Thursday 29 November 2012

NG 11

New game after the cut.


Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

391

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6:

539

Round 7:

Round 8:

748

Round 9:

Spoiler space

6 comments:

Victor said...

I had a very good game this time, particularly with the letters where a risky play worked out (Round 5) and I guessed the conundrum.

However, I was rather bummed in the first numbers round where I needed 3 more seconds or so to get the exact answer down and otherwise only had a 1-away written down.

So I elected to cheat in the 1st numbers game. I'm declaring the exact answer and if any other poster solves it in the same way and we need to check notepads, Geoff may kick me off the show with contempt. Otherwise, my cheating pays dividends.

1. PISTOL
2. GAMETIC
3. 391 = (7*10 - 4)*6 - (7 - 2)
4. ANEMONES
5. THWACKED
6. 539 = 7*(75 + 2)
7. DEPOSIT
8. 748 = 75*10 - (6 + 1 - 5)
9. BLOODLIKE (15s)

Geoff Bailey said...

Heh. Good results, and virtually identical to mine. In fact, we do have to compare notepads and the show's producers are going to look askance at you. *chuckles*

1. PISTOL
2. GAMETIC
3. 391 = 6*(7*10 - 4) - (7 - 2)
4. MEANNESS
5. THWACKED
6. 539 = 7*(75 + 2)
7. DESPITE
8. 748 = 75*10 - 1 - (6 - 5)
9. BLOODLIKE (3 to 5 seconds)

I was likewise feeling a bit risky with THWACKED, but fortunately it was good. ANEMONES is a lovely spot, much nicer than MEANNESS.

For anyone feeling like playing around with the words more after time, there is a findable better answer in round 1. There's also better answers to be had in rounds 2 and 7, but those are somewhat less common.

Jan said...

I like GAMETIC, Victor and Geoff. I need to look it up and remember it.

I was happy to get the 2 eight letter words, and the conundrum. Yay!

PISTOL
MAGIC
(6*7-4)*10 + 7 + 2 = 389 (2 off)
After time (7+6)*10=130. 130*(7-4)= 390
MEANNESS
THWACKED
(1+75)*7 + 5 + 2 = 539
DEPOSIT
6-5=1. 1+1=2. 75*10 - 2 = 748
BLOODLIKE - 15 secs

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine.

PISTOL
TEAM
out of time
SEASON
WHACKED
(5+2)*75+5*(2+1)=540 (1 off)
BESTED (not on this one!)
(6+1)*(25+75)+5*10=750 (2 off)
BLOODLIKE (15 secs)

Geoff Bailey said...

Longer breakdown:

Round 1: O O I B P T S I L

I had BOOT, BOOTS, PISTOL, and PISTIL (part of a flower). The BIO- fragment turned up early but seemed unusable... but if that P had just dropped out of existence then the next consonant was a G for BIOLOGIST.

Some sources would allow POTBOILS, but the Macquarie does not. There are two sevens, however: TOPSOIL / POLOIST.


Round 2: G M T A E I X C O

I had MAGE, IMAGE, EXOTIC, and GAMETIC (adjective derived from GAMETE). I missed another seven that was easy from what I had: EXOTICA.

TOXAEMIA is "entry into, and persistence in, the bloodstream of bacterial toxins absorbed from a local lesion [...]". That has two A's, but it has a variant spelling of TOXEMIA which is another seven. The remaining seven is the adjective derived from that: TOXEMIC.

The same adjective form leads to one of the eights: TOXAEMIC. The other is EXOGAMIC, the adjective derived from EXOGAMY ("the custom of marrying outside the tribe or other social unit").


Round 3: Target 391 from 7 10 4 6 7 2

With six small numbers often the challenge is simply to get close, and then to hope to adjust. The more multiplication you can do in getting close, the more tweaking room you have.

In this case, 6*7*10 is 420 which is closish. The offset is 29, which is odd, so it seems clear that we will have to either add or subtract 7 as a final step. That leaves the 2 and 4 plus tweaking, with the requirement being to get to either 22 or 36.

I spotted the former option first, getting 391 = 6*(7*10 - 4) + 2 - 7. Then I saw that the latter also worked with 391 = 6*(7*10 - 4 - 2) + 7.


Round 4: O N S E A N M S E

I had NOSE, MEANS, MASONS, SEASON, and MEANNESS.

The other eights are ANEMONES (a lovely spot from Victor) and probably MANNOSES (MANNOSE being one sugar, in the chemical sense). The sevens are ANEMONE, MANNOSE, and ONENESS.


Round 5: H C K E A W T I D

I had HECK, CAKE, WHACK, wondered about THWACK, WHACKED, and similarly wondered about THWACKED. It seemed a standard enough part of colloquial usage that I decided to chance it, and that was the right decision; THWACKED is the only eight.

The other sevens are WATCHED and WITCHED.


Round 6: Target 539 from 75 50 7 5 2 1

The first observation was that 7*75 was close, and then the difference being 14 = 7*2 highlighted the factorisation of 7*77 and produced the solution 539 = 7*(75 + 2).

The target is also 49*11, and I spent a little while trying to get that to work since 49 = 50 - 1 is easy. I was pleased to emerge with a way to get 11, but after I had written down 539 = (50 - 1)*(75 + 2)/7 I realised that all I had really done here was make 7 in an expensive way as (50 - 1)/7. Oh, well.


Round 7: D P S E I E B T O

I had SPED, PIDES (PIDE: "Turkish flatbread") / SPIED, ESPIED, SPEED, DESPITE, BEDPOST, and DOPIEST / DEPOSIT / POSITED.

The eights here are POETISED (POETISE: "to compose poetry") / EPIDOTES (EPIDOTE being a mineral). I was a bit disappointed to miss POETISE as it's popped up a couple of times so I know it is a word, but I've yet to see it.

There's a few other sevens, of which I'll just mention TOPSIDE and EPISODE.


Round 8: Target 748 from 75 25 5 10 1 6

It's easy to get close with 75*10, and then the final adjustment is straightforward: 748 = 75*10 - 1 - (6 - 5). This turns out to be the only solution, aside from pointlessly replacing 5 by 25/5.


Round 9: IDOL BLOKE

With the K around I focused on that, and saw the -LIKE potential quickly. The answer of BLOODLIKE followed, although I still vacillated for a few seconds as I was not certain it was a word. Nothing better presented itself, so that was what I went with.

(Belatedly, I wish that I had use KOBOLD LIE as the conundrum. Oh, well.)

Sam Gaffney said...

1. PILOTS
2. IMAGE
3. (one away) 392 = 4*2*7*7
4. ANEMONES/MEANNESS
5. THWACKED
6. 539 = 7*(75 + 2)
7. DEPOSIT
8. 748 = 75*10 - 1-6+5
9. BLOODLIKE (~12s) Never heard of the word, but it was plausible. Beware of lying kobolds.