Wednesday, January 31, 2024

TANTALIZER 226

 A school girl wearing an orange blazer which has a pink badge on the pocket. The girl is wearing a turquoise hat and a khaki scarf. Her skirt is black

The picture was generated by AI using the description "A school girl wearing an orange blazer which has a pink badge on the pocket. The girl is wearing a turquoise hat and a khaki scarf. Her skirt is black"

SCHOOL COLOURS

 

TELL ME, PROFERROR PINHOLE, WHICH SCHOOL DOES YOUR DAUGHTER ALICE GO TO.

 

LET ME THINK.

 IS IT THE ONE WITH THE ORANGE HAT AND THE TURQUOISE SCARF?

OR WITH THE KHARKI BLAZER AND THE ORANGE EMBLEM?

OR WITH THE PINK BLAZER AND THE ORANGE SCARF?

OR WITH THE KHARKI SCARF AND PINK EMBLEM?

OR WITH THE KHAKI HAT AND TURQUOISE EMBLEM?

I FEAR I CANNOT RECOLLECT.

 

GOOD HEAVENS. PROFESSOR, HOWEVER MANY SCHOOLS ARE THERE?

 

JUST FOUR AND I HAVE ONE DAUGHTER AT EACH.

BETH GOES TO ST GERTRUDE'S

CLARE WEARS  A TURQUIOSE HAT AND

DEBBIE WEARS A KHARKI EMBLEM.

ST ETHELREDA'S FLAUNTS A PINK SCARF,

ST FAITH'S AN ORANGE BLAZER AND

ST IDA'S A PINK HAT.

 

ANE WHOSE ARE THOSE CLOTHES FLUNG DOWN ON THE FLOOR OVER THERE?

 

THE TURQUOISE HAT AND THE KHARKI BLAZER BELONG TO DIFFERENT GIRLS.

AS FOR THE TURQUOISE BLAZER, WELL I THINK YOU MIGHT WORK THAT OUT FOR YOURSELF."


Author Martin Hollis

Published in the New Scientist

 


More information about  TANTALIZE - a heuristic problem solver written in CODIL


Try and solve the puzzle yourself before seeing how TANTALIZE solves it.


The TANTALIZE APPLICATION is told that the problem involves lists of items which need to be fitted together (REQUIREMENTS), and that it should trace the route it uses to solve the task.

REQUIREMENTS.

TRACE.

END.

Tantalizer request the names of the sets to be considered

SELECT = ?

HATS & SCARVES & EMBLEMS & DAUGHTERS & SCHOOLS

TYPE IN HATS

SELECT NAME = ?

This creates a set of HATS which contains four members such as HAT = ORANGE

The process is repeated for SCARVES, EMBLEMS, DAUGHTERS & SCHOOLS

HAT: ORANGE & KHAKI & TURQUOISE & PINK

TYPE IN SCARVES

SELECT NAME = ?

SCARF: TUREQUOISE & ORANGE & KHAKI & PINK

TYPE IN EMBLEMS

SELECT NAME = ?

EMBLEM: ORANGE & PINK & TURQUOISE & KHAKI

TYPE IN DAUGHTERS

SELECT NAME = ?

DAUGHTER: ALICE & BESS & CLAIRE & DEBBIE

TYPE IN SCHPPLS

SELECT NAME = ?

SCHOOL: ST GERTRUDE & ST ETHELDREDA & ST FAITH & ST IDA

The next step is to type in the statements which are stated to be true.

TYPE IN REQUIREMENTS

HAT = ORANGE; SCARF = TURQUOISE.

BLAZER = KHARKI;  EMBLEM = ORANGE.

BLAZER = PINK; SCARF = ORANGE.

SCARF = KHAKI; EMBLEM = PINK.

HAT = KHAKI; EMBLEM = TURQUOISE.

DAUGHTER = BESS; SCHOOL = ST GERTRUDE.

DAUGHTER = CLAIRE; HAT - TURQUOISE.

DAUGHTER = DEBBIE; EMBLEM = KHAKI.

SCHOOL = ST ETHELDREDA; SCARF = PINK.

SCHOOL  = ST FAITH; BLAZER = ORANGE.

SCHOOL = ST IDA; HAT = PINK.

END.

The next step is to type in the statements which are stated to be false.

DESCRIBE ILLEGAL CONDITIONS

HAT = TURQUOISE; BLAZER - KHAKI.

END.

The goal is set to find the situation when all four daughters have been allocated schools

TYPE IN GOAL

DAUGHTER (NUMBER) = 4.

END.

At this point the TANTALIZE package has all it needs to correctly link the HATS & SCARVES & EMBLEMS & DAUGHTERS & SCHOOLS sets.  In effect the CODIL items are organised to produce what could be considered, in stored program computer terminology to be a program (set) which generates the answer.  In the process the REQUIREMENTS and ILLEGAL CONDITIONS are sorted, using a simple learning routine, in order to generate the answer in a minimum number of steps. Because TRACE is defined TANTALIZE displays the changes to the FACTS (CODIL's short term memory).

 

The trace produced by TANTALIZE is reproduced below with 2 changes from the original listing.  The item number  (in red)  represents the position of the CODIL item in the FACTS and the indentation on the display.  Ii addition, to emphasise where the search has backtracked the items in the final answer are highlighted,

 

01 SOLUTION FOUND = 0

02   TRACE

03       START SELECT = HATS

04         HAT = TURQUOISE

05           SCARF - BLUE

06             BLAZER  - ORANGE

07               EMBLEM - KHAKI

06             BLAZER = TURQUOISE

07               EMBLEM = KHAKI

05           SCARF - KHAKI

06             BLAZER = ORANGE

07               EMBLEM = PINK

08                 DAUGHTER = CLARE

The first school is quickly identified with minimal backtracking because the first selected SCARF was wrong.

09                   SCHOOL = ST FAITH

10                     HAT = PINK

11                       SCARF = PINK

12                         BLAZER = KHARKI

13                           EMBLEM = ORANGE

14                             DAUGHTER = BESS

14                             DAUGHTER = ALICE

12                         BLAZER = TURQUOISE

13                           EMBLEM = KHAKI

14                             DAUGHTER = DEBBIE

11                       SCARF = ORANGE

12                         BLAZER = PINK

13                           EMBLEM =KHAKI

14                              DAUGHTER = DEBBIE

15                                 SCHOOL = ST IDA

The second school also involved some backtracking because the first selected SCARF was wrong.

16                                   HAT = KHAKI

17                                    SCARF = PINK

18                                     BLAZER = KHAKI

18                                     BLAZER = TURQUOISE

19                                       EMBLEM = TURQUOISE

20                                          DAUGHTER = BESS

20                                          DAUGHTER = ALIC E

21                                            SCHOOL = ST ETHELDREADA

The third school only involve in minor backtracks because the number of available option is small.

22                                              HAT = ORANGE

23                                                SCARF = TURQUOISE

24                                                  BLAZER =KHAKI

25                                                    EMBLEM = ORANGE

26                                                      DAUGHTER = BESS

27                                                        SCHOOL = ST GERTRUDE

No backtracking is involved for the fourth school as there was no alternative options.

01 SOLUTION FOUND = 1

THE FOLLOWING REPRESENTS A SOLUTION OF TANTALIZER NO 226

 

01 SOLUTION FOUND = 1

02   TRACE

03       START SELECT = HATS

04         HAT = TURQUOISE

05           SCARF - KHAKI

06             BLAZER = ORANGE

07               EMBLEM = PINK

08                 DAUGHTER = CLARE

09                   SCHOOL = ST FAITH

10                     HAT = PINK

11                       SCARF = ORANGE

12                         BLAZER = PINK

13                           EMBLEM =KHAKI

14                              DAUGHTER = DEBBIE

15                                 SCHOOL = ST IDA

16                                   HAT = KHAKI

17                                    SCARF = PINK

18                                     BLAZER = TURQUOISE

19                                       EMBLEM = TURQUOISE

20                                          DAUGHTER = ALICE

21                                            SCHOOL = ST ETHELDREADA

22                                              HAT = ORANGE

23                                                SCARF = TURQUOISE

24                                                  BLAZER =KHAKI

25                                                    EMBLEM = ORANGE

26                                                      DAUGHTER = BESS

27                                                        SCHOOL = ST GERTRUDE

 

The above is a simple listing of the FACTS (CODIL's short term memory) and the  TANTALIZE package had no facility for formatting the answer. However for problems of this kind there would have been no problem in displaying the answer as a table:

 

 

HAT

SCARF

BLAZER

EMBLEM

DAUGHTER

SCHOOL

1

TURQUOISE

KHAKI

ORANGE

PINK

CLAIRE

ST FAITH

2

PINK

ORANGE

PINK

KHAKI

DEBBIE

ST IDA

3

KHAKI

PINK

TURQUISE

TURQUOISE

ALICE

ST ETHELDREDA

4

ORANGE

TURQUOISE

KHAKI

ORANGE

BESS 

ST GERTRUDE

 

After displaying the answer the system continues looking in case there are two answers, This involves some major backtracking - but no further answer is found..

 

06             BLAZER = TURQUOISE

07               EMBLEM = PINK

08                 DAUGHTER = CLAIRE

05           SCARF = ORANGE

06             BLAZER = PINK

07              EMBLEM = KHAKI

SOUUTION FOUND = 1


                        In batch mode the problem took 57 seconds to solve.

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