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HSoup · Greenhorn Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 9

Circuits

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:27 am

pez · Greenhorn Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 3

Guessing at the answer

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:35 am

anonymous125423 · Guest

Agreed. A shame, because other than that, this was probably one of my favorites.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:42 am

The Baffled King · Boot Joined: 07 Sep 2011 Posts: 34

I sort of agree, but I don't think it was ruined. Getting a few letters and making an inspired guess is a strategy for very rapid solving -- I don't have a problem with that.

I have to admit that I made a careless mistake and had one of the first few letters wrong, which made it impossible for me to guess.

But yeah, this was a fun one --

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:47 am

pez · Greenhorn Joined: 13 Oct 2011 Posts: 3

The first solution was posted literally seconds after the theorem went live. I don't think there was nearly time for the inspired guessing you suggest.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:55 am

The Baffled King · Boot Joined: 07 Sep 2011 Posts: 34

Oh, well, yeah, just pure guessing is lame -- and the possibility of success by pure guessing does make the puzzle worse.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 12:57 am

Noanymous · Guest

Yes, it was very obvious to guess. I regret actually wasting time figuring out the algorythm, because as soon as i got the first letter... The answer fit.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:44 am

caf · Boot Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 10

I liked this one. I AM kind of glad I missed the actual posting by several hours so I didn't feel rushed (not that it took long) - I had the joy of figuring out each of the symbols with little temptation to guess (I agree it was too obvious a solution - and unusually what we were shown after didn't reveal deeper reasons for the choice). It did seem fairly easy and straightforward - but it was fun, hints weren't necessary for me to get started on the right track, and definitely preferable to ones with errors...

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:58 am

cgeorg · Boot Joined: 02 Jun 2011 Posts: 14

I think it would have been very easy to get if you started in right away. The various gates are well known to anyone who has done electrical engineering, or even studied computer science. Once I got the first and 4th letters, I knew the answer. I think that if I had just dived in to solving, rather than taking my time verifying certain symbols (like the box), I could have had the answer in seconds.

**Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:23 am