Friday 26 July 2013

NG 180

New game 180 is ready for your playing pleasure.


Round 1: G S M N A A O M T

I had MANS, MANGAS / GASMAN, rightly rejected GOATMAN, and GAMMONS (GAMMON: "a smoked or cured ham").

The other seven is AMONGST.

My selection: GAMMONS


Round 2: A E O O I D H T S

I had IDEA, HOOTED, wondered about SHOOTED (as an adjective for plants or such, but it's not valid), HOODIES, HOISTED, TOADISH, and TOADIES / IODATES.

Seven looks like the limit, with the others being SOOTHED, OSTEOID ("bonelike"), and DHOOTIS (DHOOTI being a variant spelling of DHOTI: "a traditional Indian garment for the lower part of the body, comprising a piece of cloth wrapped around the hips and passed loosely between the legs, worn in different styles in different regions").

My selection: HOISTED


Round 3: Target 274 from 100 5 3 5 9 2

I successively adjusted my way down from 300 with a little tweaking, getting 274 = 3*(100 - 9) + 5/5.

My selection: 274 = 3*(100 - 9) + 5/5


Round 4: A I I A L S F E F

I had an invalid ALIA (thinking of ET ALIA, but of course that is a phrase), ALIAS, FAILS, FLIES, and LIAISE.  Some time later I came back to look at these letters and saw FAILSAFE as a possible eight.  I'd have definitely declared that if I had seen it within time, but my slowness saved me -- the Macquarie insists that it be hyphenated: FAIL-SAFE.

LIAISE appears to be the only six on offer, and the best to be done.

My selection: LIAISE


Round 5: B R S U E U C T C

I had RUBS, RUBES, CUBES, TRUCES / CRUETS, BUSTER, and SUTURE.  After time I noted BRUTES as another six.

Six does seem to be the limit; the others are UTERUS, TUBERS / REBUTS, RECUTS / RECTUS ("any of several straight muscles, as of the abdomen, thigh, eye, etc.") / ERUCTS (ERUCT: "to belch"), and CERCUS ("one of a pair of tail-like appendages in some insects and other arthropods, serving as tactile organs") / CRUCES (plural of CRUX: "a cross").

My selection: TRUCES


Round 6: Target 445 from 25 75 100 8 7 5

It seemed clear to attempt to make this as 450 - 5; I started with 445 = 7*(75 - 25) + 100 - 5 and continued with 445 = 7*75 - (100 - 25) - 5.  Then I considered the factorisation 5*89 and found the alternative of 445 = *(100 - 8 - 75/25).

My selection: 445 = 7*(75 - 25) + 100 - 5


Round 7: N K B S E O U R N

I had KENS, BONES, BUNKERS, and UNBROKEN.  There's no corresponding noun sense so UNBROKENS is not valid, nor is UNBONKERS.

UNBROKEN is the only eight; the other sevens are UNBROKE (an obsolete form of UNBROKEN), UNROBES / BOURNES (BOURNE being a variant spelling of BOURN: "destination; goal"), BONKERS, and NEURONS

My selection: UNBROKEN


Round 8: Target 416 from 75 50 25 100 3 7

A tricky mix this, with the offsets difficult to make and not quite enough fours for 4*104 to work out.  I thought I might have to settle for just getting close (I think I had two-away at the time) when I spotted that there was another way to make the 104, and the solution followed: 416 = (100/25)*(75 + 50 - 3*7).  I was quite pleased with that.

It was definitely a tricky answer, and it turns out to be the only solution.

My selection: 416 = (100/25)*(75 + 50 - 3*7)


Round 9: MALIGN FLY

It took me a little while to juggle the -LY and -ING fragments, but I got to FLAMINGLY soon enough.

My selection: FLAMINGLY (4.0s)

5 comments:

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine:

GAMMONS
HOSTED (HOISTED - that missing I - grrr)
2*(100+5+5+9*3)=274 (scenic route)
x- FAILSAFE without the hyphen. Grrr.
BRUTES
Geoff's way but went over time
BONKERS
nothing in time
x- hadn't heard of FLAMINGLY

Victor said...

1. MANGOS
2. HOODIES
3. 274 = 2*(100 + 5*5 + 9 + 3) (a variation of Mike's way)
4. X (FAILSAFE) unpleasantly surprised here!
5. BRUTES
6. 445 = 7*75 - 100 + 25 - 5
7. BUNKERS
8. 2-away: 418 = 3*(100 + 25) + 50 - 7
9. FLAMINGLY ~5 mins

Geoff Bailey said...

Sheesh, bad luck both of you with FAILSAFE -- a magnificent find, just unfortunate. :( And good work with GAMMONS, Mike.

Sam Gaffney said...

In Round 8 I gave up on trying 4*104 because 104 can't be made from the four large numbers, and there were a variety of other methods that took one into the vicinity of the target. A very nice answer from Geoff.

1. GAMMONS
2. HOODIES
3. 274 = (100-9)*3 + 5/5
4. x FAILSAFE
5. TUBERS
6. 445 = (7+8)*25+75 - 5
7. UNBROKEN
8. two off: 414 = (75-50/25)*7-100+3, just late: 417 = 3*((75*50-100)/25-7)
9. FLAMINGLY - 5.3s

Andrew Fisher said...

AMONGST
HOISTED
274 (3 x 100-9 + 5/5)
LIAISE (didn't think of FAILSAFE, perhaps because it's no good in my favourite board game)
BRUTES (there's BECURST and BECRUST in Scrabble but I failed to unravel them anyway)
444 (500 - 56)
UNBROKEN
418 (4 x 100 + 25 - 7)
6.0 sec, caught up on FAMILY and MALIGNLY