MIT Mystery Hunt 2013

[gftt]

Solutions are now up. Before I start looking at too many, I was wondering if people here wanted to go through them at a *ahem* more leisurely pace. Those of us who participated in the hunt itself can volunteer to be the answer-verifier and hint-provider for those puzzles which they know too much about.

[Londoprime]

Hello

Where are you seeing the puzzles and solutions? If I click the link to the www.enigmavalley.com website I see what appears to be a few links but they just go to the first few puzzles. Is there another link?

Thanks

[esme]

The hunt continued at http://www.coinheist.com/ . I would certainly be interested in both puzzling and hinting provided you take it really slowly. I have seen none of the intro, basically all of Danny Ocean, half of Feynman and only some of the rest (because I spent an inordinate amount of time on Uncle Sam).
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[gftt*]

I saw most of the intro, and maybe 3-5 puzzles in each of Ocean, Feynman, Smart/99, and Jones, including the meta for Danny Ocean. From reading blog discussion there might be several puzzles that are just ridiculously hard, though; not sure the best way to steer clear of them.

[gftt]

Too quiet in here. Where are Scurra, Suspence, etc?

In case we decide to look at some of these, I'll catalog the puzzles that I think could be reasonable to do (either my team solved them, I've discovered/seen the solution, or they simply look manageable and I haven't seen any criticism).

* means it's a puzzle that I know too much about to help, but could be the clue-giver and answer-verifier
& means it's a puzzle that I would be particularly interested in looking at

Round 0 - these are generally easier
Open Secrets*
Silver Screen*
Changing States*
You Will Not Go to Space Today
Alpha Sleuth
meta*

Oceans 11
This Page Intentionally Left Blank*
Turnary Reasoning*
Complaint Letter
Obligatory Wordsearch
Crossword Complex &
Vertexillonomy*

Stratosphere*
Aria
Treasure Island*
Excalibur*

supermeta*

Feynman
Missed Connections
Mind the Gaps
Stakeout
Integers & Sequence *
Space Monkey Mafia *
Color Sudoku
A Set of Words &

meta &

Get Smart

Circuitboard?
Will Ruin Your Life
Time Conundrum &&&
Puzzle-Regarding Vehicle &
Reading Comprehension
Wordplay
Loss by Compression
Fill in the Blanks

some of the metas, maybe?

Indiana Jones

Numbers
Split the Difference
World of Color *
World Series of Mornington Crescent &
Alphametics
Mashup *
I Left My Stomach in Salt Lake City
Mergers

Snake meta (Adventure 2) &

Sneakers

Permuted &
The Alphabet Book
Security Theater
Dear Abby *
Around the world in 1 day
Eclectic Spatial Geometry &
I Can See For Miles &
Till You Make It

metas? (but NOT the super-meta)

round 6

Agricultural Operations
Change is In the Air &
...fixes the wavy zigzag jumble *
Season Changes, No One Ages
Sinners *
Something In Common
Substance Abuse
The Maze
Underbrush

color metas? (but NOT the super-meta)

[Thok]

OK, starting with Alpha Sleuth, because why not.

Looks like there are 26 missing blanks, so I'm assuming we need to add one A-Z per blank. (Edit: well duh, there's a link to the puzzle type).

Playing around with regexes and making some guesses, I get this.
Unused letters BKZ

[gftt*]

Suspiciously easy for an MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle, but DANNY OCEAN is in fact correct.

I may as well continue being the host for round 0. Next up:

You Will Not Go to Space Today

(reminiscent of http://xkcd.com/1133/ ...)

[gftt*]

BTW, ZUKO does fit the theme, since Danny Zuko is a character from Grease.

[gftt*]

6 (partial) pages of text, but 9 highlighted sections presumably correspond to the 9 sets of blanks. I guess we are supposed to translate back from simple English to real science words? Is there a canonical way to do that?

[Thok]

(For what it's worth, I suspect people will be busy with some sort of American football game today. Including me. Go Niners!)

[LordKinbote]

I took part in the 2013 hunt, unsurprisingly. A lot of the puzzles were very hard in not fun ways. I guess I can verify if need be.

And yes, that first puzzle is weirdly easy, and has lots of unnecessary layers (some words have to do with DANNY, some have to do with OCEAN, and some are related to DANNY OCEAN).

[esme]

The style of the text blocks seem to be course descriptions, so they are very likely MIT course descriptions and could be greatly simplified by simply searching them in the MIT course catalog (which is a staple type of puzzle of the hunt).

But lets first do some guesswork:

A: how things that are supposed to work are kind of like things that actually work (11,7, 6, 3,8)

Context: student-made remote-controlled balloons?

Meaning: Toy models are useful?

B: by how much (6, 2, 9)

Context: Self-correcting systems?

Meaning: size/quantity of deviation/error

C: how to match the way things act up close to the different way they act from far away (7, 10, 10)

Context: Aerodynamics? Statistical mechanics?

Meaning: Scaling/perspective/averaging?

D: how to understand flying arms that end instead of the ones that dont end that arent real (6,4,6)

Context: still Aerodynamics

Meaning: Calculate with real wings instead of some asymptotic simpler model

E: what happens to moving stuff when you are going really fast and it piles up in front of you (5 5)

Context: Waves, relativity?

Meaning: sounds like sonic boom or shock wave, so maybe SHOCK WAVES

F: how to pretend that all noise making stuff going on inside a thing that makes you go is just a few things that make noise in four directions (9 1 8 7)

Context: still waves, relativity

Meaning: some decomposition, four directions favour relativity theory. The letter after the apostrophe is certainly an S.

G: make them go in the right direction to get to ... people went to or others that people cant go to yet (8,3,5, 3,9,8)

Context: Two-body orbits, moon, planets

Meaning: get rockets into planetary orbits / slingshot mechanisms

H: make them throw out lots of fire (7,6)

Context: Still interplanetary travel

Meaning: conventional rocket engine

J: go up from the ground, go around the ground by going so fast to the side that you miss the ground all the time, and go to other worlds with their own ground (6, 7, 3, 5-9,6)

Context: Rockets leaving earth

Meaning: start, go into orbit reaching escape-velocity and escape
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

[esme]

Portals is ideal for a train-ride. The puzzle is well-down and enjoyable, but it is very long and doesnt lend itself very well to collaboration.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

Would people mind to make a google doc where puzzles are rated on difficulty, time needed, exotic knowledge needed, physical presence needed and fun factor without giving away content?
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[LordKinbote]

[gftt]

I'm not sure I would have much to add beyond what I put in post 5.

Re: going to space today... these are pretty funny.

Could try:
http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m16a.html

16.00 Introduction to Aerospace and Design
The fundamental concepts and approaches of aerospace engineering are highlighted through lectures on aeronautics, astronautics, and design. Active learning aerospace modules make use of information technology. Student teams are immersed in a hands-on, lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle design project where they design, build, and fly radio-controlled LTA vehicles. The connections between theory and practice are realized in the design exercises.

(for "how things that are supposed to work are kind of like things that actually work")

16.06 Principles of Automatic Control
Introduction to design of feedback control systems. Properties and advantages of feedback systems. Time-domain and frequency-domain performance measures. Stability and degree of stability. (for "by how much")

16.110 Flight Vehicle Aerodynamics
Aerodynamic analysis of flight vehicles using analytical, numerical, and experimental techniques separately and in combination. Matched asymptotic expansions. Farfield behavior. Finite wing theory.
for C/D : "how to match the way things act up close to the different way they act from far away" and "how to understand flying arms that end instead of the ones that dont end that arent real".

[esme]

Ok, using the link it is pretty straightforward to solve the rest. I will put the intermediary results in spoiler tags.


A: Connections between theory and practice
B: Degree of stability
C: Matched asymptotic expansions
D: Finite wing theory
E: Shock waves
F: Lighthill s acoustic analogy
G: Guidance for lunar and planetary missions
H: Powered flight
J: Launch orbital and inter-planetary flight

Clue text:
There was once a space car that did not go to space.
A guy explained on tv it was because a ring in it got harder as it got colder. He showed the problem by putting a ring in ice water.
Call in his first and last name.


Googling "explains challenger disaster" or similar makes me call in RICHARD FEYNMAN
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

It s a nice idea and a nice puzzle, but I wish that it were at the same time easier and harder, that is, I would prefer to be able to guess the "correct" expressions without looking up the course schedule, but some of the answers are simply not known to me, one clue was snipped to be undidentifiable without the course schedule and the shock waves conveniently gave the V of TV which was not totally reassuring.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[gftt*]

That's a great way to connect Richard Feynman (correct, btw) to the puzzle theme. I should have anticipated it, actually.

Thomas Crown Scare is a runaround so next up is [url="http://www.enigmavalley.com/changing_states/index.html"]Changing States[/url]. I can't help on this one, as I know its entire mechanism. It's pretty fun.

[esme]

Changing States

ALMEFTEMAINGRMMASUPIAL

SUSUSUALALALABORORODENT

STECKYRECECEKEFREMJEPAN

WALKOKOWITHOHODIFFICULTYOYO

HEADGEARXOROFNANDMEDIEVALORKNIGHTSNOT

OETYLEETLWHETEMETTTETAWITETNUNIETDSTAETS

CHOLDEDCHORTILLACHITHCHILLING

MAOWHPSIOGSHEZYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA

GNIKCALHTGNERTSOTEHTEMASTNETXE

MUOPEOMUTOEEMUFOOTWEAS

GILBSULLIPIRA

RILOGYNANANACOREDNANANAYNANANAHILIPNANANALASSNANANA

UNIONEUROPEORAFRICABLOTASIA

WHERECTHERUBYSUNPYTHONRISESSCHEME

UNISOEGOLCPURITX

PARTPIOFOMICRONAALPHATRAINTAU

COUNTBYWIBHTBEMOBTPEOPBE

TNEDISERPFOTIM

OPPOSITEELOFLASLESSLA

ATHIOIPIAIUNDEDJBOIUTIANIGHIBOR

HIGENEVALLDOPARTICLEOYOUPHYSICSNGLONGALABBARDI

IONALFUNCTAMMERPROGRIBLYPOSSTHWIECHSPEIMENTIMPED

ISNGEIRBADUILRIOHCEIFEDEIN

FOLLOWDIORDSWRESTLGROBYCEANMELOGDBEATLNOTAMOTUAE

ICTITIONALUBTISTANCERETIEZINGEBTIELMUTIGGLER

ONISIANOTOILIOUCE

ENNYEJORNENDEIMEUSICALE

GOLFNOARTOECORRIBEAN

OSSIBLTHENIANIMATEEERKA

NATURBAPHOTOGRAPHEBAADAMBA

CHANBHETHREBLEOHRBHASS

DEAPNAROWPASIJOARRAVEENBITWEENKLIFS

SOLDIBLOKCFOBREDA
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

Hmm, 33 lines.Changing States

The fifth line decomposes into HEADGEAR OF MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS and XOR NAND OR NOT which are logical operators. Another line decomposes into OPPOSITE OF LESS and EL LAS LA which are Spanish articles.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[Zag]

Here are a few I've worked out, plus yours. I'll edit later.


ALMEFTEMAINGRMMASUPIAL

SUSUSUALALALABORORODENT

STECKYRECECEKEFREMJEPAN

WALK OKO WITH OHO DIFFICULTY OYO = Walk with difficulty, OKO, OHO, OYO

HEADGEAR XOR OF NAND MEDIEVAL OR KNIGHTS NOT = Headgear of Medieval knights, XOR, NAND, OR, NOT (Operators in boolean arithmetic)

OETYLEETLWHETEMETTTETAWITETN UNIETD STAETS == ???? United States

CHOLDED CHORTILLA CHITH CHILLING

MAOWHPSIOGSHEZYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA

GNIKCAL HTGNERTS OT EHT EMAS TNETXE = Lacking strength to the same extent (words are backwards)

MUOPEOMUTOEEMUFOOTWEAS

GILBSULLIPIRA

RILOGY NANANA CORED NANANA Y NANANA HILIP NANANA LASS NANANA = Trilogy scored by Philip Glass (who wrote the music to the Dark Knight Trilogy)

UNION EUROPE OR AFRICA BLOT ASIA = ?? Europe Africa Asia /// Union Or, Blot ??

WHERE C THE RUBY SUN PYTHON RISES SCHEME = Where the sun rises. C, RUBY, PYTHON, SCHEME (programming languages)

UNISOEGOLCPURITX

PART PI OF OMICRON A ALPHA TRAIN TAU = Part of a train, PI, OMICRON, ALPHA, TAU (Greek letters)

COUNT BY WIBHTBEMOBTPEOPBE

TNEDISERPFOTIM

OPPOSITE EL OF LAS LESS LA = Opposite of less, EL LAS, LA (Spanish articles)

ATHIOIPIAIUNDEDJBOIUTIANIGHIBOR

HIGENEVALLDOPARTICLEOYOUPHYSICSNGLONGALABBARDI

IONALFUNCT AMMERPROGR IBLYPOSS THWI ECHSPE IMENTIMPED = Functional programmer possibly with speech impediment (Each word is cut in half and the halves swapped.)

ISNGEIRBADUILRIOHCEIFEDEIN

FOLLOWDIORDSWRESTLGROBYCEANMELOGDBEATLNOTAMOTUAE

ICTITIONALUBTISTANCERETIEZINGEBTIELMUTIGGLER

ONISIANOTOILIOUCE

ENNYEJORNENDEIMEUSICALE

GOLF NOARTOE CORRIBEAN

OSSIBLTHENIANIMATEEERKA

NATUR BA PHOTOGRAPHE BA ADAM BA = Nature photographer Adams, BA, BA, BA

CHANBHETHREBLEOHRBHASS

DEAPNAROWPASIJOARRAVEENBITWEENKLIFS

SOLDIBLOKCFOBREDA

[esme]

So I figured out the mechanics of the next step: The transformations of the clue words have to be repeated on the answer word.

For example:
WALK(OKO) WITH(OHO) DIFFICULTY(OYO) becomes LIMP(OPO)

So the answer for this clue is LIMPOPO (and I already love this puzzle).

I will write down the answers that I have found in my next post.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

Kazakhstan province ALMEFTEMAINGRMMASUPIAL -> Leaf eating marsupial = KOALA -> AKMOLA
Armenia province SUSUSUALALALABORORODENT -> Usual lab rodent =RAT -> ARARAT
??? STECKYRECECEKEFREMJEPAN -> Sticky rice cake from Japan
South Africa province WALK OKO WITH OHO DIFFICULTY OYO = Walk with difficulty= LIMP -> LIMPOPO
??? HEADGEAR XOR OF NAND MEDIEVAL OR KNIGHTS NOT = Headgear of Medieval knights, XOR, NAND, OR, NOT (Operators in boolean arithmetic) = HELMET? -> HELMETAND? HELMETOR ...
??? OETYLEETLWHETEMETTTETAWITETNUNIETDSTAETS -> ... United states
Argentina province CHOLDEDCHORTILLACHITHCHILLING -> Folded Tortilla with filling =TACO -> CHACO
??? MAOWHPSIOGSHEZYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA
??? GNIKCAL HTGNERTS OT EHT EMAS TNETXE -> Lacking strength to the same extent (words are backwards) = AS WEAK -> KAEWSA
??? MUOPEOMUTOEEMUFOOTWEAS -> Footwear?
??? GILBSULLIPIRA
??? RILOGY NANANA CORED NANANA Y NANANA HILIP NANANA LASS NANANA = Trilogy scored by Philip Glass (who wrote the music to the Dark Knight Trilogy)-> ark night nanana ??
??? UNIONEUROPEORAFRICABLOTASIA -> Union or blot = ??
??? WHERE C THE RUBY SUN PYTHON RISES SCHEME -> Where the sun rises. C, RUBY, PYTHON, SCHEME (programming languages) =EAST -> ???
??? UNISOEGOLCPURITX
??? PART PI OF OMICRON A ALPHA TRAIN TAU -> Part of a train, PI, OMICRON, ALPHA, TAU (Greek letters) = CAR? -> CARCHI? CARKAPPA?=
Japan province COUNT BY WIBHTBEMOBTPEOPBE -> Country with the most people = CHINA -> CHIBA
??? TNEDISERPFOTIM -> President of MIT
??? OPPOSITE EL OF LAS LESS LA -> Opposite of less, EL LAS, LA (Spanish articles) = MORE -> MORELOS
??? ATHIOIPIAIUNDEDJBOIUTIANIGHIBOR -> Ethiopia and Djibouti neighbor = ERITREA -> ???
??? HIGENEVALLDOPARTICLEOYOUPHYSICSNGLONGALABBARDI -> particle physics ???
??? IONALFUNCT AMMERPROGR IBLYPOSS THWI ECHSPE IMENTIMPED -> Functional programmer possibly with speech impediment (Each word is cut in half and the halves swapped.)
??? ISNGEIRBADUILRIOHCEIFEDEIN
??? FOLLOWDIORDSWRESTLGROBYCEANMELOGDBEATLNOTAMOTUAE??? ICTITIONALUBTISTANCERETIEZINGEBTIELMUTIGGLER
??? ONISIANOTOILIOUCE
??? ENNYEJORNENDEIMEUSICALE -> Benny, Bjorn and Tim musical =???
??? GOLF NOARTOE CORRIBEAN -> Gulf near the Carribean
??? OSSIBLTHENIANIMATEEERKA -> Possible ... ???
Eritrea province NATUR BA PHOTOGRAPHE BA ADAM BA -> Nature photographer Adams = ANSEL -> ANSEBA
??? CHANBHETHREBLEOHRBHASS -> Can be treble or bass
??? DEAPNAROWPASIJOARRAVEENBITWEENKLIFS -> Deep narrow passage or ravine between cliffs
??? SOLDIBLOKCFOBREDA -> Solid block of bread = LOAF -> LOFA
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

I moved everything to a google sheet:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoaQ6FIUQD34dDM0VHlRbllfODU4RGdrcW04aTVkNEE#gid=0
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[Thok]

Russian city GILBSULLIPIRA-> GILBERT SULLIVAN PIRATES, with the answer of PENZA (remove last three letters from each word)

[esme]

Excellent! Note that we always have provinces (which is true for PENZA).

Still missing:

OETYLEETLWHETEMETTTETAWITETNUNIETDSTAETS
MAOWHPSIOGSHEZYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA
UNISOEGOLCPURITX
ATHIOIPIAIUNDEDJBOIUTIANIGHIBOR (Ethopia and Djibouti neighbor, but transformation is unclear).
ISNGEIRBADUILRIOHCEIFEDEIN
FOLLOWDIORDSWRESTLGROBYCEANMELOGDBEATLNOTAMOTUAE
ONISIANOTOILIOUCE
HIGENEVALLDOPARTICLEOYOUPHYSICSNGLONGALABBARDI
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[Thok]

[esme]

Current initials (with US states completion letters): KANSAS A?TDR MAINE JAM?? MICHIGAN EARL
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

KANSAS ACTOR MAINE JAMES MICHIGAN EARL
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[esme]

Actor James Earl JONES plus a US state. Calling in INDIANA JONES.
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

[gftt*]

INDIANA JONES is of course correct.

Don't know about others, but I kind of like keeping the work on the board because it's easier to see people's thought processes that way. Totally willing to be out-voted, though.

Next up is The Silver Screen. (I've seen this one all the way through, too.)

[esme]

[L'lanmal]

My first inclination with that title and list of words (including prepositions and articles) is to attempt to make movie titles. Even though "Too Big to Fail" jumps out at me (center column) and there are a lot of words in movie titles there, it does not look promising... notably "Yankees" without Damn or Pride seems a deadend. I could make slightly punny or misspelled titles - Prude of the Yankees, May of Penguins, West Side Glory, or even Prejudice of the Yankees - but this seems to allow too much latitude.

Also, the words are arranged in a specific arrangement - 24x3 exactly evenly and not in a generic ordering by length or alphabetical - so rows/columns ought to matter. And the "days" in the flavor text looks like it should be significant.

Perhaps a 3x4x6, as opposed to a 3x3x3?

[novice]

Or read from left to right when making punny titles:
May Fail Lady
West Snide Store
Thee Fast Samurai
Yankees Doodle Candy
Stranger That Friction
Prude Land Glory
Mrs. Peppers Penguins
Dinner Eat Might (Dinner at Eight)
Hoard to Bill (Hard to Kill)
Without An Puddle (Without A Paddle)
Meet Joel Block
I aim Ham (I am Sam)
Coal Gas Ice (Cool as Ice)

[L'lanmal]

Looks like one added letter and one changed letter in each triplet. Which means your sixth is prUde (L)and glory

meet joe(L) blOck
edit: beaten to it.

[novice]

Coal Gas Ice (Cool as Ice)
Height Craze Nights (Eight Crazy Nights)
Best
Yankees Doodle Candy
Net Pit Ride (Let It Ride)
Stranger That Friction
Odd Main Hut (Odd Man Out)
Thee Fast Samurai
Bill of fires (ball of fire)
Thee Big Greek (The Big Green)
Con in claw (son in law)
West Snide Store
May Fail Lady
Mrs. Peppers Penguins
Dinner Eat Might (Dinner at Eight)
Prude Land Glory
Meet Joel Block
Rat Pray Clove (Eat Pray Love)
Side Aid Nancy (Sid and Nancy)
Call About Eva (All About Eve)
Hoard to Bill (Hard to Kill)
Out
Without An Puddle (Without A Paddle)
I aim Ham (I am Sam)

[esme]

I have tried to solved the first meta in the mean time, but I am not sure about the result. Would someone who knows the answer agree to look at a PM from me and tell me whether I am right?
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.