The next puzzle in the series is The Equation. It is an assembly puzzle, similar to tangrams, where the purpose is to assemble the pieces within the square base. There are a large number of pieces, fifteen, which makes this a fairly challenging puzzle.
The square base has two different formulas, a mathematical statement, and a drawing carved on it. The two formulas are E=MC2 and F=DP/dt. The statement is 426xP4. The drawing contains three lines intersecting, like a vector diagram. One is labeled T, one is w, and one is Fp, each of which has a little vector arrow pointing to the right above it. T and w come together at a right angle, and Fp exits this intersection point at a 135 degree angle from the other two lines, and is twice as long. Each of these four carvings is duplicated twice.
It has a nice appearance, using contrasting tones of wood, which is a continuing theme throughout the series of puzzles. They have a nice finish and the puzzle is well made. Unlike most of the other puzzles in the series, there is no hidden compartment that you need to unlock to release a scroll: the scroll is just in the box with the instructions.
I thought about the puzzle for a while, and it seemed fairly baffling. I couldn't figure out how any of the clues were supposed to help, including the piece that was supposed to be used from Davinci's Secret. This was a bit frustrating, as you may imagine. Despite this, I went about the task of trying to figure out how to fit the pieces into the frame.
I am not particularly good at this type of puzzle, I get pretty thrown off when there are a large number of dissimilar pieces in an assembly puzzle and quickly get overwhelmed. After a few hours I gave up, unable to find any solutions. By browsing the web, however, I did see that people found a number of different solutions, none of which seemed any more correct than the other.
As I mentioned before, the scroll that comes with each puzzle contains a clue that is supposed to guide the solver to a password that can be entered on the Sacred Myths and Legends website, which grants a hint to the next puzzle. None of the folks who had figured out solutions to the puzzle had figured the password out, which made me somewhat less enthused about trying to figure out a solution. You would think that once you solved the puzzle, the password would be within fairly easy reach, but not so.
This is said to be one of the hardest of the series, and I can definitely agree with that. I didn't have much luck with it at all, neither on the puzzle or password fronts. Based on the other comments I have seen on this puzzle, I am in good company: it is quite baffling. Congrats to you if you can figure it out, but I wouldn't get your hopes too high!
At this point, I was starting to get a bit frustrated with the hints in this series: my experience with Davinci's Secret was similarly frustrating. The puzzle itself was ok, but the hints were entirely baffling. I think they erred on the side of not giving enough away, but perhaps some like the challenge. We'll see how the rest of the series goes before I give a final assesment of the whole series thus far.
Tomorrow, I will continue my series of posts on the Sacred Myths and Legend puzzles with Legend of the King.
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It's nice to read you again!
ReplyDeleteTake care.
^_^
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one with a problem on this puzzle. I figured I would buy and attempt to solve them in order. Like you, this is not really my type of puzzle. I have a couple of small kids so I have very limited free time, so I haven't been able to spend more than about an hour on this. No luck. I might have to give up.
Thanks Y0rtX! I have been reading your blog as well (with google translate). Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteYeah Jeff, this one is a beast. Both the puzzle and the password. Normally, I'd be ok with a tough puzzle, but the fact that even after solving the tough puzzle one can be completely stumped by the password is a bit irritating.