Ciphers and Puzzles from Competitors

@Puttputt86 I and I’m sure others would like to know about your hint/clue/strategy.

I do have more in a similar vein (Pickover again) but it would be a big write – don’t know that I have time.

Thanks @The-letter-wriggler – yes, I’m sure it takes a long time to write the puzzles out on here!

My overall method was to write the 8×8 grid of numbers in a 15×15 grid, with a space between each number. I then thought of each number as an ‘island’ and each gap between islands (vertically or horizontally) as a potential ‘bridge’. That allowed me to focus not just on what ‘islands’ my path could/should go through, but where the possible ‘bridges’ could/should be.

There were a few strategies I used to start eliminating islands/bridges:

– We know the path goes through ’01’ in the top left and ’25’ in the bottom right (so there can be no other ’01’ or ’25’ islands in our path)
– We know that for every other island on the path, it must have 2 bridges touching it (otherwise the path would not be continuous)
– We don’t know which (if any) of the adjacent ’04’s in the bottom right corner our path will go through, but we know there can’t be a bridge between them (since then our path would have two ’04’s)
-> Using the three strategies above, we can eliminate the 04 that is adjacent to the 25, because there is only one possible bridge joining that 04 island. This means that the penultimate island in the path must be the 17 above 25.
– Since the path has length 25, and no number is duplicated, then each number must occur exactly once (so any number that only appears once in the grid, must be on the path)

Proceeding in this manner, eliminating numbers that already appear on the path, got me most of the way there on the puzzle. The bit that pushed me over the 15 minutes limit, was that I took a while to spot that a certain group of about 10 numbers could not be part of the path, or it would have resulted in the path ending before it got to 25. Once I saw that, it eliminated a lot of possibilities and the rest was reasonably straightforward!

I hope this helps, and would be interested if there are any other methods/strategies that people used to solve the puzzle?

[10degrees-admin]

I just eliminated the possibilities by logic, putting the number in bold if it was in the sequence, and then putting it in a ‘strike-through’ style if it was not in the sequence. The breakthrough for me was spotting a seqeuence of ’21 20 03 24 11′ near the middle of the puzzle that had to be in there (you should know what I mean if you solved it).

That’s a very insightful write-up @Puttputt86 thanks.
We can all learn from others, especially how their minds work when it comes to logical deduction.

Thanks too for your input @Kford-academy, I solved it somewhat like you did a good few years ago.

TLW High Score Self Made Crosswords
===================================

Make a 7 x 7 Grid and fill it with words of your choice.
No questions need accompany it, put in blank squares as you see fit.

One stipulation is that it contains the letters as given in the grids below.

Words must be three letters or more and appear in
any good English dictionary, but no names or foreign words.

The letters score as follows:

9 Q Z
8 X
7 J
6 V
5 Y K
4 F M W H
3 B C G P
2 D L T N R
1 A E I O U S

WHO CAN MAKE THE HIGHEST SCORING CROSSWORD?

Note: I have no answer to a particular high score crossword
this is put out just for fun.

Copy Starter Grids (use capitals and an underscore for blank squares)

HARRY GRID
[H][_][_][_][_][_][A]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][R][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[R][_][_][_][_][_][Y]

NCC GRID
[_][_][_][_][_][_][N]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][C][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[C][_][_][_][_][_][_]

BLANK GRID
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]

[10degrees-admin]

Remember those punks from California? Well, they tried to trick me with another challenge.
Now I am passing part of it on to you. This is more of an encoding than a cipher, however.
The following two blobs are hexadecimal and base64 encodings of some binary data. They are
both the same binary data, so choose the blob that is easiest for you to work with. Your
task is to determine how the message is encoded in that binary data and report back with
the text.

10142150844c0e281440d0660714224820b0a20682002c4051c446880018
213263898708004111e388930048280244c0123038a02003440d1e4420f0
04401310386981c509071c50583181060e2220c84261c20b1c0801310386
921c1498708300091c44008223c7112648987084800d06202061c004111e
388931048013261c20d1c44987083418e0a4c3840200c0928489861c3471
1261c2911c3018e2c3498e2c3458e2400686082c2120e009120854211002
c008223c711264840d042ca03103430b005c70d26008881c006830250881
00345131c1440d062c0172c1c4020e2090b1c4800d0c1058424206930844
680262070d002c30426386931c4820f282ca84060008b2a0c00d061c2000
64c71600441930e1058e280c008223c5801a1068e1048212261c21200342
910034108240870100600110800380244cb0e180040d002088f1c449921c
3420e1a100020e4840308382930e10080303400c080c700142c00d060068
3241440d261088d004c40e1a005840008382003408422100020e10181300
40112658388041c412261c20d003020e0a4c3842450096006040d261c013
00442001014c0e28008841a388930e3829200342910034108240870b1014
2082430711084c70b0844001161098710484120c38703021010028482181
c5060030342040630711084c40c084c70510341801a004111e38893261c2
0d0800884244c008223c71126304060e4c2150834084103400d1c4c38422
489802610914041c0121e3889316006831c442061c347110238412082018
00e384053038a06084c58e244c012144c3841638100164828e221c20b1e4
c384305800d26607142638584005420928489802430a020e009181c5018e

EBQhUIRMDigUQNBmBxQiSCCwogaCACxAUcRGiAAYITJjiYcIAEER44iTAEgoAkTAEjA4oCADRA0e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[10degrees-admin]

TLW High Score Self Made Crosswords

My second crossword – and better than my first!
[E][X][C][I][T][E][D]
[X][_][Y][_][R][_][Y]
[C][Y][P][R][I][A][N]
[I][_][R][_][V][_][A]
[T][R][I][V][E][T][S]
[E][_][A][_][T][_][T]
[D][Y][N][A][S][T][Y]

Sum of scores of each letter – 104
Sum of scores of each word – 136

(By the way, @Harry, when I said ‘Not again, @Harry!’ in post #48865, I was trying to point out that the answer for post #48854 is still there!)

[10degrees-admin]

Not again, @Harry!
—
My first crossword…
[Q][U][E][S][T][S][_]
[U][_][L][_][Y][_][Z]
[I][_][F][_][P][_][O]
[Z][_][_][Z][E][R][O]
[E][_][M][E][_][_][S]
[S][O][_][S][I][X][_]
[_][F][A][T][_][_][_]

Sum of scores of each letter – 89
Sum of scores of each word – 109

Here are my initial scoring efforts at the crosswords
======================================================

HARRY GRID – MY BEST SCORE 81 – USING 10 WORDS
===============================================
[H][A][Z][E][L][*][A] 04+01+09+01+02+01 = 18
[O][*][*][*][O][*][S] 01+01+01 = 03
[M][U][Z][Z][L][E][S] 04+01+09+09+02+01+01 = 27
[A][*][*][I][*][L][*] 01+02 =03
[G][*][*][P][U][F][F] 03+03+01+04+04 = 15
[E][*][*][*][*][*][E] 01+01 = 02
[R][I][T][Z][I][L][Y] 02+01+02+01+02+05 = 13
=============================================
TOTAL 18+03+27+03+15+02+13 = 81
=============================================

NCC GRID – MY BEST SCORE 103 – USING 15 WORDS
=============================================
[F][E][Z][*][S][U][N] 04+01+09+01+01+02 = 18
[I][*][A][S][P][*][*] 01+01+01+03 = 06
[Z][I][P][*][U][S][E] 09+01+03+01+01+01 = 16
[Z][*][*][C][R][U][X] 09+03+02+01+08 = 23
[Y][E][W][*][T][E][E] 05+01+04+02+01+01 = 14
[*][R][*][*][*][*][R] 02+02 = 04
[C][R][A][Z][Y][*][T] 03+02+01+09+05+02 = 22
=====================
TOTAL 18+06+16+23+14+04+22 = 103
=============================================

AND I THINK ANYONE WILL BE HARD PUSHED TO BEAT THIS…

BLANK GRID – MY BEST SCORE 165 – USING 14 WORDS
===============================================
[P][A][X][*][J][*][P] 03+01+08+07+03 = 22
[*][X][*][Z][A][N][Y] 08+09+01+02+05 = 25
[F][E][Z][*][B][O][X] 04+01+09+03+01+08 = 26
[I][*][*][C][*][Z][*] 01+03+09 = 13
[Z][*][J][A][Z][Z][Y] 09+07+01+09+09+05 = 40
[Z][O][O][M][*][L][*] 09+01+01+04+02 = 17
[Y][*][Y][*][J][E][W] 05+05+07+01+04 = 22
=====================
TOTAL 22+25+26+13+40+17+22 = 165
==============================================
BUT IF YOU CAN, WELL…

Oh dear, scrub my HARRY GRID effort – It’s wrong – missing R center square!
A low score effort anyway, ahhh.

@Kford-academy – that is a good effort – note only the letters count, you are recounting some of the letters by summing the words.
Here is your crossword checked.

[E][X][C][I][T][E][D] 01+08+03+01+02+01+02 = 18
[X][_][Y][_][R][_][Y] 08+05+02+05 = 20
[C][Y][P][R][I][A][N] 03+05+03+02+01+01+02 = 17
[I][_][R][_][V][_][A] 01+02+06+01 = 10
[T][R][I][V][E][T][S] 02+02+01+06+01+02+01 = 15
[E][_][A][_][T][_][T] 01+01+02+02 = 6
[D][Y][N][A][S][T][Y] 02+05+02+01+01+02+05 = 18
=====================
TOTAL + 18+20+17+10+15+06+18 = 104
==================================

[10degrees-admin]

OK. I did put that into my post. I was unsure how the letters would be counted, so I did it both ways. (Do you like my symmetry? I’m very pleased about it myself.)

[10degrees-admin]

And now for something completely different…
—
KA-4 – Simplification of Infinitely Long Sums.

Can you simplify the following mathematical equations? Please submit answers in the form KA-4 QUESTION-NO ANSWER, where ‘QUESTION-NO’ is the number of the question and ‘ANSWER’ is the answer to that question, simplified fully. (The majority of these questions should be answered in the form ‘x=(a+sqrt(b))/c’. Note that any square roots should be put as ‘sqrt(a)’.)

1. Can you simplify this? 1+1/(1+1/(1+1/(1+1…
2. Slightly against the normal simplification rule… 2+1/(2+1/(2+1/(2+1…
3. The answer to this one is a whole number. [1/(2+1/(2+1/(2+1…]^2
4. Too easy? How about this one? 3+4/(3+4/(3+4/(3+4…
5. Getting harder now… Muha-ha-ha! 1+2/(3+2/(1+2/(3+2…
6. I will be impressed if you can get this! 2+3/(5+4/(2+3/(5+4…

[ANSWERS PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS BIT – FOR ONCE!]
[What? None of it? Harry]

[10degrees-admin]

KA-4 Hint One
OK, so maybe I was being a bit too mean. I’ll give you a hint.

First Step for Question 1:
Because of the recurring pattern of the sum, we can put it like this:
x=1+1/x
—
(Grid 3 – HARRY)
[H][Y][R][A][X][_][A]
[Y][_][_][Z][_][_][M]
[R][_][M][U][_][O][N]
[A][Z][U][R][E][_][E]
[X][_][_][E][L][K][S]
[_][M][_][_][K][_][T]
[R][U][D][E][S][B][Y]

Score: 107

Who will beat that score for the ‘HARRY’ grid?

My second correct effort:
HARRY GRID – MY BEST SCORE 83 – USING 11 WORDS
===============================================
[H][A][Z][E][L][_][A] 04+01+09+01+02+01 = 18
[O][_][E][_][U][_][S] 01+01+01+01 = 04
[M][I][R][_][R][I][P] 04+01+02+02+01+03 = 13
[A][_][O][R][C][_][H] 01+01+02+03+04 = 11
[G][A][S][_][H][A][Y] 03+01+01+04+01+05 = 15
[E][_][_][_][_][_][X] 01+08 = 09
[R][I][T][Z][I][L][Y] 02+01+02+01+02+05 = 13
=============================================
TOTAL 18+04+13+11+15+09+13 = 83
=============================================
It is so much harder with having fixed letters.

[Author]

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