Lateral Puzzles • View topic

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:50 pm

The council of a major city investigated new satellite maps and made a shocking discovery: the amount of surface water in the Northern suburbs was orders of magnitude higher than they had believed. However, after some quick action, things end up working out very well for the council, with minimal effort and damage. Explain.

BOATS. Caveat Earlispoilor. OAATP rules apply.

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:36 am

Are factorials relevant?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:37 am

Are factorials relevant? Not this time!

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:45 am

Was the council correct in their discovery?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:47 am

Was the council correct in their discovery? yes (in that their realisation pursuant to seeing the maps reflected reality)

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:09 am

Do things work out well in that the amount of surface water is reduced?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:10 am

Do things work out well in that the amount of surface water is reduced? no, good q

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:13 am

Is it relevant that the satellite maps were new?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:14 am

Is it relevant that the satellite maps were new? yes

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:16 am

Did the satellite maps contribute to some new discovery?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 3:18 am

Did the satellite maps contribute to some new discovery? yes

by **GalFisk** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:07 am

Does the extra water constitute flooding?

by **Earnest** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:52 am

Assuming that GalFisk question is related to either flooding and tides I'll make a different question:

are volcanic lakes relevant? (the idea its that council wanted to construct more houses on the suburbs and thought that there was an active Vulcan since no exploration on the top was made for security reasons. The map showed surface water going very deep which was however on the top of the volcano meaning at the same time that thee volcano was inactive and that the water was a lot but concentrated on a single point. The volcano made a natural dig and houses could be easily constructed in the suburbs, i.e. also the surface of the volcano was safe)

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:00 pm

GalFisk

Does the extra water constitute flooding? no, good Q

Earnest

Assuming that GalFisk question is related to either flooding and tides I'll make a different question:

are volcanic lakes relevant? no (the idea its that council wanted to construct more houses on the suburbs and thought that there was an active Vulcan since no exploration on the top was made for security reasons. The map showed surface water going very deep which was however on the top of the volcano meaning at the same time that thee volcano was inactive and that the water was a lot but concentrated on a single point. The volcano made a natural dig and houses could be easily constructed in the suburbs, i.e. also the surface of the volcano was safe) n/a

by **Balin** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:17 pm

Is the extra water itself the discovery?

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 07, 2020 9:25 pm

Is the extra water itself the discovery? At face value, yes, but it led to a more extrinsic discovery

by **Balin** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:54 am

Was the water found on Mars?

by **WiZ** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 12:56 am

Was the water found on Mars? no

by **Balin** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:02 am

Hmph...

Was the water found somewhere on Earth?

by **WiZ** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:05 am

I did say it was BOATS, and it isn't *that* loosely based...

Was the water found somewhere on Earth? Yes - in the suburbs of a major [Earth] city.

by **Earnest** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:55 am

water leaks within houses relevant?

by **WiZ** » Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:33 pm

water leaks within houses relevant? no

by **Balin** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:59 am

Was the water in liquid form? Solid? Gas?

by **LemonCurry** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:31 am

Was the city located in a desert, the expectation of surface water was near zero, so the finding of any unexpected water source exceeds the expectations by several magnitudes? (hope this counts as one question :-)

)

by **GalFisk** » Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:11 pm

Is the extra water put there by: precipitation? Streams? Humans? Animals? Condensation? Melting?

by **WiZ** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:53 pm

Balin

Was the water in liquid form? this Solid? Gas?

LemonCurry

Was the city located in a desert, the expectation of surface water was near zero, so the finding of any unexpected water source exceeds the expectations by several magnitudes? no (hope this counts as one question :-)

) I believe it does

GalFisk

Is the extra water put there by: precipitation? Streams? Humans? this, good Q Animals? Condensation? Melting?

by **Doriana** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:28 pm

Is the water in swimming pools?

by **WiZ** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:45 pm

Is the water in swimming pools? Yes!

by **hominid** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:55 pm

Were the swimming pools put there illegally?

by **WiZ** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 9:33 pm

Were the swimming pools put there illegally? no

by **Doriana** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:23 pm

Were the swimming pools removed? drained? left alone?

by **WiZ** » Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:24 pm

Were the swimming pools removed? drained? left alone? this (by the council, at least)

by **JenBurdoo** » Sat Dec 12, 2020 2:37 pm

Is the pool water damaging in some way, or thought to be so?

by **Enjay** » Sat Dec 12, 2020 8:23 pm

Were there more swimming pools than the council would have expected in the relevant area?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:06 pm

JenBurdoo

Is the pool water damaging in some way, or thought to be so? no

Enjay

Were there more swimming pools than the council would have expected in the relevant area? yes!

by **Doriana** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:27 pm

Were the extra swimming pools taken as a sign that the area is becoming more affluent, which was seen as desirable by the council?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:31 pm

Were the extra swimming pools taken as a sign that the area is becoming more affluent, which was seen as desirable by the council? no

by **Enjay** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:23 pm

Was the council's original assumption of how many swimming pools there were in the area based on: a previous survey? Historical data? An assumption? People's reporting of whether they had a swiming pool? Satellite photos?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:43 pm

Was the council's original assumption of how many swimming pools there were in the area based on: a previous survey? Historical data? An assumption? no to these People's reporting of whether they had a swiming pool? yes! Satellite photos? no

by **Enjay** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:59 pm

Did people claim they didn't have a pool when they did?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:01 pm

Did people claim they didn't have a pool when they did? yes

by **Enjay** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:09 pm

Were they trying to avoid some kind of tax penalty or similar? Trying to avoid being perceived as rich?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:30 pm

Were they trying to avoid some kind of tax penalty yes or similar? Trying to avoid being perceived as rich? no

by **Doriana** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:33 pm

Were the people retroactively taxed for their pools?

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:40 pm

Were the people retroactively taxed for their pools? yes, and then taxed properly on an ongoing basis

***** SPOILER *****

This is a true story from Athens. Swimming pools were heavily taxed, but the city council relied on citizens to self-report for tax purposes. With only 324 households reporting pools. the authorities took to satellite imagery for confirmation. They discovered that there were, in fact, 16,974 households with pools. The authorities were thereafter able to collect the appropriate amount of tax from the pool's owners.

Congratulations to Doriana on the solution, Enjay for a lot of legwork, and everyone else for playing!

by **GalFisk** » Sat Dec 19, 2020 5:06 am

Nice one. You could send this to the Futility Closet podcast people, I think it'd be right up their alley.

by **WiZ** » Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:10 pm

Thank you for the compliment and the suggestion, GalFisk. I have sent Greg an e-mail, so perhaps we will hear it on an episode next year.

by **WiZ** » Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:12 pm

Greg just got back to me - apparently I have been beaten to the punch. That's the trouble of basing puzzles off true stories, I suppose. Still, he sends his regards and a renewed promise to check the forum out if he ever has a spare minute.

[WiZ] Wet Wet Wet

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