NG 482

New game 482 is now available.


Round 1: H A U I E F M P N

I had FAME, HUMPIE (colloquial for "a humpback whale"), FAMINE, and the element HAFNIUM.

HAFNIUM is the only seven; the other sixes are HUMANE, PIEMAN, INHUME ("to bury"), PNEUMA ("Greek Philosophy, etc., the vital spirit; the soul"), and HAEMIN ("a chloride salt of haematin [...]").

My selection: HAFNIUM


Round 2: D C R D U I E M T

I had CURD, CRUDE, was slightly uncertain if CRUDITÉ was acceptable in the singular (it is), CREDIT / DIRECT, and MUDDIER.

MUDDIER and CRUDITÉ look like the only sevens; there are quite a few other sixes, including METRIC, TEDIUM, DEDUCT, and CERIUM.

My selection: MUDDIER


Round 3: Target 695 from 50 75 9 8 7 3

I had a certain amount of difficulty with this, as I wanted to use the 8 and 3 to make the final offset of 5.  That approach does not work, and I lost a lot of time on it.  Then I resigned myself to possibly just getting close, and starting with 9*75; the nearest handy tweak was with the 3, and to my surprise that gave a solution: 695 = 9*(75 + 3) - 7.  Lucky!

The solution is of the form 9*78 - 7, which is also 6*117 - 7.  That produces another solution: 695 = (75 + 50 - 8)*(9 - 3) - 7.

There is only one other solution besides the previous two, and it is perhaps the most findable -- the target is 720 - 25, and the former has many useful factors.  Once that form is considered then it is a short step to the solution 695 = 8*9*(7 + 3) - (75 - 50).

My selection: 695 = 9*(75 + 3) - 7


Round 4: E C B L I R G S E

I had BILE, BILGE, BILGES, GREBES (GREBE being a type of bird), REBELS, and ICEBERGS.

The other eight here is CLERGIES.  The other sevens are ICEBERG, GERBILS, ESCRIBE ("to draw (a circle) touching one side of a triangle externally and the other two sides produced"), and BELIERS.

My selection: ICEBERGS


Round 5: E W R I N O C K T

I had WIRE, OWNER, CROWN, and NOTICER.  An L instead of the W would have allowed INTERLOCK.

The other sevens are NETWORK, TINWORK, KENOTIC (adjective derived from KENOSIS) / KETONIC, and WONKIER*.

My selection: NOTICER


Round 6: Target 964 from 6 9 10 5 8 4

My usual approach with six small numbers is to try and get close by multiplying several together; that usually gives a lot of leeway for tweaking.  In this case the tempting target is 960, which has lots of useful small factors (and we have the final offset of 4, too).  One option would be 10*8*12, but making a 12 is expensive and the best I could do with that approach was one off with 965 = 10*8*4*(9 - 6) + 5.  However, once I stopped trying to use the 10 and considered it as 8*120 I soon found 8*6*5*4 = 960; the leftover numbers are 10 and 9, and the required adjustment is 4.  That is now just a simple tweak away, resulting in 964 = (8*6*5 + 10 - 9)*4.

There are only two other solutions, both somewhat similar (in a way).  The first makes the 120 without using the 4: 964 = (9*10 + 5*6)*8 + 4.  The other uses the factorisation 4*241 but takes a different route to the 241: 964 = ((10 + 9)*(8 + 5) - 6)*4.

There's only three solutions to this round, also.

My selection: 964 = (6*5*8 + 10 - 9)*4


Round 7: R O F E T N G T I

I had FORE, FRONT, GOTTEN, REGION, ROTTING, GENITOR ("a father in the biological sense, sometimes distinguished from a legal or acting father"), and knew to avoid FROTTING (the Macquarie has FROTTAGE, but not FROT).  After time I noted FOREIGN as another seven, and then finally saw the eight of FRETTING.

FRETTING is the only eight; the other sevens are TRITONE and RETTING (RET: "to expose to moisture or soak in water, as flax, in order to soften by partial rotting") / GITTERN (variant form of CITTERN, an old musical instrument).

My selection: ROTTING
Best: FRETTING


Round 8: Target 570 from 50 10 8 2 5 4

A somewhat easier round!  I went with 570 = (50 + 5 + 2)*10.  After time I noted a solution in the small numbers alone: 570 = ((10 + 4)*8 + 2)*5.

My selection: 570 = (50 + 5 + 2)*10


Round 9: PAYS VISIT

I chose this conundrum after being presented with the similar (but unusable) MASSIVITY.

My selection: [N/A -- conundrum chosen explicitly]
Best: PASSIVITY