[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's puzzle

[Simon]

No: HPFGUIDX 19173

Robert: <<<Btw, am I right in thinking that not enough information is given
for the reader to solve the potions puzzle?>>>
Amanda: <<<You are correct. Another complaint my husband made, that without a
visual, the best a reader can do is narrow it to (I believe) three choices.
Me, I'm lousy at that sort of puzzle, I just read it and took Hermione's
word.>>>
David: <<<I have always assumed that there is not enough information given,
and therefore never attempted the puzzle, because Hermione has more
information than the reader.  The clues describe the bottles partly by size,
and we can't see where, for example, the biggest one is - but Hermione can.
How about another contest here - given what she says about where the 'forward'
and 'back' bottles are, can we reconstruct the rest of the puzzle?  Or a real
mathematician's challenge, to prove that Snapes clues *are* adequate, given
you can see the bottles.>>>

My comment on this would be that we do not have enough information as we do
not have a visual of the bottles. If we could work it out with the clues given
then Snape, to my mind, is acting very kindly. This is because if we, as the
readers, have enough clues to solve the puzzle then the person arriving at the
puzzle in PS will have more than enough clues to solve the puzzle. In this
case at least one of the clues will be redundant, which to me is not very
likely as Snape is the one setting the puzzle.

I do not have PS with me so I cannot look at the puzzle again, but would guess
that you cannot totally reconstruct all of the puzzle, This is because the
clues are a mixture of size and position, hence meaning that you will only be
able to reconstruct as much information as we are told in the puzzle. I also
seem to recall that Hermione picks up the bottle and gives it to Harry without
every saying where it is in the line.


Simon (who takes a break from maths only to find people discussing logic
puzzles and necessary vs sufficient clues to solve problems)
--
"Paternity leave is available to all permanent staff, irrespective of gender."
>From an internal document of a bank in the City of London
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