Friday 13 December 2013

NG 280

New game 280 is now available.


Round 1: A T I U O R D P M

I had IOTA, RATIO, ADROIT, and PAROTID ("either of two saliva-producing glands situated one at the base of each ear").

The other sevens are AUDITOR and PROTIUM ("the common isotope of hydrogen, of atomic weight 1.008").

My selection: PAROTID


Round 2: R E A G I R N M D

I had RAGE, RAGER, EARRING / REARING, and DREAMING.

The other eights are REARMING and MARGINED.

My selection: DREAMING


Round 3: Target 443 from 50 100 10 4 1 5

The standard method works out satisfactorily with the solution 443 = 5*100 - 50 - 10 + 4 - 1.

My selection: 443 = 5*100 - 50 - 10 + 4 - 1


Round 4: W S I E S N I L H

I had WISE, WINLESS, WHILES, WHINES, and wondered about SHINIES (not valid).  After time I noted SWINISH as another seven.

Those are all the sevens listed, but there is an eight: WILINESS.

My selection: WINLESS
Best: WILINESS


Round 5: N T U O P A E K X

I had UNTO, PEANUT, and wondered about AUTOPEN.  That one keeps cropping up in the Scrabble list, but it's not in the Macquarie.

Six appears to be the limit; the other is UPTAKE.

My selection: PEANUT


Round 6: Target 528 from 75 25 100 8 8 6

The target is near 7*75 but a 7 is clearly difficult to come by.  But a roundabout way to the 8*75 got me to one off with 527 = 8*75 - 100 + 25 + 8 - 6.  Then I realised that the offset of 72 from 8*75 was also divisible by 8, indicating the factorisation 8*66 and thus 8*6*11.  That happy observation led to the solution 528 = (8 + 75/25)*6*8.

My selection: 528 = (8 + 75/25)*6*8


Round 7: R A C G A T S N I

I had AGAR, CART, CARTS, CASTING, ARTISAN, wondered about CARTINGS (not valid) then realised that its anagram TRACINGS was surely safe.

The other eight is GRANITAS (GRANITA: "a coarse-grained sorbet").

My selection: TRACINGS


Round 8: Target 566 from 50 75 25 3 1 2

I found this to be a very tough round.  At first I could only barely get within range with the ten away 556 = 3*2*(75 + 25 + 1) - 50.  Working down from 625 got me closer with the 6 away 572 = 25*75/3 - 50 - 2 - 1, but that was the best I could do within time.

After time I managed to improve that to 5 away with 571 = 25*(75 - 50 - 2) - 3 - 1, but no better.  A more findable 5 away is 561 = (50 + 1)*(3*75/25 + 2).

The winning option here is to realise that 66 is close to 200 / 3, meaning that the target is (1700 - 2)/3.  The useful value nearest to 1700 is 25*75 = 1875, which is 175 away.  A little fiddling with that idea could produce the solution 566 = (25*(75 - 1) - 2)/3 - 50.

There are two other solutions: 566 = (75 + 2)*(25 - 1)/3 - 50 and 566 = ((75 + 1)*(25 - 2) - 50)/3.

My selection: 572 = 25*75/3 - 50 - 2 - 1  [6 off]
Best: 566 = (25*(75 - 1) - 2)/3 - 50


Round 9: I DOUSE CUD

The -OUS ending is tempting, and I was fortunate enough to quickly spot the answer of DECIDUOUS.

My selection: DECIDUOUS (1.4s)

9 comments:

Unknown said...

1. radium
2. dreaming
3. 5x100 -50-10+4-1=443
4. wishes
5 untape
6. x out of time 6x100 -75+8/8=526 (2 off)
7. staring
8. x out of time again... (50+1)x[(75/25x3)+2]= 561 (5 off)
9. x

Victor said...

1. ATRIUM
2. DREAMING
3. 443 =5*100 - 50 - 10 + 4 - 1
4. WILINESS
5. EXPAT
6. 1-away: 527 = 8*75 - 100 + 25 + 8 - 6
7. CASTING
8. 5-away: 561 = (75/25*3 + 2)*(50 + 1)
9. -

Geoff Bailey said...

Oh, well done on getting WILINESS, Victor, and on both of you for the 561 in round 8 -- five away on this mix is an excellent result.

Mike Backhouse said...

AUDITOR
DREAMING
4*(100+10)+5-1=444 (1 off)
WHINES
PEAK
6*100-75+8/8=526 (2 off)
TRACING (missed plural-grr...)
(75/25*3+2)*(50+1)=561 (5 off- I too went over time)
x

Geoff Bailey said...

AUDITOR is excellent, Mike -- well done!

Victor said...

Thanks Geoff, and good solve from you in round 6 - I saw the 8*66 factorisation but couldn't get it to work.

I think there's an error in the conundrum - it has 2 O's instead of 2 U's (IDOUSECOD) - that might explain why nobody solved it!

Mike Backhouse said...

Thanks Geoff. And well spotted Victor!

Geoff Bailey said...

Argh, Victor, of course you are correct. Should have been CUD, not COD. My bad -- fixed now, for what that's worth. :(

Sam Gaffney said...

1. RADIUM
2. DREAMING
3. 443 = 5*100 - 50 - 10 + 4 - 1
4. WILINESS
5. ENACT/PONCE/EXPAT
6. Totally late: 528 = (8 + 75/25)*8*6
7. TRACINGS
8. 5-away: 571 = (75-50-2)*25 - 3 - 1
9. DECIDUOUS - 1.7s