Six of one, half a dozen of the other

November 28, 2004 3:40 PM

Bongard problems are a benchmark of sorts for visual pattern recognition; they're also just fun puzzles, and this guy has got the definitive collection.
posted by Wolfdog (9 comments total)

Do you just have to 'know' the difference or be able to geometrically state it? For example, I can see what's happening in this one, but don't have to vocabulary to explain... (maybe 'none of the shapes on the left have a point that intersects with a line drawn through the shortest distance of two other points on the shape'..)

Any program that can solve these is mindblowing...
posted by Firas at 4:19 PM on November 28, 2004 [1 favorite]

Fantastic. Thanks.

Firas: Drawings on the left are convex figures.
posted by Gyan at 4:25 PM on November 28, 2004

No, as long as you feel you could distinguish between the two groups well enough to decide which side a new cadidate belonged on, you've got it solved. There can be more than one good solution -- and lots of ways of expressing the same essential solution -- but all of these that I've played with have at least one good, satisfying solution for me.

He addreses your question a bit in the solution to that very puzzle.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:27 PM on November 28, 2004

That was actually pretty fun. I'm amused that I got a bit upset with myself when I couldn't figure out a couple of them. DAMN YOU, BONGARD!
posted by jenovus at 5:19 PM on November 28, 2004

It reminds me of the classic Brainwave puzzles. One of these things is not like the others.
posted by euphorb at 5:55 PM on November 28, 2004

Woops, there goes my primitive frustration.
posted by bonaldi at 7:03 PM on November 28, 2004

Awesome post. I read a great paper on Bongard problems last year for a seminar in evolutionary psychology; I'll see if I can find it so that I can give a link.
posted by painquale at 7:07 PM on November 28, 2004

I tend to be rather good at puzzles like this, so doing them makes me feel rather good about myself. For no satisfactory reason - it's not as though you're actually accomplishing anything.
posted by Prince Nez at 8:46 PM on November 28, 2004

Thanks, Wolfdog; I love this. Now, if we could just put together M.M. Bongard with Hermann Bongard, we'd have the coolest Bongard puzzles ever.
posted by taz at 2:02 AM on November 29, 2004