BPs sorted left are tagged with the keyword "abstract" on the OEBP. The solution is not an easily-checked or concretely-defined geometrical or numerical property in pictures.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP507 BP508 BP509 BP510 BP511  *  BP513 BP514 BP515 BP516 BP517

abstract, meta (see left/right), links, keyword, left-self, sideless

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left-sorted Bongard Problems have the the keyword "left-narrow" on the OEBP.

Call a rule "narrow" if it is likely to be noticed in a large collection of examples, without any counterexamples provided.

A collection of triangles will be recognized as such; "triangles" is a narrow rule. A collection of non-triangular shapes will just be seen as "shapes"; "not triangles" is not narrow.

Intuitively, a narrow rule seems small in comparison to the space of other related possibilities. Narrow rules tend to be phrased positively ("is [property]"), while non-narrow rules opposite narrow rules tend to be phrased negatively ("is not [property]").

Both sides of a BP can be narrow, e.g. BP6.

Even a rule and its conceptual opposite can be narrow, e.g. BP20.

What seems like a typical example depends on expectations. If one is expecting there to be triangles, the absence of triangles will be noticeable. (See the keyword assumesfamiliarity for Bongard Problems that require the solver to go in with special expectations.)

A person might notice the absence of triangles in a collection of just polygons, because a triangle is such a typical example of a polygon. On the other hand, a person will probably not notice the absence of 174-gons in a collection of polygons.

Typically, any example fitting a narrow rule can be changed slightly to no longer fit. (This is not always the case, however. Consider the narrow rule "is approximately a triangle".)

It is possible for a rule to be "narrow" (communicable by a properly chosen collection of examples) but not clearly communicated by a particular collection of examples satisfying it, e.g., a collection of examples that is too small to communicate it.

Note that this is not just BP514 (right-narrow) flipped.

Is it possible for a rule to be such that some collections of examples do bring it to mind, but no collection of examples unambiguously communicates it as the intended rule? Perhaps there is some border case the rule excludes, but it is not clear whether the border case was intentionally left out. The border case's absence would likely become more conspicuous with more examples (assuming the collection of examples naturally brings this border case to mind).

See BP830 for a version with pictures of Bongard Problems (miniproblems) instead of links.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP508 BP509 BP510 BP511 BP512  *  BP514 BP515 BP516 BP517 BP518

dual, meta (see left/right), links, keyword, side

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left-sorted Bongard Problems have the the keyword "right-narrow" on the OEBP.

This sorts Bongard Problems based on how BP513 (left-narrow) would sort them if they were flipped; see that page for a description.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP509 BP510 BP511 BP512 BP513  *  BP515 BP516 BP517 BP518 BP519

dual, meta (see left/right), links, keyword, side

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left examples have the keyword "experimental" on the OEBP.

Right examples have the keyword "traditional" on the OEBP.

Experimental BPs push the boundaries of what makes Bongard Problems Bongard Problems.

Traditional BPs show some simple property of black and white pictures. The OEBP is a place with many wild and absurd Bongard Problems, so it is useful to have an easy way to just find the regular old Bongard Problems.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP545 BP546 BP547 BP548 BP549  *  BP551 BP552 BP553 BP554 BP555

subjective, meta (see left/right), links, keyword, left-it

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left examples have the keyword "antihuman" on the OEBP.

Right examples have the keyword "anticomputer" on the OEBP.

Easy abstract Bongard Problems are typically anticomputer Bongard Problems.

See keyword help for Bongard Problems that can be made easier for humans to solve by the selection of helpful examples.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP560 BP561 BP562 BP563 BP564  *  BP566 BP567 BP568 BP569 BP570

spectrum, anticomputer, meta (see left/right), links, keyword, right-self, viceversa

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Leo Crabbe

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP648 BP649 BP650 BP651 BP652  *  BP654 BP655 BP656 BP657 BP658

meta (see left/right), links, metaconcept, primitive

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Harry E. Foundalis

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP708 BP709 BP710 BP711 BP712  *  BP714 BP715 BP716 BP717 BP718

meta (see left/right), links, metaconcept, primitive

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Harry E. Foundalis

Left examples have the keyword "concept" on the OEBP.

Each concept has a corresponding metaconcept page, which describes that concept and catalogues Bongard Problems featuring that concept.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP809 BP810 BP811 BP812 BP813  *  BP815 BP816 BP817 BP818 BP819

meta (see left/right), links, keyword

bppage [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left-sorted Bongard Problems have the keyword "creativeexamples" on the OEBP.

Be encouraged to contribute new interesting examples to Bongard Problems with this keyword.

There is much overlap with the keyword hardsort.

This is what it usually means to say examples fit on (e.g.) the left of a Bongard Problem in various creative ways: there is no (obvious) general method to determine a left-fitting example fits left.

There is a related idea in computability theory: a "non recursively enumerable" property is one that cannot in general be checked by a computer algorithm.

But keep in mind the tag "creativeexamples" is supposed to mean something less formal. For example, it requires no ingenuity for a human being to check when a simple shape is convex or concave (so BP4 is not labelled "creativeexamples"). However, it is not as if we use an algorithm to do this, like a computer. (It is not even clear what an "algorithm" would mean in this context, since it is ambiguous both what class of shapes the Bongard Problem sorts and how that would be encoded into a computer program's input. There are usually many options and ambiguities like this whenever one tries to formalize the content of a Bongard Problem.)

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP861 BP862 BP863 BP864 BP865  *  BP867 BP868 BP869 BP870 BP871

notso, meta (see left/right), links, keyword

bp [smaller | same | bigger]

Aaron David Fairbanks

Left examples have the keyword "contributepairs" on the OEBP.

When this keyword is added to a Problem, OEBP users are advised to add a corresponding right example for every left example they add and vice versa.

It is common for Bongard Problems to present left examples on the left side and corresponding altered versions of those examples on the right side, tweaked only slightly, to highlight the difference and make the solution easier to see (see keyword help).

This is common in more abstract Bongard Problems that admit a wide range of examples, a variety of different styles or types (e.g. BP360). Showing two versions of the same thing, one on the left and one on the right, helps a person interpret what that thing is meant to be in the context of the Bongard Problem; whatever qualities vary between the two in the pair must be relevant.

If a person cannot sort an example according to the solution property without seeing its corresponding opposite example, the Bongard Problem is invalid (see https://www.oebp.org/invalid.php ). There is no one rule dividing the sides; the solution is not a method to determine whether an arbitrary example fits left or right. See also Bongard Problems with the keyword collective, which are similarly borderline-invalid.

A BP in which each left example corresponds to a right example and vice versa could be remade as a Bongard Problem in which the left examples are the pairs. For example BP360 would turn into "a pair consisting of the ordered version of something and the chaotic version of the same thing vs. a pair of things not satisfying this relationship." This process would turn a Bongard Problem that is invalid in the sense described above into a valid one.

(See keyword orderedpair.)

In some "contributepairs" Bongard Problems there really is a natural choice of left version for every right example and vice versa (see keyword dual); in others the choice is artificially imposed by the Bongard Problem creator.

When "contributepairs" Bongard Problems are laid out in the format with a grid of boxes on either side of a dividing line, the boxes may be arranged so as to highlight the correspondence: either

A B | A B

E F | E F

G H | G H

or

A B | B A

E F | F E

G H | H G.

Adjacent-numbered pages:
BP914 BP915 BP916 BP917 BP918  *  BP920 BP921 BP922 BP923 BP924

meta (see left/right), links, keyword, oebp, right-self, instruction

bppage [smaller | same | bigger]
zoom in left (correspondence_bp)

Aaron David Fairbanks