| Sunday 20th November |
adhawkins
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1082
Best Total: 44m 12s | Posted - 2005.11.20 14:14:27
Hi,
I keep getting stuck on this puzzle. I've restarted three times now, and at the top right hand corner I always end up with an impossible solution.
Is there a problem with it?
Andy |
astrokath
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 3258
Best Total: 13m 42s | Posted - 2005.11.20 17:18:16
No, this puzzle can certainly be solved. This weekend's puzzles have been quite tricky, and the top right hand corner of today's is certainly one of the spaces that gets finished off towards the end.
Try doing it earlier in your solution rather than right at the end, and saving the stages that you're absolutely sure are accurate. As always, there are several ways of marking lines, but some will leave you with three loose ends in the top right corner. Avoid them!
Last edited by astrokath - 2005.11.20 17:18:37 |
foilman
Kwon-Tom Admin
Puzzles: 3402
Best Total: 24m 6s | Posted - 2005.11.20 19:19:41
Yes, I can confirm there's a solution to it. In fact, I just tried the puzzle again & solved the top-right quite quickly - but then I have had a lot of practise and many of the patterns I just see straight away. It was the middle bit of today's that caused me problems for some reason... but that's the way it goes, sometimes the solution just leaps out at you, other times you have to really think ahead a lot... |
adhawkins
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1082
Best Total: 44m 12s | Posted - 2005.11.20 23:09:59
It's not that the top right bit was tricky, more that I restarted the puzzle three or four times and always got (relatively quickly) to filling in the top right, and running in to trouble...
I'll try again.
Andy |
adhawkins
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1082
Best Total: 44m 12s | Posted - 2005.11.20 23:32:58
Just tried again, and got to exactly the same position...
Andy |
astrokath
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 3258
Best Total: 13m 42s | Posted - 2005.11.21 08:28:43
Okay, I'll go through this again, concentrating on solving the top right corner.
Starting with just filling in what I know to be right, I can complete a large swathe of the right hand side (but not touching the edge), and the lower left corner.
There's a pattern on the top row: 23221
I have a vertical line between the pair of 2's. If I place another vertical between the 2 and the 1, that'll complete the lines around the right-hand 2, but will mean I'll have to have more than 1 line around the 1, so that can't be true. I have other lines in that area on the rows below, so I know that wherever I place the last line for the right-hand 2, there'll only be one end of the loop heading in to the top right hand corner from that point. I then count up the number of other loose ends heading in to the unfilled space. There's one heading in from the vertical 310 pattern, another end from beneath the 0-space-2 horizontal pattern just below, and a final end which can either go inwards or outwards...
0 _ 2
|___1
0 2 1
It MUST got inwards, i.e.
0 _ 2
|___|1
0 2 1
...otherwise there'll be an odd number of ends going into the RH corner, and you wont be able to complete the puzzle.
You can complete most of the top right corner from this point, except that you still won't know where to place the last line around that 2 on the top row - don't place that line until you know which one it is. Either will give a viable solution in the top right corner, but not necessarily in the rest of the puzzle.
(Actually, it's fairly easy to determine which option it is - I overlooked a 2 with two crosses a little way to the left, which makes it obvious after filling in the lines!)
Hope that helps.
Last edited by astrokath - 2005.11.21 08:33:34 |
foilman
Kwon-Tom Admin
Puzzles: 3402
Best Total: 24m 6s | Posted - 2005.11.21 08:49:25
If there's any way you could do a screen capture & cut out the impossible bit - or describe it to us - we could probably help see where you've gone wrong... well, it might be worth a try anyway. |
adhawkins
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1082
Best Total: 44m 12s | Posted - 2005.11.21 10:56:46
Ok,
I'll do it again at lunchtime (in an hour or two) and see if I can get a screenshot.
Andy |
adhawkins
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1082
Best Total: 44m 12s | Posted - 2005.11.21 13:14:54
Well, I tried again, and this time I managed to complete the top right hand corner. Just got the remainder of the puzzle to finish now!
I must have been making exactly the same mistake every time previously...
Andy |
foilman
Kwon-Tom Admin
Puzzles: 3402
Best Total: 24m 6s | Posted - 2005.11.21 14:12:42
Woohoo!!! Well done...  |
