MEOW #154 Safe Cracking

[Berto]

Ugh - needed the nudges. Should have gone back to my old ways… fun and clever though!

[MikeyG]

At least I got the grid pretty easily.

[Cinny]

The cat escaped, but only because of the nudges. I faltered after filling in the grid, even after my husband told me that was likely the correct mechanism. I should have listened!! Thanks for the challenge, Ben!

[HeadinHome]

Still waiting for the reveal. I had actually tried the technique various ways, but since the possibilities seem endless as to how you could apply the concept and then where to look for the answer, I gave up.

[rjy]

These were the kinds of nudges that didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, just a kick in the seat to keep at it (need a name for that…)

Safe cracked, famished feline freed… really enjoyed this different take on a puzzle. Fun one, Ben, thanks!

[lbray53]

The hints really helped me. I was doing all of that BUT the final hint limited the possbilities to six. And I still had to work pretty hard at it. It actually helped me to go back and read the intro in the first post.

The cat is out of the bag but it looks a little dazed.

[edestlin]

Agreed, I still needed to try out all the combinations (and probably made mistakes that required rework) but it I heard the click and cracked the safe. Thanks, Ben!

[SamKat9]

Cat was nudged out of the bag, thanks Ben!

[Eric Porter]

I let the cat out with the nudges. With #2, I thought it meant that the grid didn't matter at all, which confused me more.

[HeadinHome]

Cat out, and responded well to my CPR. She’s never going into a sack again, she promises. Yeah… we’ll see about that.

Thanks for stretching us this week. I’m sure it’s good for our brains.

[benchen71]

Nineteen more solvers, bring us up to 35, just one short of the 36 characters in this week's meta answer!

Jaclyn
Johnny Luau
MatthewL
JM
KayW
ajk
whimsy
Berto
Laura M
Sasha Campbell
Cindy Heisler
Gutman
lbray53
edestlin
SamKat9
Eric Porter
HeadinHome
SeamusOL
Tyrpmom

Answer imminent...

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "Safe Cracking":

This quote is often attributed to Willie Sutton. But in his autobiography he denied it. See https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/02/1 ... -money-is/ for more info.

As for the solving process, my hope was that you would see the "rings" and think "safe dials". At this point, I assumed everyone would think to try moving the dials 90 degrees at a time. I was wrong! Many of you went to great lengths to spin the dials one character at a time.

DrTom stumbled on an unintended pathway: using the side lengths of the "dials" as an indicator of how many turns to make: 6 for the outer, 4 for the middle, and then 2 for the centre. This works out to be 90 degrees for the outer two dials. But it also explains why the centre needs to be turned 180 degrees!

Hope you enjoyed my attempt to get inside the constructing head of @madhatter5!

[DrTom]

Ben, you stole the show!!! Everyone enjoyed the puzzle, can't wait to see what is next.

[Joe Ross]

I’m sorry but there were not any people in here who solved this in 3 seconds.

[DrTom]

For the Aussie to America translation:


(1) anticlockwise is NOT how your Uncle's wife with the sun dial tells time, it is counterclockwise
(2) centre is not a note referencing a penny it is actually what we know as center

I'm not being mean I am trying to safe-crack you up....

[benchen71]

I’m sorry but there were not any people in here who solved this in 3 seconds.

You are right. That time is for grid completion. Usually I work my way through the grid as a final check of the clues. But this time I just used the "reveal grid" option!

[sharkicicles]

Is this cheating?

[benchen71]

Is this cheating?

Absolutely not! A solve is a solve, no matter how you did it!

[DrTom]

Is this cheating?

Well my friend I'll never upstage you on THAT!! I am in awe of people who have the capacity to make things work to their benefit, particularly computers. I have dabbled with programming, but that would be the same level of dabbling I have done with playing professional football, i.e. I once threw a football and I have watched it on TV.

[rjy]

Is this cheating?

You are totally speaking my language there… I just wasn’t swift enough to think of that. Awesome!