-----------------------------------

funzone36

Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:04 pm


World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

Can anyone help me solve this puzzle from WPC? This has a unique solution. The following is a list of
14 names of German musical groups. All 26 letters of the alphabet have a different
integer value from 1 to 26. Next to each word the sum of its letters is given. Punctuation
signs separate words, as well as spaces. Find the value of all letters.
AND ONE 49, 41
APOPTYGMA BERZERK 134, 81
BEBORN BETON 67, 77
CAMOUFLAGE 113
DEPECHE MODE 82, 52
DE/VISION 27, 65
EDGE OF DAWN 52, 10, 57
FROZEN PLASMA 68, 96
HAUJOBB 61
IRIS 36
LOWE 45
MESH 60
MIND.IN.A.BOX 61, 27, 10, 39
SEABOUND 111


I think one could potentially set this puzzle up as a system of 25 equations
with 26 variables. Any help is appreciated.


-----------------------------------

cavetroll

Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:26 pm


Re: World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

Not sure what I do for the whole question, but I know where you can start. 

If you look at the second last one, there is the word "A", therefore you know that A=10, this is a good start. Then I would look at "IRIS", since it has too "I"'s and letters can't have negative values, you know that I  D = 16

E = 11

M = 22 (From MD = 34)

22+O+16+11 = 52
O = 3

F = 7 (Using OF)

Do you see how this keeps going?


-----------------------------------

md

Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:06 pm


RE:World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

26 variables, 25 equations. Make a big friggin huge matrix and reduce.

Easy as pie


-----------------------------------

funzone36

Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:27 pm


Re: World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

Ok, here's what I have:

A=10
W=8
L=19
N=23
I=4
D=16
E=11
M=18
O=7
F=3
G=14

But I'm still stuck with 14 other equations.


-----------------------------------

jbking

Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:56 pm


Re: World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

Notice that if you use what you have that the BEBORN simplifies to this:

B+B+R = 26

That means B < 13 as R is at least 1, really at least 2 as it has to be even.

However, BETON after substituting reduces to:
B+T = 36

That means B >=10 as T is at most 26.

Now, given that you have 10,11 already accounted for this means B = 12

Which leads to this set of next values(sorry about the alignment not quite working out):


B = 12
T = 24  (using BETON)
X = 20  (using BOX)
R =  2   (using BEBORN)
Z = 22  (using FROZEN)
K = 21  (using BEZERK)
S = 26  (using IRIS)
V =  1   (using VISION)
H =  9   (using MESH)
U =  6   (using SEABOUND)
C = 15  (using CAMOUFLAGE)
J =   5  (using HAUJOBB)
P = 13  (using PLASMA)
Y = 25  (using APOPTYGMA)


Which leaves us with the following:
Q and Y

Using what we have for APOPTYGMA, we have
10+13+7+13+24+Y+14+18+10 = 134
Y = 134 - 109 = 25

Q, by process of elimination then is the missing value of 17.


-----------------------------------

funzone36

Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:08 pm


RE:World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

I think J = 9 and H = 5 since 

MESH=60
18+11+26+5=60

Thank you for helping.


-----------------------------------

jbking

Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:47 am


RE:World Puzzle Championship Question

-----------------------------------

Yes, I did get them backwards, sorry.  Minor brain fart there.