(no subject)

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

Little Charlie Welles in the Big Mansion
A puzzle for children and adults, courtesy of the Cake Club
Puzzle #1 - the Library

Meet Charlie. He's a little boy who has grown up in the Welles family mansion - a huge three-story house with several acres of land around it. Living in a big house like this is always and adventure, but it's also easy to get lost.

Today, Charlie is thinking about visiting the library. He's got a lot of favorite books there, but there was one that he read last week and really wants to finish it. The trouble is... he forgot where he found it in the family library! He only remembers a few clues about where it might have been.

Clue #1: The library is divided into four parts - classical literature on the upper-right, science fiction on the lower-right, romance on the upper-left, and and nonfiction on the lower-left. He remembers very clearly that his book was fiction, but it might have been in any of the other categories.

Clue #2: After taking a book, Charlie usually goes to the nearest chair to read. He remembers that the chair he was sitting in was a bright color.

Clue #3: Charlie remembers walking at least four shelves away from the center aisle before he found the book last week.

Clue #4: When going to return his book when his mother called him for dinner, he remembered looking out the window and seeing rain falling on the lawn outside.

Can you help him figure out where to find his book? Please write your name or some other thing to identify you when you guess, and please - only one guess per person! There will be a prize for the winners at the end of the day. :)

[A map of the alleged library is attached to this note.]

Comments

[girlsandgadgets]

Well, this looks like fun.

My guess is shelf 114.

- E. Figaro

[block handwriting, not disguised]

[ryuuzaki]

I am assuming that "the nearest chair" means the shortest accessible distance, not a direct line; that the shelves do not face both sides of a given aisle, and that "at least four" means "the fifth shelf or further from the center aisle." Also, I am assuming that the "center aisle" is the one with apparent north-south orientation, not the one with east-west orientation, and that Charlie is not color-blind.

With those choices for any variables, Charlie should look at the shelves equivalent to 151 through 156 on the diagram. The window should be visible from there, and the red chair on the left is quite close.

If shelves line both sides of an aisle, he could also look at any shelves between 1 and 6 which are facing 151 through 156. Also, 115 through 120 and any shelves which might be facing them are possibilities, assuming that the clues allude to accessible paths and not merely the chairs which would be closest if there were no shelves in the way. The fourth unit of shelves in any series of possibilities can be included in the solution if necessary (i.e. 151-157).

There is some other purpose to this puzzle?

[Not signed.]

Still unsigned but undisguised

[chocomancer.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me you've never seen this shelving arrangement before.

[block handwriting, not disguised]

[ryuuzaki]

The numbering system is a common one when convenient storage is a necessity.

[Also unsigned, but disguised]

[lawful_perfect]

An impressive analysis of this riddle. However, you overlooked one important factor: the amount of detail that the boy was able to see through the window. Could he really see "rain falling on the lawn" from the western half of that aisle? If the library were located on the second or third story, he would most likely need to be much closer to the window to view through it at an angle that would display the ground level.

[block handwriting, not disguised]

[ryuuzaki]

That depends on whether or not he is intended to have physically seen the rain hitting the lawn, or only rain falling over where he already knows the lawn to be. It isn't as if lawns are in the habit of getting up and walking away.

In any case, something suggests to me that the library is on the first level.

[doneinthree]

Shelf 120.

- JTK

[feartehreaper.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't he just look it up in the catalog?

[liveforthispart.livejournal.com]

[marks from holding the pen in the same spot for a while]

80?

- Tatsumi