Friday, July 28, 2006

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 10

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July 28, 2006: Mini Kakuro: For this variant of Cross Sums, place the digits from 1 through 6 in the crossword-like grid so that no digit appears more than once in any "word" and that the sum of the digits in the word match the indicated sum (on the left for "across" clues and above for "down" clues). No digit appears more than 6 times.



Drag letters from the "palette" on the left into the grid to place them. You'll know you've solved it when all the sums turn green. Click on a cell to get a keyboard-sensitive cursor.

Hints:
I must say that I like this puzzle. It was really fun to solve. As for hints, the wikipedia article for cross sums gives you several possibilities for combinations under the "Possible Sums" section.

Firefox allows you to type the answers in (Does not work on IE). Click on the box until a grey box with a white question mark appears. Type in the number and it should appear. (Only works with main keyboard numbers. Not numpad). To delete a number, click on the number or replace it.


An individual by the name of Adam sent me a PERL solver. I will test it out and post it later.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Full answers will be posted on the solve puzzles page.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
Play Old Puzzles! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/puzzle
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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Code for puzzle 9

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Puzzling Addiction is another great site that is covering Wei-Hwa's puzzles. David codes all the answers. Here is his latest TCL solver for puzzle 9.

There is a Perl solver for puzzle 9 written by Dave (d0sboots). He used Perl and /usr/dict/words

* Note: These are not full solvers.

If you like to read more about puzzles, check out MathPuzzle.com
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Friday, July 21, 2006

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 9 by Google

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July 21, 2006: Give and Take: Add (or subtract) one letter from each word, and then rearrange each group of the resulting letters to form one word (which may or may not be a proper noun). The letters you add (or subtract) will spell out the name of the category that all the resulting words are in.


Puzzle 1:
"LEVEE", "ENNUI", "IMP", "BENT", "FORTUNE", "NERVES", "HANDOUT"
Puzzle 2:
"FINDER", "HAIRDO", "BONNETS", "RESONANCE", "HOMES", "FIREARMS", "AMUSED"
Puzzle 3:
"CLERICS", "LATHERING", "BOLOGNA", "TONNAGE", "HOMBRE", "SALVO"
Puzzle 4:
"LYRICS", "CONTINENTS", "INANE", "WADER", "SITUATING", "PRESET"
Puzzle 5:
"HERMIT", "MAKES", "BURNT", "LIVED", "FORAGED", "HERNIATE", "FAZE", "ELBOW"
Puzzle 6:
"EARTH", "HEAT", "RUSTIC", "ATHEISM", "OUNCES", "UNCROSS"
Inspired by the Family Reunions puzzles by Stanley Newman. Drag letters to swap them. Click on the plus/minus sign to change sign. Click on the "Mix" button to randomly rearrange the letters in that row. Click in this module and then on a letter to activate a "cursor"; arrow keys and typing letters will change the letters appropriately.

Hints:
To make things easier, use Webster's Online Dictionary to get sets of words that can be formed with a +1 / -1 character for the given words. You can get these sets of words from the Anagrams section of the definition. (Note: Not all have anagrams)

Example:
LEEVE
Words containing the letters "e-e-e-l-v"
+1 letter: eleven, leveed, levees, releve, sleeve.
-1 letter: N/A
ENNUI
Words containing the letters "e-i-n-n-u"
+1 letter: ennuis, undine.
-1 letter: nine.
IMP
Words within the letters "i-m-p"
+1 letter: gimp, impi, imps, jimp, limp, pima, pimp, prim, simp, wimp.
-1 letter: mi, pi.

Once you have all these words, try to pair as many words into categories. You will start to see the answers form before your very eyes. Eleven... Nine.. Pi.. Oooppss...

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section.

Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
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Friday, July 14, 2006

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 8 by Google

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Puzzle:

July 14, 2006: Knight Swap: Swap the positions of the white and black knights in as few moves as possible. There are 6 different challenges; click on the letters of the logo (at left) to change challenges.





Inspired by the work of Henry Ernest Dudeney and Serhiy Grabarchuk. Minimal movecounts generated by a program partially written by Jim Leonard.

Hints:
If you do not know chess, Knights move in an L Shape.

You will have to manually check your answer. Check your answer (number of moves) by clicking on the "best" button.

Moves to solve puzzle:
  • G = 22 Steps (Medium)
  • o = 8 Steps (Easy)
  • o = 8 Steps (Easy)
  • g = 16 Steps (Medium)
  • l = 34 Steps (Hard)
  • e = 20 Steps (Medium)

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section. Using the picture coordinates above, submit your answers based on the moves in list form (Exclude bracket information). Sample move using the red '0':

'0' Part 2 Example:
1. C1-D3 (White from C1 to D3)
2. B1-A3 (White from B1 to A3)
3. B4-A2 (Black from B4 to A2)

Solved: G, o, o, g , l, e
*
As sad as this sounds, I solved 'l' in my sleep. Woke up and found out that Felipe Andrade beat me to it. I was hoping I solved it before an answer was posted. :) Great work Felipe! His answer is a little different but the piece movements are the same.


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Monday, July 10, 2006

Solving Old Puzzles

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I have been trying to archive puzzles for those of you who miss the older weekly puzzles.


I have every puzzle but puzzle 1 and puzzle 3. Any volunteers to convert my html page for puzzle 3 into a Google Personalized Homepage module? Here is the link,


If you have it working, email it back to me so that I can test it. Let others enjoy the older puzzles. :)
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Friday, July 07, 2006

Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenge Number 7 by Google

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July 07, 2006:
US States Jigsaw Sudoku: My friend and current U. S. Puzzle Champion Thomas Snyder sent along this amazing variant where the region shapes might seem familiar to American cartographers. (Note to Sudoku researchers: This puzzle is not Sledgehammer-complete!)

Drag symbols from the palette on the left into the grid to place them. You'll be warned (in red) if you're trying to place the same letter in the same row, column, or region. You'll know you've solved it when all the lights turn green

Hints:
Solve your basic Soduku puzzle with a little twist. For me, 5's were the easiest to place.

Answers / Solutions:
Answers are usually (and will be) posted in the comments section.


Test your friends! Go to: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com
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