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paulv66
Posted on: Thu Aug 30, 2018 7:24 pm
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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a4m5
I'm stuck again! I've been working on the above puzzle on and off for the past week and keep running into dead ends. I think I've tried every possible combination at this stage, but I guess I must be missing something (or worse still, assuming a particular combination must apply for a particular cage or set of cages when in fact there is an alternative that I've overlooked). I'm not looking for any help or hints, but I would like to know if anyone has managed to solve it and , if so, how difficult did you find it?
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angelwhite
Posted on: Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:40 pm
Posts: 10 Joined: Thu May 10, 2012 9:43 am
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Re: a4m5
paulv66 wrote: I'm stuck again! I've been working on the above puzzle on and off for the past week and keep running into dead ends. I think I've tried every possible combination at this stage, but I guess I must be missing something (or worse still, assuming a particular combination must apply for a particular cage or set of cages when in fact there is an alternative that I've overlooked). I'm not looking for any help or hints, but I would like to know if anyone has managed to solve it and , if so, how difficult did you find it? I solved it a long time ago and I do not remember how difficult it was, certainly not among the most difficult. I only need A4V14 that I try and I try again without finding the solution.
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paulv66
Posted on: Fri Aug 31, 2018 12:30 am
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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Re: a4m5
angelwhite wrote: paulv66 wrote: I'm stuck again! I've been working on the above puzzle on and off for the past week and keep running into dead ends. I think I've tried every possible combination at this stage, but I guess I must be missing something (or worse still, assuming a particular combination must apply for a particular cage or set of cages when in fact there is an alternative that I've overlooked). I'm not looking for any help or hints, but I would like to know if anyone has managed to solve it and , if so, how difficult did you find it? I solved it a long time ago and I do not remember how difficult it was, certainly not among the most difficult. I only need A4V14 that I try and I try again without finding the solution. Thanks for your reply. I can't understand why it's causing me such difficulty as a lot of the puzzle cab be filled in fairly quickly. I think I must be making a false assumption somewhere along the way. But I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. Like you, I have been struggling with A4V14 and also with the other six star -1 to +7 puzzle as well as a few others. I have fourteen left to solve, about half of which are in the extra large category and the other half are ones where I keep getting stuck.
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pnm
Posted on: Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:30 am
Posts: 3305 Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
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Re: a4m5
paulv66 wrote: Thanks for your reply. I can't understand why it's causing me such difficulty as a lot of the puzzle cab be filled in fairly quickly.
What is the general sense on the difficulty level of the puzzles? Are most of them maybe too easy? Patrick
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paulv66
Posted on: Fri Aug 31, 2018 11:51 am
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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Re: a4m5
pnm wrote: paulv66 wrote: Thanks for your reply. I can't understand why it's causing me such difficulty as a lot of the puzzle cab be filled in fairly quickly.
What is the general sense on the difficulty level of the puzzles? Are most of them maybe too easy? Patrick The puzzles from 1 to 3 stars are all very easy. Most of the 4 star puzzles were fairly straightforward but a couple were tricky enough. I found the 5 and 6 star puzzles quite challenging. There were some I managed to get out straight away, but some of them took several attempts and a handful of them are truly diabolical and I'm still struggling to solve them after multiple attempts. At least, that's my experience. Paul PS: While we're on the subject of AP4, I have a question about a4v16. There's a cage with value 7&. As the puzzle contains the numbers -1 to +7, the only logical combination I can consider is -1, 7. But this suggests that 7 in binary form is (-1)111. But that seems to me to be equivalent to saying the -1 in decimal form equals (-1)999, which I guess is technically true, but would be a highly unusual interpretation. Or am I missing something?
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pnm
Posted on: Fri Aug 31, 2018 12:23 pm
Posts: 3305 Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
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Re: a4m5, a4v16
paulv66 wrote: PS: While we're on the subject of AP4, I have a question about a4v16. There's a cage with value 7&. As the puzzle contains the numbers -1 to +7, the only logical combination I can consider is -1, 7. But this suggests that 7 in binary form is (-1)111. But that seems to me to be equivalent to saying the -1 in decimal form equals (-1)999, which I guess is technically true, but would be a highly unusual interpretation. Or am I missing something? Good point, hadn't thought of that. Yes, "-1" is represented as "all ones". I realize it is confusing and inconsistent (both -1 and 7 are "111"), I'll try to come up with something better for this. Patrick
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paulv66
Posted on: Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:20 pm
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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Re: a4m5
I finally managed to solve a4m5. Having attempted it about twenty times, I had a long hard look at each step and realised that I had narrowed it down to one possible alternative in a particular cage, but that there were two other possibilioties that I had overlloked. One of this was a dead end, but the other eventually got me there. It's taken me 5 days to do the last two puzzles, so at this rate, it will another month before I complete the remaining 12.
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paulv66
Posted on: Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:12 pm
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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Re: a4m5
paulv66 wrote: It's taken me 5 days to do the last two puzzles, so at this rate, it will another month before I complete the remaining 12. That was way too optimistic of me! I'm almost there at this stage, but haven't managed to solve A4V14 yet. I know angelwhite mentioned that he had made several attempts at it without success and I see that bertoldo and agnostico are also 12 points shy of a full total, for which A4V14 seems to be the most likely culprit. I wonder is this a candidate for the most difficult book puzzle ever?
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pnm
Posted on: Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:29 pm
Posts: 3305 Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
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Re: a4m5
paulv66 wrote: I wonder is this a candidate for the most difficult book puzzle ever? It could be. So far 2 (TWO) people have solved it ...
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paulv66
Posted on: Thu Nov 15, 2018 2:21 am
Posts: 959 Location: Ukraine Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:03 pm
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Re: a4m5
pnm wrote: paulv66 wrote: I wonder is this a candidate for the most difficult book puzzle ever? It could be. So far 2 (TWO) people have solved it ... I finally cracked it! I wish I could say it was due to brilliant insight on my part, but it was more due to bloodymindedness and sheer perseverance. I don't know how many hours I spent on it, but I just kept trying to eliminate wrong options and I was stymied again and again until I realised that one of my early assumptions about the way two particular numbers were arranged in one of the rows was not necessarily correct. Now I'm going to have to find something else to do with my spare time!
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