(no subject)
Busy with work this week and Hunt puzzle writing so I'm not sure I'll get another Kakuro challenge up this weekend. My next idea for here is an interesting little mathematical variation but I'm trying to make the puzzle "Beautiful!" which means it will take some time to execute the construction as I want. However, Wei-Hwa's puzzle challenge this week is a set of 6 (1-6) kakuro puzzles with an additional digit-usage constraint that comes into play from time to time. Feel free to enjoy them in the meantime. Somehow, I did not find the drag and drop interface as functional this time (it really wouldn't let me place some digits in some squares) so I clicked on a square and typed in the numbers by hand.
In the place of a kakuro, I can offer this riddle which was (to my knowledge) posed by a labmate whose birthday is today. Wei-Hwa's first puzzle challenge referenced the "24 game" where you take four numbers from 1 through 9 and then have to perform just basic operations (+,-,x,/) to reach 24. His starting set was (3,3,8,8) which was a nice challenge. Other good 24 challenges are (3,3,7,7) and (1,3,4,6). Anyway, consider other targets besides 24. For example, a game titled "25" could be imagined with the same rules except the four numbers are used to get to 25. Given the numbers (2,3,4,5), a valid expression would be 2+3+(4*5). However, at some point, you would reach a target for which no valid set of 4 numbers could possibly reach the titled score. "One million" would certainly be such an unfit title. Question: What is the smallest such unfit title number?
I think it basically devolves into a simple arithmetic test, and I've run it by hand for about 10 minutes to get my answer, but it is an interesting little poser for those who find themselves walking down the streets manipulating numbers on street signs in their heads, the kind of people that find the number 1729 fascinating, ....
Since I seem to vent a lot on this blog about stupid tv, I'll vent my two biggest tv peeves of the week. First, for finally starting to watch the 50 greatest game shows of all time countdown on GSN, I picked the worst week. A whole episode of just "Greed" and a whole episode of just "Dog Eats Dog"? Couldn't you have edited some choice bits? Using "Whammy" instead of the original Peter Tomarkin Press Your Luck? The only non-GSN staple was the $1.98 beauty show which I could instantly pass and put in my "50 worst game shows list" at about #10. I have a sick feeling Lingo, one of these worst game shows, may be in the top 5 on the GSN greatest list given how this is shaping up. Maybe Match Game 74 and Match Game 77 will even get separate billing on the list.
Even more disappointing, after wondering for a long time how they would fit 2 semi-finals and a finals match-up of the World Series of Pop Culture into 2 hour-long episodes (each episode has had 2 face-offs to this point), it made some sense that they split the second semi-final in half, to save the results for the final show next week. However, the promotions for next week's show have already been running and shamelessly give away the winner of the other semi-final. Major foul!
In the place of a kakuro, I can offer this riddle which was (to my knowledge) posed by a labmate whose birthday is today. Wei-Hwa's first puzzle challenge referenced the "24 game" where you take four numbers from 1 through 9 and then have to perform just basic operations (+,-,x,/) to reach 24. His starting set was (3,3,8,8) which was a nice challenge. Other good 24 challenges are (3,3,7,7) and (1,3,4,6). Anyway, consider other targets besides 24. For example, a game titled "25" could be imagined with the same rules except the four numbers are used to get to 25. Given the numbers (2,3,4,5), a valid expression would be 2+3+(4*5). However, at some point, you would reach a target for which no valid set of 4 numbers could possibly reach the titled score. "One million" would certainly be such an unfit title. Question: What is the smallest such unfit title number?
I think it basically devolves into a simple arithmetic test, and I've run it by hand for about 10 minutes to get my answer, but it is an interesting little poser for those who find themselves walking down the streets manipulating numbers on street signs in their heads, the kind of people that find the number 1729 fascinating, ....
Since I seem to vent a lot on this blog about stupid tv, I'll vent my two biggest tv peeves of the week. First, for finally starting to watch the 50 greatest game shows of all time countdown on GSN, I picked the worst week. A whole episode of just "Greed" and a whole episode of just "Dog Eats Dog"? Couldn't you have edited some choice bits? Using "Whammy" instead of the original Peter Tomarkin Press Your Luck? The only non-GSN staple was the $1.98 beauty show which I could instantly pass and put in my "50 worst game shows list" at about #10. I have a sick feeling Lingo, one of these worst game shows, may be in the top 5 on the GSN greatest list given how this is shaping up. Maybe Match Game 74 and Match Game 77 will even get separate billing on the list.
Even more disappointing, after wondering for a long time how they would fit 2 semi-finals and a finals match-up of the World Series of Pop Culture into 2 hour-long episodes (each episode has had 2 face-offs to this point), it made some sense that they split the second semi-final in half, to save the results for the final show next week. However, the promotions for next week's show have already been running and shamelessly give away the winner of the other semi-final. Major foul!