Factorising Quadratics (Meta)
◆ · By benchen71 · Published almost 2 years ago
Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is a mathematician with a ten-letter name
This is a meta puzzle for those of you out there who can remember back to high school algebra class! And I am sorry if this puts some of you off but you will actually have to do some mathematics in order to get to the answer to the meta, which is a mathematician with a ten-letter name. Here's a free hint to get you started on the meta: the image above will help. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=137355#p137355
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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This is a contest/meta puzzle. To submit your answer, first finish solving the grid (or reveal it if you get stuck or solved offline).
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
- Skyler Dangerfield solved almost 2 years ago
- Hector solved almost 2 years ago
- Laura M solved almost 2 years ago
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Comments
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- Skyler Dangerfield 24:53 · almost 2 years agoLegendary.
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoYou got it! Well done, indeed!!
- Hector 🤓9:35 · almost 2 years agoCool! Is 24A meant to be "/-"?
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoYep!
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoActually, now I've looked more closely, no. The + is definitely correct.
- Hector 🤓9:35 · almost 2 years agoAh, I was parsing the +/- stuff wrong. It's simpler and more elegant than I thought!
- woozy 13:06 · almost 2 years agoIt took me a while to figure out what those were supposed to mean but they mean to put it in "O(O+1)= 0" form (so O=0 or -1) and like wise the "-/+" in the F instance (for example) meant to put it in the "(F-3)(F+2)=0" form. Right? (Very unique [but consistent and correct thinking).
- Hector 🤓9:35 · almost 2 years agoExactly! Not only is it consistent (unlike the mech I initially relied on) but it leads to the final step much more naturally.
- Laura M 🤓7:58 · almost 2 years agoThis may be an unpopular opinion, but I think we need more metas that involve math!
- woozy 13:06 · almost 2 years agoSurprisingly less unpopular than one would think!
- Qmark 3s · almost 2 years agoEnjoyed it, Ben...super construction!
- I K Snamhcok 3s · almost 2 years agoI got it, by searching on mathematicians, but I suspect there’s some fun wordplay that I haven’t yet considered. I’ll return to the puzzle later today,
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoNo, there's no fun wordplay - just lots of algebra!
- Ergcat 🤓14:44 · almost 2 years agoNow I have to find the meta-ism! I just asked my daughter Regfish7 the math professor for some names….
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoYou will not be the only one to have tried a few 10-letter mathematician names! ;)
- Ergcat 🤓14:44 · almost 2 years agoAnd I figured it out! Seemed a bit suspicious that you didn’t just use “typical” algebraic letters a, b ,c as the unknowns. Very simple but elegant mechanism. Thanks, Ben!
- merlinnimue 🤓8:36 · almost 2 years agoI have discovered a truly remarkable solution to this meta puzzle, but unfortunately this text field is too small to contain it.(Great puzzle, I really enjoyed it! Moar math plz)
- woozy 13:06 · almost 2 years agoAre you familiar with Fermant's last conjecture. Studying the equations of Di of Antus he noted "b^x + b^y = b^z has infinite integer solutions for b =2 but no integer solutions for b>2. I have a marvelous proof but it is too small to be contained in this margin" and ever since that year some 300 days ago no-one has struggled very hard to find the proof?
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoFermat wrote his famous note in the margins of Diophantus' book! But I'm guessing you might know that already. ;)
- woozy 13:06 · almost 2 years agoGad. The transcription errors I made! "f-3 = c", "(c-2)(c+4)=8" [rather than "(p-2)(p+4)=8"], "(p-2)(p+2)=8", "p+4 = v", etc.... sheesh!Great puzzle and I really should have gotten it without so many attempts ("CIOPHAAGUS? Never heard of him but...."). Really great puzzle but tricky. (For the longest time I thought we were supposed to solve for FOCPT which can form the letters of both FOCAL POINT and OFF TOPIC) and the the "/+" was a typo ("We're supposed to ignore the negative value? But then it's zero which isn't positive? Or is the / supposed to be zero? but then the other value is neg not pos?")Surprised as many have gotten it as there has been.Great puzzle. (Will never play on prime time, but great puzzle).
- MatthewL 🤓6:25 · almost 2 years agoNeeded a push from lbray53, and the help of Mr. Google to help me re-learn how to factor quadratics, but finally got there. Thanks Ben! All I ask is that you give us a few weeks before the next math puzzle. My head hurts.
- Jaclyn 12:04 · almost 2 years agoLovely! I will say that the image hint was needed because I was overcomplicating the math(s). I was increasing one SIDE of the square, resulting in an irregular polygon, rather than one DIMENSION of the square.
- kurtalert 🤓5:06 · almost 2 years agoIncredible meta, wow. Of course, I got through the math part easy, and then I completely fumbled the bag on how to iterate forwards and backwards properly in the alphabet. I was interpreting the +'s and -'s backwards, ending up with something like CHOPEXLRUS. To be honest, though, Chopexlrus sounds like he would have been a pretty bad ass mathematician.
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoLove it!
- PuzNewbie 22:50 · almost 2 years agoThis is incredibly beautiful! Well done, sir! :)
- markhr 🤓14:01 · almost 2 years agoAfter one wild guess (Pythagoras), I decided to sit down and actually work it out algebraically. It really is more fun to "do the math" if you can. Amazingly clever puzzle.
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoYou're definitely not the only one to try PYTHAGORAS. :)
- rjy 3s · almost 2 years agoInspired construction, Ben, wish you hadn’t given in w the early nudges - I couldn’t resist them and should have wrestled this longer - very cool tho! The one bit of imprecision I was stung by was the notion of lengthening just one side (not two) had me thinking we were stretching into trapezoids, which had me using a lot more Pythagorean theorem than was warranted. Really dug way back deep into my brain for all that… but really, just inspired and smart. Kudos!
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoI wanted to put the nudges out early because one of them has a link to a website that factorises quadratics. That way, even non-maths people should be able to participate!
- Berto 🤓13:26 · almost 2 years agoWow - after throwing a couple guesses in, I figured I’d have to do some actual solving - and wow, I’m half amazed that I got to the solution, and half amazed at the construction! Maybe doubly amazed! (Although I only got DIOE_NTUS, struggling with the H and A as I had C+2,-5… )
- ajk 🤓8:42 · almost 2 years agoLol I did too much math. :) I was trying to figure out how to get letters from just the roots, not the factored equation. Fun, thanks!
- Berto 🤓13:26 · almost 2 years agoOh (or should I say Doh!), wasn’t doing the full factorising - sorry! (C-2)(C+5)… makes it all so much cleaner, clearer… such a cool meta. Love it Ben!
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoYes, the puzzle title is "Factorising Quadratics" not "Solving Quadratics" ;)
- sw3aterCS 🤓12:58 · almost 2 years agoAs someone who does mathematics, a guess for an algebraist appropriate as a meta answer came fairly quickly to me, but I had fun trying to backsolve how to get the meta answer.
- Tim 🤓9:55 · almost 2 years agoBest Meta EVER
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoGlad you liked it!
- ChrisCross 🤓7:59 · almost 2 years agoThis was fun!
- Philip Chow 🤓7:46 · almost 2 years agocan't believe you made us do math... this was genius! i am LEFTSPEECHLESS indeed! the image definitely helped as the "increase one side by #" wording threw me off... if you increase one side by 3, doesn't that side become x+3 and not 3x?
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoGlad you enjoyed it - even with all that math!
- Philip Chow 🤓7:46 · almost 2 years agooh nevermind... the math checks out! square with length c... add 3 to one side... you get c(c+3) = c^2 + 3c
- LasersharpAurora 11:01 · almost 2 years agoAhh, good one! I had to use the hints on the provided link. I did the math, but then I just kept looking at the solutions to the equations (f = 2, f = -3) and got confused from those rather than looking at the factors in the equations themselves... very nice puzzle! :)
- benchen71 constructor · almost 2 years agoIt seems a few solvers did that!
- LasersharpAurora 11:01 · almost 2 years agoAh, I see :) (And just to be clear - I totally love math!) :D
- ReB 5s · almost 2 years agoVery late sending in my answer due to lack of computer access this week. Very clever, I figured out the mechanism from the title, the only glitch was trying to prove the order of the letters (which alas I needed nudge #4 to untangle).