"Knowledge Base" February 16, 2024

[Zoozm]

We've been on shore since yesterday afternoon. Not exactly in my wheelhouse, but I pulled something out of the back of my brain that helped us solve. Overall a fun one!

[hcbirker]

[Joe Ross]

[HeyMikey]

On the beach!!!

Whew! Submitted with five minutes to spare!

[Colin]

Very clever! I was looking for coordinates but missed the hex part. But… maybe it’s just the way I see things, but don’t you think the origin (0,0) should be bottom left, not top left?

[woozy]

Very clever! I was looking for coordinates but missed the hex part. But… maybe it’s just the way I see things, but don’t you think the origin (0,0) should be bottom left, not top left?

Graphing yes. But with a crossword puzzle we always talk of the first, second, or 7th row so.... no.

(Also, I don't think there was any origin (0,0). The very first numbered square was (1,1) to indicate the first row and first column.

P.S. Decided not to submit in the end. The nudge I received was just a tad on the whack on the head with a two by four side. I saw the coordinates but didn't know to do with it. The word "base" made me think of bases but I figured that was just me being silly and I didn't see the HEX until well into the 18th hour of the second day. But that thing that I simply overlooked and didn't even register as a blip in my periphery vision.... that some of the words had only two letters. Complete ... whoosh....

[HeyMikey]

Very clever! I was looking for coordinates but missed the hex part. But… maybe it’s just the way I see things, but don’t you think the origin (0,0) should be bottom left, not top left?

My puzzle buddy and I had an extended discussion about that. We decided that the clue for 1 down referred to columns and rows, like a spreadsheet, rather than x-y coordinates, like a graph. We finally agreed the origin was 1,1 (not 0,0) and was at the upper left. I think that's why we didn't get to shore until 5 minutes before deadline.

[Flying_Burrito]

Very clever! I was looking for coordinates but missed the hex part. But… maybe it’s just the way I see things, but don’t you think the origin (0,0) should be bottom left, not top left?

Unless you put your x axis to the top (rather than the bottom) to stay consistent

[Al Sisti]

So full disclosure, I was not on shore (not a surprise). I got that the 2-letter words were (row,column), and saw HEX (even looked up what BE, etc., was in HEX)...I ended up putting my (0,0) origin at the top corner (because 6D said "Attack from above") and the only letters were A, F and A (the others were black squares). That wasn't enough to form an answer. But then 25D said "Arrange in an orderly way," so I changed the coordinates to (column, row) and moved the origin to the bottom left, and then followed the direction at 37D ("Try again"). That gave me the letters C, L, U and T. Then, 65D said "Spell," so I spelled a phrase out of all those letters: FAN CLUB (but the B could have only come from using the "rearranged" (C,D) but using the "unrearranged" origin. That was a bridge too far). So yeah, kudos to those who solved it on their own. And a word to the nerds: "If you can say Happy Valentine's Day in Klingon, you probably don't have a need to send a Valentine's day card.

[Aragorn]

I picked up on the FE, AD, etc as being significant, but never had any idea what to do with them. Since they're all musical notes wondered if it might be a tune.

[JerryF]

Will someone PLEASE explain?

[steveb]

In my first job out of college, way back in the Dark Ages of computing in the late '70s, I worked for a company that sold teller terminal systems to banks. You kids won't believe this, but it was before ATMs and long before online banking, so people actually had to go inside bank branches to transact their business. Paper checks were a thing then, too. Our computers, which would run an entire bank branch, had a memory capacity measured not in GB or MB, but KB. 64 KB, to be exact.

As a systems engineer, I got very good at doing mental arithmetic in hexadecimal (base 16), so when I saw the word "base" in the puzzle's title, that was the first thing I thought of. Seeing the two-letter parts of the theme entries using only letters between A and F seemed to confirm it. But then I thought, nah, that's way too esoteric if you need that kind of experience to understand it.

So I explored some rabbit holes involving chemical symbols, acid vs alkaline and groups mentioned in the clues before finally deciding, why not try the hexadecimal thing - it's all I had left. Imagine my amusement when it worked! Congrats to the people who got it early rather than taking 3 days like I did, but a solve is a solve.

[Ergcat]

Clever but certainly a stretch! I was circling the beach apparently but didn’t execute correctly… I saw the 2 word “themers” with a 2-letter add on (59d), saw clue 1d about coordinates, picked up the hint at 62a Latin for “root” which is “radix” which is also seen in math for “base” and then thought of base 16, hexadecimal because of letters (But didn’t see 65d “hex” as a confirmation). Tried so many things! Even discussed puzzle with DD, Regfish, who is a Math professor. HOWEVER, we Did NOT put all these together in the correct way! Doh!
Congratulations to all who cracked the code! Consider yourselves NERDS!

[SamKat9]

I'm more of a science and history nerd. Math nerd, not so much (though I envy those who are!)
Congrats to everyone else who solved and extra kudos to those who recognized the need for hexadecimal knowledge on their own (definitely not me).

[Flamel616]

Will someone PLEASE explain?

The answer "HEX" hints at hexadecimal, or base-16. Instead of digits 0-9, you have 16 "hexits" 0-9 plus A-F. In this system, A is 10, B is 11, and so on. Each of the theme answers had a two letter word at the end, each consisting of only the letters A-F. Interpreting those letters as hexadecimal and pairing them as hinted by 1-down into Cartesian coordinates (the first being the column and the second the row) points you to the letters spelling out the answer.

I felt pretty lost when I first looked at it and didn't ever go back to try to solve, but I think I actually would have gotten this one if I had tried harder. I was already thinking of a different number base (from Knowledge Base) and definitely was clues into the coordinates. Guess that's on me for being discouraged of late.

[steveb]

Will someone PLEASE explain?

In base 16, aka hexadecimal ("hex" for short), the numbers 10-15 are denoted by the letters A-F: A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15.

The answer is derived by numbering the columns and rows 1-F in hexadecimal, as shown by @hcbirker in comment #204. Then use the two-letter parts of the 5 theme answers as coordinates (column, then row, as suggested by 1D) to locate the letters of the answer.

I hope this helps. if you're thinking you'd have to be a nerd to get this one, I don't disagree!

[meowmiao71]

..nope. I had zero chance of solving this when I still need my toes to count to twenty.

[JeanneC]

So that’s what the reference to “base” in the title meant!
Maybe not in everybody’s wheelhouse (certainly not mine) but I applaud the construction.
I am from the pre-computer age. My math classes never covered anything like this.
A chance to learn something new!

[Amanda Hugginkiss]

So the two-letter IT in OVERIT (14-across) wasn’t one of the themers?

[debbierudy]

My sympathies to those who don't have a background or interest in math or programming! Here's how I solved this:

Solution in base sixteen code
might feel like an onerous load,
with memories of trauma
from math classroom drama
where tears and epithets flowed.

While noticing “base” and “hex”,
Math muscles began to flex,
I spotted each double,
without too much trouble
but didn’t know what to do next.

So now I began to complain:
Conversions done in vain!
Then looking around
I spotted One Down:
AHA! The coordinate plane!

Though haters say, “it’s for the birds!”
My love for this leaves me no words.
The pairs in the graph
At once made me laugh -
I must be one of the NERDS!