Closed Forum Thread Issue

I do not believe there is any character limit on the parsing or spoiler contents, though due to the aforementioned vacationing I am working off of memory rather than the code itself, so I may be mistaken.

However, spoilers misbehaving does not come as a surprise to me. It has a tendency of happening when users use the visual editor for large amounts of formatting in and around spoilers. This is because the spoiler rendering breaks somewhat if there are BBCode tags opened outside of the spoiler and closed inside of it, or vice versa. See this and this for some more details. My general recommendation is to not rely on the visual editor and instead use the BBCode editor for large and complicated posts.

 

This is because you have BBCode tags that you open outside of thee spoiler close inside of it.

(In order to center the spoiler button without either duplicating the button or centering all of the content, center around the spoiler and left align inside of it.)

Spoiler: Puzzle #1 - The Cookie Monster - SOLUTIONS

MrsPink had some amazing help from the Royals community this week and was able to catch the culprits! Thank you to all who played and participated in the very FIRST Balance Brain Bamboozler! We hope that you had as much fun as we did this week in solving this cookie monster mystery.

I bet everyone is dying to know how we caught those cookie monsters.

So here’s how we figured it out!

1) First step and easy way to get yourself in order, is to draw a timeline and map out the facts that you have been given, here’s what it might look like:

​

2) Next, fill in the chart with information that you can deduce from the clues.

a. Easy first deduction is to determine how many cookies went missing between the different time periods. Simple math.

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b. Ok. So from this simple math, we can deduce the following from the clues given:

i. From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., 23 cookies were stolen. Since a person can only hold 10 cookies (15 if pet) it holds that AT LEAST 2 people had to have stolen cookies during this time frame.
ii. From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., 11 cookies went missing. This means that AT LEAST 1 OR 2 people, depending on if the person has the pet, had to have stolen the cookies.
iii. From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., 26 cookies went missing. From the information given, we can determine that AT LEAST 2 people had to have stolen the cookies. And from the information given, we know that N and Q had to come into the kitchen after X.​

c. So the timeline should now look something like this:

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3) Next order of business, figuring out HOW MANY cookies each person stole. Now this is where things got a little tricky… If we look CLOSELY at the puzzle and the information given. We can see some of the suspects “hiding” in PLAIN VIEW! So ballsy…

​

a. So if you guys didn’t catch that part of the puzzle, things could have gotten very confusing and you many have gotten multiple answers. However, this information narrows down the solutions considerably.
b. From this we get:

i. P – ONE cookie. Wow cheated his diet! Yes, very little self-control.
ii. H – 8 cookies
iii. N – 9 cookies
iv. Q – 10 cookies. Sensei using his abilities to the fullest.
v. M / bunny – ONE cookie. Now this is where things could get tricky. Technically, MrsPink did not steal the cookie because in the picture, her bunny did. BUT did MrsPink train her bunny to do it? The world may never know… Anyways, rabbits are vegetarian.​

c. Cool, now that we have this information, we can start to fill in the blanks. Here is what the chart looks like now:​

​

d. Great! We basically filled out the order and the # of cookies stolen! Too fast? Here’s the explanation:

i. Ok, let’s work backwards. We know that N stole 9, Q stole 10, and bunny (M), stole 1.

1. We fill those in and we get 20 cookies. Since we know that 26 went missing, X must have stolen 6.​

ii. Now, we know that H stole 8 cookies. If we slot him in after PO, that would mean that PO stole 3 cookies.

1. However, since P only stole 1 cookie, and since the max a person can carry is 15 with pet, it would make it impossible to have 23 cookies go missing from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. This means that H must have stolen the cookies from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
2. Then, because we know that H came late, S must be the first, stealing a max of 15 cookies, H following after, and stealing 8 cookies.​

iii. This would leave PO stealing 10 cookies and P stealing 1 cookie.​

Phew!​

4) Alright almost done! We now have the order and # of cookies stolen by each person. Time to find out WHO took WHAT.

a. Let’s start by making a table and going in order:

Woot! So easy all done!​

Explanation:
a. S – We know that S cannot eat CCC, so he must have 5 of each cookie to add up to 15.
b. Next, distribute the CCCs. Since there are 30 left to split among the 6 people, might as well give everyone the max that they can take.

i. P and M do not get CCC because they only took 1 cookie. M is easy to see, vegetarian, but P may not be as clear. Continue reading as to why.​

c. H – What’s the distribution of cookies? Well we know that H is allergic to SF and MS so he can only eat CCC and RM. However, we know that H cannot take all of the RM since PO still needs cookies and so does X.

i. If we gave him 4 CCC, that would mean he takes 4 RM, leaving 1 RM for PO. PO would then be forced to take 4 MS, leaving none for X. So this cannot be the right answer.
ii. If we have him 3 CCC, he would take 5 RM, leaving none for PO. PO would then be forced to take 4 MS, again leaving none for X. Again, cannot be correct.
iii. So we find that H takes 5 CCC and 3 RM.​

d. PO – Takes the 5 CCC (max)

i. Since there are 2 RM left, she takes them all.
ii. Since she cannot eat SF, she takes 3 MS to make 10 cookies stolen.​

e. P – Steals ONE cookie. For now, let’s leave this open because there are still some possibilities.
f. X – Takes 5 CCC (max)

i. Since the only thing left is MS, she takes 1 for a total of 6 stolen.​

g. N – Takes 5 CCC (max)

i. Since the only cookie left is SF, he takes 4 to get a total of 9 stolen.​

h. Q – Takes 10 CCC (max for sensei)
i. M (bunny) – takes ONE cookie. Since bunnies are vegetarian, this means that the bunny stole the last remaining MS. (This can be figured out in the beginning to make it easier)
j. Finally, only 1 cookie left for P, which is SF. Yum.​

So the final solution looks something like this:​

1) S – 15 cookies (5 MS, 5 SF, 5 RM)
2) H – 8 cookies (5 CCC, 3 RM)
3) PO – 10 cookies (5 CCC, 3 MS, 2 RM)
4) P – 1 cookie (1 SF)
5) X – (5 CCC, 1 MS)
6) N – (5 CCC, 4 SF)
7) Q – (10 CCC)
8) M/bunny – (1 MS)

*Note* Since the bunny or M is not explicit and kind of tricky, we also would have accepted X stealing 7 cookies. Also, since P and M/bunny could be interchangeable, we also would have accepted that. However, there really is only ONE sooper correct answer =)

Yayayaya! Mystery Solved! MrsPink is happy to have caught the culprits! Bunny will be put in time out for a VERY VERY long time!

We hope that you guys enjoyed this puzzle! It was really fun for us coming up with this and letting you guys play and submit your answers. We hope that you didn’t get too bamboozled! Check back next week for our next puzzle! It will be a surprise and even more fun we promise!

Here's a clue as to what is in store for next week kekeke

Lots of words I may be,
but clear as day you won't see.
But if you read me like a book,
you might have to take a second look.​

<3 Balance
​

 

This is a part of the stylesheet of the forum. You'll notice quotations and code blocks do the same.