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#1: Jota (Jota) on Nov 13, 2008 [SPOILER]

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yep, sure do

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but still not a beginner's puzzle

Not at all.

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i also guessed correctly using symetry and not logic...logic was failing me

Good puzzle. With the #'s at the top being like a mirror image, I was able to tell by the #'s on the left if there was an even amount of #'s, then the middle was blank, but if an odd # then the middle contained that # evenly from left and right of the center of the face. :)

Using symmetry to solve a puzzle is only valid if you know that it has a unique solution. That makes it a bit suspect as a solving technique, so I don't normally count a puzzle as "logically solvable" if that is the only way to solve it. In this case there are other ways to work it.

I should improve the discussion of this in the "Advanced puzzle solving techniques" page with an example of a puzzle that has symmetric clues but no symmetric solution, but I should do it sometime when I'm not typing one handed with a wiggling baby in the other arm and when my daughter isn't bouncing a red balloon off my head.

I use to solve puzzle coloring all the page and then doing the contrary. am I the one?

Jan, I refer to my #3, first paragraph, second sentence, knowing full well what you would say. :-)

Lucilla, do you mean that you filled in the whole thing and then went back over it to remove color where it shouldn't go? (I don't actually know if I described that any better than you!) If so, I never have done it that way!

This is a fantastic small puzzle by the way! Tricky to solve and definitely recognizable when you're done. I always like your puzzles.

Wow. Tricky, this one.

I saved this puzzle with a line of 8, a line of 4 and a bunch of white around the edges that couldn't possibly be color. I came back and stared at it for a while then saved it again. I came back and stared at it for a while then saved it again. Finally I read the comments, agreed that the clues were symetrical and took a total guess at what the solution was. Turned out to be a good guess but I still have no idea what sort of logic I used, other than the symetry, to solve this.

yes I use to fill and then solve. try!

Lucilla would you please complete on this week's WC?

I first solved this with symmetry, but then went back and tried to solve without symmetry after reading the comments. I used edge logic for the 7s. I then used the "3 3 1" columns, and using the top 3 found that it could only go in rows 2 - 4. I used more edge logic later with the 7s. And finally smile logic at the end. Quite a hard puzzle when not using symmetry!

It's a bit simpler if you remember to mark the whites around all your 1s. (If all the clues in a line are the same, then you can mark the edges of lines of pixels that long, even if you don't know which particular clue each bunch corresponds to.)

So:
After line logic, the 7s in c2&13 can go in the range of r4-14.

Edge logic on those sevens makes r4c2 & r4c13 white.

Line logic, then smile logic to finish.

I solved this one again and it did not seem particularly hard. I used the same logic as you described. I guess that's what 1.67 years of perspective gives you...

Happy Year of the Pig, pbn'ers!

Wow, 12 years already!

Edit: Okay, 11 since this puzzle was made. But the oldest puzzles are from 2007!

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