NG 471

New game 471 is now available.


Round 1: A P I B E D O T R

I had BIPED, ABODE, PAROTID, ADOPTER, DIOPTRE / DIOPTER / PERIDOT, OPIATED, PIRATED / PARTIED, TRIBADE, ABORTED, and ORBITED.  I was briefly tempted by BOATRIDE but not seriously so.  A little after time I finally saw the eight of PROBATED.

The other sevens are PROBATE, DEORBIT, and BORATED / TABORED (TABOR as a verb: "to strike or beat, as a tabor", where TABOR as a noun is a type of drum).

My selection: PAROTID
Best: PROBATED


Round 2: M D A E H E E I H

Gah, hideous letters.  I had MADE, HEAD, and MEDIA / AIMED / AMIDE.  I thought I was joking when I wrote down HEMIHEAD, but it's almost correct -- the Macquarie lists HEMI-HEAD ("(of an internal combustion engine) having hemispherically shaped combustion chambers").

The other five is EDEMA (variant spelling of OEDEMA: "effusion of serous fluid into the interstices of cells in tissue spaces or into body cavities").  But there is a six here, the somewhat surprising MEDIAE (plural of MEDIA in the sense of "Anatomy the middle layer of an artery or lymphatic vessel").

My selection: MEDIA
Best: MEDIAE


Round 3: Target 126 from 100 75 25 10 8 1

I noticed the factorisation 9*14 immediately, and spent a while finding how to make that work with 126 = (100/25 + 10)*(8 + 1).  Only after that point did I see the obvious 126 = 100 + 25 + 1.  Heh.

My selection: 126 = (100/25 + 10)*(8 + 1)


Round 4: N E T O I S C N A

I had TONE, STONE, SECTION, CANOEIST / ACONITES (that pair has shown up several times recently), CONTAINS, CANNIEST, ENACTION (not valid -- ENACTMENT is the word for that concept, at least in the Macquarie's world), and ENACTIONS (still not valid).  After time I saw CANTONISE as another nine, but the Macquarie does not have that either.

It turns out that the Scrabble list I am using does have ENACTIONS and CANTONISE, so it's the choice of dictionary that causes me trouble here.  Oh, well.  There are no other potential nines here.

The other eights are INSTANCE / ANCIENTS, CANONISE, CANONIST / SANCTION / ACTINONS (ACTINON being listed as another term for an ACTINIDE: "any of the series of elements with atomic numbers between 89 and 103; analogous to a lanthanide"), and SONATINE (one plural form of SONATINA: "a short or simplified sonata").

My selection: [invalid -- ENACTIONS]
Best: CANOEIST


Round 5: R E A A S C G E L

I had AREA, AREAS, GRACES, SCALARE (a fish otherwise known as an angelfish), wondered about CLEARAGE, and figured I might as well go for broke with CLEARAGES.  I had a nasty feeling I was going to end up with two invalid attempts at full monties in a row, but fortunately this one was all right (CLEARAGE: "a cleared space").

The other eight is ACREAGES.  The other sevens are ACREAGE, CEREALS, REGALES, and LAAGERS (LAAGER: "South African a camp or encampment, especially within a circle of wagons"; it also has associated verb senses).

My selection: CLEARAGES


Round 6: Target 309 from 75 9 10 6 2 1

This time I remembered to look at the standard method first, soon finding 309 = (6 - 2)*75 + 9.

My selection: 309 = (6 - 2)*75 + 9


Round 7: E C T K Y O I R F

I had COTE, FROCK, EROTIC, ROCKET, and RICKETY.  Unfortunately, I had a small moment of confusion and thought that the correct spelling was RICKETTY, so I did not declare it.  Very silly of me.  After time I checked on EROTIFY, but it is not valid.

There is an eight here: FEROCITY.  The other sevens are CERTIFY / RECTIFY.

My selection: ROCKET
Best: FEROCITY


Round 8: Target 173 from 50 75 100 4 7 7

I struggled greatly with this, and in the end had to settle for one off with 172 = 100 + 75 - (7 - 4).  After time I found a solution when looking at offsets from various multiples of 50 and seeing that the target was 77 away from 250.  That was significant as 77 could be made from the three small numbers, and a tweak finished things off: 173 = 7*(50 - 7 - 4) - 100.

Obviously the desirable approach is to make this as 175 - 2; the only clear way to a 2 is 100/50, which makes getting to 175 tougher than one might hope.  However, 175 is 7*25 so it is not a lost cause, and following this line of thought could lead to an alternative solution of 173 = (75/(7 - 4))*7 - 100/50.

There is one other solution, making the target as 98 + 75, since 98 is twice 49.  That gives 173 = 2*7*7 + 75, where the 2 is 100/50, or some trivial variations involving that and the 4.

My selection: 172 = 100 + 75 - (7 - 4)  [1 off]
Best: 173 = 7*(50 - 7 - 4) - 100


Round 9: NINE CRIES

I suspect I was presented this in a slightly easier form.  I'm still pleased to have solved it.

My selection: INSINCERE (6.6s)