Galactic Riddles

Abakos landscape: rods of gigantic abacuses with beads as big as asteroids crossing the sky, abacus-shaped cranes and cardboard boxes, a small island with coconuts, a gold chain, a chessboard with dominoes, a crate of candle stubs with three new candles, and paint buckets with rollers

Planet

Abakos

You can spot Abakos from far away: it is circled by rings made of gigantic abacuses, with beads as big as asteroids sliding back and forth along the rods. The inhabitants, the Abakians, spend their lives counting, arranging, combining, and recombining anything at all: chain links, cardboard boxes, coconuts, candle stubs, dominoes.

Local law requires that every problem have a solution, and that the solution be as economical as possible: the fewest moves, the fewest cuts, the fewest boxes. On Abakos, wasting a single motion is considered extremely rude. That’s why everyone thinks carefully before opening their mouth, and sometimes they don’t open it at all.

Dord feels fairly comfortable here, but he suffers whenever someone resorts to trial and error instead of method. Liz ended up refereeing a quarrel between some sailors and a monkey, and consoled herself with a few dance steps on the abacus beads. M00N counted the stars in the sky over Abakos: they seemed infinite to her, and that made her very happy.

Riddles from this planet

  • In the freight port of Abakos, among abacus-shaped cranes, an alien warehouse worker watches a stack of sealed cardboard boxes while Dord counts them

    The Shipment

    At the Abakos cargo port, 96 large and small packages are shipped in full boxes. How many boxes were used in all?

  • At night on an Abakos beach, five sailors sleep next to a pile of coconuts, while one sneaks up on it and a monkey watches

    The Coconuts #2

    Five sailors, a monkey, and a night of secret divvying up: how many coconuts were there at the start? And with N sailors?

  • On a small tropical island on Abakos, three shipwrecked sailors quarrel around a pile of coconuts, watched by a monkey, Liz, and M00N

    The Coconuts #1

    Three sailors split a pile of coconuts, each taking half plus half a coconut, and one is left over. How many were there to…

  • On Abakos, three alien house painters with rollers, paint buckets, and an abacus argue in front of a half-painted wall, while Liz, Dord, and M00N look on

    The Three Painters

    On Abakos, three painters argue over who’s fastest. How long will it take them to paint one room if they all work together?

  • In a candlelit alley on Abakos, beneath the giant abacuses in the sky, an old alien drifter melts four candle stubs together to make a new candle, next to M00N

    The Vagabond’s Candles

    An Abakian vagabond makes a new candle from four stubs: to light seven candles, what is the fewest stubs he must find to start…

  • At a rental shop on Abakos, Liz shows a seven-link gold chain to the owner of a rocket sled, while the Kinesys smokes in the background

    The Gold Chain

    A seven-link gold chain, one link a day for seven days: what is the fewest links you must break? And with 30?