Discuss Logain Potpourri III here

[Neo]

Link to the Puzzles

Enjoy!
_________________
_{Ad Astra}

[Lambert]

XI) What’s a Widget?

I have a suggestion here:

64 minutes

It takes 64 minutes with 32 minutes spent adding COOLANT, 12 minutes adding LUBRICANT, 10 minutes adding CATALYST COATING, 8 minutes adding WIDGET MATERIAL and 2 minutes PRESSING and MOLDING the single widget. The actual order of events is more complicated but the total time is what matters.

[Duke Gnome]

[Duke Gnome]

*Watches the tumbleweed sweep through the thread*

Anybody have any hints for puzzles 12-14?

[Gomez]

I found this round very tough. I'm pretty sure I got the intended answer for Wax Works and I made a stab at Spelling Counts which I hope got me a little partial credit, but I couldn't get very far with any of the others. I'll give you a hint for Wax Works, but please bear in mind that it's a lateral puzzle and probably has more than one acceptable answer. Anyway, a hint that will hopefully point you towards my solution is invizzed below:

It's pretty obvious that the two candles differ in one important respect (whatever that might be), but less obvious is the fact that the puzzle also contains two very different kinds of room.


Hope that helps

[Logain]

This round did prove tougher, and correct answers were given for all 4 puzzles, but only one person fully solved Spelling Counts.

Suprisingly, What's A Widget was solved with a correct answer within hours of sending out the email. Being able to follow the instructions was a huge part to that puzzle which gave most people trouble. The solution I have shows there was a very easy method for it though ...and it also limited the ambiguity a lot of people read into it.

While Wax Works is a lateral thinking puzzle, there really is only one definitive answer. There should be enough information to rule out other answers with at least one flaw to them without yes/no feedback questions in a normal lateral.

[Lambert]

I have a better suggestion now:

96 minutes

It takes 96 minutes with 48 minutes spent adding COOLANT, 18 minutes adding LUBRICANT, 20 minutes adding CATALYST COATING, 8 minutes adding WIDGET MATERIAL and 2 minutes PRESSING and MOLDING the single widget. The CATALYST COATING needed to be added twice because it only lasts for 50 minutes.

[ralphmerridew]

As for Wax Works: "made sure it burned with a nice looking flame which accounted for the glow in the room." implies the glow was present before the candle was lit. He was painting a picture.

[anon*]

I got 42 minutes. 14 min coolant, 8 min lubricant, 10 min catalyst, 8 min widget ingredient, 2 min pressing. I interpreted the puzzle that if an ingredient was added (like coolant) at exactly 2 minutes, then that was "within" the required window.

[phw]

For widgets, you can make an estimate by noting that if you intend to make a large number of widgets continuously, half the time is spent adding coolant, a fifth adding lube, and another fifth addign catalyst. Since that's 90% of your time, and you need another 10 min, your average time should be about 100 min.

[ralphmerridew]

OTOH, if you only need one widget (and don't care whether the machine is wrecked afterwards), then you can trim some time off it.

[Duke Gnome]

[Gomez*]

[Oscar]

For Spelling Counts I have an answer which works, but the 2nd and 5th elements, while they make sense in a cryptic crossword kind of way, aren't English words. Since the other 6 words are such a good match I'm inclined to run with it, but has anybody got a perfect series?
[My 4th word is 'dive', by the way]

For Survey Says I don't get any references from the flavourtext except maybe it refers to the show 'Family Feuds'? And why 'just simply aren't long enough'?
Of course it's easy enough to add likely-looking prefixes and suffices for most of these e.g.
disco-VERY
BE-lied
prose-CUTE
villa-IN
IS-suing
skive-RED
FUR-rowed
and maybe hates-HOW
but I'm struggling to get anything sensible out of that. (Although googling some of those brought up the 'My favorite color' song from Sesame Street)

In Widgets is Logain's 'easy way' to using only column 1 of a spreadsheet populate all odd numbered cells with A's (coolant), then the 2nd & 4th cells (and 12th & 14th cells etc) with B's (lubricant) and enter C (coating) in the first available cell (i.e. 6th) noting that this will expire after cell 57 is reached - then filling in each empty cell with C's until ten are counted when we can start loading D's (material) - when cell 58 is reached we start loading another 10 C's then resume with D's until 8 are counted, when we can finally load our last 2 E's (pressing)?

[Salty]

I agree that this was the hardest round. I certainly didn't get any points for "As simple as"

Oscar, I got the same list of words as you I suspect for Spelling Counts, although I didn't get it in the original puzzle until Logain added the falvourtext. I'm pretty sure it is right, notwithstanding your comments about the second and fifth "words"

For Survey Says, the key word for me was SKIVE. As the flavourtext says that the words are simply not long enough, I tried adding things to make other words. SKIVE is the one with the least possible options - in fact I could only find one common word that was made by adding something to SKIVE (at least without re-ordering. Using that as a starting point, I began to see things that could be added to other words which were connected in some way, with the title of the puzzle giving a nice confirmation that I was on the right track

For Wax Works, I got the same answer as Gomez and for the widgets one, I think I got 100 mins but I can't find my workings now and it was all a bit haphazard at the time.

[Oscar]

Ah! So for Survey Says the words should be ordered:
villa
suing
lied
skive
disco
hates
rowed
prose

although I'm not sure the abbreviation of rod to rd is standard and 2 of my original guesses appear to have been right!

NB if the word Imp had appeared in the flavourtext it would have helped me greatly!

[Me and only I*]

"He stepped back and like what he saw" tells me that...
he is looking at something that he did himself.
it is a visual object

"He lit a candle which accounted for the glow in the room" tells me that...
there was a glow before he lit the candle
the candle must not effect the lighting

thus...
he is looking at a painting or picture that he made

[L'lanmal]

[Agilius*]

For "What's a Widget", I got:

52 mins total:

1. 26 mins of adding coolant for 27 mins of lasting coolant (there is an extra minute of lasting coolant so after I make my first widget, I have time to add more coolant for the next widget), 26 mins have passed

2. 6 mins of adding lubricant for 26 mins of lasting lubricant (some of this is necessary overkill, since it takes a full 2 mins to add lubricant). 21 mins remaining of lasting coolant, 32 mins have passed

3. 10 mins of adding coating for 50 mins of lasting coating, 11 mins remaining of lasting coolant, 16 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, 42 mins have passed

4. 8 mins of adding widget material, 3 mins remaining of lasting coolant, 8 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, 48 mins remaining of lasting coating, 50 mins have passed

5. 2 mins of pressing & molding, 1 min remaining of lasting coolant, 6 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, 46 mins remaining of lasting coating, 52 mins have passed total

I will use my remaining minute of coolant to add more coolant, and notice that the next widget will take longer since I only have 6 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, whereas when I started making the first widget I had a full 10 mins till I had to add lubricant. If the coating dissolves, it apparently does not affect the reactor, so I don't have to time the coating.

[Duke Gnome]

[Agilius*]

[Agilius*]

Bleh, I do have a couple of very minor corrections:


4. 8 mins of adding widget material, 3 mins remaining of lasting coolant, 8 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, 48 mins remaining of lasting coating, 50 mins have passed

Correction for #4 is: 42 mins remaining of lasting coating

5. 2 mins of pressing & molding, 1 min remaining of lasting coolant, 6 mins remaining of lasting lubricant, 46 mins remaining of lasting coating, 52 mins have passed total

Accordingly, correction for #5 is: 40 mins remaining of lasting coating


These corrections are inconsequential since I will have finished making my widget before the coating has dissolved.

[Agilius*]

Bleh, again. My solution has the following problem:

The reactor locks up before I finish adding coolant, due to lack of lubricant.

Back to the drawing board.

[John Dalbec*]

[Courk]

That's a very good question that's not obvious to anyone new.

Logain ran these puzzles as part of a competition a few months ago. He advertised the competition on the boards, and updated the scores in a thread, but the puzzles were e-mailed to those who had signed up, and the participants would then e-mail responses with answers. These puzzles are now being posted as featured puzzles on the front page. Since the competition is over, the only way to answer the puzzles now is to post your answers to the discussion board.

I hope that clarifies everything. Welcome to the GL!

[John Dalbec]

[Oscar]

[Blah*]

It seems like I have 95 minutes for the widget question.

Taking that adding the coolant is 1, adding the lubricant is 2, adding the catalyst coating is 3, adding the widget ingredient is 4 and pressing out the widget as 5, I have (in minutes):
3131312121
3131312121
3131312121
3141412121
4141412121
3131312121
3131312121
3131312121
3141412121
41515
This makes it 95 minutes, doesn't it?

[EverEndingStory]

XI) What’s a Widget?
I got...
>53 minutes<