Discuss A New Year's Drink? here

[DropOfaHat]

Well, I'm kind of figuring that once the dots are plotted, we're sort of past the "days of the week" aspect of things, and on to a new phase of the puzzle. Granted, I don't really know what to DO with the info, but I'm betting square roots factor into it...

[This message has been edited by DropOfaHat (edited 01-28-2003 01:42 PM).]

[robichelli]

I don't get how we could take the square root of the numbers I mean the sqrt -4 is 2i, and I don't thing he meant us to get into imaginary numbers.

[robichelli]

perhaps that long number is prime, no it's divisible by 2

[DropOfaHat]

I don't think we're meant to get the square root of the temperature numbers - again, I'm guessing that once we get the shape of the Square Root sign (if I'm even right about it being that), those numbers are done with - it's the string of numbers on the bottom that we have to do something with, regarding square roots. If you scroll up, you'll see I already calculated the square root of the entire string of numbers, and... well, If there's a significance I don't see it. I'm sure someone else will figure out what to do...

[robichelli]

I spot some perfect squares:
4 0 16 5 2 6 1 7 0 8 2 1 9 7 2 2 64 0 1 2 4 4 2 3 25 36 2 2 3 25 1 7 0 36 2

Although it could just be a coincidence

[This message has been edited by robichelli (edited 01-28-2003 03:40 PM).]

[robichelli]

Taking those square roots:

2 0 4 5 2 6 1 7 0 8 2 1 3 7 2 2 8 0 1 2 2 2 2 3 5 6 2 2 3 5 1 7 0 6 2

and again:

2 0 25 2 6 1 7 0 8 2 1 3 7 2 2 8 0 1 2 2 2 2 3 5 6 2 2 3 5 1 7 0 6 2

this is what we get:

2 0 5 2 6 1 7 0 8 2 1 3 7 2 2 8 0 1 2 2 2 2 3 5 6 2 2 3 5 1 7 0 6 2

I don't know if it means anything though

[Applebyd]

Just as the Minotaur asked me to give a big clue. People make a break through!.

(C{art)esian} was the answer to the cryptic I was after.

The temperature part is now solved. The root sign is what I was after.

Read Skinys note again especially the last line!

We'll post the answer a week from today if no-ones got any further.

Any questions?

DaveA

[ZutAlors!]

Assuming that the next step has something to do with the digits, I calculated the square roots of consecutive strings of digits (up to 10 in a row), and there were no larger perfect squares than robichelli saw.

I figured that the "one step ahead" was significant in some way, so I also subtracted one from each digit (wrapping back to nine) and did the same. That resulted in a couple 121s, but nothing larger. Likewise, I added one to each digit without seeing any large perfect squares.

[scribe]

I'm still assuming that this string of numbers somehow converts into the name of a Bar, so there has to be some way of getting letters out of it as well.

*puts puzzlesetter hat on*

Hmmm, if I had some letters, and wanted to turn them into a bunch of digits, involving a square root somehow, how would I do it...?

Dave's mentioned that you have to use "all the info", but I'm not sure if this just refers to "all the numbers" here - perhaps the numbers can be resolved to refer to the letters' alphabet position, or maybe they correspond to something in the table, or....

[epaminondas]

OK I am gettign nowhere here but the weather forecast gives 5 days and the original note has five lines - is this significant?

[Applebyd]

epaminondas


No

Sorry

[scribe]

Originally posted by dropofahat:

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Hey, if you connect the dots, doesn't the above kind of look like a "square root" sign? I tried finding the square root of the series of digits, all I got was "6337606938602276.7639618553725786", and I have no idea what to do with it...

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I tried the same thing, got the same answer, then tried it again, but noticed that Windows' Calculator doesn't actually take the entire sequence as a number, so the 6337.. figure above is way too small.

Getting the precise square root of a 41-digit number is quite tricky. Perl gives me "2.00412728408701e+20" but I have no idea if the actual answer is an integer or not.

If somebody knows a better way... but I'm guessing this is the wrong path...?

[ZutAlors!]

Well, I fired up my copy of Mathematica, and the prime factors of 40165261708219722640124423253622325170362 are 2 * 3 * 74071 * 90375589430455739853483871901334137. The prime factors of one less (40165261708219722640124423253622325170361) are 19 * 2113961142537880138953917013348543430019. The prime factors of one more (40165261708219722640124423253622325170363) are 439 * 169535281 * 431192124699337 * 1251570073489861.

Also, the prime factors of 51276372819320833751235534364733436281473 are 1117 * 11636207831 * 8516119881509 * 463245156903511; interestingly, there are only two prime factors of 39054150697108611539013312142511214069251: 279282130124183 * 139837628278412067920404597.

I can't believe that the puzzle would require factorization of a 41-digit number, but there you go.

[Applebyd]

perhaps the numbers can be resolved to refer to the letters' alphabet position,

Humm........

A litte analysis on the data may be called for!

I can't get a word from a 41 digit number however........

"Still one step ahead" eh?

DaveA

Off topic now and my apologies to anyone new to the Labyrinth.

Now anyone else who's posted a puzzle knows how I felt(feel)

DaveA

[onemung]

do you post the answer once you solve the puzzle? i know the answer, but am not familiar with the rules of this site. i am new to this.

[CrystyB]

heh, scribe, i got 3 digits more than you! sqrt(40165261708219722640124423253622325170362)=200 412 728 408 700 928 ...

[This message has been edited by CrystyB (edited 01-29-2003 09:35 PM).]

[Sofis]

Originally posted by onemung:

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do you post the answer once you solve the puzzle? i know the answer, but am not familiar with the rules of this site. i am new to this.

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Usually, people post the answer if they figure it out. If you want, you can use invisibility tags to make people have to highlight the post to read the solution (so that anyone who wants to avoid reading the solution can easily do so), like so: [INV]Solution here.[/INV]

[onemung]

"one step ahead" 401 - 1 =400 Square root of 400 is 20. The 20th letter of the alphabet is "T". Following this formula you get:
The Minotaurs Arms. Correct?

[scribe]

Nice one onemung Well spotted...

Guess the repeated sets of numbers *did* have a significance then...

[Applebyd]

Well done!

I was beginning to think I was going to have to give the answer.

Now it's been solved can I have a little feedback on what people thought.

In particular the Structure and setup. Also any comments on how it was worded or If we should have given anymore info.

Thanks

DaveA

Anyone want another?

[ZutAlors!]

Ooh, nice. I think I would have gotten that, eventually, but I hadn't thought to group the digits before subtracting one. Overall, I liked this, but my one complaint was that the original Cartesian graphing to find the square root sign wasn't very clear. Graphing the five "temperature" points was one of the first things I tried, early on, but if you connect the points in the order given, which is the natural thing to do, the result isn't a square root sign at all.

[Sofis]

That one's my fault. I changed the order of the temperature ranges to make the weather report seem slightly less unnatural than it did before.
Still, connecting the points in the order of left to right doesn't seem like an all that unobvious idea, at least to me.

[ZutAlors!]

True, but you could also connect them top-to-bottom, or in order by distance from origin, or in order by the sum of the coordinates, in order by the absolute value of the sum of the coordinates, or in alphabetical order by day, or in alphabetical order by digit, or alphabetically by nth letter of the day, or some other ways I can't think of off the top of my head. I imagine, with only five points, that I could come up with a rationale for connecting the points in any order.

Obviously DropOfaHat didn't have a problem figuring out the correct way, so it's probably just me, but if you'd had, say, a ten-day extended forecast then I think order wouldn't have mattered. Maybe that would have made it too clear, though...

[Sofis]

[DropOfaHat]

This puzzle was interesting, because you had to briefly switch from a math-oriented approach to a visual one, then back again. Wish I had gotten the rest, but that's what these forums are for. kudos to the group effort...

[Applebyd]

Humm......

There were two puzzles that were kind of the inspiration for this.

The Spy in he Submarine because it was a Lateral attack at normal cryptography and the missing clocks one which kicked back to Semaphore.

I'd like to have an attempt at something new. Does anyone have any objections?

DaveA

I'll try to stick to ONE type next time rather than merging puzzle types.

[Daniel Cummings]

"On a dark desert highway..."

Isn't this a reference to the song "Hotel California"?

[Daniel Cummings]

Sorry about that post. I missed the 2nd page.

[ZutAlors!]

quote:

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I'd like to have an attempt at something new. Does anyone have any objections?

DaveA

I'll try to stick to ONE type next time rather than merging puzzle types.

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Do you know, or are you interested, that there is a "Visitor Submitted Puzzle" section of the message board? Not that I'm objecting to another puzzle here, mind you, but you can simply post original ouzzles in VSP, too.

And I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with "merging puzzle types": quite the opposite. Variety is good.

[Tec_Picasso]

I still think my solution was better than the real one...