Congratulations to Clementine for winning the caption contest yesterday – drop me an email and I will make sure that a signed copy of 59 seconds arrives safe and sound.
Onto the Friday puzzle….. and this week it is another lovely one from Mike……Imagine that you live on the moon. One day you see a number 14 bus. What is the most likely number of bus routes on the moon?
Update: This puzzle seems to have confused people – but it is a straight probability puzzle.
As ever, please do not post your solution, but feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday and hopefully some very exciting news next week!
To generate your own bus slogans, visit here (and thanks to @FleaCircusDir for sending it to me)
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November 20, 2009 at 6:48 am |
Do I need to be from the UK to figure this out? Very few of us here have heard of public transportation in the US.
I assume the 14 means there must be at least 14 bus routes, but that reminds me of the following joke:
An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are on a train in Scotland. The engineer looks out of the window, sees a black sheep standing in a field, and remarks, “How odd. All Scottish sheep are black.” “No, no, no!” says the physicist. “All we can conclude is that there is at least one black sheep in Scotland”. The mathematician rolls his eyes at his companions’ muddled thinking and says, “all we can conclude is that in Scotland there is at least one sheep who is black on one side.”
November 20, 2009 at 6:59 am |
I think I solved it, in just a few seconds too. I could just be thinking a little too simply, though :/
November 20, 2009 at 7:01 am |
I will admit to being utterly baffled.
However I am especially baffled as the #14 bus, at least in Los Angeles where I live, is the bus line that runs half a block from my house and which I often take. But the thing is, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is *hardly known* for running busses to far-flung areas.
So HOW DID THEY KNOW I’M ON THE MOON AND SEND ME A BUS?!?!?!?!? And not just ANY bus, but MY bus? Frankly, it’s spooky.
November 20, 2009 at 7:03 am |
I love the ad…
November 20, 2009 at 7:03 am |
pretty pretty pretty easy as Larry David would say but did take just over the minute
November 20, 2009 at 7:13 am |
Think I have the answer, unless it’s a subtle reference to an old Sunday Sport reference. Ha.
November 20, 2009 at 7:29 am |
I think i got it right away, will find out Monday.
November 20, 2009 at 7:43 am |
There’s probably no bus.
November 20, 2009 at 1:27 pm
..now go by bike and enjoy your life!
November 20, 2009 at 7:48 am |
non lo so! è possibile che la risposta più semplice sia quella giusta?..forse si!
November 20, 2009 at 7:51 am |
I have absolutely no idea what this is about, at least this early in the morning. :/ Maybe you need to live in the UK like someone suggested?
November 20, 2009 at 8:22 am |
I may be thinking much too simply but got it right away…well…maybe.
November 20, 2009 at 8:26 am |
Well I’m stumpped (and I’m in the UK if that’s any consolation to those elsewhere!). I can see 3 ‘answers’ but none feels particularly right as there’s no particular puzzle aspect to them.
I look forward to Monday and kicking myself
November 20, 2009 at 9:21 am |
I have no freaking idea what this puzzle means.
November 20, 2009 at 9:23 am |
I used to live in a smallish town that had about six Bus lines running. If I remember correctly they were numbered: 702, 704, 706, 707, 985 and 990.
From that I deduct that the number of the bus is just a red herring and arrive at a solution that is probably wrong.
November 20, 2009 at 10:16 am |
I would conclude that there are no bus routes and that I am either delusional or looking at a photograph.
November 20, 2009 at 10:24 am |
Haha great picture – not a clue on the answer though!
November 20, 2009 at 11:21 am |
Can’t believe I didn’t get it straight away. Re-read the question a second time and got it then. I wonder if the buses on the moon are the decommissioned Routemasters from London? If so, I hope Boris was able to sell them to the Moon’s Government for a decent price.
November 20, 2009 at 11:42 am |
It took me about one minute.
November 20, 2009 at 12:07 pm |
I can think of only one answer..
November 20, 2009 at 12:10 pm
..other than the Doctor Who episode “Planet of the Dead”, I mean.
November 20, 2009 at 12:34 pm |
No idea and I travel on buses all the time. On another note someone in our local bus company has a sense of humour, one of the school buses taking the children to and from school and a slightly rough area is number 666
November 20, 2009 at 1:18 pm |
I feel like I should be drunk before trying to answer a question like that.
November 20, 2009 at 1:43 pm |
I’m very confused.
November 20, 2009 at 1:49 pm |
Took less than a minute to arrive at an answer: I don’t know.
November 20, 2009 at 1:56 pm |
I was expecting this week’s puzzle to be: “How big is the average land animal?”
November 20, 2009 at 3:04 pm |
wow… I thought about a few possible answers at first. the most obvious one being 14. the next one being “1″ . and then I started to reread it; stopping after the fist word reminded me of an old riddle. I do belive the correct answer to be “0,” there are no bus routes there, because I am imagining this.
November 20, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Since someone else will say this anyway if I don’t: please do not post your solution
November 20, 2009 at 4:17 pm
That should say: FAIL. Note: don’t make anything that looks like an HTML tag in your comments.
November 20, 2009 at 3:04 pm |
Er, yes, but of course I always think about buses on the moon.
November 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm |
I have an answer, but if it’s really “straightforward” then I’m wrong. Or maybe not? This is going to bug me all weekend.
November 20, 2009 at 6:18 pm |
I’ve got a probability answer and a realistic answer. Didn’t really take any time at all, but then I usually try to overthink things, so hopefully this time I’m right for a change.
November 20, 2009 at 6:26 pm |
I think you’d have to know something about the way the English number their buses to understand the question. I ride the 324, the Bolt, the Bound, the B, the BX, and occasionally the L.
November 20, 2009 at 10:50 pm
You seem to be assuming that it is a British bus.
November 22, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Of course it’s a British bus, we colonise everything.
November 20, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
That might be true, but there is in fact a stop at the Ultimate Answer.
And with the advantage of the non-necessity of any knowledge about any bus system in this arm of the galaxy!
November 20, 2009 at 10:43 pm |
Easy.
November 20, 2009 at 11:29 pm |
It took about half a second of thinking to get an answer which is probably off by one.
November 21, 2009 at 2:56 pm |
RICHARD. RICHARD I AM NOT GOOD AT MATH.
November 21, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Now try to solve it without maths.
November 21, 2009 at 3:13 pm |
It took fifteen years to work out the solution. And another five to invent a time machine to travel back to this moment to write this blog comment.
November 21, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I applaud you, Sir, for such an amusing comment!
November 21, 2009 at 4:20 pm |
I’m afraid I have no clue what you’re even asking.
I’m also annoyed that the bus sign generator does not work.
November 21, 2009 at 10:14 pm |
I’m stumped, I don’t understand the puzzle much less solve it. Can’t wait until Monday.
November 22, 2009 at 12:22 am |
[...] It’s the Friday puzzle! Congratulations to Clementine for winning the caption contest yesterday – drop me an email and I will make sure [...] [...]
November 22, 2009 at 7:38 am |
I’m really annoyed because now, somewhat less sleep deprived than I was on Friday, I’ve realized that the solution I brushed off the first time I read the puzzle was the correct one.
November 22, 2009 at 2:21 pm |
Well, I haven’t the slightest clue. Looking forward to Monday!
November 22, 2009 at 3:52 pm |
I have now been drunk twice,and I still don’t know. How many times do we have to fold the bus in order to make it thick enough to reach the earth on it?
And I can’t help but think that if you guys had helped me collect enough toilet roll tubes to slot together to reach the moon, we could have used it as a simple telescope or something and found the answer to this week’s puzzle.
November 22, 2009 at 9:49 pm |
Nice to see my bus slogan generator is still being used
I think I have the answer. Took a couple of minutes and a 3-line program in BASIC to get there.
November 23, 2009 at 1:31 pm |
I’m really confused. But I enjoyed joke by ‘slightly skeptical ”
November 24, 2009 at 1:08 pm |
Don’t get it at all. I imagine there’s a clever answer, but I don’t see it.
December 2, 2009 at 7:33 am |
There aren’t any buses on the moon. Everybody knows that. You were on holiday when you saw the bus.
March 20, 2010 at 9:14 pm |
Check out the fansign generators on http://www.fansigngenerator.com