Just For Fun - Odd Names For Things You Know

Things-

Peen: the side opposite the hammer’s striking side.

Aglet: the plastic coating on a shoelace.

Ferrule: the metal part at the end of a pencil.

Punt: the bottom of a wine bottle.

People-

Griffonage: unreadable handwriting.

Nibling: the non-gender-specific term for a niece or nephew — like sibling.

Language and Math-

Overmorrow: the day after tomorrow.

 Tittle: the dot over an “i” or a “j.”

Obelus: the division sign (÷).

Octothorpe: the pound (#) sign.

Mondegreen: misheard song lyrics.

Vocable: the na na nas and la la las in song lyrics that don’t have any meaning.

Lemniscate: the infinity symbol.

You-

Morton’s toe: when your second toe is bigger than your big toe.

Minimus: your little toe or finger.

Glabella: the space between your eyebrows.

Collywobbles: butterflies in your stomach.

Philtrum: the groove located just below the nose and above the middle of the lips.

Tmesis: when you separate a word into two for effect. Example: “I AM GOING TO ASBO-FREAKIN’-LUTELY BE THE BEST TRIVIA PLAYER ON THE PLANET NOW!”

Let's Get Ready For Sudoku - 6 x 6

OK, you've read the blog on 4 x 4 Sudoku puzzles- right?

Now we're going to start on a harder 6 x 6 puzzle and go over some tips on how to solve them.

First of all, here's a solved 6 x 6 using numbers instead of symbols like we used in the 4 x 4 puzzle.

Notice that each line across, each line up and down, and each 3 x 2 rectangle has the numbers 1 to 6 without any duplicated. This is a solved puzzle.

Here's our first puzzle to solve, but I'm going to give you some tips on how to solve it.

Look at the two squares colored red below. We know from the rules that the missing numbers are 1 and 2 in the upper left rectangle. We also know by looking across that the 1 and 2 cannot be on the same line as the 1 and 2 in the upper right box. So 1 and 2 go where they are shown.

Now look at the first two rows. Five of the six possible numbers are filled in on those rows, so we know what numbers go there.

With these numbers filled in, we can see three different up and down columns that have two possible numbers, just like our first two numbers in the first two rows. They are filled in with red below.

 

Now we can fill in three more numbers because they are the only choices left for the center-left and bottom-left rectangles and the 5th row.

 

 

Now we fill in the 4th row with the only number remaining and the bottom-right rectangle with the two numbers remaining.

 

 

Now the last two numbers are a cinch, they are the only possibilities for column four and five.

 

 

 

Great! We've solved it.

 

Now here are two puzzles for you to solve on your own. Print them out to make it easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Let's Get Ready For Sudoku - 4 x 4

Sudoku is a Japanese puzzle where the goal is to place numbers in a 9 x 9 square so that no number is repeated on a line across or down as while as in each 3 x 3 square.

We are going to work up to Sudoku by starting with a 4 X 4 square like so:

We'll start with symbols. Notice that in this 4 x 4 square there are four 2 x 2 squares. Each row across, each column down and each 2 x 2 square has each of the four symbols only once. A Sudoku puzzle is solved when you fill in all the spaces following the rules. Print out the following three puzzles and see if you can fill them in by following the rules:

1. Each row has one of each symbol.
2. Each column has one of each symbol.
3. Each 2 x 2 square has one of each symbol.

 

 

When you finish this, go on to 6 x 6.