Thoughts on Puzzle 40: Making Space

For those wanting to discuss Puzzle 40…

Old-school logic puzzle! I used to do these when I was a child, all those aeons ago…

1 Like

Reminds me of a famous riddle I solved years ago …
7a3adcaa9284c9189b0b697dfcbbc366

1 Like

Is the word just in one of the grids ooor? Like there’s so many grids… or is this just a long answer? I’m sorry, I’ve never done a cross puzzle before.

Nevermind, I got it.

Managed to screw this up twice with faulty reasoning before I got it, at the third attempt. Not easy to solve with constant distractions apparently…

I must have made a mistake somewhere while solving the puzzle 'cause I have the beginning of the answer, the end of the answer but the middle is just an inconsistent gibberish…

I’ll try to solve it again tomorrow.

I think there are 2 possible solutions that are logically consistent with the 10 propositions.

1 Like

I liked it :smiley_cat:

[extra characters for this to let me post]

I thought this too, but (assuming you and I ran into the same thing) there really is a semi-subtle aspect to one of the requirements that reasonably eliminates one of the two solutions.

1 Like

That is a good question. There are 30 O’s. So, is the answer 30 characters long? Does the answer consist of several words that total 30 characters? Are we supposed to unscramble something?

1 Like

Solve and you’ll see. :slight_smile:

Well, I believe that I solved all the X’s and O’s. However, reading the letters corresponding to the O’s, from left to right, produces gibberish. That lead me to conclude that I was supposed to unscramble something.

I’ve been trying to unscramble these letters, but I am coming up short.

Cheers. I may be wrong, but I believe that whenever there’s something to unscramble, the instructions say so. Are you reading the selected letters left to right, then top to bottom (as when reading English text)? And are you absolutely sure that you’ve met the 10 requirements?

1 Like

FWIW, I believe that there is only one solution to this puzzle which accurately meets all 10 requirements. Once solved, the solution should readily appear, when you follow the corresponding instructions. No need for further deciphering or whatnot.

1 Like

I finally solved it yesterday evening in less than five minutes; it was a really dumb mistake haha

1 Like

You’ll read the letters left to right, top to bottom to get the message. Redo the puzzle. I had to do it twice.

What I’m finding annoying about this puzzle is that there’s an ambiguity - several times there’s reference to “the person who” did something, whether getting a certain score, making a certain project, etc. but unless I’m missing something there isn’t an explicit statement that the projects, materials, and scores are unique, and as a corollary, that each is in fact represented. I’m torn between making that assumption and not, because if I incorrectly do obviously I’ll get stuck, but if I incorrectly don’t I assume I’ll find there isn’t enough information to solve it.

Edit: I’ve solved it, got down to one last question that I’m almost sure was actually specified by the wording of one of the statements but wasn’t positive, but at that point it didn’t matter because the answer was evident. Not going to answer my previous question in case that ambiguity was intentional.

In this type of logic puzzle, I don’t believe it’s a spoiler to say that each value is uniquely assigned (e.g. only one person scores 100 etc).
I’m pretty sure that removes any possible ambiguity and only one solution can be arrived at.

3 Likes

I loved this one! A great challenge that i at 1st thought i wasnt going to be able to figure out but once i did…ahh very satisfying. Feeling rather proud of myself over here lol

1 Like