[Guest]

The bottom three pictures are examples, while the goal is to figure out

the answer to the top puzzle.

The solutions to the three examples are, from left to right,

312, 49 and 27.

Solve the ?

[Guest]

Wow, this looks absurdly difficult. The dimensions of the boxes must be relevant, right? And are the positions of every single dot important, or just the number of dots?

[Guest]

I assume we are only dealing with positive integers.

Example 2's solution is 49. It appears to be the product of three numbers. The only divisors of 49 are 1, 7, 49. The three numbers in the puzzle must be (1,1,49) or (1,7,7). I guess zero could also play a role so the numbers could also be (0,x,49) with x being anything.

Example 3's solution is 27. It appears to be the product of two numbers. The only divisors of 27 are 1, 3, 9, 27. The two numbers in the puzzle must be (1, 27) or (3,9).

Beyond that, no clue...

Edited March 9, 2011 by SteveK

[Smith]

I'm willing to work at it, but I think Pyro needs to cough up some clues.

The left example includes a "plus" sign (+) as well as a "minus" sign (-). Are these pertinent? There are no such symbols in the puzzle to be solved, so how are these helpful in the example? Are these symbols what they appear to be (addition, subtraction, multiplication)?

Check out the clue on page 2 of my unsolved puzzle and be the one who solves it!

Edited March 9, 2011 by Smith

[Guest]

Sorry, that's pretty much all the information i know as well. I'm trying to solve it myself..

I will say that the original answers to the examples were 12 9 and 7 but then people thought the answer was 23 (based on rows and columns), so the designator told us alternate answers to the puzzle were 312 49 and 27.. if that helps at all..

[Guest]

That might help...Those alternate answers just have one number in front of the original answers. And those numbers happen to be the number of lines in each grid that make up the mathematical operator symbols.

First example: longest between the row and the column, in this case column, is 12. You need 3 lines to make + and -, so 312.

Second example: longest between row and column is 9, and you need 4 lines to make X and X, so 49.

Third example: longest is 7, plus two lines to make X is 27.

So the answer to the big puzzle would be 23, with 4 lines to make X and X, so 423.

But that's stupid. Then the dots have nothing to do with anything at all. I hope that's not the right answer.

[Smith]

<snip snip>But that's stupid. Then the dots have nothing to do with anything at all. I hope that's not the right answer.

I agree that that would be stupid, but if it IS the right answer, I just hope Pyro tells us. I hate it when an OP never answers about the correctness of the guesses! I was watching this puzzle the OP dropped two seriously difficult puzzles, and then never came back. There was some great discussion on possible approaches toward a solution. I even emailed the OP about it, but no response.

That puzzle inspired me to post one of my own. Follow the link in my sig, and read through page 2 to see all the clues. I was bummed when it got knocked off the iGoogle gadget after only about 400 views, but it's still getting a little bit of attention from insiders. I wish some of the serious thinkers around here would take a crack at it!

[Guest]

Sorry, I don't know the answer yet, but as soon as I do, I will post it. Here are some additional hints that were received.

1. As with the examples, the two parts of the answer are independent. The

first digit that was added for each is the number of steps taken

to solve each of the grids, to generate the final answer, being the remainder

of the answer.

2. No math is needed. Yes, there are numbers, but to get the actual answer part

you needn't perform any math at all.

3. Because of #2, maybe +, - and x are not mathematical operations...?

4. It may be easier to perform the steps on paper than on a computer.

5. Counting loosely counts as math, so stop counting the edges, and paths, and

so forth.

[Smith]

10 month old puzzle, + 9 months since last post, + 11 posts total = dead puzzle. Bummer.