New Scientist – August 17, 2019

52 | New Scientist | 17 August 2019

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #38 Set by Richard Smyth Quick quiz #16 Puzzle set by Rob Eastaway

#17 Which flipping year?

2019 is an example of a year that can

be “flipped”. This means that on an

old-style calculator display, it still

forms a four-digit number when spun

both horizontally and vertically:

The difference between a flippable year

and its flipped version is called the flipping

difference, and for 2019 the flipping

difference is 6102 – 2019 = 4083.

Since the Romans conquered Britain

in AD 43, which year has had the biggest

flipping difference?

Answer next week

#16 Clever code

Solution

The 10-digit code is 6210001000

Rashmi’s codes are self-describing numbers.

Each digit in order gives the number of 0s,

1s, 2s, 3s and so on in the whole code.

So 2020 is a valid code because

there are two 0s and two 2s in the whole

code. Similarly, the code 3211000 has

three 0s, two 1s, one 2 and one 3 in it, and

6210001000 has six 0s, two 1s, one 2

and one 6.

Note that in such a code the sum of the

digits is always equal to the number of digits

in the code.

1 What staple crop goes

by the formal name of

Oryza sativa?

2 What iconic role in

science might or might not

have been played by a cat

called Milton?

3 Widespread in North

America during the Miocene

and Pliocene epochs,

gomphotheres were giant

mammals resembling what

modern species?

4 Alpha Canis Majoris, the

brightest star in the night sky,

is more commonly referred

to as what?

5 With a name meaning the

“wandering nerve”, what

is the longest nerve of the

human autonomic nervous

system, involved in

controlling the heart,

lungs and gut?

Answers below

Cryptic

Crossword #12

Answers

ACROSS 1 Meat, 3 Whistles,

9 Gagarin, 10 Mobil, 11 Event

horizon, 14 Arc, 16 Ratio,

17 Tie, 18 Space shuttle,

21 Orbit, 22 Cassini,

23 Treasure, 24 Mars

DOWN 1 Magnetar, 2 Angle,

4/7 Han solo, 5 Somniloquist,

6 Lab coat, 8 Erythrocytes,

12 Oates, 13 Genetics,

15 Capable, 19 Taiga,

20 Oort, 22 Car

Quick quiz #16

Answers

Rice 1

Schrödinger’s cat; the 2

physicist Erwin quantum

Schrödinger owned a cat

called Milton around the

e up with his e he camtim

ous dead-and-alive infam

ent feline thought experim

Elephants 3

Sirius, or the dog star 4

The vagus nerve 5





 

    

  

  

    

 

ACROSS

8 Jordan University of Science

and Technology (4)

9 Characteristic root (10)

10 Konrad ___, Austrian

ethologist (6)

11 Tibia (8)

12 μ – (4)

13 = (6,4)

17 Iron oxide (4)

18 Picture; photograph;

figure (5)

19 High on the Mohs scale (4)

20 Extreme point in the orbit

of a planet (10)

22 Io, Europa, Ganymede

or Callisto, say (4)

23 UK sitcom set aboard

a spaceship, first shown

from 1988–99 (3,5)

27 For example, butane

(or isobutane) (6)

28 Closure secured by the

removal of air (6,4)

29 Fine particles of matter (4)

Answers and the next cryptic crossword next week.

DOWN

1 Puzzle with numbers 1 to 9

on each of its six sides (6,4)

2 Family of computer

networking technologies (8)

3 Amphetamine brand (10)

4 Ova (4)

5 Against; ___coagulant

or ___histamine, say (4)

6 Tree of the genus

Adansonia (6)

7 One of five babies in a

multiple pregnancy (4)

14 Savoury taste (5)

15 Repeating rifle used widely

in the 20th century (3-7)

16 Sleep disorder (10)

19 ___ Current, first reported

in1846 (8)

21 In (6)

24 And others (2,2)

25 Supplier of technology

to Wile E. Coyote (4)

26 Imperial unit denoted

by ‘ (4)

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