Comments on: Independent 6525 by Phi

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:13:00 +0000

Yes, what Peter says is the same as my experience both with algebra (in days gone by) and doing puzzles over the years. y was used in the Phi puzzle. My view of complex numbers is, like Wil, that they are “hardly mainstream” and I’ve not seen them referred to in puzzles that I can recall.

By: petebiddlecombe

petebiddlecombe — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:24:26 +0000

Wil on unknowns: The Concise Oxford has x/y/z defined as the first/second/third unknowns in an algebraic expression. I think this is the reason for the 'X, Y or Z' convention. We're probably talking old-fashioned algebra here - there are examples fitting the bill in my copy of Hall & Knight's Elementary Algebra (revised 1907) which I'm pretty sure was the standard text in its day - see this poem.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 22:15:31 +0000

Unknowns

Another thing I meant to say. In the post for 24D, nmsindy says “unknowns from equations can be x, y or z”. Or any letter, really, although these are the most usual. I never like it when z is called an unknown, as if it’s of the same type as x or y. It’s used (almost exclusively?) for complex numbers, which are hardly mainstream.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:44:10 +0000

I agree, excellent as always. There are a few setters (in particular Virgilius, Dac, Phi) whose clues are consistently sound but simple in construction and pithy with good surfaces.

10A (VALVE) was particularly good, I thought.

By: neildubya

neildubya — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:37:02 +0000

Good as always from Phi. Have to quibble with the definition for 6A though: “website tool”. JAVA is a development/programming language; you might be able to make website tools with it (amongst many other things – applications for mobile phones perhaps) but surely that doesn’t make it the same thing?