Catenoid (MIT Mystery Hunt 2020)

(Redirected from Catenoid)
Catenoid
MIT Mystery Hunt 2020
Yesterdayland
Author(s)Mark Gottlieb
AnswerClick to revealBELL BOTTOMS
Statistics
No. solves11
No. total guesses82
Links
PuzzleLink
SolutionLink

Catenoid is a crossword from the Yesterdayland round of the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt.

Puzzle Elements[edit | edit source]

Flavortext - You can find a 3D schematic for this ride in one of the two display cases containing prototype rides as you climb up CHORD. This ride is Model 40.

 

Hint in Flavortext - The flavortext mostly is there to point solvers towards the grid used in the puzzle.

I Have Traveled Forty Parsecs - While the hunt was live, solvers had to access the grid by physically going to the Building 2 stairwell (home to the artwork Chord) and walking up to the second floor, which has a display case housing a number of 3D models, including the subject of the puzzle (Model 40).

Task Completion - Remote solvers could instead submit a sonnet about a catenoid (or a cat, annoyed) in order to obtain pictures of the model.

Something Different - The clues solve to not-necessarily dictionary-nature phrases.

Crossword (Special Grid, Cylindrical) - The crossword clues are to be filled into the grid on the catenoid's surface, which reduces down to a Tetrakis square tiling with 16 columns and 10 rows that wrap around in a cylindrical fashion. As such, entries cross two letters at a time in potentially opposite directions.

Positional Extraction - In a twist on extraction from double letters, this puzzle extracts from a continuous diagonal of cells that form diamond-shapes containing the same letter.