April 24, 2008
Busy, busy, busy
Legend has it that (1) was describing a “special” form of (2) to (3) as a lark (possibly hoping to fire off (3)s imagination and get him to write a book). After (1) and (3) died, (4) wrote a novel about it that turned out to be one of his greatest hits.
Identify 1, the special form of 2, 3 and 4, and also name the novel.
Cracked by: udupendra , manubhardwaj , Anon , Dibyo , Ginkgo100 , Sandesh , duriel , varuns88 and Mo.
Answer: Irving Langmuir was describing a fictional form of ice to H G Wells when the latter visited G.E. Wells wasn’t particularly impressed by the whole thing, but Kurt Vonnegut was there at the time, and heard the description. After Langmuir and Wells failed to publish the idea, he took it and based the novel Cat’s Cradle around Ice-Nine. (Water crystallizes when it comes in contact with Ice-Nine)
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April 24th, 2008 at 10:25 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209057932 )
Langmuir, Ice-9, HG Wells, Kurt Vonnegut, Cats Cradle.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:04 pm, GMT -0700 ( 1209063890 )
(Special form of) 2. Ice-nine
4. Kurt Vonnegut
Novel: Cat’s Cradle
I knew this much, and Wikipedia tells me 3. is H G Wells and 1. some dude called Irving Langmuir.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:34 pm, GMT -0700 ( 1209065664 )
1. Irving Langmuir
2. Ice
3. HG Wells
4. Kurt Vonnegut
Cat’s Cradle.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:30 pm, GMT -0700 ( 1209076205 )
1. Irving Langmuir
2. Solid Water, which inspired Ice Nine
3. H G Wells
4. Kurt Vonnegut, and Cat’s Cradle
April 24th, 2008 at 6:37 pm, GMT -0700 ( 1209087461 )
As the story goes, Nobel-winning chemist Irving Langmuir (1) was given the duty of entertaining H.G. Wells (2) on a visit to GE. Langmuir described to Wells a hypothetical form of ice (2) that was so stable it would not melt at room temperature. Kurt Vonnegut (4) later wrote about it in Cat’s Cradle, calling it ice-9.
Good puzzle! I would not have cracked it, except that I recognized Vonnegut.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:02 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209114153 )
1. Langmuir of GE
2. Its special form of water/ice called Ice-nine
3. H.G Wells
4. Vonnegut
Novel: cat\’s cradle.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209140843 )
1. Irving Langmuir.
2. Ice-Nine.
3. H G Wells
4. Kurt Vonnegut
Novel: Cat’s Cradle.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:18 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209143904 )
1-Irving Langmuir
2-Ice Nine
3-H G Wells
4-kurt vonnegut
April 25th, 2008 at 10:19 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209143965 )
And the novel is Cat’s Cradle
April 25th, 2008 at 11:14 am, GMT -0700 ( 1209147273 )
(4) is Vargas Llosa - “Breakfast of Champions” ?
April 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm, GMT -0700 ( 1209164087 )
1. Irving Langmuir
2. Ice 9?
3. ?
4. Kurt Vonnegut
Name of novel: Cat\’s Cradle