Comments on: "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russell

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russell

limitedpie — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:13:52 -0800

"Sam Loyd's 'Trick Donkeys' is one of the most elegant puzzles ever invented... print out the page and cut the figure into three parts along the solid lines. Now, position the strip onto the other two pieces so that it looks like each jockey is riding a donkey. Folding is not allowed. Don't give up -- the solution is really quite simple!"

By: limitedpie

limitedpie — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:14:52 -0800

More: "This puzzle was created by one of America's greatest puzzlists, Sam Lloyd (1844 -1911). Loyd sold his puzzle to P. T. Barnum, who marketed it as "P. T. Barnum's Trick Mules." It was printed on a card to be cut into the three pieces. Millions of the cards were sold, and supposedly Loyd earned a fortune -- $10.000 -- in just a few weeks." [From defectiveyeti] .... This is such a fun puzzle, enjoy! I'll post the link to the answer in this thread in a day or two!

By: farmerchris

farmerchris — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:25:28 -0800

Nice. I solved it accidentally. It was kind of shocking to see the answer appear before I expected it.

By: sharpener

sharpener — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:27:05 -0800

Bastard ;) I had things to do today...

By: Eamon

Eamon — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:28:47 -0800

Gung'f na njshyyl fgenatr jnl gb evqr n qbaxrl.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:32:37 -0800

Ha ha, speaking of asses, I did it totally wrong. Now I look like an idiot AND don't get the satisfaction of figuring it out.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:37:40 -0800

Someone should do this in Flash. It's so old fashioned to print things on paper and cut them out.

By: sharpener

sharpener — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:38:57 -0800

k, i got it. lucky. i have pumpkins to carve.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:39:15 -0800

Can you overlap the donkeys?

By: jozxyqk

jozxyqk — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:40:38 -0800

smackfu: Someone did do it in Flash. (First link from Google search for "trick mules")

By: limitedpie

limitedpie — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:45:11 -0800

iconomy: nope, no overlapping the donkeys! smackfu: I actually love how quaint it is to do a puzzle on paper. Even on my lousy inkjet printer, this looked really sweet. And this morning I was able to take the three pieces to a brunch with friends where the puzzle ended up being a blast for everyone...

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:45:40 -0800

Got it - this is very cool. I shall now proceed to torture everyone I know with this. Thanks, limitedpie!

By: limitedpie

limitedpie — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:47:48 -0800

also: damn google! It is too easy to find the quick answers to these sorts of things.... *sigh*

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 12:58:55 -0800

This rocks. I'm sitting at my desk working this out.

By: Alison

Alison — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:00:51 -0800

I managed to hit upon the solution accidentally. Hooray for random rotating and clicking. Thanks for the flash link!

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:10:33 -0800

Wow, I love it!

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:13:09 -0800

Got it! That's really clever!

By: quarsan

quarsan — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:18:04 -0800

very cool. made my head bleed, but i finally got it. elegant

By: kenko

kenko — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:34:22 -0800

I wish I had a printer.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 13:57:11 -0800

kenko, use the Flash version jozxyqk linked to. I actually got this right away... Perfectly gorgeous! "Get off the Earth" is another famous Loyd puzzle it seems. Here's an animation that lets you try it out. Well done, limitedpie!

By: epimorph

epimorph — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:19:29 -0800

You call that riding a donkey? That's more like flying a donkey.

By: carter

carter — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 14:38:28 -0800

Excellent, thanks limitedpie!

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 15:44:04 -0800

It was a book of Loyd puzzles that turned me off of puzzles forever. Curse you, Sam Loyd!

By: maudlin

maudlin — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:01:17 -0800

Hint follows! Think about paintings of galloping horses from the pre-photographic era (mid 19th century and earlier). That should help you figure out a plausible way of placing the riders.

By: efalk

efalk — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:48:28 -0800

ok i'm ready to see this explained. on the flash site, the 'explanation' doesn't really help me, considering limitedpie said you cant overlap the donkeys.

By: obiwanwasabi

obiwanwasabi — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:22:09 -0800

I have heard that if two donkeys love each other very much, they make new donkeys.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:28:45 -0800

efalk: the puzzle has a few "extra lines" drawn in to draw your attention away from the answer. Don't think of the donkeys as being two donkeys, but as being four "parts" of donkeys.

By: neckro23

neckro23 — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 17:30:32 -0800

(The interactive one is Shockwave, not Flash. If someone hadn't already done it, I'd probably have hacked one up for y'alls.) What I suspected to be the solution when looking at the original graphic turned out to be the right one. Piece of cake, woot.

By: efalk

efalk — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 19:47:50 -0800

ok I'm an idiot :( still not seeing this done without the donkeys overlapping.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 19:54:45 -0800

Sweet. Nailed it pretty quickly. For once.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 20:01:39 -0800

Hint: it's not really a puzzle about arranging the mules. It's really a puzzle about ignoring some of what you probably see as implicit rules of the game. There aren't two donkeys, one on each piece. There are four donkeyparts, two on each piece.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 20:05:48 -0800

pretty sneaky, sis. Good puzzle.

By: meech

meech — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 20:24:36 -0800

Yay, my brain works...couple of minutes... /looks down bashfully

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 20:59:36 -0800

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

By: somethingotherthan

somethingotherthan — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:01:29 -0800

Don't know if this will help anyone else, but the two mules are supposed to be the same color. Even looking at the solution somehwere [the links in this thread are burned out] it still took me a minute to realize how it went.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:18:41 -0800

Finally. Flash of inspiration. Too long in coming.

By: Mach3avelli

Mach3avelli — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 23:28:18 -0800

Ok, I figured out a different solution in which both are riding atop the bellies of the donkeys. Whatever.

By: ed

ed — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 23:55:36 -0800

Gotta love the subtlety of lines. Thanks for the fun.

By: squealy

squealy — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 03:10:42 -0800

That was incredibly annoying. Thanks.

By: paladin

paladin — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 04:10:51 -0800

Is this one of those things where the stupider you are, the shorter it takes? I got it in less than a minute...

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 06:01:58 -0800

I'd be happy to post a solution if someone would tell me how you put a graphic in the thread. (That's one puzzle I've never figured out...)

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 06:17:27 -0800

i love this sort of thing - and i did get it after a minute or two. it was the position of the donkey's noses that tipped me off. i knew there was something about it... now i'm torturing my friends!

By: limitedpie

limitedpie — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 06:30:14 -0800

Here is the answer for anyone who is frustrated.... but hope despite the frustration you still had a bit of fun :-)

By: page404

page404 — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 10:05:29 -0800

Man do I suck! AAARRRGGGHHH

By: dness2

dness2 — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 11:19:15 -0800

I FINALLY GOT IT!!! After 4 hours... I thought a phd would make me smarterer.

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 12:35:42 -0800

Loyd earned a fortune -- $10.000 -- in just a few weeks." Though my pod mates are enjoying the puzzle, I'd asked for a refund back. It was cute but I suck at puzzles. Want a refund, as this was fairly easy solving since I read way too much into things. My first thought for the solution was placing the ~~donkeys~~ mules as one ~~donkey~~ mule packing (carrying) the other Then I saw where to place the jockeys. Not to nitpick here, but these are mules in the picture. See the link's address. Mules are used for packing equipment, which was the reason behind my thinking in finding the solution.

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 19:52:39 -0800

I have to point out that the puzzle doesn't require that the jockeys be riding right-side up. There are two solutions. Thanks, limitedpie.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 11:34:35 -0800

I'll also point out: If the puzzle is about literal interpretation, then overlapping is allowed, and the superficial, "stupid" answer is perfectly permissable.