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The results for today's experiment with live collaborative puzzle-solving probably didn't do much to prove the adage "two (or three) heads are better than one," but it was a lot of fun. "Puzzlemaster" Scott Page gave us these two brain teasers to illustrate some of the points from his book <a href="Amazon.com">The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies and results for the first one are still coming in. Here are the puzzles and some of the better solutions follow after the jump.

Food puzzle:
Name three foods or beverages, any two of which go well together, but which are virtually inedible when all of them are mixed together.
Example: Chicken with pineapple; Chicken with Mole Sauce (chocolate); Pineapple with chocolate all work, but the three together would not.
Example: Beer with 7Up (shandy); Beer with whiskey (boilermaker); whiskey with 7Up (7 & 7), but the three would make you sick.

Rope puzzle:
You have two ropes that each take one hour to burn, but they have knots so they don't burn uniformly. Can you use them to mark off 45 minutes of time?

Answers
Rope puzzle solution (using only matches and rope): Light rope one at one end. At the same time light rope two at both ends. When rope two is done burning, 30 minutes will have elapsed. At that time, light the other end of rope one. After you light rope one's other end it will take 15 more minutes for it to completely burn, leaving you with two completely burnt ropes 45 minutes later. --R.A.

Suggestions for Food Puzzle:
1) peanut butter with dill pickle slices on white bread (yum, yum, yum)
2) peanut mustard dressing/dipping Asian sauce (mmmm good)
3) who doesn't like mustard and pickles on their hamburger or vegeburger in my case?
peanut butter + dill pickles + mustard = yuk! --M.K.

Pork
Maple Syrup
Oatmeal (you could bread the pork with the oatmeal) --T.

Banana + chocolate = dessert.
Banana + pork = Caribbean inspired dish.
Chocolate + Pork = Mexican mole style dish. --S.M.

Someone points out that this is called "the incompatible food triad" and was invented in the 70s. Some classic solutions:
tea, milk, lemon...
potatoes, mayonnaise and cabbage...
chocolate, chicken, and honey...
the best one that's been discovered is
cucumbers, sugar, and yogurt... --J.D.

pie crust
raspberries
spinach
=
raspberry pie
spinach quiche
spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette --S.D.

Peanuts, jelly and lamb.
Peanut butter and jelly. Grilled lamb satay with peanut sauce. And lamb with jelly. --E.M.

chocolate/steak/strawberries --M.G.

1. Chocolate 2. Peanut butter 3. Chicken
chocolate + chicken = mole
chocolate + peanut butter = Reese's cups
chicken + peanut butter = satay
chocolate + chicken + peanut butter = no, thanks! --K.S.

peanut butter, jelly, and chocolate! But not all together. --M.H.