Logain Potpourri IV
by Joe McCrea (Logain)
XVI) Diabolical Dial Dilemma
You’ve come to the end round of another GL competition, but as you make your way down the hall to a room filled with snacks and entertainment for all participants, the door in front of you suddenly closes and locks. You then notice the door has a huge box on it with one dial in the center that can turn left or right in clicks like a standard combination lock. ….another test.
On the door is a note with loads of instructions….
Contained in this box is a set of 9 gears in a 3x3 matrix. These are not interlocking gears…rather, they were designed just the opposite. Each one turns in the opposite rotation to the one next to it like a normal connected gear, but the gears match up perfectly with the spaces in between the gear teeth. The spaces in the gears are large enough to hold a marble. In fact, gear #1 currently holds that marble at position "0". The combination to the lock is simple. It is the shortest route needed to pass the marble so that each gear holds the marble at least once.
Gear Info:
- All gears are symmetrical and start with position "0" at the top
- Turning the outer dial directly controls the center gear (#5)
- When the center gear is turned one notch, all other gears rotate one notch in their appropriate direction.
- Anytime a gear’s opening matches up with another gear’s opening that is not closed, the marble passes to it.
- Gear #s and their sizes (number of spaces/holes):
1 = 16 holes, 2 = 8 holes, 3 = 4 holes, 4 = 12 holes, 5 = 24 holes,
6 = 8 holes, 7 = 4 holes, 8 = 20 holes, 9 = 16 holes
- Gears 2 & 6 have the odd numbered holes closed and will not accept the marble.
- Gears 4, 7 & 8 have the even numbered holes closed and will not accept the marble.
- You can only change directions, but are not required to, (i.e. left turns to right turns and vice versa) after the marble passes from one gear to another.
An example of two random gears in starting positions where the left gear has 8 holes and the right gear has 12 holes. Each turn rotates all gears by only one numbered notch. Rotating the left gear clockwise will make the right gear rotate counter-clockwise, and the marble will transfer to the right gear’s hole #11 after 2 turns. The left gear has all holes open and the right gear has all even numbered holes closed which will not accept the marble.
XVII) A Case Of Sum-Antics
What unknown value can you add to 1 in order to get one less?
XVIII) Word Search (v12.1)
I wrote down some notes from this book I came across. I read it 2 or 3 times before I managed to keep all this confusing information straight. Anyone know what the subject was on?
S |
P |
C |
M |
N |
H |
V |
B |
4 |
O |
V |
Z |
D |
S |
N |
2 |
E |
T |
T |
X |
I |
2 |
K |
T |
E |
8 |
N |
M |
9 |
Q |
Z |
C |
S |
1 |
0 |
S |
XIX) Say That Again
She pricked her finger, so I wrote what I saw. Then he looked and said what he saw that I wrote; she then wrote what she heard him say. Using my pen, I wrote just the opposite. He then looked and said what he saw that I wrote; she then wrote what she heard him say. Using my pen, I wrote just the opposite. But somehow we had gotten it wrong.
What has been said...what has been written?
Images by Courk.
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