Saturday 15 December 2012

NG 22

New game 22 is up.  Enjoy!  Also the longer results for new game 21.


Round 1: G A T I R N E E P

I had GAIT, RATING, TEARING, INTEGER, TAPERING, and REPEATING.  I almost missed that nine, so phew!

The other eights are PETERING (PETER as a verb: "(in whist) to signal or call for trumps"), PERIGEAN (adjective derived from PERIGEE: "the point at which a satellite orbit is the least distance from the centre of the gravitational field of the controlling body or bodies"), and APERIENT ("[...] a mild laxative").


Round 2: P S R O E A M S I

I had SPORE, SIMPERS, and PROMISES.  For a moment I thought that PRIMROSES was there, but alas not.

The other eights are IMPOSERS and PROSAISM ("a prosaic expression").


Round 3: Target 109 from 100 75 25 3 3 7

A rather straightforward target; I went with 109 = 100 + 3*3.


Round 4: N F S I E U C M L

I had FINS, FINES, INFUSE, and MESCLUN ("a salad of mixed edible leaves and herbs").  My "there's something here that you've seen before" sense was going nuts in this round, but I could not see any better.  I kept circling back to the not-there INFLUENCES, or rather the non-repeated letters of it; those were the right ones to focus on, as it turns out.

That almost-memory was related to a similar mix from NG 15, which produced FUNICLES (plural of FUNICLE: "(in plants) the stalk of an ovule or seed").  That's the only eight; the other sevens are FUNICLE and probably LEUCINS (LEUCIN being a variant spelling of LEUCINE, a particular amino acid).


Round 5: H W U A B I K C E

The good mixes come to a crashing end with an ill-fitting assortment.  I had BACK and HACKIE (colloquial for a taxi driver).

HACKIE is the only six, as it turns out.  The fives are HAIKU, BEACH, WHACK, WACKE ("a soft rock of fine texture, derived from disintegrated basaltic rocks"), and my favourite diacritical mark, the HÁČEK.  (It's my favourite because it is the only one that is used in its spelling.)


Round 6: Target 783 from 50 100 1 3 10 2

The offset of 17 can be awkward, and the 33 looked somewhat more promising.  Still, I started by trying to get close (800) and then realised that the leftovers got me handily to the remaining 17.  The resulting solution is 783 = (10 - 2)*100 - (50 + 1)/3.

There's a few other solutions; in retrospect using the factor of three might have been the most obvious working approach: 783 = 3*(2*100 + 50 + 10 + 1).  A somewhat trickier option is to make it as 2*390 + 3 via 783 = 2*(10*(50 - 1) - 100) + 3.


Round 7: D R I O T B A T O

I really wanted a final A for ABATTOIR, but an E would also have been fertile territory.  As it was, I had TROD, ORBIT, and ADROIT.

There is one other six: TOROID.  But also a seven of RIDOTTO ("a public ball or social gathering, often in masquerade (common in the 18th century)").  That's a new word to me.


Round 8: Target 323 from 25 50 75 4 3 3

The target is 325 - 2, but that 2 does not seem easily acquirable after getting to 325.  I wrote down a fallback one away 324 = 4*75 + 25 - 3/3, then thought that there must surely be a useful tweak from the 4*75 start.  It turned out that there was, giving me the solution 323 = 4*(75 + 3 + 50/25) + 3.  This turns out to be the only way to solve this game.


Round 9: AH TEATIME

I got to this by considering the -ITATE ending, and producing HAEMITATE out of it, which was pronounceable but nonsense.  Then I realised that swapping the I and the second A produced the much better HAEMATITE.  (Total time: 14.7s.)

8 comments:

Jan said...

Yay - I finally got a conundrum after just over 6 minutes!

I was pretty happy with this game, and realized that some new words have entered my brain, and new ways of trying to find the numbers solution.

REPEATING
IMPRESS, SOAPIER, SIMPERS
100 + 3*3 = 109
FUNICLES
HACKIE
(10-2)*(100-3+1)= 784
after time (100*2 + 50 + 10 + 1)*3 = 783
BROOD
(3*3 + 4)*25 = 325
HAEMATITE - approx 6 mins

Mike Backhouse said...

Only one numbers game and fairly ordinary words. Well done Jan on your words and that conundrum. I would not have got it if I had spent 6 hours!

TEARING
MISERS
100+75/25+3+3=109 (kind of embarassed not using the more straightforward 3*3 for the 9!)
CLIMES
WHACK
x out of time (liked your after time solution Jan)
RABID
4*75+25-3=322 (1 off)
x

Geoff Bailey said...

Impressive letters results tonight, Jan -- FUNICLES in particular. And a good after-time solution to 783.

Mike: Nice work getting to one away in the last numbers round; that would be a rather good result in practice, I think. Also, I really like CLIMES as a word -- nice one!

Jan said...

Geoff - getting that conundrum so quickly was amazing - 14.7 secs! Wow. It will be interesting to see who won out of you and Sam - hehe

Mike - I like your solution for 109, and you got one better than me with the 322 target

Victor said...

I was a little off pace in the numbers today, though I did get them after time.

1. REPEATING
2. PROMISES
3. 109 = 100 + 3*3
4. INFUSE
5. HACKIE
6. 1-away: 784 = (10 - 3 + 1)*(100 - 2)
7. ADROIT
8. 1-away: 322 = 4*75 + 25 - 3
9. X

I thought that was a weird conundrum - I managed to get HEMATITE after a few minutes and was surprised when I saw what the answer was. In my defence, the online Macquarie suggests my spelling variation is the more common one in Australia.

Geoff Bailey said...

Thanks, Jan, but my money's on Sam. *chuckles*

Victor: Yes, a weird conundrum I'll grant. I'm afraid they are going to be somewhat erratic in quality.

Sam Gaffney said...

Geoff wins both his bet and scored higher in a canter. Jan did very nicely with FUNICLES.

REPEATING
PROMISES
109 = 100 + 3*3
MISCUE
HACKIE
one off: 784 = (50-1)*(10+2*3) Nice move from Geoff here, I saw the 3*261 way shortly after time.
BROOD
one off: 324 = 4*(75+3+3)
2.5s HAEMATITE

Jan said...

Sam, you are amazing! Finding that conundrum in 2.5 secs. Wow (I guess that is why you are the best. :) )