide a tile into an empty slot by placing the mouse pointer over it,
and hold down the left mouse button,
while dragging in the direction of the empty slot.
Alternatively, click Toggle then just click on the piece to move.
Let the computer solve it by clicking on Solve.
By Karl Hörnell.
Free Games
How To Build a Web Site with Free Stuff Table of Contents
Free Crosswords
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