h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A multi-layered puzzle for you today

In this puzzle, you have seven clues and seven incomplete answers. The clues and answers are given in a random order.

The missing portions of each answer have something in common - to be determined.

Finally, taking these missing portions as a whole, complete the Thematic Word, which describes something found in a nice hot cup of tea.

Clues:

1. indistinct
2. make redundant, euphemistically
3. millipede
4. nudity
5. surmounting a difficulty (2 words)
6. vigorous
7. without provocation


Incomplete answers:

a) E * TIC
b) GA * RM
c) M * ESS
d) N * OUS
e) R * ISE
f) T * VER
g) UN * SS


Thematic Word:

* N

Is

4. nudity
g) UN dre SS

<BB<

I'm going to guess that the millipede is "something-worm" so it would correspond to (b) GA*RM

I think it is something to do with colours

1. Indistinct = NEBULOUS. The missing portion EBUL is an anagram of BLUE.

4. Nudity = UNDRESS. The missing portion DRE is an anagram of RED.

The worm, with letters something WO must be an anagram of a colour: YELLOW:

GA YELL WORM ?

GALLEY WORM?

On the other hand,

7. without provocation = MINDLESS - the missing part INDL is not an anagram of a colour. LIND = the Swedish Nightingale, a singer.

Hmm...

6. vigorous = ENERGETIC - missing parts NERGE are an anagram of GREEN.

So it must be along these lines. My MINDLESS must be wrong.

OK, assuming there is such a thing as a Galleyworm, we have:

1. indistinct
d) N * OUS - NEBULOUS - EBUL - BLUE

2. make redundant, euphemistically
e) R * ISE - REORGANISE - EORGAN - ORANGE

3. millipede
b) GA * RM - GALLEYWORM - LLEYWO - YELLOW

4. nudity
g) UN * SS - UNDRESS - DRE - RED

5. surmounting a difficulty (2 words)
f) T * VER - TIDING OVER - IDINGO - INDIGO

6. vigorous
a) E * TIC - ENERGETIC - NERGE - GREEN

7. without provocation
c) M * ESS - MOTIVELESS - OTIVEL - VIOLET

So now what? You don't get a rainbow in a cup of tea.

While you ponder that, a galleyworm is an old name for the millipede, from its resemblance to a galley propelled by numerous oars. It was first recorded in 1658.

Ah, I think I see it, although it seems Improbable.

I was thinking of galley being the kitchen on a ship. I forgot about those oar-propelled ships.

And I can see you've solved it

My "Broken Orange Pekoe" guess is probably a bit weak.

I'm not quite sure if Gnomon has revealed the answer or not. Rainbow tea?

I'm guessing it has something to do with Brownian motion...

RAINBOW N --> BROWNIAN

so the answer is Brownian Motion.

The molecules in my brain are too static to figure all this out. And of course Brownian motion I think our physics teacher also used the cup of tea analogy to explain it to us. If not, the concept is certainly familiar.

A double whammy because if you mix all the colours together you get a sludgy brown colour. But I expect that was intentional.

Did you know that Newton invented the colour 'indigo' so that there could be 7 colours in the rainbow?

I heard that it was a readily spotted colour then more than it is now, because it was the colour of ink.

The Virginia colonists in the early 1600s attempted to grow indigo.

Indigo, the plant, was extremely valuable.

Someone once told me that indigo was supposed to be the colour of the night sky.