Puzzle Description:

Jack Frost

#1: Stephanie T (laalbacoronada) on Dec 15, 2009 [HINT]

I had to use some fancy edge logic to place the 6 in the bottom row, but no guessing.

Found to be logically solvable by Gator.

Ditto #1. What we have been calling deep edge logic.

I'm gonna start by saying that this is a beautifully rendered puzzle with a very nice image and a fun challenge.

That being said, I'm going to follow up by saying that the following is not meant to be condescending or derogatory.

If by "fancy edge logic" or by "deep edge logic" you mean, "I have already concluded that this image is a snowman, the black clues are an outline and logic tells me that the black outline must touch the bottom, at least partially, at this point." then I will agree. And it was clear to me that if I could place at least part of the 6 in the bottom row, the rest of the bottom third would fall into place.

I've said it before, I'm not the greatest puzzle solver. When Gator lists out his "deep edge logic" I'm often able to follow along. I just don't see how I'm going to get there on my own and, to me, it suggests trial and error. That and my above "logic" based on knowledge of the image, to me, are still guessing.

Gator and I must've been solving this at the same time because I was still offered the solvability drop down. I marked it, "Solvable with some guessing." and based my rating on that.

nice image...one of the best snowmen on this site.

Martin - I call it "deep" because it is looking deeper than 1 row. Like in this puzzle, if we were trying to use edge logic on row 50, we would look to see how this affects row 49 to see if there is a contradiction. We have to look deeper than row 49 to see the contradictions. I'll try to describe in better detail how this works.

Before even solving any of the puzzle, let's just focus on the 6 clue in the bottom row. Also take a look at the 3 rows above the bottom row (rows 47-49) and notice the clues in those rows. Now imagine trying to place the 6 clue on row 50 in columns 1-6. When you look at the bottom column clues (4 7 3 3 3 2), you can see that the 6 clue will cause you to fill in those column clues. But there will also be a dot above each one of these filled in parts.

If you just focus on how row 48 is affected, you will see that the 6 clue causes R48C1 - R48C5 to be black and R48C6 to be a dot. This is a contradiction though as the row clues are 8 11. So we know the 6 clue cannot go all the way to the left in row 50. So R50C1 is a dot. If you take that thought a little further (again looking at how row 48 is affected), you will see that the clue 6 cannot be in 2-7, 3-8, 4-9, or 5-10 as each will cause row 48 to be a contradiction. So R50C2-R50C5 are dots.

You can work the whole part of row 50 finding contradictions on row 48 until there is only one place left that the 6 clue will go.

I'm not sure if this is any clearer. I'll try to get some images posted if I get a chance to later.

Ditto #5.

its puzzle like this one that make the WCP so fun week after week

good job great Frosty

I used edge logic at the bottom of columns 2 and 3 (where a 7 in column 2 collides with a shorter block in column 3). That was enough for me to complete the bottom half of the puzzle without further edge logic.

thank you all. and have a wonderful Christmas time.

Thanks for a fantastic entry! Kai!

Yikes, that was a tough one. But nice image, and lots of fun to solve.

I think this is just a nice "Frosty" as "Jack Frost" tends to be a scary monster. :S

Thanks it was fun to solve!

Merry Christmas

Great one. Very fun and great image. Thanks!

That deep edge logic was interesting, but I'm happy to say that I got it without looking at the comments. :) Love the title.

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