| Name: |
ollie |
| Level: |
Apprentice (What does this mean?)
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| Email: |
ollie_olufsen AT posteo DOT ch |
| Homepage: |
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| Problems Posted: |
4
(List)
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| Comments Posted: |
29
(List)
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| Ratings: |
13 votes, averaging 3.0769
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| Last Login: |
08/27/2017 07:36
(2603 days 21 hours 4 min 30 seconds ago) |
| About: |
I come from Denmark and live in Switzerland. I like chess, programming (mainly in Prolog) and interesting riddles.
Eugene Northrop published 'Riddles in Mathematics' in New York in 1944. In it there are some good problems in logic, probability, algebra, and geometry. About 40 years ago, I found the German edition from 1954 in my father's bookshelf, without understanding most of it.
In the contemporary English language, there seems to be a difference between 'riddles' and 'puzzles', the latter being more noble.
In my native language, the English word 'puzzle' means only 'jigsaw puzzle' (dan. 'puslespil').
For all other kinds of puzzles/riddles, we would say one single word: 'gade' (with a little 'o' above the 'a'), which comes from the Icelandic 'gáta'. Of course, the English word 'gate' is related to this, as all this comes from the Old Germanic language. In the Danish language you have 'gade' (for 'passage', 'street') and 'gade' with that little 'o' above the 'a' (for 'riddle').
Interestingly, the Non-Germanic Polish language has a word with a remarkable center, namely 'zaGADka', meaning 'brain-twister', 'problem'.
We do not mark an elitarian distinction between a higher and a lower kind of riddles/puzzles.
When I use simply the word 'riddle' for all kinds of those things, please do not feel upset or offended. |
