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CiSRA Puzzle Competition 2010 - Solutions

2A. Gift Box

solution 2A

The physical structure of the puzzle suggests that there are missing intermediate steps that need to be filled in. In the case of the figures in the large boxes, there appears to be a start shape in the first box, and an end shape in the fourth box. The missing shapes in the second and third boxes are steps along the route to transforming the first shape into the fourth shape.

This can be done by interpolating, or morphing the first shape to the fourth shape, and looking at two of the intermediate shapes produced. One vertex in each of the given shapes is marked with an arrowhead. This indicates both the starting point and the direction in which to process the vertices. Take the corresponding points in the first and fourth shapes, and find the points one-third and two-thirds of the way between them. These points fall in the second and third boxes. Do this for all the points, and then join the interpolated points in the same order as in the original shapes.

Now the second and third boxes contain simple drawings of a pear and a tree.

The text between the shapes also needs to be interpolated. Instead of using graphical interpolation, use the order of letters in the alphabet. For each pair of corresponding letters in the start text and the end text, find the letter half-way between them in the alphabet. For example, the first missing letter is half-way between N and V, which gives R. In some cases, the start and end letters are in alphabetical order, and in some cases they are reversed, but this doesn't matter. In each case, simply find the letter half-way between the two, and enter it into the corresponding box. The text in the middle now reads "RESIDENT".

Combining "resident" and "pear tree" suggests the first part of the well-known song "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

In this song, the singer receives the gift of a partridge in a pear tree from the singer's true love. The pear tree resident, and the solution to the puzzle, is PARTRIDGE. We also accepted A PARTRIDGE.