Our Crossword this month has Paranormal Pastimes as its theme, and we return to a choice of standard or cryptic clues.
April 2017 Skeptical Crossword Puzzle (HTML format)
or
80 April 2017 Crossword Paranormal Pastimes (.pdf format).
There are ten new April 2017 Logic & Maths Problems (HTML format)
or
57 Logic and Maths Puzzles April 2017 for pdf (.pdf format);
and a new set of seven Picture Puzzles and twenty “Mixed Bag” questions at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
The term “Scientific Method” is used to describe the way scientific research is designed, performed and reviewed. Good science depends on rigour – strict and unfailing adherence to basic principles.
In simple terms, as a scientist, you would:
1. Make some observation about something that is going on in the universe. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to the Scientific Method
1. a. Substitute b. Footloose c. The Wild Rose d. Octopuss’s Garden e. Funky Town
2. “SANCTION” (although “CANONIST” could be considered a legitimate answer.)
3. C. 760
4. Tiny Tim
5. No Trees
6. C. Nicaragua
7. C. a furniture van
8. Athens, Antwerp, Amsterdam Atlanta
9. Sweden
10. 1970
HARDER:
11. He’s a Mathematical genius with an IQ said to be about 230
12. Kindergarten
13. New South Wales
14. Estonia
15. Oxford and Cambridge reserve Rowing Eights teams
16. Geronimo
17. 1916
18. An annual Viking festival held in Shetland
19. Romerik, in modern-day Norway
20. 723
1. 7
2. 48 (the differences start at 2 and keep doubling)
3. (a) 11 (b) 111 (c) 1111
4. 3
5. 8
6. 29 days
7. 1987
8. 1432
9. 7. yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue
In the second row there was one colour change from the first row; red was taken out and replaced with yellow… and this guess received one more keypeg. This means yellow is in and red is out. And if yellow is in, obviously it must be in column 3.
There was one colour change from the second and fourth rows… dark-blue was taken out and replaced with brown. Since the number of keypegs stayed the same, this means they are either both in or both out. So if they are both in then green and light-blue must both be out, according to the information received with the fourth guess. (Since it must be yellow and brown that are drawing the two keypegs.) But how can green and light-blue both be out if two black keypegs were received in the third guess? They can’t so this means that dark-blue and brown must both be out, not in.
So, red is out, dark-blue is out, brown is out
Yellow is in.
One of green or light-blue is in but not both.
A double of green is out (Row 3)
So the four colours must be either:
yellow, light-blue, light-blue, light-blue
yellow, yellow, yellow, green
yellow, yellow, light-blue, light-blue
yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue
A triple with light-blue just doesn’t work.
If green is in it can’t be in columns 3 or 4. A simple check indicates no solution fits with it in either columns 1 or 2 either so this colour combination is not correct.
If light-blue is in twice one must be in column 4 and the other must be in column 2 since light-blue can’t be in column 1 (row 1) or column 3. But yellow, light-blue, yellow, light-blue would not receive a black keypeg in row two, which it did.
The only combination left happens to work. yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue fits each guess.
10. a. 8 b. 24 c. 24 d. 8
