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Puzzle Corner

Black Hole said:
(The problem is paradoxical: if there is one which is not the odd one out, then it must also be unique for that and therefore the odd one out... does that mean the answer is a pair of them?)
Click to expand...

I can see quite quickly that there is more than one possible odd one out answer, so I'd imagine that there are five of those and hence that one word is never the odd one out.
 
Yes, but which? I can find reasons for four of them to be odd, but not a fifth.

Like I said, maybe there are two answers.

Ezra seems to have cracked them (can't say I have concentrated on the others, as I haven't decided what the answer to Q1 is yet), but the wording of Q2 looks like it contains an error unless that is part of the problem.
 
Q4 is surprisingly easy compared to the others and I'm fairly sure about Q3 too. Haven't had any inspiration for Q2 though.
 
I decided to take a punt and clicked an answer in Q1 - and then discovered it doesn't matter which answer you click, you still get to Q2. So we don't know what the right answer is to any of them unless somebody successfully gets to part 3.

I think there has been enough cogitation time; re Q1:

STARLET does not contain a double letter while the other five do,
SONNET is 6 letters long while the other five have 7,
SAFFRON does not end with T while the other five do,
TORRENT does not start with S while the other five do.

So what is unique about SHALLOT or SUGGEST?

I still say that if either one has some unique difference that is common to the other five, the other will also be unique as the only one in the list that does not have a difference. Therefore the answer to the question is either two words or none. "Which of these is not the odd one out?" does not specify how many are in the answer.
 
Starlet - No double letter
Sonnet - Not 7 letters
Saffron - Not end in T
Shallot - Not the odd one out
Torrent - Not begin with S
Suggest - Not a noun
?
 
Black Hole said:
I decided to take a punt and clicked an answer in Q1 - and then discovered it doesn't matter which answer you click
Click to expand...
Yes, if you only got the next question by correctly answering the previous one, it would only take a maximum of 36 guesses to get through to part 3, as it is it will take a maximum of 46656 guesses
 
Last edited:
As I have no wish to spoil the puzzles, I will not be posting any answers until after the closing date of 31JAN2016, however, spoilers are already becoming available for various parts of the challenge, so I can at least reveal the number of sections and what is available on-line :-

Part 1 = one solution required (answer now available on-line)
Part 2 = six solutions required (all questions available on-line)
Part 3 = 4 solutions required (all questions available on-line and a 4 solution checker, pass or fail only)
Part 4 = 3 solutions required (all questions available)
Part 5 = 11 puzzles (all available plus an Email address to send answers)

Note:- the Part 5 question page has this note "We're not expecting you to answer everything! Send in as many answers as you can."

Just for the record, I did solve the Part 1 puzzle, I currently haven't got a definite solutions to any of the Part 2 questions, or any of the following parts
 
I was wondering whether anyone had definitely solved Part 2. I'm not interested beyond that - I was happy to take on Part 1 as a diversion, and Part 2 is intriguing, but my time needs to be rationed!
 
As there is a closing date for this set of puzzles is the 31st. January 2015 and links to all levels are now widely available on the internet, I thought I would post the final 11 puzzles, as stated earlier if you solve any of these 11 puzzles you can E-mail the answer(s) to GCHQ using the address at the bottom of the page, the 11 puzzle titles are :-
Where, Sum, Algebraic, Manifold Agreement, Looter, Message, Graph Theory, Wordsearch, Registration, Crossword, Cipher
link to part 5 :-
http://www.gchq.gov.uk/58aa7ef96f3051b0/Pages/index.aspx
 
Is it possible to know whether one has definitely solved any of them? Just because one thinks one has solved it, doesn't mean one has the right answer.
 
There was an item about this on the ten o/c BBC1 news tonight (came on about 22.30 if you want to find it). Apparently, with three days left to the deadline, nobody has come up with all the answers.
 
I personally think setting 25 puzzles was a mistake, I probably wouldn't have had the ability to solve the 14 required to reach part 5, but even if I had, I wouldn't have been prepared to devote that much time to them and the following 11
 
I agree - the looks of the later puzzles shown on the news would require a very significant investment in time.
 
There was a follow-up article in last Saturday's Telegraph Weekend section.

"no-one could solve it perfectly... There were a couple of questions that had more than one answer, so when people thought they had solved it all, they hadn't."

There is a book out now, apparently: The GCHQ Puzzle Book

image.jpeg
 
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