Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 October 16

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October 16

Game you can play in your head.

Something I've been puzzling on for a while - are there any documented examples of fun/challenging solo games you can play without any equipment - using just what's inside your head? SteveBaker (talk) 05:48, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Find a topic, say, vegetables, then say the first vegetable that comes into your head, then say another vegetable that begins with the final letter of the previous one. Example: carrot > turnip > parsley, etc. This can be done with any topic of your choice, such as animals or countries, or whatever. It's a Japanese game called 'Shiritori', and it's usually played in groups, but there is no reason why it can't be played solo. It's good for language learning. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 07:50, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

I sometimes play pub cricket when I'm driving, although you have to play both teams and you need to go past lots of pubs. I'm astonished that we have an article for that one. Alansplodge (talk) 07:55, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

I often play mental word games to help me get to sleep, e.g. think of someone with the initials AA, BB, CC, etc. But you asked for documented examples, and I am reminded that the Samaññaphala Sutta contains the following passage: "Whereas some brahmans and contemplatives, living off food given in faith, are addicted to heedless and idle games such as these — eight-row chess, ten-row chess, chess in the air, hopscotch, spillikins, dice, stick games, hand-pictures, ball-games, blowing through toy pipes, playing with toy plows, turning somersaults, playing with toy windmills, toy measures, toy chariots, toy bows, guessing letters drawn in the air, guessing thoughts, mimicking deformities — he abstains from heedless and idle games such as these. This, too, is part of his virtue." "Chess in the air" is imaginary chess: memorizing the board. These guys had a phenomenal memory (they memorized the teachings of the Buddha, such as this one) and apparently this was one of their illicit pastimes.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:26, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Mathematics Staecker (talk) 11:36, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

As you are well aware, that is not a game. --Viennese Waltz 11:38, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Maybe you're playing it wrong then. The process of trying to think through the correct steps of a mathematical argument and construct a correct proof has exactly the character of a "solo game". If you are familiar enough with the subject you're thinking about (and don't need a computer), you can do it all in your head "without any equipment". Staecker (talk) 13:15, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

My children do math problems for fun. Indeed, with no encouragement from me; they'll often challenge each other with questions, or just make up problems and solve them on their own for fun. So, yes, mathematics can clearly be a game. --Jayron32 13:22, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

• This page lists several concentration and mental training exercises (it doesn't use the word "games", but maybe you'll find them fun...) Perhaps something like that is what you're looking for? --Jayron32 12:07, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

It is possible to play chess in your head, but you need to be pretty special to do it. Sharansky credits it with keeping him sane, while imprisoned in solitary confinement by the USSR. --Dweller (talk) 13:45, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

WP:WHAAOE: Blindfold chess --Dweller (talk) 13:47, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Back in my school days, I devised a solo game of my own: Given a square or rectangular grid, can you move a chess knight piece or similar jumping chess piece all around the grid, visiting each square exactly once? I came pretty close many times, but never completed it. This is a single-player game, and entirely abstract and deterministic, so you only need the outside world to remember where you have been before. If you have a perfect memory, you can play the whole game entirely within your own brain. JIP | Talk 20:18, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

This is the knight's tour. Widneymanor (talk) 21:39, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

Trivia: a knight's tour of the 4 x4 "Survivor" board is the way to way to win the game at the end of Return to Zork. Mitch Ames (talk) 11:45, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

Military aircraft registrations

Do military aircraft have the same registration codes as civilian aircraft (such as OH-U621, the only aircraft I have ever controlled myself), or do they have their own system? For example, in Finland, all civilian aircraft have a registration code in the format OH-xxx, where xxx is either a three-letter code or a letter followed by three numbers. Do military aircraft follow the same system, or do they have their own, or do they use registration codes at all? JIP | Talk 20:06, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

See aircraft registration, and for a related subject, call sign#Aviation. It's up to the individual country whether to reserve a distinct range of codes for military use. --174.88.134.156 (talk) 20:52, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

'Previous Occupations' of Famous People

Hello,

I'd like to know if 'Previous Occupations' of famous people are being captured in the Wikipedia database. I was able to locate a list of Presidents that includes a field called 'Previous Occupation(s)'. This was quite helpful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_by_occupation

I'd like to know if a similar list exists for all famous people in your database.

Please advise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrkenken75 (talk • contribs) 23:23, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

"List of previous occupations of all famous people" would be a very unwieldy article, as well as likely being impossible to cover. Going by definable subsets such as the US President could work. Then you could have an umbrella article "Lists of previous occupations" or something like that, which would consist solely of links to other lists. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:00, 17 October 2015 (UTC)

ObPersonal, but I think it likely that 99.9% of famous authors would qualify automatically, since (in my experience as an erstwhile Bookseller and Editor) almost no successful authors take that profession up as their first occupation. There will of course be some exceptions, which I now confidently expect others to list so as to refute me :-). {The Poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 14:23, 19 October 2015 (UTC)