Cave (Product) by Prasanna Seshadri
or solve online (using our beta test of Penpa-Edit tools; use tab to shift between shading mode and the linex mode where left click+drag draws lines and right click marks X’s)
Theme: Logical
Author/Opus: This is the 9th puzzle from our contributing puzzlemaster Prasanna Seshadri.
Rules: Variation of Cave rules. Each clue represents the product of the # of row cells visible (including the cell itself) with the # of column cells visible (including the cell itself).
Answer String: Enter the length in cells of each of the cave segments from left to right for the marked rows, starting at the top. Separate each row’s entry with a comma.
Time Standards (highlight to view): Grandmaster = 2:00, Master = 4:30, Expert = 9:00
Solution: PDF
Note: Follow this link for other Cave variations and this link for other classic Caves. If you are new to this puzzle type, here are our easiest Cave Puzzles to get started on.
Awesome 🙂
Absolutely beautiful! I didn’t notice it at all yesterday.
I sort of did notice it yesterday, in a blundering “not enough sleep way”. I started absent mindedly solving yesterday’s as a product cave, then stopped and said “wait, this one isn’t a product” and went back to the correct solve. But I actually didn’t stop and think “you know, that should have been way less fruitful than it was” at the time.
😀
03:57.
Whoa, that one is unexpected. That kind of explains why there is not much theme besides symmetry and that interesting bit of the solve (but not the entire solve) yesterday. Amazing.
While keeping the “Mystery Author” from being guessed seemed impossible a couple weeks ago, I was quite happy that this puzzle trick was not predicted (Jack was too sleepy!) as it makes the two days more fun as a result.
Serkan was the one who originally suggested someone do this theme for the Cave week, and Prasanna accepted the challenge and did quite well.