Puzzle Description:

It's totally logical.

#1: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Jun 22, 2010

Solvable with only logic! Really!

Gator & Jan: To keep the irony of the title, I'd appreciate it if you'd only comment that it's solvable rather than marking it so. (Assuming you believe it so, of course.) I'd like to see if the inevitable question mark ever disappears on its own.

Those question marks are the bane of my existence. </drama>

Line logic places just two pixels.

(There are several ways to attack this puzzle. Here is one way:)

Color logic on r20 places another one black pixel and on c20, another two black pixels and a red. (Line logic extends that red another one.)

Edge logic on the black 6 in r20 fills in two more black pixels and brings a glimmer of hope. Notice the black 2s in r19. They must share space in that block of black clues with the 6 in r20. Thus smile logic places those 2s and the 6.

Color logic then will place the black 1 in r19. (This is a kludge introduced to make the puzzle solvable.) Then color logic on c20 places the red 1 and there's quite a bit of color logic that can be done from there.

You should have a red vuvuzela popping up from the lower right corner when you run out of (contiguous) color logic. There is a lot of (confirmed) white to its right.

This makes more obvious the position of the black 2 in r19. Again, like r19-20, the 2 in c19 and the 5 in c20 must share the block of black clues. This places one of the pixels of that 2 (c19r10).

Line logic then places six more black pixels, two red, and four white.

Now look at c19. That black 1 has only two positions possible. If it is put in r5, the black 1 in r4 then must go in c20, causing a conflict in r5c20 (which then must be both black and white). Since c19r5 can't be black, c19r4 MUST be.

This opens some line logic. Simple color logic will then make r1c17 white. A little more line logic, and then simple color logic makes r1c20 red.

Color logic finishes c17-20.

The 6 in r1 can have a black pixel placed in c9 due to color logic. Edge logic also blackens r1c10 as extending the 6 left past the 2 in c5 would cause an error in r2.

That forces the black 4 in r2 to be put somewhere in c4-8, blackening c5-7. That extends the 6 into r1c11-13. Color logic says r1c5 must be white. Thus c5r3 must be black. Color logic then makes r3c4 black.

Line logic finishes the black in r1 and 2. The black 4 in r3 can now be partially positioned in c11-12. This allows quite a bit of line logic.

Color logic on the red 2 in c15 will enable line logic that will fill the canter and upper right.

Color logic on the upper red 2 in c8 will enable line logic. Then color logic on the upper red 2 in c6. Continue with color logic all the way up to the upper left corner.

Color logic makes c1r4-11 white. Then line logic makes c2r4 black and color logic then makes c2r5-11 white. Line logic completes r1-9.

Color logic forces the black 1 in r10 into c8. Line logic completes rows through r14.

Color logic on the red 2 in r15 enables more color logic on red 2s down to the lower left corner.

And that just leaves smile logic to finish r16-17.

My head hurts.

Fun, but took a while.

Agreed that it is solvable with logic, and there are definitely multiple ways to tackle this puzzle. I'll hold off marking it solvable with logic for now.

Oh, the irony, it hurts... This is the first puzzle I've done in a long time (not solvable with just line and color logic) that HASN'T been marked with a question mark. :P

First of all, this is a great puzzle. Lots of fun with the different kinds of logic.

Second, let me try to understand. You don't want anyone to mark this puzzle as "requires guessing" but if people do mark it with the question mark, you want to see if the question mark goes away on its own without Jan or Gator marking it solvable? I think Jan's program is designed so that if 3 or more people mark it as "requires guessing" it will have a question mark show up, which will stay there until Jan or Gator mark it as solvable without guessing.

But I'm sure you already understand that part of it. So your experiment is to see if three or more people mark as "rquires guessing" anyway, and then if they go back and mark it as solvable without guessing, will the question mark no longer show up? It might be easier to just ask Jan, since he wrote the script. But this is way more fun! :-)

i solved it wiff my logic and i liked it also, JOE

Sweet solve! I realized what it was about two-thirds of the way through. Lots of great color logic, a little edge logic, and then that nice finishing touch of "frown logic" at the end (frowning because of the noise from that vuvuzela in the corner?) :D

lol Liz

great puzzle
loved the logic

by the way fasstar i thought that if at least half of the people rated a puzzle as requires guessing than a question mark would show up not just 3 people

even if only person rates it as requires guessing and he/she is the only person to rate the puzzle at that point a question mark will show up

Loved the challenge Joe! Loved the comment Liz!

that hurt my brain...it's late. But I got it!!!
now I can sleep. ;)

My thanks to all the people who liked it and said so. And now after three weeks, the dreaded question mark appears! I wonder if it will live forever now.

Teresa, I thought, like bugaboo, that it was a >50% thing. The Punctuation of Doom often seems to show up with the first rater of my puzzles.

And Liz, I thought buzz words were all the rage. (And then I duck to avoid the rotten vegetables.)

very very nice puzzle. logic only! and i didn't guess the picture until the last pixel, since in my world there are no forests, only lots of trees :)

Thank you, and I agree, Al. It's all numbers and pixels until I finish, too.

I loved this one! It's challenging, it's logically solvable, and it requires (or at least I used) all the kinds of logic I know. Thanks for this puzzle, Joe!

Found to be logically solvable by Gator.

Looks like the question mark didn't come back.

I went ahead and marked it as solvable anyway just in case it did every come back.

I liked this puzzle... Thank you heaps. Not sure if I guessed or used logic but i did solve it and loved the image. Made me smile

You tell 'em, Joe!

excellent puzzle...enjoyed it immensely!

Thanks, bexie, Kristen & Ailsa.

good one, Joe!

I recognized the red "X" after completing the lower right leg of it, but ignored and solved with logic....fun fun!

Thanks, Kurt. Maybe that's why the dreaded question mark went away - the even more dreaded picture "logic".

(And thanks to CJ from two years ago who I seem to have inadvertently skipped over.)

Unique perspective and fun. I did have to guess twice.

I have conquered your puzzle! Well done on making such a concept about no question mark actually not need the logicality question mark. I love irony.

crafty!

I think the problem with the question marks is that people will mark it as requiring guessing only because they haven't learned skills to solve it logically. I had no trouble with this puzzle. Currently there is no question mark. Hopefully it stays off!

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