(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) A puzzle with a touch of science from Qaos. Quite some tricky constructions to unravel, notwithstanding that, having read 12across’s book on 17across 1down, the latter went in quickly. Thanks to Qaos. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 Cook departs, out! Good line and curve (9)
LONGITUDE : Anagram of(Cook) [ D(abbrev. for “departs”, as in a rail timetable, say) + OUT + G(abbrev. for “good”) + LINE ].
Defn: One of the imaginary curved lines from pole to pole on the earth.
10 Strain to hear pitiful creature (5)
RETCH : Homophone of(to hear) “wretch”(a pitiful creature).
Defn: … to vomit;to dry heave.
11 Catholic reportedly hated getting dressed (7)
CLOTHED : C(abbrev. for “Catholic”) + homophone of(reportedly) “loathed”(hated).
12 Physicist‘s eccentric old relative grasps mass (7)
FEYNMAN : FEY(eccentric;whimsical) + NAN(child’s word for a grandmother, an old relative) containing(grasps) M(symbol for “mass” in physics).
Answer: Richard, US theoretical physicist known for his work in 17across 1down, Nobel Laureate, and interesting character. His technical and non-technical lectures and books by him and about him are highly recommended reading.
13 Fruit peeled or pealed? (4)
RANG : “orange”(a fruit) minus its 2 outermost letters(peeled;skinned).
14 Funny Gene’s headland is uninhabited (10)
WILDERNESS : WILDER(Gene, funnyman in movies including “Blazing Saddles”) + NESS(a headland).
Defn: That, usually land, which is uninhabited.
16 King George enters: I, mad? A foul plot! (7)
DIAGRAM : GR(abbrev. for “George Rex”;Latin for King George) contained in(enters) anagram of(… foul) I, MAD? A.
17,1 3 + 20 = 23? QED! (7,15)
QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS : Cryptic defn: Arithmetically, “3 + 20″ indeed = 23” and, on the other hand, the scientific study of the interaction between LIGHT(answer to 3down) and(+) MATTER(answer to 20down) is the FIELD(answer to 23down) of QED. Hence, “quod erat demonstrandum”;that is what had to be demonstrated.
Answer: The scientific field abbreviated to QED.
19 Romantic man in love, into proposal (10)
NOMINATION : Anagram of(Romantic;imaginary) [ MAN IN + O(letter representing 0;love in tennis scores) + INTO].
22 Old retired painter abandons society (4)
AGED : Reversal of(retired) “Degas”(Edgar, French painter) minus(abandons) “s”(abbrev. for “society”).
24 Embarrassed men hate making gas (7)
METHANE : Anagram of(Embarrassed;awkward) MEN HATE.
25 Foolish dictator’s colourful past is erased (7)
IDIOTIC : IDI(Amin, former dictator of Uganda) + “exotic”(colourful like eg. a striptease) minus(… is erased) “ex-“(prefix indicating “past”;former).
26 Monsieur’s upset in the finest French town (5)
CREWE : “crème”(the finest;the cream in French) with “M”(abbrev. for “Monsieur”) turned upside down(upset) to “w”.
Defn: An English railway town.
27 Learn about day of victory in small vessel (5,4)
RENAL VEIN : Anagram of(… about) LEARN VE(abbrev. for “Victory in Europe Day” after WW2) + IN.
Defn: Small blood vessel from the kidneys.
Down
1 See 17 across
2 Debauched, unlimited womanising can keep you up at night (8)
INSOMNIA : Anagram of(Debauched) “womanising” minus its 1st and last letters(unlimited).
Defn: That which keeps you up at night.
3 Short match (5)
LIGHT : Double defn: 1st: Short on;having less; and 2nd: A match for your fag, say.
4 Bishop expresses doubt about theologian and his religion (8)
BUDDHISM : B(abbrev. for “bishop”, in chess, say) + UM(an expression of hesitation;doubt) containing(about) [ DD(abbrev. for a Doctor of Divinity;a theologian) plus(and) HIS].
5 Grumbled as muscle starts to exercise daily (6)
BEEFED : BEEF(metonym for brawn;muscle) + the 1st letters, respectively, of(starts to) “exercise daily “.
6 They’re unclear signs of aging? (4,5)
GREY AREAS : Cd Reference to the colour of aging, eg. your hair.
7 Snooker – it’s my break with cue tip (6)
STYMIE : Anagram of(… break) IT’S MY plus(with) the last letter of(… tip) “cue “.
Defn: As a verb, to block. A term derived from the game to mean a situation when a player leaves his/her opponent unable to take a direct shot to the ball to be played without hitting another ball out of the required order.
8 Take away illness? Nice! I’d use acupuncture, perhaps (7,8)
CHINESE MEDICINE : CHINESE(reference to a common type of take away food) + ME(abbrev. for the illness “myalgic encephalomyelitis” aka chronic fatigue syndrome) + anagram of(… use) NICE! I’D.
Defn: The medical practices originally developed in China, and an example of which;perhaps, is acupuncture.
15 Prunes can wrinkle with time in constant sun (9)
TRUNCATES : [ Anagram of(… wrinkle) CAN plus(with) T(abbrev. with “time”) ] contained in(in) TRUE(constant;loyal) + S(abbrev. for “sun”).
Defn: Cuts the tips off.
17 Qaos regularly going round the bend: 1/2 to 1/10 ratio? (8)
QUOTIENT : The 1st and 3rd letters of(… regularly) “Qaos” containing(going round) U(a 180 degree turn;bend) + the 1st half of(1/2) “to ” + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + anagram of(/;over) TEN(10). I’m not sure of the latter part of my parsing.
18 Got back the dodgy midfield? The end of Manchester United (8)
TOGETHER : Reversal of(… back) GOT + anagram of(… dodgy) THE + the middle letter of(mid-) “field ” + the last letter of(The end of) “Manchester “.
20 Stuff what’s up? (6)
MATTER : Double defn: 2nd: As in “what’s up with you?(what is the matter with you?)”.
21 In general, people possess nothing – royal speculation? (6)
THEORY : THEY(people, in general, not we) contained in(possess) [ O(letter representing 0;nothing) + R(abbrev. for “royal”) ].
23 Fellow lied about area of expertise (5)
FIELD : F(abbrev. for “fellow”) + anagram of(… about) LIED.
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks Qaos and scchua
Nice to have a scientific theme for a change. I knew both meanings of QED, so it wasn’t difficult to get started. I didn’t quite see how QUOTIENT worked, so it’s reassuring that scchua is also uncertain!
Another theme relation is that FEYNMAN DIAGRAMS are important in QED calculations.
I think 1/10 in 17d needs to be read as I in TEN (TIEN) – though it appears to be in the wrong way place.
oops – lose that ‘way’
Thanks, scchua. What a great blog! I’m afraid I got QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS from the crossers, shrugged and moved on, hoping to come here for elucidation, which you have provided perfectly.
That said, not being familiar with the exOTIC theme, I struggled a bit with the left hand side!
I really enjoy clues like that for CREWE.
I think your parsing of QUOTIENT is spot on.
QED is also Q(uantum) E(lectro)D(ynamics)making the clue even more clever.
However, I suspect only solvers with university-level physics will see this one through to the end.
Thanks Scchua and Qaos
The science mostly went past me but I solved it from the wordplay – the parsing of quotient remained unclear. Hard work in places. I particularly liked 26a, 2d and 3d.
Thanks scchua.
For 17d, ‘going round the bend’ could be doing double duty, both as the U, as you said, and as an anagram indicator:
QUO + 1/2 to (T) + (ITEN)*
Not being a science person, this did take me quite a while to sort out. I did like 13a and 26a too.
Thanks to Qaos and scchua.
Unlike yesterday’s I was able to finish this one after a satisfying struggle. Thank you Qaos – and thank you scchua for parsing the ones I couldn’t.
Funny how the simplest bits can flummox me. Although not a scientist, I’ve done enough reading to get the physics references, but the “take away” element of 8d was the last bit of the puzzle I saw, even though I’d speculatively put the answer in. However, the combination of science and Chinese takeaways did remind me of an anecdote I heard on the radio some years ago from someone who had worked as a continuity person on “Tomorrow’s World”. It was made at one of the BBC’s satellite studios without canteen facilities, so they usually phoned a local Chinese takeaway with an order to be delivered. On this day, it hadn’t arrived, so she was dispatched to the takeaway to collect it. As she was going out through reception, she saw a Chinese man standing there, so she went up to him and asked, “Excuse me, have you got the food for Tomorrow’s World?”
“I wish I had, my dear,” replied Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore.
Thanks for sorting out TRUNCATES – I had rut=wrinkle in there somewhere and couldn’t do it at all.
Er – haven’t you left CAN out of the parsing of 15? Or have I got it wrong again?
Thanks Qaos and schhua
… and a special mention to Hugh for the great week of crosswords that were presented!
This one started out easily enough with FIELD first in, but things got harder. Still was able to work away and after getting the two long ones, life got a whole lot easier. Last couple in we’re FEYNMAN and BEEFED.
Agree with the parsing of QUOTIENT. Many nice clues but favourite would have to be 2dfrom both a surface and how clever the instruction for the word play
Struggled, but eventually managed to prevail without aids, although the subtleties of the clues were largely lost on me. Certainly a MSc puzzle rather than an MA job. As I ddid not know Feynman, and I had not encountered ‘fey’ except in Gilbert’s fairyland, 12a was a lucky guess.
A good challenge, but can we have Shakespeare and Dickens back tomorrow please.
Much thanks Qaos and scchua.
I got off to a great start with this one: my cursor naturally went to top left, and I got 17A/1C just from the definition and enumeration. My immediate reaction was “No, it can’t be”, but a few crossers – 17A principally, of course – convinced me otherwise, with 3, 20 and 23 coming in as icing on the cake, and 12A as an afterthought – obvious once I got round to it. Incidentally, scchus, if I read you correctly, you regard FIELD in 17/1 as “field of study”, which is perfectly OK, but it does have a more specific connotation, as “electromagnetic field” – the region where an action-at-a-distance force has its effect.
brucew#aus @13: to 2D I would add 24A with its distended definition.
As gladys @12 points out, you do not mention the anagram fodder in 15D, and similarly in 7D and 17D (OK, that’s not an anagram).
Indeed it has been a great week at the Guardian; I might particularly point out a late comment from Tramp to my blog of Wednesday’s Picaroon. Praise indeed.
Thanks gladys and PeterO, for pointing out the omissions – I’ll go bang my head in the corner. Blog now corrected.
Afternoon all. Many thanks for the comments and to scchua for the excellent blog.
Glad you managed to make it through today’s Physics class :-). Given the bias towards Arts and Literature in crosswords, a little bit of Science every now again is good for your soul. If you do nothing else today, have a read of the Wikipedia entry for QED (link). It’s a fabulous testimony to the accomplishments of the human mind.
Interestingly, Chambers has “3. Length” as one of the definitions for LONGITUDE, so 9ac originally ended ” … good line and length” which made for a wonderful cricket surface. But as the usage is archaic (and scientifically dubious) it was deemed unfair (quite rightly) and given the unbelievable precision of QED, not really in keeping with today’s theme.
I did think 17dn would have a Marmite reaction. scchua parses it correctly in that “1/10” is meant to be read as “one over ten” = I + (ten*), with “/” = “over” being the anagram indicator. Naughty I know, but it’s nice to introduce something different every now and again.
I’d also like to tip my hat to Picaroon for his puzzle earlier this week. I have the highest regard for all my fellow Guardian setters and their different styles. But Picaroon just makes setting look effortless, in the same way O’Sullivan makes snooker look easy.
Best wishes,
Qaos.
Thanks Qaos; nice to see some science even if I didn’t know the QED abbreviation (wrong 23 🙁 ) I did know Richard FEYNMAN though.
I struggled mightily with this. Thanks scchua for a good informative blog. Unlike George @14 I used all available aids. Romantic was an unusual anagrind for me and had me fooled for a long time.
I’m not a science buff by any stretch of the imagination, but I managed all except TRUNCATES without resort to aids, and once I used OneLook to find all the words that would fit the checkers the answer was obvious, and I should have seen it unaided. FEYNMAN went in from the wordplay and 17ac/1dn from the definition and the checkers. I found this one hard work but educational.
Thanks for commenting Qaos. Delighted that I got 17d as you intended.
There seems to be an attitude amongst compilers of dictionaries and those gullible enough to believe the marketing claims of accuracy of said items, that “common usage” is to regarded as Holy Writ, but technical accuracy is to be dismissed with contempt.
Let’s try an analogy. Suppose you go into a shop and pick one item worth £3 and 4 worth £5 each. How much do you want to pay? If you subscribe to common usage, as enshrined in a cheap calculator (c.f. a dictionary), you will pay 3+4×5 = £35. Please, I want to open a shop and serve you! The technically correct answer is of course £23. (BODMAS remember?)
Oh! What? Now you want to treat “common usage” with the contempt it deserves and insist on technical accuracy so that you only pay £23? Cake and eat it time people!
So, the point, a QUOTIENT is not a ratio. The dictionary entry that says it is was prepared by a totally ignorant moron.
If you take a ratio and try to evaluate it (as it has no value and is expressed e.g. “A:B”), then you first have to regard it as a division “A/B”, then, if you choose to evaluate it using Integer Arithmetic, you will arrive at two values, a Quotient and a Remainder. Clearly a quotient does not represent the whole of the story, the remainder is also needed (even if zero). In any case the quotient no longer represents the original concept of a comparison between two quantities. Which ever way you look at it, it can’t be the same thing as a ratio.
So, do want to blindly shop in dictionary corner, if so please let me sell you things using “common usage” arithmetic. You do want to be consistent don’t you?
Oh, BTW, why do the dictionaries contain this abuse as I’ve never known anyone stupid enough to use it (and I’ve known too many to count), so how can it be common usage?
Well Derek, I don’t know how to follow that. But I’ve just had some very nice food in a pub. I don’t say “a nice meal” because that’s quite another thing. It was the sort of course perfectly satisfactorily served on a plate for decades, centuries even. Now, though, someone who decides “serving etiquette” has apparently declared that such dishes must be served in a large, deep bowl, and the fashion’s near-universal, but for no clear reason. OK: so I’ll just eat it with my elbows at ear level, so I can address the meat from above (as it’s now impossible on the level) to cut it. That would have worked if the seating allowed the space between diners necessary to do this without elbow entanglement, but it didn’t.
Who are these people who constantly muck about with the usage of well-tried and proven entities, and how can we give them what they deserve?
The end to a perfect week (excluding the obligatory editorial policy dictated easy Monday Rufus of course 😉 )
I found this entertaining and a suitable challenge for a Friday.
I associate Richard Feynman with The F Lectures, nanotechnology and his 2 books 6 Easy Pieces and 6 Not So Easy Pieces which I own but have failed to read. (I am a mathmetician/IT person after all!) However I’d never heard of Quantum Electrodynamics but the enumeration and the “Q” got me there. I will take Scchua’s advice and do some reading though.
17D made me laugh as I knew it would mean another “Ratiogate” on here. Derek didn’t let us down. Of course he is correct.
Thanks to Scchua and Qaos
What a marvellous crossword!
For once ( 🙂 ) I have not much more to say.
Perhaps, the best puzzle this week (which is quite something).
After Qaos’ post I do understand 17d now – we thought it was a mistake.
An easy way to improve could be swapping 1/2 and 1/10.
Then we’ll get: TIEN (I in TEN, 1/10) + T[o] (to, half).
BTW, my Simple Sum was initially: 9 + … = twelve.
I entered 3.
“You have entered an incorrect CAPTCHA value”.
Ah those scientists.
Just got in before the midnight deadline. Ever so proud to have finished this one and pleased to see a ‘big science’ theme. Had no idea how 15d parsed – last in.
Gladys:
Truncates = TRU (CAN T anag ) ESum
Very late getting to this but an unusual opportunity for my physicist wife to make unique contribution to my solving enjoyment! As you would guess we think the classical/scientific balance always needs addressing. It’s well attested that ignorance of maths and science is accepted among intelligent people in a way that , for example, knowledge of so-called correct English is not. Thank you for contributing to marital harmony!
Enjoyed this a lot, which made it the best week for a while, but didn’t finish it until we were in the pub after work. Nice to see a decent smattering of science. Last in was TRUNCATES, and on the whole the right side was easier than the left. Also took me a while to remember ELECTRODYNAMICS, after which the rest seemed much easier. Favourite clue was probably TOGETHER.
Thanks to Qaos and scchua
Derek Lazenby @ 21
Seems to me that your logic says that the internet can’t exist, as the word wasn’t in any dictionary when it was coined and people started to use it. That almost certainly applies to other words and phrases, either new or where the meaning has evolved.
I don’t see that the mathematical analogy is precise, as you can reach the price of your items via 3+5+5+5+5, which is quite possibly the common usage way of getting there.
Presumably the sentence “The dictionary entry that says it is was prepared by a totally ignorant moron” was intended as a piece of levity?
😉
Saved this for Sunday morning’s coffee. I wouldn’t usually post so late but livid with rubbish spouted by Derek Lazenby. Has he not asked himself why the set of rational numbers is represented by a capital Q (albeit ‘barred’). If one bothers to understand what he’s written (more fool me!), he’s actually averring that quotients are integers!!
While here, a couple of small quibbles with Scchua’s (otherwise excellent) blog. Surely 6dn is a DD not a CD? Also, ‘stymie’ much more likely to be related historically to golf than snooker?
Have a sunny Sunday all!
Hi William F P, to address you quibbles:
6dn I put it as a CD rather than a DD since “grey areas” is normally not used to denote “signs of aging”.
7dn Totally agree that the answer itself is associated with golf, whereas my comment was to expand on the definition in the clue, a specific term which is derived from snooker.
Derek @21
The argument is as coherent as the prose is polished. As usual.