Best "wrong tack" yet
Mar. 21st, 2008 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuWhen my parents solved my "Purim Puzzler", they took an impressive wrong turn on Puzzle 4.
They identified the first few items on the list: Adams, Massachusetts, carbon, Saturn. And they saw the puzzle's title, "A Common Bond." Deciding that the given instructions were probably a red herring, they proceeded to read "Adams" as a homophone for "atoms" and to substitute "Mass." for "Massachusetts."
Thus, they decided they needed to find the atomic mass for whatever forms a chemical bond with carbon in Saturn's atmosphere. But Saturn's atmosphere doesn't have any significant carbon-based gases. (There are methane traces, but that's it.)
They did backtrack and get the intended answer, but I thought this was such a great wrong path (I wish I'd thought of that!) that I asked their permission to share it with you.
They identified the first few items on the list: Adams, Massachusetts, carbon, Saturn. And they saw the puzzle's title, "A Common Bond." Deciding that the given instructions were probably a red herring, they proceeded to read "Adams" as a homophone for "atoms" and to substitute "Mass." for "Massachusetts."
Thus, they decided they needed to find the atomic mass for whatever forms a chemical bond with carbon in Saturn's atmosphere. But Saturn's atmosphere doesn't have any significant carbon-based gases. (There are methane traces, but that's it.)
They did backtrack and get the intended answer, but I thought this was such a great wrong path (I wish I'd thought of that!) that I asked their permission to share it with you.