Round 1:
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Round 2:
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Round 3:
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Round 4:
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Round 5:
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Round 6:
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Round 7:
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Round 8:
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Round 9:
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Spoiler space
9 comments:
My results (before I go to sleep, so probably not my best performance):
1. BEACON
2. REMATCH
3. 341 = (9 - 2)*6*8 + 4 + 1
4. ZEROES
5. BASSES
6. 174 = 2*(100 - 9 - 4)
7. PLUNGE
8. 909 = (6*75 + 7)*50/25 - 5
9. -
Arrggghhhhh - still no luck with your conundrums. I don't think I have even got one yet! - even with lots of extra time
I was happy with some of the words I found, but until I see how the rest of you went, I won't know how I did. And was chuffed that I worked out a solution for the first numbers round, even though it was after time. I am trying to do your factorisation (?) method when I can't get somewhere the normal way.
Anyway...
BOONIE (I remembered that from another game - and since David Boon was a fav cricketer of mine, it stuck in my memory)
MATCHER
(8*4 + 2)*(9+1)= 340
After time (9+8)*(4+6) = 170. 170*2 + 1 = 341
REMOTES - is that ok?
BASSES, BIASES
100+50+ 2*9 + 7 = 175
After time 100+50 + 9 + 7 + 2*4 = 174
PLUNGE
75*(7+5) + 50/25 + 6 = 908 (1 off)
-
One off on all three numbers games. However unusally for me I did get the conundrum.
BACON
MATCHER
Jan's way
GREETS
BASSES
Jan's way
ANGLE
Jan' way - yet again!
UNSULLIED (tried options with UN...ED and got this just within time - 25 sec
PS - Victor, I wished I'd seen BEACON. And I was thinking how can I use that Z in round 4. Getting ZEROES was just brilliant! In fact Lily and David would have been remarking on the irony of a numerically based word solution!
Well done Mike on getting the conundrum.
Thanks Mike, but ZEROES is slightly overshadowed by REMOTES/METEORS.
I went and checked the solutions, it seems these letters rounds really were tough and it was not possible to find longer than 6/7 in them so we did reasonably well, and congrats to Jan on a max letters game.
Yes, another tough game on the letters this time. Nice work finding REMOTES, Jan -- it is valid. And very well done to get the 909, Victor. And congratulations on solving the conundrum, Mike!
Longer breakdown in the next comment, but here were my answers:
1. BEACON
2. CHATTER
3. 341 = (4*8 - 1)*(9 + 2)
4. GREETS
5. ABASES
6. 174 = 2*(100 - 9 - 4)
7. PLUNGE
8. 910 = 7*(75 + 50 + 5) [1 off]
9. UNSULLIED
I forgot to note that between the three of you (Victor, Jan, Mike) you hit a max game. That's good going!
Round 1: E A C O I B N F O
I had CABIN, BEACON, and CONFAB. It looks like the only other six is FIANCE.
Round 2: A U H T E T R C M
I had HATE, THETA, HATTER, MUTATE, CHATTER, and REMATCH.
The other sevens are RATCHET and MATCHER.
Round 3: Target 341 from 2 4 9 1 8 6
I recognised the target as 31*11 -- it's the first pseudoprime for base 2, for the number theory types out there -- and soon had the solution 341 = (4*8 - 1)*(9 + 2). I also noted that it was one away from 342, which is 18*19 or 9*38, which gave the alternative 341 = (8*4 + 6)*9 - 1.
Round 4: R E O G Z E T S M
I had OGRE, ZERO, GREET, GREETS, and ZEROES.
There were some sevens here, one of which Jan found: REMOTES. The others are METEORS and GEMOTES (GEMOTE being a variant spelling of GEMOT: "English History a meeting or an assembly in Anglo-Saxon England, as for judicial or legislative purposes").
Round 5: B F S S A E I S A
I had BASS, BASES, BIASES, ABASES, and saw that SEA BASS was there but figured it was two words.
The other sixes are BASSES and BAASES (BAAS being South African for "sir; boss").
Round 6: Target 174 from 100 50 9 2 7 4
It seemed likely that this could be made as 150 + 24, but it took a bit more fiddling than first expected to find the solution 174 = 100 + 50 + 2*(9 + 7 - 4). Then I saw that descent from above was easier to get 174 = 2*(100 - 9 - 4), and finally experimented with 224 - 50, as 224 is 7*32 which seemed promising. That led me to 174 = 7*(100/4 + 7) - 50, where one of those 7's is 9 - 2. (In my solution I made the second one that way.)
Round 7: N G U E A L P N L
I had LANGUE ("the abstract, underlying system of language possessed by all members of a speech community"), PLUNGE, and ULLAGE ("the loss of wine or the like from its container by reason of leakage or evaporation"; it is also a verb, interestingly: "to create an ullage"). I amused myself by toying with UNPLANE and PUNNAGE, but not seriously.
Six seems to be the best -- the others are PLAGUE, GUNNEL (another form of GUNWALE, but also a type of fish), and LUNGAN (variant spelling of LONGAN, a type of fruit, as well as the tree that provides it).
Round 8: Target 909 from 25 50 75 7 5 6
The factorisation of 9*101 is obvious but seems infeasible to use. There's many ways to get close, and I ended up settling for one away with 910 = 7*(75 + 50 + 5).
There's a rather neat solution that uses a technique which can be hard to spot: Subtracting a small number from a large and then multiplying. That allows a non-obvious way to get to 900 as 50*(25 - 7), and then application of another easily-overlooked technique finishes it off to give 909 = 50*(25 - 7) + 75/5 - 6.
The other solution that I made note of (produced by the program in my case, but Victor did rather well to find it within time) gets to 900 as 12*75, making that 12 in a useful fashion that allows tweaking and the final adjustment is relatively easy once you have that key insight: 909 = (50/25)*(6*75 + 7) - 5.
There are two other solutions, but I do not recall what they are.
Round 9: UNDUE ILLS
I encountered this in different form, which may have helped a little, but with two U's in play the UN- fragment was a standout to try. Tacking on -ED at the other end left few letters to play with, and with the pair of L's making a natural fit there was not too much work left to do after all of those observations. I found UNSULLIED in a few seconds, but as said it is hard to usefully compare times in this case.
BEACON (considered BONIFACE, turns out it is listed in other sources)
x TRACHEUM (invalid, I believe - selected over CHATTER)
(one off) 342 = (8*(6-1)-2)*9, A bit disoriented due to environment and lack of practise, I looked for 38*9+1 and believe I would have got it in time in full form.
REMOTES
ABASES
174 = 2*(100 - 9 - 4)
PLAGUE
one away: 910 = 7*(75 + 50 + 5) Very well done from Victor here.
~2s, hard to be precise
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