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Thread: A Riddle
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2017-12-18, 07:03 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2012
A Riddle
A man walks into a university library and finds seven books piled on a desk:
- 1 quantum chemistry textbook
- 2 differential equations textbooks
- 1 book on economic indicators
- 1 book entitled "Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis"
- 2 books on polymer engineering (one focusing on "ESR methods")
What was being researched here?
Go nuts.
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2017-12-18, 07:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
Re: A Riddle
Sounds either like someone starting a company or someone investing in (medical?) plastics. Could be someone studying growth processes as well.
Last edited by NichG; 2017-12-18 at 07:13 PM.
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2017-12-18, 10:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
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- Calgary, AB
- Gender
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2017-12-18, 10:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2013
- Gender
Re: A Riddle
Nothing, somebody just wanted to look really busy while they did something they didn't want people to see.
“Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”
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2017-12-18, 10:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
- Gender
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2017-12-18, 11:25 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2016
- Location
- Earth and/or not-Earth
- Gender
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2017-12-19, 11:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2014
- Location
- Ohio
Re: A Riddle
A psychologist is researching what people think when they see these books.
An evil genius is learning how to use quantum polymers to take over the stock market.
All the best compute-devices for predicting economies need plastic. (something something Pratchett)
How can I replace the human brain. Hmm, I can use polymers for the brain matter, and then throw the craziest, most complicated and most random equations at the brain until it learns to cope. Bingo, brain 2.0
That's not a man, that's an alien in a plastic body!
Modern techniques for summoning the economist in yellow.
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2017-12-19, 03:59 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
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Re: A Riddle
Well, the man who walks into the library is researching the stack of books, apparently, so that's what's being researched.
All the actual researchers are off somewhere googling.The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
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2017-12-19, 11:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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- Dallas, TX
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2017-12-23, 09:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2009
- Location
- Washington D.C.
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Re: A Riddle
Cuthalion's art is the prettiest art of all the art. Like my avatar.
Number of times Roland St. Jude has sworn revenge upon me: 2
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2018-01-05, 10:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2013
Re: A Riddle
Clearly, someone just binge-watched "Travelers" on Netflix...
... then realized they actually enjoyed differential equations, and grabbed a second book.
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2018-01-05, 01:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
Re: A Riddle
I not only know what was being researched, I know who did it:
It was Pres.Trump's hairdresser researching hair care products.
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2018-01-05, 03:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2014
- Location
- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
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Re: A Riddle
Maybe it's a GM preparing a science fiction game.
The Hindsight Awards, results: See the best movies of 1999!
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2018-01-05, 06:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: A Riddle
Another possibility is that the pile was assembled by more than one person - maybe two people were sharing a table, both left at the same time temporarily (synchronized breaks for two people studying together), and they just stacked their books into one pile.
The obvious separation here is one person using the quantum chemistry and both polymer engineering books, the other person using the two economics books, and both having a differential equations book. The first person could be doing all sorts of studying, with trying to figure out how exactly MALDI works being an obvious candidate. The second person might be building an economic model for investing.
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2018-01-14, 03:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2014
Re: A Riddle
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2018-01-18, 06:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2014
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- Tulips Cheese & Rock&Roll
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Re: A Riddle
I think the thing being investigated is this random riddle like piece of text Grinner's PM ad-libbed in a dungeon. The full text is in the first post and there is no intended solution.
Last edited by Lvl 2 Expert; 2018-02-08 at 01:05 AM.
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2018-02-07, 11:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
Re: A Riddle
What is being researched is the viability of marketing a 3D printing system.
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2018-02-11, 12:34 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2007
Re: A Riddle
Somebody just watched "The Graduate" and decided that even fifty years later, the word still is "plastics".
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2018-02-11, 06:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: A Riddle
Textbook companies
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2018-02-12, 10:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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- Sharangar's Revenge
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Re: A Riddle
So is there an actual solution to this riddle? Or did you just stumble across a stack of books and get curious?
This being a riddle, the correct answer is probably something like A but not B, and B but not A. Or headline for the story about the wanted halfling psychic: Small Medium at LargeWarhammer 40,000 Campaign Skirmish Game: Warpstrike
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2018-02-12, 11:20 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
Re: A Riddle
Clearly, someone wants to develop an alternative to Hari Seldon's psychohistory. Except, instead of using human behavior to create a predictive model of the future, he's using mathematics, physics, and an understanding of markets and chemistry, to create a predictive model of...
Plastics.
You heard me. Plastics. He knows where the money is. Or will be. Or he suspects it.
We all know it. We know the future is in plastics. We know it because of every sci-fi movie or novel that uses plastics for ship construction, for bandages, for clothing, for paper. We knew it in 1967, when The Graduate told us "There's a great future in plastics. Think about it."
Think about it.
This guy is trying to create a predictive model of the plastics market. He's going to use math and physics to create a near-perfect probabilistic model, shaped by the very factors and forces of reality, which he will apply to the market and chemistry in order to determine the exact and idealized form of the future of plastics. And he will invest in that future. In futures, even.
This person is a genius whom we should all emulate.My headache medicine has a little "Ex" inscribed on the pill. It's not a brand name; it's an indicator that it works inside an Anti-Magic Field.
Blue text means sarcasm. Purple text means evil. White text is invisible.
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2018-02-12, 07:31 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
Re: A Riddle
"quantum chemistry" and "polymer engineering" obviously make sense together.
"economic indicators" and "investment analysis" obviously make sense together.
"differential equations" would totally make sense with either set of books.
It's a bit of a stretch to try to link the chemical engineering and economic analysis books however. Even if someone were interested in the economics of manufacturing, it's hard to see how the same person would need to dig quite so deep into both the fundamental engineering and heavy financial analysis sides of it. That kind of financial analysis is usually people trying to make profits across entire markets, and the techniques don't generally change based on drilling down to detailed manufacturing processes of individual products.
Financial analysts do use a lot of math, and they often have a physics background and create financial models that mimic those developed to describe physical processes. However, diving deep into chemistry and engineering rather than physics for economic models would be highly unusual and probably not super helpful.
Is this really a riddle, or just a weird pile of books that you saw? The obvious thing would be someone studying for two different classes and just put the books together. Or two different people studying and someone gathered the books up.
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2018-02-13, 12:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2016
Re: A Riddle
Except for the ones where everything is chrome
"If you want to understand biology don't think about vibrant throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology" -Richard Dawkins
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