Answers
The added letters spell TELESCOPE. herb + t becomes berthbang + e becomes begankeen + l becomes kneelsuit + e becomes suitequad + s becomes squadwhey + c becomes chewycell + o becomes cellotoil + p becomes pilotwild + e becomes wield
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Puzzle 2
By changing the third letter of each of the words below, can you make another valid word?
You have to change each word such that the third letters will reveal a ten-letter word when read downwards.
Therefore, what now reads 'krzsaprokd' will be a real word. bakecuremazepestneatropeportfoodpokesoda
Hint
What must the middle temperature be? Remember that the temperature are in degrees Celsius.
Answer
The temperatures were -6, -2, 2, 6, 10 °C.
Each day increased by a steady 4 degrees.
Reasoning
As the temperature rose steadily each day, we know that the middle temperature (Day 3) was 2 degrees (because the average was 2 degrees).
Since Day 3 was 2 degrees, and there were two negative temperatures, we know that the daily increase must have been at least 3 degrees (otherwise Day 2 would not have been negative).
If we check a daily increase of 3 degrees, the sequence would be -4, -1, 2, 5, 8, but this doesn't work as the product is less than 500.
If we check a daily increase of 4 degrees, the sequence would be -6, -2, 2, 6, 10, which does matches all of the requirements.
If we check a daily increase of 5 degrees, the sequence would be -8, -3, 2, 7, 12, but this doesn't work as the product is more than 2000.
Any larger increase makes the product even larger, so we can stop checking.
So the only possible answer is -6, -2, 2, 6, 10.
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Puzzle 4
What three-letter word best completes the below words? sw------yal---f---w---