Discuss Get Out! here

[Sofis]

Puzzle Link.

[jatill]

Maybe we can toss Spot through the window to go get help.
Or if not, he can help us fend off starvation longer!

[Gaspode]

What about wrapping the marbles in a piece of a shirt and then putting them in the urinal? Then it might be big enough to get stuck, and the marbles would block most of the water from getting through. This is probably too easy to be the solution.

Hmmm, why is the water hot? That could be useful.

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You can't lose if you win.

[RubberDuck]

I wonder if the dog has a collar latch that could be used to pick the lock on the door.

You could put the marbles in the hat and block the drain since you cant use your other clothing.

[This message has been edited by RubberDuck (edited 01-14-2003 07:57 PM).]

[sodasipper]

Why not set the door on fire?

(The answer to this is either really complicated and involes everything, or really simple and there are items you have that will throw you off.)

[RubberDuck]

that would only work if there was sunlight to go through the magnifying glass.

[RubberDuck]

The part about the window goes into more detail then the door and you are given a hint on something that might work, probably to make you focus more on the window than the door

[Suspence]

Just a thought, but wouldn't it be difficult for someone inside the room to know that the wooden door was locked and "barred". There would be no way to tell the door was barred on the outside if it was locked as well. Possible solution? The door is locked and barred on the inside(the only possible way you would know it was barred), so unlock and unbar the door and mosey on out of there.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 01-14-2003 11:32 PM).]

[alester]

You can try to use your magnifying glass to concentrate sunrays on the door and burn it!

[Duffman]

Tie your clothes into a rope, catch it on the window handle, pull window open. Let the sound of rushing water attract friendly wooden creatures in through the window. Eat them to survive. (Squirrels can move pretty fast, so it may be good to keep the dog around to catch them for you.)

[Duffman]

Woodland creatures that is, not wooden...wood tastes nasty.

[Applebyd]

It's interesting that it says the window is NEAR the ceiling not in the ceiling. If it were IN the ceiling we'd need sunlight directly (OK not an exact real world solution I know) overhead but if it's in a window that opens up a greater range
of times.

First impressions say Sunlight and Magnifying glass on the door BUT we've no idea which wall the window is on so we can't tell if it gets any sunlight directly through it.

I'm wondering how much of the info is redundant (Which is funny because in a "New Years Drink" you need to use everything)

Someone tell me to shut up if I'm being absurd <GRIN>

DaveA

[Nauplius]

Since the marbles won't block the drain, perhaps the magnifying glass will. Just a thought.

[DropOfaHat]

I'm wondering if the heat of the water might swell the marbles just enough to block the drain holes... again, seems too easy, and also, it might be risky to fill the room with painfully hot water (granted, it would probably cool quickly, but still...)

Darn it, why is the water "hot", and how could that help?!?

I hope it's not a gag answer (you know, like that stupid one where you look in the mirror, see youself, then you "saw" yourself, you use the saw to cut the table in half, two halves make a whole, and you climb out the hole... I'm sure it's nothing like that)

[referee]

shut up if you are being absurd <GRIN> *ducks*

[Icarus]

My first instinct is to go along with Duffman - use your clothes to make a rope, tie the bag of marbles to one end to act as a weight and grapple the window handle. Now use the clothes rope to climb up, open the window, and climb down the other side.

But that seems too easy. Why bother mentioning the urinal and the hot water, unless the hot water is meant to be used to expand the metal band around the magnifying glass ? Is the sewer pipe a possible escape route ? I will assume not, since it doesn't tell you how big the sewer opening is.

What about simply digging a hole under the cabin wall ? Does the cabin have a wooden floor, or dirt floor ?

[Jimbo]

Since the window is small and near the ceiling, I doubt starting a fire is possible. I also assume that the drain pipe isn't large enough for a person.

The hat might be rainproof, thus it could block the drain and the marbles could weight it down. The idea also struck me whack the dog with the marbles and then use him to cover the drain. That would be work until the unconcious (or dead) dog began to float. Both ultimately fail unless the door is water-tight, so you use your clothes to seal the door. Another possibility is breaking the top of the urinal to acquire a piece of porcelin to place over the drain using clothing as a seal. Again the marbles must hold it in place and the door sealed with clothing.

If those are too easy, how about packing marbles tightly into the door cracks and throwing the hot water on the door with the hat, the wood expands and eventually cracks.

[SaberKitty]

CzarJ?

[Applebyd]

I asked for that didn't I.

Still.

On further reflection (and the cue about the door being Watertight)

Is the room airlocked so starting a fire would use up all the available oxygen? I'm assuming NOT as the puzzle doesn't mention asphyxia as a possible method of demise.

Just as a sideline. How much water pressure on the door would be required to spring it from it's lock? The previous suggestion about swelling the wood may cause it to jam into the frame tighter?

Just my 2p worth.

DaveA

[RubberDuck]

Theres usually a gap under doors, wouldnt the water just seep out if you tried flooding the room

[cha]

The holes are "just precisely large enough", so getting the marbles to swell or deform somehow might work. Either use the magnifying glass to heat marbles enough that they flatten out enough to block the holes - or - wrap a marble in cloth from the hat, stick it into a hole and hold it there long enough for it to swell and the cloth will act like a gasket. (Water that is "almost" painfully hot is not painfully hot.)

[Antrax]

Or use the water to heat the marbles to make it expand.
Antrax

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"If it comes down to a choice between being unloved and being vulnerable and sensitive and emotional, then you can just keep your love." -Victor Mancini, "Choke"

[Sofis]

That, for the record, is what I was going for.

[Tec_Picasso]

This one is a bit MacGyver-esque... and a bit of luck...

Use the clothes and bag of marbles to create a grappling hook and open the window... from which you should use your magnifying glass and the sun to burn your clothes and throw them out of the window... the constant hot water in the pipes would hint that it is hot outside, because if were a water heater the water would cool after a time... at least where I live in the summer everything turns brown and yellow and forest fires abound... there would need to be weeds out side to burn... (start a forest fire to save yourself, environmentalists would have a field day there; it's better than taking the stomach of the dog to block the drain)... the smoke/fire would bring the fire department fairly quickly...

What would happen if you blocked the nozzle the water is coming out of rather than the drain itself?

[gdf]

Use the magnifying glass to reflect onto the marbles. after thoroughly heated, mold them in the hot water(so they do not return to normal state) and plug into drain.
Alternate - burn hat with magnifying glass, toss marbles into flame(marbles contained in wet clothes, so that the clothes do not burn), pull wet clothes out after marbles are heated, mold and plug drain holes, escape

[wordcross]

I find it interesting that glass marbles will apparently melt when light passes through them...

Sofis has said he's been aiming toward the marbles expanding in the hot water, and he made the puzzle, so that's a part of it. If not all of it. Maybe using sunlight to burn the door, but have water flood the place so it doesn't all burn down arond you... or maybe not. I had thought at first that maybe you would use the marble to break the window, but that doesn't address how one would get up to the window. And stuffing the door frame with clothes won't work, because it's already been said that the clothes are too porous to block any water.

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I'm not an actor, but i play one on TV.
GLih8evilstuff: I hope you never call me, my caller ID would explode.
I don't suffer from insanity, i enjoy every minute of it.

[startpilot]

I think we are asked to look for an other way of escape than flooding or the window. The only way I can think of is wetting the door by means of the hat and the hot water and hope is bulges out of its hinges. (The door is going to bulge to the inside since blocked at the outside).
Is there a geyser outside to supply the hot water ? I see a trench in the floor as urinal in stead of a porcelain one. For the rest I am blank.

[SaberKitty]

since this is a door to the outside, it's hinges are on the inside. couldn't you just pry the nail-like-thing that holds the hinges together and take the door off?
(also- dosen't it have to be incredibly hot to melt marbles? all the ones i've seen are glass and i'm pretty sure you can't get the water hot enough to do that- and even if you could, then wouldn't it be way too hot to touch to be able to mold?)

-SK

[wordcross]

the hot water doesn't melt the marbles, it merely causes them to expand slightly. It doesn't take too much heat to do that to glass. The magnifying glass idea wouldn't work because the marbles might be clear glass, and since the puzzle doesn't say, it's obviously not part of the solution.

[Bicho the Inhaler]

Originally posted by Antrax:

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Or use the water to heat the marbles to make it expand.

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Originally posted by Sofis:

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That, for the record, is what I was going for.

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For those who don't know, Sofis = Peter Jägare, i.e. the Resident Minotaur and the guy who wrote the puzzle. The intended solution has been reached.

It takes an extremely hot fire to melt glass:

Originally posted by here:

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The melting point of glass is between 800 degrees Celsius and 950 degrees Celsius [...]

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Higher than the melting point of lead. It's impossible to "mold" glass without heat resistant equipment, so that doesn't seem like much of an option...

[wordcross]

yes, and that too.

[Icarus]

I would just like to point out what may be the obvious. The puzzle simply states you have a bag of marbles. Now it's been a long time since I've played with marbles, but where do we know for a fact the marbles are made from glass ? Are the marbles made from plastic ? How hot does the water have to be to allow you to change the shape of the marble, either to swell it, or pound it flat. If they're glass marbles, it would have to be VERY hot. If they're plastic, then maybe there's a chance.

But I still think plastic or otherwise, the water from the urinal would not be sufficiently hot enough to do the trick - if it was - it would be too hot for you to come into direct contact with.

[JustCurious]

Yes, to get glass to melt, it needs to be at 800 to 950, but for it to be workably melted, it should be closer to 1100 Celsius. And if it doesn't cool really slowly it will crack, so it wouldn't make a seal, even if you could somehow melt it with the magnifying GLASS (wouldn't this heat up and melt as well in trying to melt the marbles if this were to work?), and get it into the urinal without yourself, anything yuo use, or the urinal bursting into flame, it would cool with cracks, and be useless. But, as pointed out already, melted glass is quite hot, and could not be formed in your current situation or handled. And you all were worried about a little almost painfully hot water...

[SaberKitty]

How hot does it need to be to get the glass to just expand? (people have been saying it's pretty easy to do, but do you need higher temps than 100C?

-SK

[i googled and it seems that the coefficient of expansion for most marbles (the glass that is used to make marbles) ranges from about 85 to 90 (most sites just say 90). but for a marble, how much bigger would it need to get in order to plug the holes in the drain? would a COE of 90 be enough when the max temp is 100?]

[This message has been edited by SaberKitty (edited 01-16-2003 11:04 PM).]

[Bicho the Inhaler]

quote:

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The idea of flooding the room to reach the window strikes you, but the circular draining holes in the bottom of the urinal are just precisely large enough to allow your marbles to drop through and clank uselessly into the sewers, and your clothes are far too porous to serve as blockage.

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It says "just precisely large enough," implying that any amount of expansion, however small, would do the trick. The holes and the marbles have to be shaped precisely enough to make a seal. If the marbles don't expand uniformly, there could be leaks.

[SaberKitty]

so what's the hat for? the puzzle-solving atmosphere?

[Sofis]

Yep . I was going for the "boy detective" stereotype.

Also, a bit of distraction.

[Legion]

I hope that the expansion suggestion is not the answer. The coefficient of expansion of glass is smaller than that of porcelain, thus the holes would in fact become larger than the marbles. I know it's all very pedantic but if the answer required technical knowledge, it should not penalise those who know a bit more than necessary.

[SaberKitty]

then the holes would get smaller, not bigger

[Legion]

No, that's not true. When a ring expands, the whole in the middle increses in diameter. To see a practical demonstration, just draw a ring in ome drawing package and resize it.

The expnading ring used to be part of O'level physics practicals