This puzzle is a part of the Month-to-month Matter Problem #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx and relies on https://xkcd.com/1125/.
[Penpa link at the bottom, if you want to skip the story]
Objects in Mirror … are completely different than they seem
Sue had discovered herself in one other cursed temple. You’d suppose she’d study, however this time it was actually her good friend Doe’s fault. They’d been exploring for Doe’s ninth birthday, stepped beneath an overhang, and fallen down a gap. Worse, a rock moved to dam the doorway they’d simply fallen down.
No less than this temple gave the impression to be fairly empty. Aside from a desk within the center, that’s. It did not appear to be Doe was shifting any time quickly (you could not blame them for hiding in a nook, not likely – it was their first temple) so Sue went to examine the desk. On the highest was a design with some unusual arrows.
The design appeared like an Arrow Sudoku. However after ten minutes of fruitless pondering, Sue was fairly certain it was unattainable. There needed to be one thing extra! She cracked her knuckles and punctiliously appeared across the desk some extra. With out touching something, after all. (Doing that willy-nilly was a certain signal of a cursed-temple novice.)
By this time Doe had labored up the braveness to come back nearer. They reached out and grabbed on the mirror Sue had been taking a look at earlier than a lot as a warning may very well be stated. Unusually sufficient, Doe’s fingers went by the mirror, as if it was solely a body, regardless of the very fact it mirrored mild as nicely. Sue chalked it as much as cursed-temple magic and took the chance to learn the writing alongside the sting whereas Doe simply stood there hyperventilating. Beginner.
By means of the mirror is the reply you search
Solutions! Solutions had been nice, perhaps that might get them out. Sue gently pried the mirror out of Doe’s palms and positioned it within the suspiciously handy grooves on reverse sides of the Arrow Sudoku. Trying by it now, nothing fascinating occurred – nonetheless only a mirror which your hand may undergo. Wait, by?
Had the center arrow at all times been poking out, only a bit? Sue wasn’t certain. She gently touched it, and when nothing occurred, grasped it extra firmly. It appeared to – rotate? And it took the desk with it. Ah-hah! Sue threw all her weight into rotating the desk round and thru the body of this magical mirror. As soon as the arrows had been settled on the opposite aspect (this desk have to be clear, Sue mused) new shapes shimmered into being, every completely reflecting the corresponding arrow on the opposite aspect of the mirror. Besides… completely different.
Now this, this Sue may remedy. She’d present Doe the ropes of cursed-temple puzzles. It might be the best ninth birthday ever.
Customary Sudoku, Thermo, and Arrow guidelines apply. Briefly:
- Place the numbers 1-9
- Numbers don’t repeat in a row, column, or heavy-outlined field
- Numbers strictly improve from the bulb of a thermometer (darkish background) to the opposite finish
- Numbers alongside an arrow add as much as the quantity in that arrow’s circle
- Cells inside each a thermometer and an arrow should abide by each particular guidelines
This can be a logic puzzle, and is meant to be solved logically. Please embody description in your reply as to how the puzzle was solved. This may very well be as little as explaining a number of key deductions, or as a lot element as you want to. Solutions with simply the ultimate answer won’t be accepted.
Click on on photographs for an uncompressed model. Or, here’s a word-based description of the puzzle:
- No numbers are given
- There are 5 thermometers:
- Beginning at R1C2, then going R2C3-R2C4-R1C4
- Beginning at R1C7, then going R2C7-R3C7
- Beginning at R5C4, then going R5C3-R4C3-R4C2
- Beginning at R7C8, then going R6C8-R5C8
- Beginning at R9C1, then going R8C2-R7C3-R6C4-R5C5
- There are six arrows:
- Circle at R1C3, then arrow R2C3-R3C3
- Circle at R1C8, then arrow R2C7-R2C6-R1C6
- Circle at R4C5, then arrow R5C5-R6C5
- Circle at R5C6, then arrow R5C7-R4C7-R4C8
- Circle at R7C2, then arrow R6C2-R5C2
- Circle at R9C9, then arrow R8C8-R7C7-R6C6-R5C5
Lastly, here’s a hyperlink to a Penpa model of the puzzle.
P.S. – if you’d like a barely larger problem, attempt to remedy with out the R7C2-R5C2 arrow. It is solely there for antisymmetry. This is not value something further besides imaginary bobble factors.
