Price for Immunity:
In this puzzle, this means that every piece in the puzzle should have to have a positive price because the puzzle could not exist if there was no value for that piece. It also means that the initial price of the puzzle and the final price are equal. In the example, there are two pieces: the $5 and the C. However, we only need to prove the case for one piece. We will pick the C since we can switch it around in this example. In this situation, $9 C will be worthless because it will get you zero for the puzzle or maybe negative for the puzzle. So we need to go up by at least one. There are three possibilities for this:
3 ways to make a new value:
The $5
The C
$5 + C (I’m adding these two to see if I get more.)
And here is where I got lucky – this time I picked $5. The $5 is only worth $5 because you might find it in the puzzle (meaning that $5 + C would get you that C). So if you are going to take the C, then the $5 should go to a piece worth more than $5 like an A or J. So we add the two together which equals $5 + $5 + $6 = $11.
Final Price: $11 (In this example, the person should pay $11 to receive the puzzle.)
Here’s a quick example:
Buyer’s Price: You have:
$2 E
$3 S
$4 A
$6 I
$6 K
$8 O
$9 D
Selling Price: You have:
$3 E
$4 S
$5 I
$6 K
$6 O
$7 D
The first thing I want to do is create the list of sums I have – so I will do this by adding the $3 S to the $3 E. This will give me a final value of $6 which will be the first piece. The next piece I will choose is the $4 A. I will multiply the $4 A by 3 because the A costs $3 for its value. This gives me a final sum of $12. Next, I will take the $6 K and multiply it by two because it’s worth $3. The next piece I will choose is the $6 O. I will multiply it by 3 because it’s worth $6. This leaves me with a final value of $24. In the original list, I do have $2 E and $6 I and I don’t want to multiply them because they don’t add up to enough. So my puzzle looks like this:
Buyer’s Price: You have:
$24 E
$6 I
Selling Price: You have:
$2 E
$6 I
Final Price: You have:
$14
The puzzle:
JQKAIEOSD
This puzzle is pretty easy and I find it to be a very good question because people start to ask themselves how the puzzle is being made and they start thinking about which piece should go where. That is, this is not a trick puzzle like the previous ones. This one is very straightforward and I really enjoyed making it. It was easy to create this because of the way that letters are combined with each other. In previous puzzles, it was impossible to find a combination that added up to enough to solve the puzzle because there were multiple values for one piece. For example, if you had a piece like the G and it added up to something other than 8, then you wouldn’t know which pieces to add together to make the final price. With this puzzle, each letter has only one value, which makes it easier to make a final list of pieces.
I hope this solves the puzzle and helps you out!
Thank you for your time and enjoy!
Aaron.
