Logic Problems
March 12, 2011 12:01 PM Subscribe
Logic Problems
Generate an empty solving grid for any logic problem with as many as six categories, and six items per category. Authenticate using Facebook to construct a full logic problem, with any combination of title, introduction, clues, reference illustration, and named categories and items, and generate a well-formatted, dynamically generated print version, complete with solving grid and solution table. User Manual/Guide is here. MeFi users can MeFiMail me any questions; others can send questions via my website contact form.
Generate an empty solving grid for any logic problem with as many as six categories, and six items per category. Authenticate using Facebook to construct a full logic problem, with any combination of title, introduction, clues, reference illustration, and named categories and items, and generate a well-formatted, dynamically generated print version, complete with solving grid and solution table. User Manual/Guide is here. MeFi users can MeFiMail me any questions; others can send questions via my website contact form.
Cool, I have often wondered if the lack of a chart is only there to make the puzzle more difficult. Thanks!
posted by soelo at 6:32 PM on March 12, 2011
posted by soelo at 6:32 PM on March 12, 2011
Just stopping in to note that I've updated the project with the ability to create item lists explicitly shared between two or more categories, as well as categories with item lists intended to be calculated by the solver.
And soelo, having devoted a rather large amount of time recently to understanding logic problems (though a surprisingly small amount of that time was spent actually solving them), I can state definitively that for the most difficult logic problems you'll find in a magazine or digest the lack of a solving grid probably is not intended as an additional difficulty modifier, as these puzzles include features that render them largely unsuited for display in a grid.
The solving grid works best when each category has the same number of unique items, and there is a 1:1 correspondence between them. Occasionally you might find a solving grid constructed where a single item is repeated, but this is rare, since it introduces a fold in the logic that might confuse the less advanced players who tend to gravitate to the grid-bearing puzzles.
The really difficult logic problems use items with an unknown frequency of recurrence in the solution, for instance, asking the player to divide seven movies between three genres, with no indication except by navigating the clues how many any one genre appears in the solution. If a solving grid is included with such a problem, these categories with unknown item recurrence must be left blank, to be filled in by the solver.
posted by The Confessor at 7:24 PM on March 26, 2011
And soelo, having devoted a rather large amount of time recently to understanding logic problems (though a surprisingly small amount of that time was spent actually solving them), I can state definitively that for the most difficult logic problems you'll find in a magazine or digest the lack of a solving grid probably is not intended as an additional difficulty modifier, as these puzzles include features that render them largely unsuited for display in a grid.
The solving grid works best when each category has the same number of unique items, and there is a 1:1 correspondence between them. Occasionally you might find a solving grid constructed where a single item is repeated, but this is rare, since it introduces a fold in the logic that might confuse the less advanced players who tend to gravitate to the grid-bearing puzzles.
The really difficult logic problems use items with an unknown frequency of recurrence in the solution, for instance, asking the player to divide seven movies between three genres, with no indication except by navigating the clues how many any one genre appears in the solution. If a solving grid is included with such a problem, these categories with unknown item recurrence must be left blank, to be filled in by the solver.
posted by The Confessor at 7:24 PM on March 26, 2011
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Seriously, how did I miss the fact that there are comments on Projects? Is that new, or something?
posted by The Confessor at 12:28 PM on March 12, 2011