1.05.3 Wormhole

Order

1.07.03

Status

::BUILD::

Location

Status: something

GC PoC: someone

Parking: N/A

Notes: None ?

GC Point of Contact

?

Location Notes

Anywhere

Type

Optional Puzzle (SCIENCE)

Plot Setup

The Heisenberg Compensator is stalled. It needs to be reset and restarted.

Props

None

Plot Point to Convey

None

Short Description

Particle maze in mirror grid

Open Time Period

When?

Staff Instructions

Your Role: Lab Assistant.

Handout Instructions: Do something.

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

Answers: Teams have been instructed to email their answer to the Institute.

Site Close Down: Clean up.

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.

If the puzzle is being given in the Role 1 slot, lab assistant then says

Please go to the Noisebridge Laboratory at 2169 Mission Street in San Francisco. Tell the lab assistant you need help with resetting the Heisenberg Compensator. There is metered street parking nearby as well as the garage on Hoff Street between 16th and 17th, and the Mission Bartlett Garage at 3255 21st Street.

If the puzzle is being given in the Role 2 or 3 slot, lab assistant then says

Please go to the lab assistant at your current location and say you need help with resetting the Heisenberg Compensator.

If the puzzle is being given in the Role 4 slot, lab assistant then says

Please go to the steps of the California Academy of Sciences San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Tell the lab assistant you need help with resetting the Heisenberg Compensator. There is some street parking on John F. Kennedy Drive as well as the Golden Gate Park Garange, one entrance of which is at 800 10th Avenue.

No matter what, the lab assistant continues:

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

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL ROLE PUZZLE SLOT 1

Research Project Title: Resetting Heisenberg Compensator

Objective: Blah

Location: Noisebridge, 2169 Mission Street in San Francisco; entrance is through a nondescript metal gate; there's a red graphic on black vinyl above the gate; the gate is just to the left of the Mi Ranchero produce market; use buzzer if gate is closed; walk up to the third floor

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

Parking: Metered street parking nearby (some free, some $2/hour coin meters) as well as the garage on Hoff Street between 16th and 17th, and the Mission Bartlett Garage at 3255 21st Street

Need To Park: Preferred

Bathrooms At Location: Yes

Food At Location: Numerous stores, restaurants, and cafes on Mission and Valencia Streets, as well as every side street

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL ROLE PUZZLE SLOTS 2 OR 3

Research Project Title: Resetting Heisenberg Compensator

Objective: Blah

Location: current

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

SUPPLEMENTAL EMAIL ROLE PUZZLE SLOT 4

Research Project Title: Resetting Heisenberg Compensator

Objective: Blah

Location: Front steps of California Academy Of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park

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

Parking: Some street parking on John F. Kennedy Drive as well as the Golden Gate Park Garange, one entrance of which is at 800 10th Avenue

Need To Park: No; if parking is difficult one colleague may obtain the materials while the others drive around the block

Bathrooms At Location: No

Food At Location: No

Lab assistant on site says something to the effect of:

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) 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.

The assistant then hands the team the paper.

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

• 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 you have can always steer 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.

(more to come...)

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