Listener 4190 by Oyler

[logophile]

Another great puzzle from the mathematical master ! Solved all the down clues first, then the acrosses. Then it was great fun cutting and glueing little "dice" to get the answer - thanks Oyler ! Enjoy all the great sport this weekend folks !!

[magichour]

All done. I also enlisted help in the cutting and pasting department from the infinitely more practical soon-to-be Mrs Magichour. Thanks to Oyler for an enjoyable work out.

[BlackHugh]

I enjoyed that one as well - although I nearly spent more time on making the "dice" than completing the grid. Learnt a new meaning of "net" as well.

[JackDeCrow]

I must say, what finer way can there be of ensuring that this board regulates itself just the right amount than having the occasional setter join in the chit-chat on their own puzzle and under their own (setter) name (setternym ?!)? Double thanks, Oyler!

[Ruthrobin]

Interesting that you say that, JackDeCrow as the setter, this week, felt obliged to enter the discussion because of an over-explicit comment on the thread. I felt that it was a shame that he had to intervene (some of the 'Listener thread self-appointed police' would have done the same but we were preempted!) but have enjoyed what he has said since (Thanks Oyler!) At least six setters (and doubtless a few I am not aware of) are regularly here as pseudonyms but, I think, tend to watch the thread from an anxious distance when their own compilation is the current one. Looking forward to Oyler's Listen With Others blog! Here's the address listenwithothers.com

[silversolver]

And as the maestro himself is reading the thread, despite the fact that I am a bit of a numerophobe (as stated in my earlier post), I would like to add my thanks to Oyler too - the construction of this puzzle must have been an incredible challenge (especially with all those words in the clues) and I look forward to reading the setter's blog in due course. Thanks, Oyler!

[jsnhghs]

Oyler, thank you ever so much, we've enjoyed being able to complete the puzzle in an evening... Tip for others, 2x4 lego blocks stacked three high form a useful cube! Can't imagine the amount of time it took to set this puzzle but would love one like this every week.

[JackDeCrow]

True, RR - and I didn't see the comment as it had already been removed when I looked at the thread - but at least there can't really be any arguing (as we do sometimes here) about what constitutes a reasonable comment if the setter themselves is objecting!

[word_cross]

A lovely numerical - no Excel required, except as a useful way to keep track when I was sorting out which numbers belonged to which net. Scissors and sellotape for me too :-)

Thanks Oyler!

[contendo]

Without fairy fingers I think it would be impossible to juggle these paper cubes, so I resorted to raiding the grandchildren's box of wooden bricks, sticking numbers on each of their faces, then lettering the bricks and going through them in sequence. Got there in the end, but how anybody did it by 6.13 is simply amazing. Looking forward to reading how Oyler managed to devise such a fiendishly ingenious puzzle.
Now I have the fun of trying to get the Sellotape off the bricks.

[PureListener]

I must have been quite lucky with the cube stacking - they just seemed to fall into place very quickly. Did anybody else fluke the solution, or was it quite hard? This was definitely one of the easier numericals but nevertheless very interesting.

[Coalminers]

Thanks Oyler. Lovely to do a Listener which didn't need lots of books or a calculator. Particularly pleasing since I was away in the Lake District and didn't have access to the usual references.
I gave my son the completed grid, and a while later he filled in the net at the bottom....no paper cubes or workings or anything. He didn't know what the 2 solutions were, but knew there could only be one possible net.
My route to the final net was more pedestrian and Sellotape-intensive!

Great fun! Thanks again

[Askival]

The perfect puzzle to ensure that 'numerophobes' such as myself have the intellectual confidence to attempt future numericals. It was not long ago that I felt just as daunted by the non-numericals, and yet here I am. Only one thing - I'm missing my PDM fix this week, but I suspect that this is a more common feature of the number puzzles.
All the same, many thanks are due to Oyler, I enjoyed every step and can't even begin to fathom how you compile such a puzzle - I very much look forward to reading your account of how you managed it. Also, I hope you derive plenty of satisfaction from the idea that you've got grown men and women cutting and sticking/stacking children's toys! Somehow I find the notion very amusing.
Have a good week everyone.

[Postigod]

All done - and no sellotape or scissors required (would have got me some rather odd looks on the train this morning)! As others have said, only 12 variables (and two distinct sets of clues to solve for each set of 6) made the grid fill simpler than many other numericals.

Finding the 8 nets wasn't too bad; found the top half of the grid slightly more tricky than the bottom. Yet to go back and work out whether my starting assumption for two of the 4 missing entries in the final net was a fluke, or mathematically the only possible solution. But as I still have most of 4189 to do, that will have to wait!

[x_word_fan]

Not too many engineers out there??

I used a saw and a bit of 25mm sq wood.

[Postigod]

In fact reading the other comments on the thread, one does rather give away the "shortcut" to determining the arrangement of the final 2x2x2 cube. Once you have spotted this, I think it becomes (relatively) trivial to solve the assembly of the 2x2x2 cube even without being given the 2 & 5 faces, although being given these and the net shape is a pre-requisite of there being a single solution.

[AndrewG-S]

x_word_fan, that is starting to look like an old joke. How did an engineer, mathematician and economist solve Oyler's puzzle? The engineer cut up pieces of 25mm square wood into precise cubes, the mathematician projected the three dimensional cubes onto a two dimensional plane, and the economist assumed that the cubes were not statistically significant.

[x_word_fan]

Andrew-a quote from Nevil Shute " An engineer is a man who can do for five bob what any bl***y fool can do for a quid." Don

[IainGrace]

Looked at this quite closely but, despite encouragement from other numerophobes, sorry this type of non-crossword puzzle holds no interest for us. Good luck to all who sail in her. At least we have now finished 4189.

[Arcticpenguin]

Is there any kind person who can email me this one ? Just back from holiday in Rhodes to find that friendly neighbour who had been delegated with the task of buying the Times on Saturday had completely forgot.

[email protected]

[PureListener]

qmadrianjohns : copy emailed this morning.