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Letters In Boxes #7
It's no secret that really unique challenges tempt. That's why for this week's Letters In Boxes puzzle, we're trying something different. We're giving you all the information you need to solve these puzzles upfront. In fact, you're reading through that deluge of information in this very paragraph. We hope you don't rail against us when you realize these puzzles might be a bit easier than normal, but we still want the experience to be gratifying. | For example, did you know that the average Letters In Boxes challenge takes 8,267,101 milliseconds to create? Also, did you know that the first random fruit I can think of is a lemon? But that's only because it was in last week's series. Anyway, that's probably enough information to crawl through, let's get on with the actual puzzles, shall we?
You've got all the information you need above, and now here's some information on how to play. Click on the starter puzzle below to open it up in a new window. Once you've fiddled around with it enough to think you know the answer to the puzzle, focus your attention on your browser's address bar (which in this case reads "https://jayisgames.com/images/lettersinboxes/startofseven.gif"). Change the filename (namely, "startofseven") to your answer, using all lower-case letters and no spaces (make sure you use the same extension and directory). If your guess is correct, you're on to the next puzzle. If not, you'll likely get an error message, but you can feel free to go back and try again.
This batch of puzzles contains four puzzles to solve. On the fourth puzzle, you'll find the email address for sending your final answer. We'll hand out a prize to the first correct entry we receive, plus ten additional randomly-selected correct entries. Please include your Casual Gameplay account display name with your entry. You must be at least 13 years of age to enter. Only one submission per participant, please. Offer void where prohibited. Your deadline for submitting your answers is Monday, July 18th at 11:59 PM (GMT-5:00). Good luck, and don't forget that everything you need to solve today's puzzles are at the top of this post!
Update: Congratulations to these 11 winners! :D
All eleven winners were given a choice of prizes or an entry into a GRAND PRIZE drawing to be held at the end of August! Congratulations and thanks for playing with us! Look for another Letters in Boxes again soon!
- ThemePark ...First!
- BobBobBobson
- ajslama
- metacom
- bluemoose19
- OtherBill
- sillyme2
- Binks
- DAM
- Nigma
- lemonsaurus
Argh...are the bottom boxes meant to be faded? And the shape looks somewhat like an elephant...aaah I'll solve this later, must sleep now...
Ok, I think I get what the first puzzle stands for, but not sure where to go with it
Each word reads down, left to right, the first sentence of the review. "It's no secret that really unique challenges tempt"
i'm already on the third puzzle. any help?
I don't know if it was the changed format of this week's puzzle, or if my brain was just working today, but I found this puzzle to be remarkably easy. But a lot of fun too, so well done on this puzzle.
Actually, to start it's much easier than you think.
I got the first one thanks to ruka. But the second one is impossible. I'm no good at tehse puzzles.
Saying that, I'm sure I've got the answer to three, but obviously something I've done is wrong...
easy or not, i'm not getting it, lol
I'm having trouble with three too.
What do you do once you know the words? Or is that a red herring?
Edd:
For 3, think about this. Every action has a reaction.
MsMovieMaker:
You can count on the fact that the words are not a red herring, but merely the first step of the puzzle.
any hints on one?
I've tried a bunch of stuff that to me at least seems could be right, and I'm getting nowhere
Does anyone have any hints on where to get started for number 3?
How about the last one, any hints?
I'm a bit confused by the last one too
thought it might be letter coordinates but that doesn't quite work out
well that tag didn't work.
[We use HTML tags here, as described above the comment box. Also, please preview your comment to be sure it looks correct before submitting. I've fixed your previous comment. Thanks! :) -Jay]
I filled in the boxes on number 3 but now what?
I notice that
there are 10 unique letters in my 3 words and the puzzle is set up like a math problem.
Nothing useful has come out of that yet.
Anyone know how to do the final one? What do the numbers mean?
kubai -
how did you find those words?
jakramer75 - If that was a hint: THANKS! It worked. If that was a question:
I found the words in the same place I found the words for the previous two puzzles, only this time I knew exactly where to look.
@Rich What did I say that made you get #1? Cuz I haven't figured it out!
Ruka -
You located the right source for the letters. Now, how can you pull a word out of there? Sometimes the initial approaches work best!
@ruka
fill in the sentence, and look at the top row.
Your hint helped me solve it too! Now for #2.... ack
Am stuck on #3.
I have the three words. I have solved the arithmatic problem (there are two solutions; the 3 and 4 are interchangable). I am now stuck on how to turn one of those solutions into a word. Ordering the letters by their rank doesn't work. I can't see a way to reuse the numeric clues on the solution to generate a word. Bah.
I'll admit: #4 has got me stumped.
But I can help with the other three.
#1:
The boxes read from top to bottom. Letter count is key.
#2:
Two consecutive words fit perfectly into the boxes. The bold lines indicate a word within the words.
#3:
The first number is sentence; the second, word.
The first two words add together to produce the third.
Once you've transformed the letters into numbers, do the reverse to understand the meaning of the milliseconds.
DOH! Thank you Ryusui!
thanks for the help on 1 guys.
on two, had that thought that it's two words, and in the inner bracket is a word that goes to next puzzle. I'm starting with the second sentence of the paragraph, "We're trying" -> retrying as answer, didn't work
@ruka:
No punctuation in the correct answer. Don't worry, it'll leap out at you when you spot it.
Ryusui:
Now that you are at #4, you have come full circle. Think of what half of these great numbers have in common. But focus not on the nominations for this.
Ryusui, sorry I made a mistake. Here's a correction to part of my hint.
Remember, less is more. And focus on multiple numbers.
I've figured out the answer to #3, but I'm not sure how that leads me to the solution. :-(
OtherBill:
Follow the instructions given to you in this article. Put your car into reverse.
BWAHAHA! Finally got #3.
Man, I must have tried two dozen ways to work from the words to numerals, and finally got it. The hints make it clear as day now. Phew!
On to #4...c'mon brain don't fail me now!
ThemePark - Thanks for the help on #4. I had the method in mind, I just didn't want to believe it was true...
So, my thought process for #3 is...
Rail + Crawl = Deluge
by Letter ranks
18-1-9-12= 40
3-18-1-23-12 = 57
4-5-12-21-7-5 = 54
Which doesn't add up, so I'm confused....
AND I'm not seeing what those #'s have to do with the millisecond # as the comments suggest.
And thinking by letter rank, 8,267,101
is either Hbfgka or hzgka.
Ruka - Note that there are 10 unique letters...
@Ruka:
It's a Word Math puzzle. Figure out which numbers correspond to the letters.
The digit count is a spoiler. If a four-digit number plus a five-digit number equals a six-digit number, that pretty much gives away what C, D and E must be.
And if you know what E is, that gives away L.
Still stumped on #4, though.
I know that these are fractions and they have something to do with the word count - there's 135 total, divided neatly into 75/60 by that pipe symbol. Try as I might, though, I can't get the fraction values to correspond to any word or letter sequence that makes sense.
On number 4, wow... just wow. If I'm right (and yes, I got a perfectly reasonable word), that was a lot of work to put into a hunch.
Some hints for my method:
Treat them as fractions
But you can't compare them as written
In the end, you can count on my reasoning being circular
It's not a random fruit
@ryusui
what about c,d,e, l are you looking at? I'm thinking 3,4,5 and l is 12. you've probably made some logical jump I haven't. are you thinking of making 8,267,101 into a 7 letter word? what's the 0?
On number 4, wow... just wow. If I'm right (and yes, I got a perfectly reasonable word), that was a lot of work to put into a hunch.
Some hints for my method:
Treat them as fractions
But you can't compare them as written
In the end, you can count on my reasoning being circular
It's not a random fruit
@Ruka:
A four-digit number plus a five-digit number can only equal a six-digit number if...
...the five-digit number is OVER NINE(TY) THOUSAND!
So C has to be 9. D and E have to be 1 and 0 (do the math - there's no other way the numbers can work).
And with 0 in the ones column on the bottom, we know that L has to be 5 (5 + 5 = 10).
The rest is logic. There are ten unique letters and ten digits to puzzle out. Once you're done, convert the numbers in the milliseconds total back into letters using the same pattern.
Anyone else have #4 yet? I'm at a loss.
Help with #4 please?
Am I counting letters or words? Does this have anything to do with or in common with #3?
Hint on #4:
A 360-degree angle...just looks like a line.
Listen, people. If you're going to give a hint, try and look at it this way: if you write something that makes perfect sense and is really obvious ONCE YOU KNOW THE ANSWER, that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll help at all if you don't know it. Try and think about that when you're making your hints, because some of them are absolutely useless unless you already know the answer. We're looking for hints, not prophecies.
I disagree, DAM. There is some utility to a hint that only makes sense after the fact. If it's for an intermediate result, it can confirm that you are on the right track (which is important in #4, because the last step is a doosy and I suspect people might give up because it seems like such a bear). It is also useful in cases where the answer doesn't necessarily provide that Ah-hah! moment (which I contend is also true for #4).
*sigh* Finally got it.
There are 360 letters before the | symbol.
Convert each of the fractions so that the denominator is 360 - for instance, 4/9 is equal to 160/360.
Let the tedium flow as you count out each and every letter position. Or copy the whole block into Notepad, strip out the punctuation and spacing with Find and Replace, and break it up into lines of 10 or so characters each.
Okay. #3? I thought that was freaking brilliant. Easily one of my favorites. #4, though, is less about brainteasing and more about leaping through a needlessly obscure logical loop only to find tedium on the other side.
I don't mean to be rude, but as someone who still thinks of this as a competition, I'd really appreciate it if the hints were a bit less obvious. They're practically giving away the solution at this point.
Ryusui, agreed about #4.
The line in the paragraph is supposed to be a hint, but it ended up sending me off on a tangent in a completely wrong direction. I actually didn't understand the significance of the line until AFTER I solved the darn thing.
Still, I suppose I can't complain too much because the first three were relatively easy, but clever enough to entertain.
I am. So stuck. On #3.
Am I correct in thinking the three words are rail, crawl, and deluge?
Ah, wait, nevermind! I got it. Man, these math ones really throw me for a loop. Maybe I've been out of school for too long.
Again, I think #3 about hit the sweet spot as to what these puzzles should be like. #4 is an example of what they should try to avoid.
#3 is a three-part puzzle; each requires an intuitive leap, preferably some experience with other puzzles of the kind, but each individual piece is fun and challenging: first a book code, then Word Math, and finally a substitution cipher.
#4, on the other hand, is two parts, one needlessly baroque, and the other simply tedious. Assembling a phrase by counting through a string of 360 letters isn't challenging or fun; it's a chore. A good puzzle shouldn't be like that: your reaction, once you realize how to solve it, should be "oh boy!", not "oh crap!".
I prefer hints, cryptic as they may be, over straight out telling the solution. :/ I got the answer handed to me when I was just looking for gentle nudges. I suppose it's up to the puzzle designers/administrators to determine what crosses the line though. (Especially since a gentle nudge for one person can be a glaringly obvious hint for another)
Still, the third puzzle was my favorite of them all.
Like Ryusui I think puzzle #3 was great.
It took me some time to figure out what to do as the second step, but it gave me a nice 'Aha!' feeling once I got it.
About number 4:
I wrote a simple script to do the counting for me. Took 2 minutes to code, and less than a second to execute. No tediousness for me :)
I'm stuck in number 2, please help
I'm stuck in number 2, any hints?
I think if you solved the puzzle, you can post any spoiler you like, and by doing that you give permission to those who solve the puzzle by using your spoiler to post anything you like, and so on, and so forth.
If you don't want to know, just don't click the spoiler button. *shrug*
Now, I'm also stuck on #2.
Is it wrong that I ended up writing a program to solve #4 for me?
Okay, I think I got #4, except either my calculations or the soluion is off.
Big, big, big spoiler ahead. Do not click unless you've already gotten #4.
Is the answer meant to be Pastinaca sativa? Because the alveolar got all labial and that's just not right.
ray9na:
That is indeed what I got, hence my statement earlier that this puzzle lacked the "Ah-hah" feeling of most.
Please help for number 2 ......
@Kyuu:
Two consecutive words fit in the grid: a five-letter word followed immediately by a six-letter word. Believe it or not, there's only one pair in the entire paragraph that fits this description. Once you've found the words, look at the letters encapsulated by the bold border to find your answer.
It is highly unlikely that a lemon is the primary chance-based fruit that the author thought of.
About #2...
If the words are "first" and "random", making "sd", well, that's not the answer and neither is lemonsd.
I know it must be obvious for all of you. But I'm really stuck at #1... Any hint?
raddaya at 2:
You got correct words "first" and "random". Now put them together and read the word from brackets firSTRANDom.
Rgandum at 1:
First sentence itself is the hint. What can you do with words "It's no ..."?
And my attempt at 4:
Answer is zshnsip :)
At 3. Got the words without the hints(SHOCKER!)
Am slightly confused. OK, not slightly.
Tonypa, thank you so much! I hadn't read the text, I just opened the puzzle and it was making no sense =P
tonypa, about #4:
I think you're on the right track, but you need to recount. You have some letters right, but obviously some are wrong.
It took me like three tries to get the right answer for that last one.
Great puzzles this week, but they were kind of easy. Here are some hints:
1.
It's no secret that this has nothing to do with elephants.
2.
Maybe the lemon's friends know something!
3.
Those numbers look like they want to extract some gems from that word mine! Maybe you should convert their time to milliseconds.
4.
Count some words, convert those fractions, and maybe you'll win 360 scoops of ice cream!
You pretty much had all the answers already, but in case you missed them, here's a walkthrough:
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 1 Answer
To solve this first puzzle, you had to look at the very first sentence of the paragraph. Even though the boxes faded out so that you couldn't see the length of the words, you would hopefully figure out that the words in the first sentence could fit into the boxes vertically. From there, the answer would appear in the first letters of each word, spelling INSTRUCT.
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 2 Answer
To solve this puzzle, you simply had to find a five-letter word immediately followed by a six-letter word. This happened with the phrase "first random". If you put those words in those boxes and read between the brackets, you'd find your next filename, STRAND.
Puzzle 3
Puzzle 3 Answer
This puzzle happened in three steps. First, you had to figure out what the numbers in the picture meant. The first number in each pair indicated what sentence to look in, while the second number indicated the word to select. So, the fifth word of the fifth sentence was RAIL, and so forth. But what to do with these words? Once they were in their boxes, the second part of the puzzle was to realize that these words formed a word math puzzle, where each letter represented a different digit in an addition problem. If you want a further breakdown of how to solve this puzzle, read this spoiler:
To start, the only way a four-digit number added to a five-digit number could result in a six-digit number is if the five-digit number started with a 9, and the six-digit number started with 10. So, you've already got C=9, D=1, and E=0.
Note that the E not only appears in the second column, but also in the sixth column. The only ways for a number added to itself to equal 0 is if the number is 0 or 5. Since the 0 has already been claimed by another letter, the L must equal 5.
Since a pair of Rs has to equal more than 10 (to make the 9 turn into 10 in the C=DE portion of the equation), R has to be more than 5. Therefore, R has to be 7 (such that 7+7=14, plus another 1 from the preceding column to make 15).
This leaves us with five unused digits: 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. Here's where the deductions get tricky. Since you know two As has to equal more than 10, the only possible choices for A are 6 and 8. If you try letting A equal 8, U must then equal 6. BUT, there is no possible solution using I, W, and G to equal 2, 3, and 4. Therefore, A must equal 6.
Now, U could equal 2 or 3. If you try to make U equal 3, you're left with 2, 4, and 8 for the remaining three letters. And, it's possible to let 8+4=12, which would fill out the remainder of the digits... except we've already got the 5s in the very first column which already turn it into 13! So with no possible solution where U equals 3, U must equal 2.
For the final step of this problem, we have to find a way to spend the remaining three digits in the tens column of the equation so that no "one" is "carried". This can be done with 3+4=8, remembering the one carried from the 5+5 part. And yes, it's true that the 3 and 4 can be interchanged, so there are technically two solutions to this problem, but that doesn't make any difference in how you solve this puzzle.
So once you've got the math out of the way, it's time to look at your results. You now have ten letters that represent ten digits, but how could we use that? Remember the "8,267,101 milliseconds" it takes to write a review? That's a lie. (It's actually about three or four times that amount!) But, converting those numbers to letters gives you your next filename, GUARDED.
Puzzle 4
Puzzle 4 Answer
The final leg of this series made use of that random | symbol in the middle of the review. If you counted each of the letters before the mark (no spaces or punctuation), you'd find there are exactly 360 characters. The numbers in the final image are actually fractions that tell you exactly where to pull each letter from that portion of the text. For example, the first letter is 4/9ths of the way through the section. So, you'd find the 160th letter, which happens to be the P in the word "puzzles". You'll notice that the last fraction was an improper fraction, meaning that you had to go eight letters beyond the symbol to find the final letter. The final solution was PARSNIP. And for those who complained that this final puzzle was tedious, did you consider putting the letters of the text into boxes (say, a 10x36 or 20x18 grid) to make counting easier?
Winners will be announced soon!
This is the first time I've gotten a final answer wrong, although I was quite close and suspected what the answer was. I must have miscounted.
*contemplates going back and working out the correct answer*
Umm...isn't it about time you updated the post with the winners? I kinda like to see my own name up there. :P
Update