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SUM OF THE SQUARES

Hi,
If any magpie subscribers have looked at this month's mathematical (The Sum of the Squares by Botox), could I get some help in parsing the instructions?
Are the entries into the left-hand grid just the solutions of the expressions listed 'in ascending order of entry'? For example, I can't see how 12d (Q+U+I+D) can be three digits if each letter is between 1 and 10, inclusive.

Also (but less vital immediately), for the 'answers', it says they 'equal the sun of the squares of the digits used in their entries.' Are repeated digits in entries counted individually? Ie, is the 'answer' for 111 1 (1 squared) or 3 (1 squared + 1 squared + 1 squared)

Apologies if I am missing something obvious. Also, am trying not to spoil anything on the crossword, just need to understand instructions before tackling the maths :). Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Hi buzzermaster. Re your query. We haven’t started this one yet but, like you, had to read the preamble several times to see what was going on. A cursory look at the left hand “clues” raised a query when it appeared 9 ac (5 digits) was less then 12 ac (4 digits). Then the PDM that “answers” are not “entries”.
An “entry” of 1 2 1 would yield an “answer” of 6. Note that there are 3 “answers” less than 10.

We’re still on the Willow Warblers!

Thanks so much for your reply. So I guess the right-hand column of 'entries' is not actually what is entered into the grid? My initial reading was that the entries were the solutions to the expressions (in ascending order on the right-hand side), and the 'answers' helped give a unique solution to the puzzle. Is that wrong?

Cheers re calculating the answers. Still not sure I'm going at things correctly, but that helps clear up what i was doing :).

I've still got some work to do on the word ones, too, but I always like to mix in some mathematical time just as a change of pace through the month :). Good luck with Willow Warblers!

Hi Buzzermaster ( great name ! 🐝 our daughter had a fluffy toy bee she called “ buzzer” !)
If you look at the 2 lists of clues, you’ll see they are the same.
The right hand set states the order of entry, so obviously, 9 ac, having 5 digits, will be a larger number than, say, 14 ac. And so appears below it.
If this entry were 12345, its associated answer would be the sum of each of the squares of those digits, i.e. 55.
A 4 digit entry of 3456, would generate an answer of 86.
So on the left hand side, the 4 digit answer would appear below the 5 digit one. Hope this makes sense!
Remember 24 letters are being used so some letters will have the same number associated with them. Good luck!

Aww wonderful! Great name for a toy bee :)

That makes sense, just for example can't see how Q+U+I+D could be higher than 39 (since no 0s) and thus be a four-digit entry, Sure I'm just missing something incredibly obvious!

Buzzermaster. Be careful not to confuse answers, entries and clues. For example 12 dn is clued as Q+U+I+D and the entry is shown as 3 digits. Letters can take values from 1 - 10, so no combination of these values will yield a 3 digit number. Also, the “answer” to 12 dn is a number between 10 and 100. We know it must be greater than 10 as we are told the ascending table contains 3 less than 10 and all are less than 100. If the “entry” for 12 dn were 123 for example, then the “answer” for 12 dn would be 1x1 +2x2+ 3x3 =13. So now you have to decide “ do I need to find letters Q,U,I and D that sum to 13?”
I’ll let you decide that……🐝🐝🐝

Thanks so much! Think that has at least put me on the right track to start attempting some solves. Such great help--thanks :) xx