Serpent Factors

[grandpascorpion]

Well, it's been a long time since I posted.  I was laid off in November from a company that rhymes with Storgan Manley.   I was actually terminated oddly enough on inauguration day.   Since then, my job has been searching for one.   I have been spending a lot of time at  a "career resource network" place.  Companies often set up downsized employees

Comments

[ertchin]

Sorry to hear about your job troubles.

I solved the first puzzle--these seem pretty fun, at least because they're stretching a new part of my brain. I think you might have uploaded the pre-scrubbed solution for that first one?

Small fixes made to solutions

[grandpascorpion]

Thanks Ertchin.

The correct solution for #1 has been uploaded. The old one pointed to an earlier version.

#5 needed a slight tweak as well.

[cyrebjr]

Gee. Now I'm going to feel bad about posting this.

A bit of advice about using prime numbers and factorization in puzzles: prime numbers are not intuitive objects. Basing a puzzle on lengths with a property that can't easily be eyeballed means it will appeal more to people who (a) do recreational math, or (b) like to solve puzzles by guessing a lot. (For the record, I'm in category (a) only.)

No worries

[grandpascorpion]

I understand what you mean. I should probably include a lookup table that shows how the numbers break down.

Also, these all ended up being on the hard side. The magazine entry has a few easier ones to get going with.

Re: No worries

[grandpascorpion]

Thinking this over, all the prime numbers needed for these puzzles are provided (it's only up to 20) and there's a link to break down the numbers, if necessary.