An entry to Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1 - based on the following xkcd.
Circuit diagrams can be quite difficult to understand, so here are some documents that will hopefully help you grasp this concept!
CAUTION: There are spoilers ahead. To respect your readers, please ROT13 the first letter of each word. They'll appreciate you helping out!
Circuitry Basics
Junctions: These don't change anything on their own, but some components may change words passing by!
Wires: These provide the connections between junctions. Usually nothing special, but read the section on interference for more details. Also, be careful not to bend your wire too much, or it might break and no longer work.
Bridges: These just allow wires to cross over other things. They have no effect on the word.
Diodes: Keeps electric current going in one direction. Keep away from solder (like not even NEAR it), however, or it'll stop functioning.
Grounds: Tends to short things through safer paths.
Basic Components
Resistors: You should be able to read a word from some direction. Depending on how the resistor is graded, different things may occur. See the section on Resistor specifics for more details.
Capacitors: Capacitors are set from right side. Then they affect the left side in passing.
Variable Resistors: These don't work like resistors, and instead work like capacitors. It wants to be a precise match, but ends up needing to be heard instead.
Feed-through Capacitors: These don't work like capacitors, and instead work like resistors. It wants to spell out a word, but ends up being a proper noun instead.
Inductors: Inductors are finicky creatures, so you'll have to consult the following set of rules to see how they work. See the section on Inductors for more details.
Transistors: Transistors contain two parts. First, collectors. From the etymology, "trans-" means to transfer, so just like "transfer" sounds initially, you should transfer initial sounds. Second, once collected, a further "word" must be computed from the resultant two "words".
AC Power: Being alternating, these power supplies should show character.
DC Power: These are more direct forms of conversion. Take the last 1-2 letters, convert A=0 ... Z=25, and add/subtract accordingly to voltage (round up to the nearest whole number). It's a common misconception that + and - are the way they are - in fact, - should be +, and + should be -, but we keep this notation mostly for historical purposes.
Additional Components
Blender: You know what a blender does. Come on now.
Photodiodes: It's a tear collector. As labeled.
ECG: It's a tear collector. As labeled.
Holy Water: Code word for "water found in our nuclear reactors". Expect possible bombardment of alpha particles!
Hot Glue: Doesn't work to fix things. What did you expect? Anything that it touches is guaranteed to not work anymore.
Antennae: Antennae are used to tuning into the radio.
Scarab Beetles: Scarab beetles love to eat things and cut them down, before they become too small for them to digest. While there are many, many, arcane rules possible, here are the relevant instructions to follow:
1) There is a 4-letter substring that is a rock, replace it with a single letter such that the new word is a rock.
2) There is a 4-letter substring that relates to industry, replace the last two letters with a single letter such that the new word is a word relating to industry.
The Cloverleaf: AKA the News Core, er, new score. What's the new score? Well, the cloverleaf is here to tell you! After everything is drawn and then sewn up, what can we say?
Batman: nanananananananananananananana BATMAN
Yarn: One of these words is a model of a car. The other is a (different) car brand. They both mean roughly the same thing, although the former requires some knowledge in a certain sport.
Holding Pen: Holding a pen will let you spell things correctly. They hold animals too.
Light Bulbs: They give off light.
Integrated Circuitry
Flip-flops (two NOR gates coupled together): These are used to split letters up evenly. For each input, cut words in half (ties broken on the right). Then take both first halves and insert to the bottom, and take both second halves and insert to the top, alternating between the two inputs.
NOT: AKA Inverter. Takes the opposite of things, duh?
The 666 Timer: Please see the following diagram for the spec. The 666 works in rather cryptic ways. C provides the type, K provides any additional information needed, which allows it to take IN to OUT. This is a very important piece of any circuit, because, as you know, the timer sets the time.
Most Expensive Chip Available: Please see the following diagram for the spec. Honestly we probably wasted way too much money here, this chip doesn’t even look too complicated.
Warning: Interference
Some appliances may affect electrical currents traveling next to them, so be careful!
Resistors: Usually doesn't interfere, but look at the section on resistors for possible problems.
Vibrators: Affects things turning at nearby marked junctions. Wait 12 hours, flip and merge.
Arduinos: Arduinos are cool, yeah. But what is it for? How do they affect things going downward? To answer this, consider the following. Load your data here, in order: α β γ δ. Then: α_a β_c[1:3] γ_a δ_c[1:3] = ? (4 2 3 3)
Neck Strap: Just like a collar has a tag, add or remove a phonetic number "tag" when passing by.
Electric Eels: Does nothing, but can shock and kill you if any nearby strings don't contain E or L. So... try to make sure they do!
Balloons: Balloons float. Letters found in the string "balloon" must be changed, moving earlier up in the string by one position. Or down. Depends on which direction you're going.
Drafting: For particularly egregious not-to-scale gaps, switch the first letter of one side with the last letter of the other side, then reverse both strings.
Hanging Wires: If you don't know where a wire goes, you don't know what will happen to words in passing! We can only conjecture what will happen.
Organic Chemistry: Functional groups are very reactive! They tend to typically engulf anything that passes by. Here is a handy guide to common abbreviations.
Useful Concepts
Electricity: Of course, what would an electronic circuit be without the concept of electricity. You see, basically electrons come in 26 varieties. They like to form words, and even non-word strings.
Emotional Psychology: Turn that frown upside down! I don't know why he's sad... maybe it's due to the nearby funeral happening. Aww.
Traffic Law: As everyone knows, speed limits are really just suggestions. Feel free to go a little bit over (say, up to 10 mph over). Afterwards though, it's probably wise to cut the word short. (A=1 Z=26)
Redshift: As things travel away from you really quickly, they may exhibit redshift. You may try this out at home: simply take a piece of string, and stretch it out (preferably at a velocity of at least 1/10 the speed of light). You should see redshift, to the tune of one color spectrum's difference!
Tonguing: Tongue play results in the changing of genders.
Typecasting: Here is an exhaustive list of 1-values: True, 1, 'A', 'a', "True", "true", 1, {1}, <1>, 0x01, "1", "one", "Yes", lambda x: 1
If your 666 Timer needs numbers for K, fear not, this chip has an inbuilt typecaster! Let A = the total value of a word when converted A=1 Z=26, and let S = the scrabble score of the word. Then the number to use is the positive difference between A and S. Simple!
Queueing: Electrons can travel single file, but as it turns out, these corridors are too narrow for the widest electrons over 20 points in size. These spontaneously split up into two smaller electrons each half the size of the old one.
Alphabet Arena
Welcome to ALPHABET ARENA, the latest multiplayer online battle arena! Here are all of the rules:
- A character's HP value is represented by A=1 all the way to Z=26.
- Unless otherwise stated, characters get one attack every turn.
- Turn order starts from A to Z. Turn order can change during the turn depending on how HP changes work out.
- Turn order ties: left team first, then right. Left characters first, then right. Same goes for targeting ties.
- To set up: sort the characters on each side alphabetically from left to right.
Character List
Assassin Deals 3 damage to the lowest HP enemy. Can't be directly targeted. Bard For the rest of this turn, your team does double damage. Not stackable. Channeler Merges with the lowest HP ally (that is not this character), making a single new character with the sum of HP. This character gets another turn. Droid Can't be attacked by an assassin - instead, next lowest HP gets hit. Deals 2 damage to the highest HP enemy. Esper Copies the action of the lowest HP enemy. Flamethrower Deals 2 damage to the highest HP enemy, and all surrounding enemies. Guard For the rest of this turn, takes all damage from anyone else on the team, unless another guard has already acted. Healer Heals the lowest HP member on your team for 4 damage. Inventor Creates a new, 3+T HP character for the team this person is on, where T is the turn number. This character does not get a turn this turn, and is placed at the front. Janitor Gains 1 HP for every dead character so far. Killer Kills the lowest HP enemy, but loses an equal amount of HP. Lycanthrope Deals 2 damage to the highest HP enemy, and heal 2 damage. Mage Deals 1 damage to all enemies. Neophyte If the lowest HP targetable enemy has less HP than your team's lowest HP targetable, attack it for 2 damage. Otherwise, heal your team's lowest HP for 2 damage. Oblivion Reverts back to what this character was originally at the start of the game. Paladin Deals 20% damage to the highest HP enemy, rounded up. Quantum Mech Deals 50% damage to the lowest HP enemy, rounded up. Reaper If the highest HP enemy is higher than 18, instantly kill it. Saboteur Switches sides. Time Mage Gives the rest of the team another turn. Underlord Grants immunity to the lowest HP enemy for the rest of this turn. Victim If attacked by anyone, retaliates by dealing double damage on the attacker. Witch Causes any remaining enemies to lose their turn. Xenophobe Attacks the lowest HP ally for 2 damage, then switches sides. Yeoman If there are an odd number of enemies, deal 7 damage to the middle enemy. Otherwise, deal 3 damage to both middle enemies. Zeno Deals 50% damage to all enemies, rounded down.
Solder
(ciphertext: DZGMRDBDLYWPUUBY
)
More on Resistors and Inductors
This section will be a deeper dive into the world of resistors and inductors.
Some types of resistors that you may encounter:
"E"-resistors: These don't create a word. However, words from both sides should be related, as a sometimes white and somewhat viscous substance. No, not that! Get your mind out of the gutter.
1-ohm and unlabeled resistors: These also don't change the length of the word. They're just nice like that.
Warning: Leaving resistors unattended and not plugged in at both ends can result in spontaneous first letter changes.
Warning: Pirated resistors tend to get things backwards, and also coat words with a poisonous organism. So beware! This is why you should not pirate resistors.
Inductors follow the following rules:
0) Start with the string on the right or the top - it should be three letters long.
1) If the string contains the letter A, remove everything but vowels (Y is a vowel)
2) If the string contains the letter B, shift the last letter up 1 place, and the first letter up 4 places
3) If the string contains the letter C, add the last two letters
4) If the string contains the letter D, add an X to the beginning
5) If the string contains the letter E, remove all double letters
6) If the string contains the letter F, change the first letter to the last letter
7) If the string contains the letter G, insert the letter O in the second spot
8) If the string contains the letter H, shift all letters forward by 1 place, and add an W at the end
9) If the string contains the letter I, add an RE to the beginning
10) If the string contains the letter J, subtract the last two letters
11) If the string contains the letter K, add an ADDP to the beginning
12) If the string contains the letter L, insert AND after the second letter
13) If the string contains the letter M, add the letters FI after the 5th position, and remove all U's
14) If the string contains the letter N, change all vowels to O
15) If the string contains the letter O, take the last letter and also insert it into the middle (if of odd length, disregard this instruction, and disregard the next instruction that would apply to this string)
16) If the string contains the letter P, add an SE at the end
17) If the string contains the letter Q, add a T at the end, and insert an O in the 5th position
18) If the string contains the letter R, remove the 3rd and 4th letters
19) If the string contains the letter S, take the 3rd letter (wrapping around) and shift it forward 6 places
20) If the string contains the letter T, let the length of the string be L. Then perform step 6+L regardless of whether the conditional is satisfied
21) If the string contains the letter U, let the length of the string be L. Then perform step 4+L regardless of whether the conditional is satisfied
22) If the string contains the letter V, add the letters ER after the 3rd letter
23) If the string contains the letter W, change the W to a BLE
24) If the string contains the letter X, add the letter E in the front and WORD in the back
25.1) If the string contains the letter Y and the Y is in the front, shift the last letter forward by 7 places
25.2) If the string contains the letter Y and the Y is not in the front, shift the last letter forward by 1 place, then delete the first letter
25.3) If the string contains the letter Y and the Y is not at the front, delete the first letter, then repeat 25.3.
26) If the string contains the letter Z, shift the first letter back 3 places and delete the last letter.
27) The string you get should instruct what to do with the original string.
28) Repeat steps 1-26 again!
Warm Front Weather Forecasting
We need to track down that warm front! The warm front passes through as many territories as it can, passing through each territory at most once. Some numbers have been given to you; they represent the order (counting up from 1 to some specified upper number) of the territories that it passed through has been marked.
Skip 1 canton. There are a total of 25 cantons to traverse.
Skip both islands (Sardinia, Sicily). There are a total of 93 provinces to traverse. For extraction, add 3 to all numbers.
Skip 2 states, and also skip all union territories besides Delhi, which has been marked with the number 1. There are a total of 28 regions to traverse. Also, for extraction, subtract 3 from all numbers.
Skip 2 states. Ok, those states are Alaska and Hawaii. There are 48 states to traverse.
Highway Rules
Take the left letters, then the right letters. If you have to write the same letter twice, instead move to the next free letter in the alphabet (e.g. ASSESS -> ASTEUV, HIGHWAY -> HIGJWAY)
.
Take the interstate exits to the labeled interstate from south to north.
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Letters found in the word CHEQUES
Letters found in the word SHOVELING
Letters that are at the first half of the alphabet
Letters that are Roman Numerals
Letters that are topologically linear
Letters that are vowels or semi-vowels
Letters that have a prime Scrabble score
Letters that have loops in them
Numbers that are 1 mod 7
Numbers that are 10 mod 30
Numbers that are 5 times a power of 2
Numbers that are square-free
Numbers that are three digits
Numbers that, when written out in English, contain an F
Numbers whose digit sum is between 10 and 20 inclusive
Numbers whose square root rounded down is 8
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327680 4390 10 9999 430 83886080 629
English Enigmatology 201 Word Blog
For next week’s quiz, please study the following four-letter words!
A) Watches chocolatier
B) At odds with prompter Alexander
C) Kind video: a toy change?
D) Fixes lots
E) Heartlessly defeats and decays
F) Travel where roads lead to, we hear
G) Does a number 1 leak in reverse
H) Alarm nearly down, with nothing to lose
I) Olden knots discovered just yesterday
J) Announced character roster
K) Close store front, dropped from mixed sales
L) Shelled twice, fuel increased
M) Infant making endless tower
N) Without benefit, offer present
O) Sport a shirt
P) Start of strife after endless argument contests
Q) Actress Jessica, pound in lava
R) Mind after sulfur burn
S) Sockpuppets cooked up salt
T) God in the Arabian sea
U) God in the bare sea
V) Dog returns with left sphere
W) Canter, cut log base
X) Almost damaged without street soil
Y) Affected and changed tray
Z) Same-different line
AA) Almost beheaded, but miss
Status
- You are a wimp
- Your tastes long for the 1 ohm resistor
Rules and Policies
- The university has a strict no-cheating policy. You cannot hire other people to help do your assignment.
- Follow all laws and regulations for this jurisdiction.
- The university is not responsible for the death of any participants, and strongly encourages anyone thinking of doing something dangerous to think again until the thought passes.
Test time! I hope you've been studying.
Oh no! These questions are too hard for me. Can you help me out?