Tuesday 19 January 2016

NG 757

New game 757 is now available.

The re-run is episode 20; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: N M I G A L H M U

I had GAMIN, MALIGN, an uncertain HAMMING (valid), HAULING, MAULING, and HUMMING.

The remaining seven is LAMMING.

My selection: HAULING


Round 2: S K A F A E E C M

It's not a great mix, and I just could not see more than five.  I had FAKES, FACES, SMACK, and MACES.

The six that I missed is FAECES.  There's two near-misses here: FACE MASK is listed but only as two words, while AMES-ACE is hyphenated (variant of AMBS-ACE: "the double ace, the lowest throw at dice").

My selection: FAKES
Best: FAECES


Round 3: Target 989 from 25 100 75 50 6 8

A difficult mix.  Getting to 1000 seemed a decent starting point, and I was able to turn that into one off with 990 = 8*(75 + 50) - 6 - 100/25.

It turns out that the target is unreachable, so one off is the best possible.

My selection: 990 = 8*(75 + 50) - 6 - 100/25  [1 off]


Round 4: O D A I R S T U D

I had RADIO, RADIOS, OUTSAID, and STUDIO.  After time I noted another seven of SAUTOIR ("a long ribbon, chain, beaded band, or the like, worn about the neck").

The eight that I missed is AUDITORS.  I'm a bit annoyed at that, as I saw AUDITS within time but missed the extension.  The other sevens are AUDITOR and DOTARDS.

My selection: OUTSAID
Best: AUDITORS


Round 5: A S R T G L O E F

I had STAR, GLOATS, GLOATERS / LEGATORS, and FLOATERS.

Eight is the limit, unsurprisingly.  The others are FROGLETS and FLOTAGES (FLOTAGE: "the act of floating").

My selection: GLOATERS


Round 6: Target 672 from 100 50 1 10 2 5

The target is 6*112, leading directly to 672 = (5 + 1)*(100 + 10 + 2).  It is also 12*56, giving 672 = (10 + 2)*(50 + 5 + 1).  And another factorisation is 7*96, giving 672 = (5 + 2)*(100 - 50/10 + 1).

My selection: 672 = (10 + 2)*(50 + 5 + 1)


Round 7: S B R O S H I T E

I had ROBS, BIROS, BROTHS, BOTHERS, was unsure about HORSIEST (it turns out to be valid), BOTHIES (BOTHY: "Scottish a hut or small cottage, especially for lodging farmhands or workers"), SORBETS / STROBES, and BISTROS.  A good while after time I looked back at this mix and saw the safe eight of SORBITES.

Unfortunately, I did not risk HORSIEST.  Eight is the best to be done; the others are SHORTIES / HOISTERS and HERBIEST*.

My selection: BOTHERS
Best: SHORTIES


Round 8: Target 747 from 25 100 50 9 8 2

The offset for the standard method is , which is not so helpful with those small numbers.  However, I remembered that an offset of 3 is also an offset of 72, which can be made as 8*9.  The intermediate target is 675, which is also divisible by 9.  That highlighted the factorisation 9*83, which I should have seen earlier, and leads to the solution 747 = 9*(50 + 25 + 8).

There's a great many solutions, as it turns out.  All but one use 9*8 in some form to get the offset; the exception is the nice 747 = 8*100 - 50 - (25 + 2)/9.

My selection: 747 = 9*(50 + 25 + 8)


Round 9: TELL NIECE

A difficult conundrum, without any of the usual patterns.

My selection: [N/A -- chosen]
Best: CLIENTELE

6 comments:

I loved CTB bus conductor said...

Human
Faces
(50/25*6)*75+100-8=992 ( 3 off)
Studio
Floaters
(100+2)*6+50+10=672
Bothers
(50+25+8)*9=747
XX

BadBeatPete said...

Round 1 - Humming
Round 2 - Faeces (I wanted to go for face mask, and a different word for that matter)
Round 3 - 50/25=2, (8+2)*(100+6)=1060, 1060-75=985. 4 away from 989.
Round 4 - Studio
Round 5 - Floaters
Round 6 - (100+10+2)*(5+1)=672
Round 7 - Shorties (Taking a risk on this one)
Round 8 - (50+25+8)*9=747
Round 9 - x (Found out it was Clientele)
(I initially thought of the word, but was unsure of spelling)

Mike Backhouse said...

HAULING
FAECES
(50/25+8)*100-6=994 (5 off)
STUDIO (TARDIS?)
FASTER
(10+2)*(50+5+1)=672
BOSSIER
9*(50+25+8)=747
x

Sam G said...

1. HUMMING
2. FAECES
3. one off: 990 = (75+50)*8 - 6 - 100/25
4. STUDIO
5. GLOATERS
6. 672 = (50+5+1)*(10+2)
7. SHORTIES
8. 747 = (50+25+8)*9
9. 65.2s - CLIENTELE

Geoff Bailey said...

Well done everyone who found FAECES; I'm vexed to have missed it. Pete, you were right to avoid FACE MASK -- it is listed as two words only. Excellent work to find SHORTIES, too!

BadBeatPete said...

Thanks for the feedback Geoff. I would also like to see TARDIS in the dictionary too Mike.

:)