Puzzle of the Day

Wednesday, March 18

Most vinyl records were designed to be played back at a speed of 33 rpm, meaning that the turntable made 33 revolutions per minute. (Yesterday's puzzle revolved around this fact; see below for an explanation!)

However, some records were designed for other speeds—most commonly 45 rpm. Thus, many record players had a lever to adjust the speed of the turntable. As a kid, I liked to play my parents' 33 rpm records at 45 rpm. As you would expect, this caused them to play faster. For example, a 2:38 song like Yellow Submarine was sped up to 1:56.

In what other, less obvious way was the song affected? (Don't bother trying to figure it out by doubling the speed on YouTube. Actually, do, because "Yellow Submarine" sounds quite catchy that way. But you won't experience the same effect you'd get with a record!)

   


Check back tomorrow for the answer, a shoutout to all the solvers, and a new puzzle!


Yesterday's puzzle:

Back in the early 2000s, when some of the oldest Proofniks were busy being born, Dr. Shapiro discovered an Italian website with a bunch of MP3s of classical music (tagline: "Free and Legal!!"). Here is an excerpt from one of those MP3s. By listening, you can tell that it was digitized directly from WHAT MEDIUM?

(If you don't see an audio player in your browser, click here to open the audio file.)

For bonus impress-Dr.-Shapiro points, identify the piece of music and/or the composer.

Answer:

The original medium was a vinyl record. The giveaway is the staticky "fffft" sound every 2 seconds or so, which was probably caused by a scratch on the record. Most records have a playback speed of 33 revolutions per minute, and sure enough, you can hear that "fffft" exactly 33 times in the 1-minute excerpt I posted.

  Yo dawg, I put some counting in your counting so you can experience the pleasure of counting and being aware that you are counting while you count without being aware that you are counting.  

The excerpt is from Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad".

Congratulations to solvers Peter M., Zachary Z., Zane, Hazel, Maddy, Charlie, as well as teachers Dr. Yetman, Zachary, and Jason (who also identified the symphony)!