Crayon Art Solution

[Mpromptu]

This looks like a pedigree-- a map showing genetic traits in an extended family. A different color represents a different trait being shown as it is traced through the family.

[eixdeuce]

Yeah, I thought that initially as well, but it simply can't be that because of the lower right. There would be some weird stuff going on in that family then. Haven't had any other good ideas to explain it yet though.

[Macaco Do Cavalo]

indeed it looks like a peediegree, but it also looks like one of those things that is on the green things in electronic stuff when you take them apart.

[geodevil]

It looks more like a "Pedigree" that's been taken apart!

[daniel801]

it's probably the Kennedy's

[daniel801]

naah, a kid wouldn't know that

[mith]

heh, I doubt most children would know this. I doubt *I* would have known this, as a child. It's just a story, nothing to do with the diagram, really.

[geodevil]

I meant a dead dog.

[CrystyB]

Well it might be a genealogical tree of a family in which someone timetraveled and married his grandfather

[notnice80@hotmail.com]

Could it possibly be a molecule of some sort

[groza528]

I don't think it's a molecule, because if it were then all the blues should have the same number of bonds (lines) etc.

[albert141]

I learned about pedigrees in my science book. This particularly looked like a pedigree, which shows the genes and traits of a family.

[daniel801]

what's the word for the pedigree for a work of art?

[One Skunk Todd]

Daniel801,
I think the word you're looking for is Provenance.
Todd

[fetus]

i think you guys are wrong about the child part. thats an integral clue to what the puzzle represents. what it is, i haven't figured out yet. but when i emerge from the womb, i'll let you know.

think aboot-tit people: You're a kid that has been coloring at class, would you be drawing provenances and pedigree charts? Would you have any umbilical cord of an idea what any kind of genealogical diagram is? What's key to this puzzle is logic...and my inability to color because i haven't grown hands yet.

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that'd be the butt, bob.

[OcularGold]

yea, good thinking, fetus. except the guy who wrote the puzzle (mith) says the story has nothing to do with it.

anyways.. it sorta resembles the periodic table, i think.
or maybe its referring to a specific atom.. like those are the filled s orbitals.. beneath it are the p orbitals.. but.. what the heck is that in the bottom right corner? could be lanthanides and that other row in the periodic table...

[DropOfaHat]

For some reason I have the feeling it's either a movie plot, or a famous story that we'd all know - I entertained the notion that it might be "Goldilocks and the three bears", but I couldn't make it work.

Oooh, I just had a thought, maybe it's the Godfather?!? Not exactly sure what all the lines mean, maybe dotted line is betrayal?

Not sure why, but I'm convinced it's the visual representation of a movie storyline...

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[Qball]

Hmmm ... a family tree ....

The top row of dots represent two couples?
One couple had three children, one of those three children marries the only (?) child of the other couple. Then they had eight kids?

Eight is enough?

***This puzzle is difficult to do this way, anyway we can get the diagram into this thread? ***

[This message has been edited by Qball (edited 03-07-2002 05:01 PM).]

[OcularGold]

[This message has been edited by OcularGold (edited 03-07-2002 05:20 PM).]

[smallwonder]

It looks like a map of my grade scool and the dots represent different rooms.

[Icarus]

It looks like an org chart to me. I've been in several companies where you've had people report to someone, but they also could be tasked by another team leader or manager - hance the dotted lines. Of course, if you tie the whole thing about being from a kid, I doubt a kid has ever seen an org chart.

[planet_buzz]

I haven't much to add, other than do you guys think the "child" comment can simply refer to the parent/child relationship that is demostrated on this graph? So a faimly tree, org chart, or even a complex process of some sort shouldn't be negated simply because a child (ie a young person) wouldn't understand it.

Just my thoughts while reading the responses...

[BearTalon]

I don't think it's a family tree. Since people would (normally) be male or female, there would only be two colours, one for each, and they'd pass down the tree. And what would the X mean? Probably the old warning about marrying cousins that are not far enough removed from you.

I've seen org charts like this one, but what do the colours represent. Org charts usually use colour for departments. Again, what's X?

The molecule idea has similarly been rejected for the lines.

I can't debate the pedigree since I've never seen one, but the idea of genetics sounds like a good guess. But why then would there be multiples of blue in a group? If the other dominant colour was brown, I'd guess eye colour.

So, are we left with a map of some kind? X marks the spot

[The Cheshire Man]

X marks a divorce?

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Now you see me, now you don't... but keep smiling!

[Neo]

I just see some sort of Family Tree, but the dotted lines and lower right kinda make that impossible I guess.

[fetus]

we have a loser! me. i didn't realize the guy who said that it was just a story was the guy who wrote the puzzle. btw, i thought at first family tree and maybe the reason for more than 2 colors (male/female) had to do with gender as well as only child/kids-no kids. couldn't make anything pan out though. still have no clue. maybe the "x" is an aborted fetus though?

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that'd be the butt, bob.

[Top Gun]

Could it be a legend from Greek or Norse mythology (mith-ology !).

The yellow dots could be gods, the blue male, red female. (grey, brown ???)

Is that Oedipus Rex in the lower right corner?

[CrystyB]

Actually Oedipus' actions were not marrying his grandma'... But yes that's what made me think of the inter-generation marriage.

But why are there two types of lines? The low part would suggest backtrack lines are not "solid", but then there's the brown horizontal link.

[tomcooper]

Perhaps it could be the chain of command in some sort of organisation as opposed to a family? That doesn't really fit with the two "parent" nodes joining to one though. Just an idea.

[Macaco Do Cavalo]

A kid comes home and says "mom, mom, look i colored out the part where my students sit in my class"

or it looks like something off the back of the coloring box

[imran]

I haven't heard of a pedigree but I do understand the term "family tree"
I also agree that the bottom right is sort of confusing

[cyberthug_assassin]

Yes i agree with imran because i am him

[frogus]

couldn't there be some sort of a clue in the whole writing on a fridge thing? was this guy just making up a pointless story because a puzzle saying 'what's this picture?' would be too boring, or is there more in it than that?

[Werebear]

I've been pondering this for a while, and thought that kid might've been reading too many Greek Mythology books.... however, when faced with relating that simple graph to a site such as http://chaos1.hypermart.net/myth/ftgm.html, well... Anyone think this is worth trying to hack at more?

Werebear

[CrystyB]

Nice graph! But even without it i would have advised you (and others would have too) to find other directions. Oedipus is a dead end. 100%.

[This message has been edited by CrystyB (edited 03-12-2002 07:42 PM).]

[barold]

what does the reference to "inspired by VSD" mean?

[Zealot]

If you mean "VSP," then it's the Visitor Submitted Puzzles forum. There is a diagram puzzle thread there.

[fetus]

to lay the subject to rest once and for all because people (myself included) did not know/notice that mith wrote the puzzle: THE STORY IS MADE UP AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PUZZLE AS STATED IN A POST BY THE PUZZLE'S MAKER, MITH, EARLIER IN THIS THREAD. while he was fetile in making up a story that could impact the answer, no need for the rest of us to be fetus'(aside from me, i can't help it) and keep asking the same question over and over.

[cyberthug_assassin]

well perhaps it is some screwed up circuitry maybe the kid is a prodigy the x could be a light bulb but what about all the dead ends

[perma]

I think this might be a species map of sorts for homo sapiens. The different colors could represent different species that evolved over time. Recent articles suggest man migrated out of Africa in 3 waves, this could be the three different levels on which the blue dots appear...

The different colors could also represent different primates...

What do you think of this idea?