National Mathematics Day (Holiday Hoopla 2023)
| National Mathematics Day | |
|---|---|
| Holiday Hoopla 2023 | |
| Answer | Click to revealMITTEN |
| Statistics | |
| No. solves | 85 |
| No. total guesses | 161 |
| Links | |
| Puzzle | Link |
National Mathematics Day is a word/math puzzle from Holiday Hoopla 2023. Its difficulty level is categorized as Medium relative to the other puzzles in the hunt.
The puzzle is presented as a series of mathematical equations with crossword clues.
Solve Path[edit | edit source]
Solvers can begin by finding words to answer some of the clues. The clues "It's the best policy [7]" and "A blade at the end of a rifle [7]" may be good starting points. After answering a few of the clues, solvers may notice that the number in brackets represents the length of the expected answer, allowing for both confirmation and elimination of ambiguity.
| Equation | Clue | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Splenda, e.g. [9] | SWEETENER |
| 1 | interconnected system [7] | NETWORK |
| 1 | it’s the best policy [7] | HONESTY |
| 2 | a guest on a calendar invite [8] | ATTENDEE |
| 2 | made by Papyrus or Smythson [10] | STATIONERY |
| 3 | a racket based sport [6] | TENNIS |
| 3 | arboreal debris floating on a river [9] | DRIFTWOOD |
| 4 | dog [6] | CANINE |
| 4 | currency [5] | MONEY |
| 4 | what is often displayed in a gallery [7] | ARTWORK |
| 5 | a type of train to transport goods [7] | FREIGHT |
| 5 | deserving of faith [11] | TRUSTWORTHY |
| 5 | a blade at the end of a rifle [7] | BAYONET |
| 6 | one dimension of volume [6] | HEIGHT |
| 6 | a moth larva that feeds on plants [7] | CUTWORM |
| 6 | person on the receiving end of a conversation [8] | LISTENER |
The flavor text gives a hint on what to do next: "If you look closely, you might see some numbers..."
Each answer contains a substring that is a number spelled out in word form, such as "eight" in the word "height". Solvers can take the hidden number and use its value in each equation.
| Equation | Clue Answers | Substrings | Numbers | Final Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SWEETENER + NETWORK + HONESTY | TEN + TWO + ONE | 10 + 2 + 1 | 14 |
| 2 | ATTENDEE - STATIONERY | TEN - ONE | 10 - 1 | 9 |
| 3 | TENNIS × DRIFTWOOD | TEN × TWO | 10 × 2 | 20 |
| 4 | (CANINE + MONEY) × ARTWORK | (NINE + ONE) × TWO | (9 + 1) × 2 | 20 |
| 5 | FREIGHT - TRUSTWORTHY - BAYONET | EIGHT - TWO - ONE | 8 - 2 - 1 | 5 |
| 6 | HEIGHT ÷ CUTWORM + LISTENER | EIGHT ÷ TWO + TEN | 8 ÷ 2 + 10 | 14 |
The final values of the equations can be converted to letters using A1Z26.
| Equation | Final Value | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14 | M |
| 2 | 9 | I |
| 3 | 20 | T |
| 4 | 20 | T |
| 5 | 5 | E |
| 6 | 14 | N |
The answer is Click to revealMITTEN.
Puzzle Elements[edit | edit source]
Hidden Substrings - Each answer contains a substring that is a number spelled out in word form.
Alphanumeric Substitution Cipher - The computed result of each equation is turned into a letter for extraction.
