1.11.03 Particle Zoo

Order

1.07.05

Status

::PROTO::

Location Status

Done Deal

GC Point of Contact

Allen

Location Notes

Smith Clock Co.

Type

Optional Puzzle

Plot Setup

When Doctor When had his "incident" at the Big Bang, he somehow ignited a proliferation of new elementary particles, and the lab assistants are worried that the time machine isn't tuned correctly to account for these - they need the players' help to figure out the theoretical approach that will help them "manage" these new particles.

Props

Paper printouts of the particles, plus a one-page intro.

Plot Point to Convey

The players have found out the theoretical approach to managing the particles, thus allowing the lab assistants to correctly adjust the time machine.

Short Description

Players need to classify a large number of "particles" (similar images).

Detailed Description

Players receive a printout with 23 columns of images, and need to classify those images into sets. Having done so, they figure out letters for each set, which they then must figure out how to order correctly in order to read the final message.

How To Give To Teams

Lab assistant over the phone says words to the effect of

We need your help with something else. It seems that when Doctor When had his "incident" at the Big Bang, it ignited a proliferation of new elementary particles. We think that we need to include these new particles in our calculations as we continue to tune the tine machine, but we're not exactly how to approach the problem. Go to Smith Clock Repair at 2799 Bush Street in San Francisco. Call the Institute and speak with any lab assistant when you're done.

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL

Research Project Title: Particle Zoo

Objective: Find out how to deal with proliferation of particles caused by Doctor When's "incident" at the Big Bang

Location: Smith Clock Repair at 2799 Bush Street, San Francisco

Upon Completion: Call the Institute and speak with any lab assistant

Parking: Street; parking lot on Sutter Street between Divisadero and Broderick Streets, if necessary

Bathrooms At Location: Yes

Food At Location: Various restaurants on Divisadero

At the location the lab assistant just hands out the puzzle.

Puzzle Answer

CHRONOZOIC SPACETIME FIELD THEORY

Puzzle Solution

1) Players receive pages with columns of images. These images belong to 30 "groups", such as peace signs, balls, and moons.

2) Players must figure out what the groups are, and the order of the groups. The order is consistent in every column, but each column only contains images from some of the groups.

3) The order of the columns is as follows. (Exact names don't matter.)

Lamp

Star

Peace sign

Triangle

Christmas ornament

Dial or gauge

No smoking sign

Hole

Globe or Earth

Asterisk

Ball

Exclamation point

Trivial Pursuit piece

Red circle

Black & yellow travel sign

Face

Ancient coin

Screw

Keyhole

Clock

Handicapped emblem

Dog

Bolt

Moon

Arrow

Green circle

Pizza logo

Sun

Shower holes (may be mistaken for phone speaker holes or something similar)

Blue & white food/drink sign

4) Next, write down the column numbers that each symbol group appears in. For instance, the lamp appears in columns 3, 5, 15, 15, 20, and 25. (This includes appearing twice in column 15.)

5) Column numbers become letters (1=A, 2=B, etc.) For instance, the letters for the lamp group are C, E, O, O, T, Y.

6) Each group's letters anagram to the name of an animal (e.g., the lamp group anagrams to COYOTE). The animals are:

Lamp - COYOTE

Star - HORNET

Peace sign - RABBIT

Triangle - OCELOT

Christmas ornament - NUTRIA

Dial or gauge - OSPREY

No smoking sign - ZEBRAS

Hole - ORIOLE

Globe or Earth - IGUANA

Asterisk - COUGAR

Ball - SQUIDS

Exclamation point - PIGEON

Trivial Pursuit piece - ALPACA

Red circle - CAIMAN

Black & yellow travel sign - EAGLES

Face - TURTLE

Ancient coin - IMPALA

Screw - MAGPIE

Keyhole - ERMINE

Clock - FERRET

Handicapped emblem - INSECT

Dog - EGRETS

Bolt - LIZARD

Moon - DUGONG

Arrow - TOUCAN

Green circle - HERONS

Pizza logo - EARWIG

Sun - OYSTER

Shower holes - RODENT

Blue & white sign - YORKIE

7) The first letters of each animal, in order, give CHRONOZOIC SPACETIME FIELD THEORY, the answer.

Budget

Minimal

Credits

Design by David Greenspan

Manager

David Greenspan

Hints

- There are clearly "groups" of symbols that belong together. A good first step is to identify what the groups are. (Note that exact names don't matter).

- There are 30 groups in total. (The toughest group to be precise about is probably the pizza logos/signs.)

- Note that if two or more images from one group appear in a single column, they always appear together.

- That's because the order is always consistent. In fact, after classifying the groups, the second key step is to figure out the order of the groups, from examining the orders of the symbols in each individual column. Columns with many symbols are good places to start.

- There are lots of symbols in some columns - 1, 5, 9, 15 are some examples. Does that suggest anything?

- The column numbers represent letters (for example, 1, 5, 9, 15 are a, e, i, o respectively).

- Each group appears six times, yielding six letters. How do we order the letters?

- Hmmm. Check the flavor text. What are these particles called?

- They're called zuons. And some of the letter combos might be suspicious - try the one containing a Q.

- D,I,Q,S,S,U anagrams to SQUIDS. Hey, that's an animal!

- "Zuons" - this is a "zoo" of particles. Each group anagrams to an animal word.

- Some of the anagrams are easy; others are pretty hard. In fact, you may never have heard of some of them before, and would need an anagram solver with a large dictionary to find. The toughest ones are probably OCELOT, NUTRIA, DUGONG, and YORKIE.

- What now? Well, you've got a lot of animal names - have you written them all down? In order?

- Write the animals in the order of the groups. Read down the first letters of each.

Response to Correct Answer

Lab assistant over the phone says words to the effect of,

Of course! Chronozoic spacetime field theory is the perfect theoretical approach to figuring out how to tune the time machine to account for these new particles! In fact, it's easy - we can make the adjustments almost instantly.

There - we're done. Now we can send Doctor When to 1986 just like he requested. We've opened a portal for him and are sending him back to school!

Enter code YYYY in the View-O-Scope remote access program, and then we can see if it worked. I'll hang up now and watch as well. If you need to, you can call us at the lab after you watch the Doctor on the View-O-Scope.

To Do

• Wei-Hwa checking graphics, then just need to print.
• Enhance "How To Give To Teams"