Davidson Scholars Seminar, Day 3
Intermediate KenKen, No operation puzzles
As promised, today we start talking about a harder version of KenKen in which the target numbers are given but the operations that produce them are not. Every standard KenKen puzzle can be made into a no op puzzle simply by dropping the operations. For example, if you drop the operations in the first puzzle, you get the second
2
38+
24¡Á
6+
9+
6¡Á
1
4
2
38
24
6
9
6
1
4
Try the second one first. If you have trouble with it, do the first instead. If you worked the second one, no doubt you began by asking what operations could have produced those target values. In other words, our first strategy is to try recovering the first puzzle from the second. This is lots of fun.
1
Davidson Scholars Seminar, Day 3
The following problems are exercises for you to try today and tomorrow. Send me your solutions, say by scanning and then attaching as an email or type your solution in matrix form like
15423
21534
52341
34215
43152
1. In this 5 ¡Á 5 no op puzzle, each clue
multiplication. In this puzzle there is one additional piece of information: the sum of the entries on the main (ie, from upper left to lower right) diagonal is 10.
is associated with either addition or
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
2
Davidson Scholars Seminar, Day 3
2. This lovely problem is due to Palmer Mebane at Art of Problem Solving.
12
12
12
12
3
Davidson Scholars Seminar, Day 3
3. Here¡¯s another 5 ¡Á 5 no op puzzle similar to the one above.
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
4
Davidson Scholars Seminar, Day 3
4. We¡¯ll end this no op section with a 6 ¡Á 6 all 12 puzzle. I call this a gross problem.
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
5