Listener 4049: The Domino Effect by Googly

[turnerjmw]

The dreaded numbers. Googly was last seen in November 2006 with Solve Two, Get One Free.

I enjoyed this. Not too much heavy duty calculator work, and it all fell smoothly into place. Cheers, Googly

[Mysterons]

You need to factorise the 3 numbers at 8, 31 and 18 (http://www.markhorrell.com/tools/factors.asp is a good site to assist) and then change the factors to letters and solve the anagram for each of the 3 words.

[jamesah]

OK. Many thanks.

[midazolam]

after a short break away I was late starting this. Several mistakes held me back for awhile but got there in the end, Tricky little number this.

james ah - you have to work backwards to find all the common denominators thereby making the 3 words

[jacinth]

Agreed - very tricky. I also started this late and just reached the end. All letters solved and dominos done, but I can't get sense out of 31A! I can't find any error, but I'm sure it's just me because I'd be really surprised if there's more than one solution to the grid! One last go tonight...

[clivew]

What am I doing wrong? Surely no grid entries can be like eg 123 because the two dominoes 12 and 23 will be used with only 3 spaces so all the dominoes will be completed in less than the stated 56 spaces. And yet 6 across contains 2 dominoes!!! Help please

[jacinth]

The dominos don't overlap

[jacinth]

D'oh! At least now I know how things pan out if I think 3A is E+GG !

[Mysterons]

No, G is 17, not 24

[clivew]

Thanks jacinth. A simple answer to a stupid question and it all falls into place.

[jacinth]

Thanks Mysterons. It didn't change anything with my 31A. Still scratching my head!

[Clamzy]

Jacinth - Could your head scratcher be that you are trying to find a five letter word?
Although 31 ac has 5 cells it translates to a six letter word.

[jacinth]

Oh dear. Thanks!

[jacinth]

...and I miust have read your message to jamesah about a million times too. Now I can get on with some "minor administrative tasks". Thanks again.

[rickyjohn200]

I just cannot get the first number. i have looked at the, 33A - 29A = 23D, along with 30D/34A, 2D and 6A, combinations but cannot isolate a letter to one value. All (for example O and D) letters have at least 3 possible values. i cannot see alogical way to reduce the possibilities further.

[jacinth]

rickyjohn200 - the 32D/35A/28D combo may help, but this was where I made my first and worst mistake...so tread carefully!

[Mysterons]

If I remember rightly, assigning final values to O and D was a case of solving all the possibilities for 23 down :

CA[OL + R(P-D)] = 100_

[clivew]

I had 2 possibilities for 9d. With the first I completed the grid and found the dominoes but 8a doesn't factorize into 2 digit numbers and 18a won't factorize into anything sensible.
With the second possibility 8a factorizes into 2 letters (or more if you include the one that translates to 1) but it's impossible to find the dominoes without repeating one so I can't complete the grid.
I've checked all the arithmetic and all the entries agree.
I think I'll wait for the solution.

[perseverer]

Clivew - why do you want 8ac to factorise into 2 digit numbers? If you have solved 31 it should point you to a very limited range of possible words for 18 to try. Then as has been said before, there are not that many things a setter can ask you to do to a grid.

[clivew]

Thanks Perseverer. I must be being very dim. 31 factorizes into something relevant and I was expecting 8 and 18 to do likewise. All the letters translate to single or 2 digit numbers which is why I'm stumped on 8 and I can't get a word from 18.

[perseverer]

Clivew Assuming you have the correct grid entries, finding prime factors of the two numbers will get you one of the words and very close to the other. (Google prime factorization tool if you need too.)