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

Hi Sasha,

Today's is one of the quarterly numerical Listener puzzles. It's themed on the properties of the first 42 numbers, which makes it doubly interesting.

If you'd like to tackle it, let me know at icy (underscore) north (at) Hotmail (dot) com, and I'll send you a scan.

Icy

Hi Icy

The crossword does sound interesting - I've sent you an e-mail

I hope you're doing better than I am! I've had three substantial attempts before hitting a different logical inconsistency (read: "stupid mistake") each time. I had about a quarter of the grid filled the last time.

Fortunately I saved copies of my attempts in stages, so I should in theory be able to peel back to a solid foundation.

How are you getting on?

Ooo - that was frustrating for you to have filled in so much before encountering a problem...

I've only just started it, as I had to finish some other work first without procrastinating, but I've filled in a few digits so far. I will watch out for 'logical inconsistencies', as I can imagine I will encounter some as well...

It is tricky - I nearly fell into a trap because when it said 5 is a factor of 15, I thought it meant 5 is a factor of 15, but 5 is not necessarily a factor of *clue* 5

I've placed three whole answers and a few digits here and there, so that's not too bad for two hours' work

Yes, I got to that stage and a lot further a number of times before back-tracking. It actually tuns into a number of mini puzzles, as you'll have to work out sets of matching combination solutions in different areas of the grid.

Anyway, it keeps the brain active!

I started using a big piece of paper today (the margins of the puzzle weren't enough) so I've filled in a couple more answers and haven't found any logical inconsistencies (yet)

Although, I think I nearly fell into the trap of thinking that "2 is a factor of 30" meant 2 is a factor of 30... I eliminated some digits from clue 30 yesterday, and I can't work out why today...

Keeps the brain active indeed!