Listener 4386

[crosswhit99]

Quite an appropriate puzzle given the weather we have been having this week ! Relieved that it didn't take too long to crack as we have the pleasure of another Schadenfreude puzzle to occupy us tomorrow. Many thanks Elap !

[BMACMAC]

Out of interest, I set up a spread sheet to determine the lengths of all hailstone sequences for numbers up to 1000. The longest sequence was 179 steps for n=871. For n=27, it came out as 112 steps, including the 27 and the final 1.

[PurelyAcademic]

Please can someone help. I have decoded all of the words correctly and have two numbers. However, when I follow the instructions I get a sequence that has more than 53 spaces. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance and apologies if I've broken any in-house rules - this is my first post! :)

[perseverer]

Not so much rules, as a convention among those who participate in the AB Listener threads, but if you want to contact me on perseverer49(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk I'll try to help.

[British_Olympics]

The contents of the circled cells are there as a guide PA, so your sequence includes them (but don't forget about cross-checking too !)

[BMACMAC]

PA, I'm not sure I understand your problem: when you say you've got a sequence of more than 53 spaces, do you mean more than 53 values? There's nothing in the preamble to suggest that the sequence has to be a completed sequence; in any case the last few entries would than be of length 1, wouldn't they). However, 53 seems wrong to me; maybe you need to check your arithmetic.

[PurelyAcademic]

Many thanks to perseverer and BO. Finally realised what the second part meant - I wasn't reading it the way it was intended. Having reread the original blurb it's all clear now - finished :)

[BMACMAC]

Sorry PA, I now see that your 53 must be the number of empty cells, having left the circled cells alone. However, don't forget that some cells start both across and down entries, so you'd need to add on the number of such cells, if you're expecting it to match the total number of digits in your sequence

[British_Olympics]

The maths is (8 x 8 x 2) minus 26 unches = 102 digits in the sequence, equalling (2 x 14) + (3 x 22) + (4 x 2).

[BMACMAC]

Of course B_O I'd reached the same formula myself. Lest anyone is worried, let me say that you don't need to know this in order to solve the puzzle! I suppose you might use it to check that you're not trying to complete it with incorrect data, though, if you've made some miscalculation.

[midgler]

I am awestruck by the cleverness and elegance of this puzzle. Just one question: is there any significance to (or even reason for) the particular selection of 16 upper and lower case letters to represent numbers, and the exclusion 10?

[midgler]

sorry that should have read "exclusion of the other 10"

[BMACMAC]

I doubt it midler, though only Elap ca say for sure. I think the chi narrower than you suggest, since I and O can b confused for 0 and 1, as can lower lower case L. It sometimes depends on the font used. VV can look like W, as well. So I think that clarity probably has much to do with the choice, and those chosen are as good as any, I'd say

[BMACMAC]

Sorry for the typos: not sure what happened there, I meant to say that the choice is narrower than you suggest. The rest of my message is probably decipherable despite the odd typo. Think I must have a dodgy keyboard, or something.

[Oyler]

As regards the letters used it is up to the setter. The Times font used means that setters tend to avoid the use of lower case ell as that can be confused with 1. Also O and zero etc. If the grid is lettered as in puzzles in days gone by ( Rhombus 1960s and 1970s ) or myself then it tends to go A - H, J, K, M, N, P - Z.

[throbnob]

Although I can complete the Times standard cryptic with some facility I don't usually get much further than a few clues of a Listener puzzle; I very rarely try. My problem has often been that I cannot even make sense of the basic instructions. However when I saw Elap's Hailstorm I thought I'd make a concerted effort. I found filling the initial grid quite straightforward but am completely stumped by part 2. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next. I'm not even sure what it means to decode the grid (yes, I'm that much of a newbie). Am I just looking for a substitution cipher of some kind? If anyone can give me any hints I'd be grateful - not after anything specific, and I have no intention of submitting the puzzle (got two copies of Brewer's already). However I'd dearly love to complete my first Listener. Maybe next week... cheers Rob

[crosswhit99]

The message is coded in the usual way and starts in the usual place, but as indicated in the preamble it runs in a direction appropriate to the thematic weather.

[throbnob]

Hi Crosswhit. At work now (on nights) and using my phone. Hope you can read this!

Guessing at what you mean by "usual" (and having already noted the reference to direction) I've dived into my grid...

... and have found what looks very much like a coherent sentence. Part 2 here we come.

I'm on my break by the way. Honest.

Many thanks for that Crosswhit. Cheers, Rob

[crosswhit99]

You're welcome Rob, good luck :-)

[icynorth]

A bit late to this one, but what an amazing grid. Many thanks Elap!

[throbnob]

Ah well. Will have to record a frustrating failure. Got a consistent grid for part 1, and with Crosswhit's hint generated a meaningful instruction for part 2. Got two numbers - the two-digit one couldn't really have any other value, the other had the form z.z-1.z-1 (symbolically, not the product) and forged ahead. Only problem is I can't fit the resulting thematically-generated numbers into the grid. Must be an error somewhere but clueless as to where - if my 3-digit number is wrong then any corrections to the lettered numbers are likely to screw up the part 1 grid and the instruction. Might go back to the start some time as I know I have the right idea. Will probably just stick to the Time's Cryptic! Grrr