Puzzle Description:

A mosque in ground zero? What do you think?

#1: Joe (infrapinklizzard) on Sep 13, 2010 [SPOILER]

Probably not a bad idea (if people would only remember what America is supposed to stand for), but unfortunately all there is in the works is a muslim community center 1/4 mile away.

Try placing the 3 in R7 and then the first 3 in R8.

Jota, you can get this far with the r7 3 in the wrong position:
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pqqd8_9

But then it doesn't work, right? Is that too many moves ahead?

The goal to be logical is that you can do it on paper with pen with no mistakes. This is at least four steps ahead with a lot of white produced -- even I wouldn't want to keep that much in my head. ;)

I keep waiting to see if someone else can come up with some way to tackle this without looking many moves ahead, but I think it is just not going to happen.

Found to require some guessing by Gator.

And that's exactly the answer to the puzzle's question.

yeah, right

I'm not sure why I took such an interest in this one, but I did. I REALLY wanted to find a logical way to solve it without excessive look ahead. I think it was because you get down to a relatively small area of unknowns before you get stuck and knowing it had a unique solution...it just seemed like there should be a way.

I just couldn't find a way. I got stuck at one point for a long while. Eventually was able to dot in R3C11 and R5C11...which didn't kick-start anything else.

If someone is looking at these comments for a hint on how to progress without having to guess, I'll try to provide one that doesn't give away the more fun/interesting aspect of solving this one:

R10C14 and R12C14 are dots.

Thanks David, I know you don't want to admit it, but you got so interested because it was mine :-)

David, I agree that r3c11 can be dotted, but I think r5c11 looks too far ahead. Though it's fairly pointless to argue this since, as you said, they don't lead anywhere.

I like how the puzzle solves after given the two "extra clues" of c14r10&12 being dotted:

After line logic, look at rows 2-6. There is a total of five pixels totally separated from the rest of the puzzle.
Now look at the column clues. There is only one odd clue that fits in that section. Therefore the 1 in c8 must be in the upper section.
If that 1 is in r5, it produces a conflict in r6. Therefore r6c8 must be the 1 clue from column 8.
The rest then solves with line logic.

I tried looking for a one "extra clue" solution that wasn't trivial (e.g. c8r14 or 15 being dotted), but haven't found one.

i dotted r5c11 for the same reason that i dotted r3c11...that if that 1 clue is in the top set of five pixels then it has to occur at the top, middle or bottom since the other four pixels come as two 2s.

the reason i went with those particular "extra clues" was to preserve the logic in the top area that you describe, once you (shortly after dotting my clues) eliminate the 1 in c11 from being in the top set of five.

...and yes, jota, you had something to do with it ;)

Ah, that's true. I was still thinking line-logically when I wrote that. R3c11 can be eliminated easily with projected line logic - if you assume it's black, none of the 2s will fit above it and the 1 in r2 will have nowhere to go. R5c11 cannot be so easily eliminated with "normal" logic.

Any new thoughts on this?

still hard (twss)
;)

Thank's David.

I didn't have any trouble. When I ran out of line logic, I saw a spot to begin some zigzag logic on the lower right side. Fun solve, and my thought is, "They should know better, but Muslims have a long tradition of placing mosques at the sites of military/religious victories (generally one and the same)."

if i remember right, i'm able to zigzag for quite a ways in the wrong direction before anything bad happens. we know it zigzags, but not which direction without more than the acceptable number of look-aheads. easy to guess, but still a guess...again, if i remember right.

maybe I lucked out, then :)

i wouldn't say it was pure luck. you are exceptionally good at understanding the implications of how the clues lay out and visualizing what is going to happen. you read the designer's intent and clue structure together to see the right solution. it's logically apparent to you, even if the possibility to go the wrong way exists.

Chalk it up to my Aspie brain :)

Thank you guys for your interest! I wanted it to need the "look ahead" because that's the answer to the question.

Goto next topic

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