NG 683

New game 683 is now available.


Round 1: D S R H A I U E N

I had SHARD, RUSHED, URANIDES, UNHAIRED, and UNSHARED.  (Actually, looking at it now, I see that I had written UNSHARIED -- whoops!  Fortunately it was not my declaration.)

The other eights are UNRAISED / DENARIUS.  There's many sevens, of which I'll just mention a few: INSURED, ASUNDER, HANDIER, HARDENS, HERNIAS, SARDINE, and AIRSHED ("a volume of air confined to a distinct geographic region, and within which pollutants are contained").

My selection: URANIDES


Round 2: T T R A F E I E B

I had TART, RAFT, FATTER, FATTIER, FIBRATE, rightly rejected AFTERBITE (I figured out later that I was getting confused with OVERBITE), and BATTIER.  After time I checked up on BEFITTER (not valid) and ABETTER (valid).

The remaining sevens are ITERATE / ARIETTE (variant spelling of ARIETTA: "a short aria") and BIRETTA ("a stiff, square cap with three (or four) upright projecting pieces extending from the centre of the top to the edge, worn by Roman Catholic ecclesiastics").

My selection: FIBRATE


Round 3: Target 408 from 100 9 4 5 9 2

I went straight to 408 = 4*(100 + 2).  There's other ways, of course, but that seemed the most direct.

My selection: 408 = 4*(100 + 2)


Round 4: T C R E E F O L T

I had CERT, ERECT, REFLECT, and was hoping that the final consonant would be an R for REFLECTOR.  Oh, well.

Seven is the limit, with the others being ELECTOR / ELECTRO (shortened form of ELECTROPLATE: "electroplated articles or ware") and FETTLER ("a person, usually one of a group, responsible for maintaining ballast, condition of sleepers and condition of running rail for a particular section of a railway line").

My selection: REFLECT


Round 5: A S E T I A G A N

Gah, too many vowels.  I had SATE, AGATES, SEATING / TEASING, and AGNATES (AGNATE: "a kinsman whose connection is traceable exclusively through males").  After time I noted AGAINST as another seven.

The other sevens are TAGINES / EATINGS / EASTING ("the difference in longitude between two positions on a map as a result of progress to the east") / GENISTA (any shrub or tree of a certain genus) and ANATASE (a mineral).

My selection: SEATING


Round 6: Target 361 from 50 25 2 8 9 10

I recognised the target as the square of 19, and for once that was useful -- we can easily make one 19 as 10 + 9, and the other by subtraction from 25.  The resulting solution is 361 = (25 - 8 + 2)*(10 + 9).

After time I noted a couple of other solutions.  The starting point for one of them was that 361 is near 360, which is 9*40 and could be made as 9*(50 - 10).  The goal was to get the remaining 1 with the leftovers 2, 8, and 25.  That is not possible in isolation, but there was still tweaking to consider.  I realised that 2*9 + 8 - 25 = 1, and applying that yielded the solution 361 = 9*(50 - 10 + 2) + 8 - 25.

The other solution came from trying for 370 - 9.  Although I could not make a 37 to multiply the 10 by, both the 50 and the 25 allow offsets by other multiples of 10.  I started with a simple adjustment that I could make: 10*(50 - 8) = 420, which was 50 away from the desired 270.  And the remaining numbers are 2 and 25, just perfect for that.  Packaging it all up gave 361 = 10*(50 - 8) - 2*25 - 9.

My selection: 361 = (25 - 8 + 2)*(10 + 9)


Round 7: D G T A O M R S I

I had GOAT, GROAT, GROATS, DIATOMS / MASTOID, and ISOGRAM (another term for ISOPLETH: "a line drawn on a map or chart through all points having the same numerical value of any element, or of the ratio of values of two elements")

The other sevens are STARDOM, AMORIST ("a lover; a gallant"), and AGISTOR (agent noun derived from AGIST: "to take in and feed or pasture (livestock) for payment").

The Macquarie does not list GORDITAS, so seven is the best to be done.

My selection: DIATOMS


Round 8: Target 605 from 4 2 7 6 5 1

The factor of 5 was immediately obvious.  The cofactor is 121, which is the square of 11.  One 11 was easily managed as 7 + 4, and the other turned out to be so also, giving me 605 = 5*(7 + 4)*(2*6 - 1).

There are essentially only two other solutions: 605 = (2*4*7 - 1)*(6 + 5) and 605 = (4*5*6 + 1)*(7 - 2).  (There is a trivial variation that swaps 5 and (7 - 2) in the latter solution.)

My selection: 605 = 5*(7 + 4)*(2*6 - 1)


Round 9: HULL HONED

I was perhaps skipping through too quickly, but was certainly more perplexed by this one than I should have been.  Ah, well.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: HELLHOUND