1.05.3 Wormhole

Status

::FINAL-READY::

Location

Name And Address: Smith Clock Company, 2799 Bush Street, SF

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

Bathroom: No

Food: No

GC PoC: (415) 475-8463, lab@trenchwood.com

Site PoC: Mr. Smith, who should be onsite

Type

Optional Puzzle

Plot Setup

• Iconoclast scientist Doctor When has attempted to demonstrate his time machine before an audience of VIPs.
• A key component failed, which is causing the Doctor to bounce around randomly in time from era to era, facing untold dangers!
• The players have already helped repair the component.
• The players have helped get access to the Doctor's super secure Brain-O-Matic 9000 supercomputer by hacking the password.
• Along the way they learned someone named "Buffy" was important to him back in high school.

Props

• 17 copies of Wormhole puzzle
• Lab coat
• Smith Laboratories name tag insert (you should find it hidden in your lanyard)

Plot Point to Convey

None

Short Description

Particle maze in mirror grid

Open Time Period

Approximately 12:45 PM to 1:30 PM

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Smith Laboratories Lab Assistant

What To Wear:

• Lab coat
• Name badge with Smith Laboratories insert

What Your Character Knows:

• Doctor When is an unusual...though competent physicist.
• You know nothing of the Grand Unveiling...nor the malfunction of the time machine.

Puzzles At This Site: Only "Wormhole"

Where To Get Materials: GC HQ

Setup Instructions:

• Greet Mr. Smith
• Call GC when you are ready for teams

Handout Instructions: The dialog should go something like,

VISITOR: Hello! We were sent to get the Heisenberg compensator research project.

LAB ASSISTANT: Oh, the Heisenberg Compensator? I think the professor who knew about that is on sabbatical somewhere. In Antarctica. But I do remember seeing some notes on the Heisenberg Compensator malfunctioning... lemme look for it. Ah, here it is...

(reads, reads, flips over the page several times)

LAB ASSISTANT: Well, that's inconvenient. He seems to have written this for an audience that's much smarter than I am. Here you go, maybe you can figure it out.

Hints: Teams may call in for hints. But if you familiarize yourself with the hints below, feel free to give hints.

Answers: Teams have been instructed to email their answer to the Institute. If they try to give their answer to you, remind them to follow their instructions.

Site Close Down:

• Clean up.
• Thank Mr. Smith
• Call GC to let us know you're leaving.
• Return your name badge(s) and lanyard to GC HQ at the end of your shift

Other Instructions:

• Stay in character.
• Except ... if a team says "time out," break character and help them.

Detailed Description

This is the version used for the playtest run: Media:WormholeMazeV5.pdf

How To Give To Teams

Over the phone a lab assistant tells them words to the effect of,

Another group just called and told us that they received a message that they think is from Doctor When. It says "RESET HEISENBERG COMPENSATOR". Well, we dug around in the time machine and we think we found this "Heisenberg compensator." Unfortunately, when the lab assistant was playing around with trying to reset it he completely failed to check the original settings. So now we don't know how many chronowatts to set this thing at. Eventually we found some notes from Doctor When, saying that the inventor of the Heisenberg Compensator will know what the right settings are.

Please go to the laboratory of Prof. Smith at 2799 Bush Street in San Francisco. Tell the lab assistant you need help with resetting the Heisenberg compensator.

When you figure out how many chronowatts to set the Heisenberg compensator to, call the Institute and speak to any lab assistant

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL

Research Project Title: Resetting Heisenberg Compensator

Objective: Determine correct chronowatt setting

Location: Smith Laboratories, 2799 Bush Street in San Francisco

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

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

Need To Park: Preferred

Personnel Required: As many possible should speak with Prof. Smith (or his assistant). But if one needs to stay in the vehicle, that's OK

Bathrooms At Location: No

Snacks At Location: Various restaurants on Divisadero

Puzzle Answer

TWO POINT SIX

Puzzle Solution

. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EzYta3ftAyzMAbCXEW608irz7d04fHtlHe7C8c615fY?feat=directlink

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/r0OITTxzEvShuPKq4_qLcyrz7d04fHtlHe7C8c615fY?feat=directlink

Credits

Eric Lindstrom: concept, design, implementation

Manager

Eric L

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

• Measure time from edge to edge of grid squares, not from center to center. It simplifies the math.

• What's up with the "self-consistent temporal paradox"? It's referring to a bootstrap type of paradox, meaning: if a particle arrives from the future, flipping a mirror to state A, and it had already flipped that same mirror just before time traveling, which event was "first"? It *DOES NOT* mean that a mirror ever has ambiguous state, nor simultaneous opposing states. If that particle could only have reached the flip at time -10 by having flipped it to state A when it entered at time 0, that logically implies that it must have reached it AGAIN in between those times to flip it back to state B. This is a vital inference.

• Try pretending the mirrors can always steer however you want at every mirror junction, and just look for any path at all that satisfies the "enter at 0, exit at -1" rule.

• Notice that all travel from mirror to mirror accumulates in increments of +3ns. Even when a wormhole is used, the positive time accumulated from the mirror to the tunnel entrance and from the tunnel exit to the next mirror again add up to +3ns. Furthermore, from the entrance to the first mirror, and from the final mirror to the exit, is another +3ns. Therefore, total positive travel of the complete path must be a multiple of 3, and modulus arithmetic may be used to deduce how many times each tunnel might be traveled to make "enter at 0, exit at -1" possible.

• Try making a "snapshot" sequence of the maze. What does it look like at time 0? at time 1? at time 2? at time -6? Graph paper will help.

• Each moment in the correct sequence has a single configuration -- there are no "dual states" of simultaneous alternative possibilities.

• Totally stuck? All mirrors are in the "/" position at time 0.

• Once the complete travel path is known, notice that it visits certain time slices multiple times. Pay attention to its flight path for the time slices it visits exactly twice (poem hint, "the patterns flown through, when particles two")

• In each time slice, look at the braille letters that are the same for both visits (poem hint, "that are the same")

Response to Correct Answer

Lab assistant over the phone will say words to the effect of,

Thanks, we'll try that. Hey, it works!

To Do

• Final QC
• Enhance "How To Give To Teams" section
• Hints