Phil, The Whippet
(Published on 20. May 2024, 12:35 by Mr Toffee)
Normal sudoku
Slow-Thermo
(O) Bulbs ≤ Tips ( I )
Digits mustn't decrease along thermometers from bulb to tip
Valves
The triangle is a valve.
Flows flow like mercury from bulbs, through valves, to tips.
(O) Bulbs ≤ Valves ≤ Tips ( I )
Essentially, valves act as tips to bulbs, and as bulbs to tips.
In glorious technicolour
In splendid monochrome
Solution code: R1 left to right
Comments
on 20. May 2024, 18:00 by stonetim
Fun puzzle. Nice and easy.
I agree that the Valve is completely unnecessary in this puzzle, since we logically need to satisfy both thermos that run into it.
It would be useful in a puzzle that branches flow into multiple thermos in which the flow direction has not been provided as part of the puzzle.
on 20. May 2024, 16:09 by Mr Toffee
Took out some of the superfluous waffle in the rules following horseradish1's great feedback. To be honest, an arrow of sorts could deal with it smoothly in this particular puzzle... but valves have their uses too (I promise) and so, despite early failure, I'm sticking to it for now. You know of The Sunk-Cost Fallacy? Yeah...
on 20. May 2024, 15:42 by PinkNickels
Fun speed run. Got 6:18. Thanks for keeping this series alive!
on 20. May 2024, 13:46 by horseradish1
This is a fine puzzle, but I'd recommend rewording that valve rule. I spent several minutes trying to figure out what it was trying to say while staring at the puzzle, before feeling pretty sure I could solve the puzzle while ignoring it, and it wasn't until I was most of the way through the solve that I realised that the rule is just there to make sure we know that the thermo does not increase in the direction of R4C5 to R5C6.
There's definitely a clearer way to word it without the flowery description of "valves vent and determine flow".
Common sense told me not to increase the digits in that direction, and there's definitely a simpler way you could write that rule.
