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Hi buzzb, I agree but I believe that constraint was put there for those that don't look up lists/tables of primes to exclude the possibility beginning 4. The other 2 fall out quickly as they have factors of 7 & 11 whereas the possibility beginning 4's "first" factor other than 1 is > 100.

Lovely puzzle, thanks Oyler. Having 'worked it out' once I have now gone back and solved it neatly step by step. Pencil, 4 sides of A4 paper and calculator all that was needed once I knew where I was going. No guesses, assumptions about PINs or anything like that were needed.

Could someone kindly explain to a thicko how 4dn is obtained, i.e. the total number of students? Is it undergraduates + postgraduates, or is it undergraduates + postgraduates + overseas students? I'm guessing at the former as by definition I guess an overseas student would fit into one of the other two categories, but like everything else in this puzzle it seems designed to confuse.

S_pugh. I’ve been working on the basis that it’s UG + PG. (I.e. your former). But having thought I’d made some good progress today, it is this particular calculation that has left me stymied. I’m not sure I have the strength to unpick my thinking. This is my first attempt at a numbers one... it may be my last!

Thanks Merenz - I thought it made more sense too. Have to say I'm not a fan of these number puzzles as unlike conventional crosswords where the time held understanding is that they must be intrinsically fair, with these it seems that the setters go all out to defeat the solver as if it is some kind of challenge to come up with the first puzzle with no successful finishers. I'm not sure St Hubert would have approved as it was definitely not his 'MO'.

I'm sure kindred2 is correct in what he says but I for one could only complete this by guessing at some answers and correcting them as necessary. For the smaller quad, for example, I just tried different factors of the large quad, combined with another (guessed) number for the other side until I hit on something that worked. At least the story behind the puzzle meant that only reasonable guesses needed to be considered.

I've completed the grid but I'm not sure whether I have got two wrongs making a right. I look forward to seeing a complete, published solution which shows how the whole puzzle could have been solved purely by logic and no guesses or assumptions.

I take it back. I think I might have done it. The error wasn’t too far back thankfully.... the side of the lesser quad (so many pesky factors to consider!). I will take a leaf out of kindred2’s book and do the re-entry and checking.

I don’t think (!) I made any assumptions. I took a leap on the speed of the snail based on which number would convert best to a nice(ish) fraction for yards per second and hence onwards to seconds taken.

I may complete another numbers one yet. Thanks Oyler.

I'll second that Orson.

I (think / hope) I've just got the speed of the darned snail and its lap time, but with two possible options on the side lengths and LQ area. To do that I've had to smash the thing to bits with Excel (the puzzle that is, not the snail).

I too would love to learn how to do these with logic rather than brute force coupled with a little Excel programming knowledge!

Oyler. What is LWO? I’m a relative newbie so still working on the three letter acronyms on this site :-) Took me a while to work out that BRB was a synonym for TCD :-D

So BRB is Chambers? I've been hanging around this site for a few years but I never knew that until just now! I assumed it was a book I'd not come across. You've taught me something, merenz.

There is a Listener Crossword website which explains the puzzles, but that doesn't sound like LWO to me.