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Yes you can do it with pen and paper (i also used a calculator). Take the G value and think how using the formula for G how you might work out what "CF" is (im trying not to be too explicit here).

Just looking at this, now. Can I just check.. when, for example in b, an equation has UR, does this mean U multiplied by R as would be normal maths notation or does it mean integer U and integer R conjoined to form a two digit number? Sorry if this is made clear in the preamble and I just didn't see it/understand what I was seeing.

vedova - treat it as normal maths notation

vedova : for future reference when the preamble states the normal rules of algebra apply then you can take it that UR means U times R. If it's concatenated then that would be stated explicitly in the preamble. Hope that helps.

Interesting puzzle - thanks Miles.

Thanks, Candledave. Tutto chiaro.

Best sharpen my pencil.

As far as I can see, the constraint that all clue answers are 4-digit means that one can deduce the values of DRTIN. However, I do not see how AOUS can be deduced. In fact, I compute that there are seven different ways to assign digits to DURATIONS such that all the answers are 4-digit numbers. The only way I can see to determine the correct assignment to to try each possibility and eliminate those that result in zeroes or duplicate digits.

Has someone found a logical path to determine AOUS rather than trial and error?

buzzb - I guess it depends on how you define logical path as those 4 can be sorted pretty readily using logic combined with some trial and error.

There are a couple of down clues that don’t use one of those 4 in effect so you can relatively quickly narrow the options down for two of those four to the same two digits.

Trying the two remaining options for the other two digits in one of the other down clues where it doesn’t matter which is which for the first two digits then sorts out the latter two digits.

I have tried not to be too explicit but hopefully you get my drift.

Candledave, I only see one down clue that does not use all four of AOSU....Not that it matters. As I said, there are 7 cases where all the answers are 4 digits. It was simply enough to test each of them to fined the one that works. I was just wondering if there was a truly deductive solution. Once you resort to any trial and error, you might as well just let A O S & U iterate over the possibilities...

ok, glad you sorted it.

I used the words “in effect” as there’s one down clue very close to the other down clue where it doesn’t matter what the value of one of those four is so you can test the other options around that.

Hi all,

Sorry but I forgot to get the paper yesterday, does anyone have a scanned copy they can send to me at andyjgt at hotmail dot com ?

Regards and thanks.