Micro Logic Puzzles
While we were in Gatineau last month, we put out Micro Logic 76. It was our first original Micro Logic (ML) there. The 10 others we have there are all copies of NB puzzles. All our puzzles there have been well received and many have been solved by cachers who are too far away to go find them. The same happened with this new cache. In fact one of the persons who solved it is in France. TAZ30 in Riviere du loup used one of our puzzles for one of their caches. Ms Taz (Shella) has been solving ML puzzles for a while and claimed some of them when they came down here for our Ice Walk last year.
There are a few cachers in NB who rush out and get the ML puzzles as soon as they come out and there are a number of others who are working hard at finishing them off. I guess I am making things tough on them by continuing to put out new ones. I put out 6 more a month or so ago, but I have no plans to hide more of them soon, although we have 17 more ML puzzles ready.
In August, Arvense logged ML44 as follows
Out caching around Shediac, found a few caches and a few more mosquitoes! I starting trying to solve these a couple of months ago, tried to google answers, tried to google caculators, tried everyting except logic, you know the logic the cache page says to use. Well I tried logic, and after a while i durn figured it out! Great puzzle, a real brain excecise! Love solving it! TFTH
I have seen similar comments on these caches from people who have tried all kinds of methods to solve them including algebra. Unfortunately algebra will not normally work on these puzzles. On the old MGA site I put solutions to a coup;e of them. I thought this would be a good time to explain another one. I first want to say that these puzzles are original creations. Each is based on an idea that I then work on to eliminate all unneeded information and to ensure that the solution is unique.
In any event I thought I would try and explain the one that Arvense logged, ML44.
Here is the puzzle. The puzzle is solved like many of them with a bit of observation, some logic and some trial and error.
The 9 letters represent the digits from 1 to 9
A + B + C + D + E + F + G + H = J x F (1)
A + B + C + D + F + G + H + J = A x E (2)
A + C + D + E + F + G + H + J = G x H (3)
F – H > D (4)
The first 3 lines are each the sum of 8 different digits. The sum of all 9 digits is 45, so the sum of 8 digits must be from 36 to 44. Also the answer of each of the 3 sums must be equal to the product of two digits.
The only sums that meet these requirements are the 3 following.
6 x 7 = 42 with the 3 missing in the addition (5)
5 x 8 = 40 with the 5 missing in the addition (6)
4 x 9 = 36 with the 9 missing in the addition (7)
Line 5 is the only multiplication that does not containthe digit missng from the addition. This corresponds to line 3 so we know that B is 3 and
that G & H are 6 and 7 in some order. (8)
The missing letters in lines 1 and 2 are J and E and they are equal to 5 and 9 in some order. (9)
Therefore we know from the multiplications in lines 1 and 2 that F & A are equal to 8 & 4 in some order. (11)
If we use all the above and look at line 4 we see that F = 8 and H = 6, so D = 1.
We then see that J = 5 and A =4 and G = 7 and E = 9 and C = 2.
I am not a fan of math logic, I don’t mind the other types of logic puzzles that come in logic books (the kind with the grid). I have personally solved about 12 of them, the rest I have found with others who already solved them and when one is too hard I ask for the coords from some of my geocaching pals who do like them. I really don’t think you mind or at least I hope not, ultimately you put them out there to be found one way or another. I can see that some people love this type of puzzle and will want more and I hope you continue to put them out so I can “bum” the answer off of them 😉 I do look at them and decide weather or not I will try to solve or not, mostly not and it is not because I don’t want to, it’s just I don’t want to spend hours getting frustrated. The fact that it is a micro in a uninteresting place is even better because the joy should be in the journey to solve it not the actual container because anybody can find a micro in a tree or guardrail.
Of the 512 caches I have found so far,80 are “Mystery or Puzzle Caches”.I like the question mark symbol I guess. 23 of these are the micro logic puzzles and I have a few more solved that I have not gotten to yet.Yes they take time to do, but once I solved a few they started to come a little easier and I could see the logic behind them.There are a few tricks to doing them, knowing what will work and what can be eliminated.
Just a few days ago I received an e-mail from a cacher asking how to tackle these puzzles.I don’t know why they contacted me or if they contacted any other cachers but I will refer them to this page.Keep the puzzles coming.
Over the weekend, I passed the 200 puzzle find mark of which 40 of them were ML puzzles. I have always enjoyed doing puzzles so I find that this adds an extra dimention to geocaching. Keep them coming.
I have yet to solve any of the ML’s myself. Quite frankly, I suck at those kinds of puzzles. I should have the logic in my head for it, but everytime I sit down to try and solve one, I end up more frustrated than anything. But that’s ok. Some people really love them and some people don’t. That’s the nature of the game.
I solved one of those a while ago but I have yet to go get the cache. I should do it the next time i’m in the Moncton area before it gets archived or something lol. All that hard work would go down the drain.
I will probably print a few more and give them a shot. They are a nice way to get your brain going.
Keep up the good work.
Well a sad day indeed today (joking). We had to archive ML24. A first one that had to be put to rest.
Here is the puzzle and the method of solving.
The nine letters in represent the digits from 1 to 9 .
To make it more interesting, we have replaced some letters with an “x”/
A x B = x
A x C =Dx
A x E =xx
A x F =EG
———-
total =AA
H>J
A is mutiplied by 4 different digits B C E F and the total is 11 times A. Therefore the 4 digits must add up to 11. So they can only be 1 2 3 5 and B is 1. A cannot be even because one of the answers would end in zero but there are no zeros. So A must be 7 or 9.
With that info, we look at the last multiplication A x F =EG where the first digit of the answer (E) is one of the four multipliers and the second digit is not. From that point the answer is easy.
We missed ML24 due to the construction, and after Mr. CD used all that scrap paper !!!
I love getting nice comments
This one from M.Hawkins
Log Date: 11/11/2010
Found this one at dusk. I just love doing your puzzles (Ma & Pa). I sit, have a cup of tea or coffee and work on them. I lay around before I go to sleep and work on them. Sometimes I bring them with me and do them in the car when the baby is sleeping. They are challenging (but logical). I’m having a lot of fun working my way through them. My beautiful wife was game for going after this one after we had hit a bunch of other caches in the Harrisville area today. There were no people around because of the holiday and it was dark. Signed the log. TFTC.
Funny enough, I had solved the ML 44 you gave info about back in May. I had cached in the Shediac area with sungro and loved caching there. That’s kind of why I guess I decided to look at that one that was in Shediac. After a lot of sweat, I managed to crack it. Was I ever so proud. I then had a look at a few others and only managed to solve one more, ML 12 in Cocagne. I have yet to get the container tho, next time I’m going to Moncton I’ll get it!
I have been tempted to retry these Micro Logic for a while, after getting the container for ML44 and getting a total of 9 unknown caches this past weekend it got me started.
I downloaded every ML logic you had and saved them into Word. I can now easily access them and work on them. Started at ML1 and solved it, same with 2 and 3. I’m at #4 now and it’s a bigger challenge. I’m in an issue but I will continue to work on it until I solve it. I think it’s pretty good for a guy that doesn’t consider himself good at puzzles.
Like someone said, they are hard to figure out at the first look but there are hints you learn to see as you do them and you can eliminate a lot of possibilities. I will see how many I can get until my next visit in Moncton.
Thanks for making these, I for one do like them now 🙂
10 more hidden in Moncton/Dieppe area