elevator spring puzzle

[MidnightAccident]

how do i get the elevator springs to the right weight? i have the wrench, i just need to know how many times to turn each bolt, because i suck at maths and can't figure that out.

[Adraxas]

its 4 2 6

[MidnightAccident]

thanks!

[Sum Gai]

trying to remember what the name of this style of puzzle is.

[Asymmetric]

I designed it, and I'd call it "poorly crafted math puzzle"... (Sorry)

[Sum Gai]

heh, funny, but what sort of math puzzle? what formulea are we meant to use to solve this? etc. etc. and anon, forever in a pit. :P

[Jimmy D]

bolt 1 increases the pressure by 411
bolt 2 increases the pressure by 295
bolt 3 increases the pressure by 161
i just kept trying different combinations that would get me both close and a number ending in 0 and hit it accidentally.
i tried plugging 411x+295y+161z=3200 into an online calculator but it didn't come out right, it tried to solve for x only so y and z were turned into odd fractions

[MidnightAccident]

Originally posted by Asymmetric:

I designed it, and I'd call it "poorly crafted math puzzle"... (Sorry)

it's cool, the rest of the game is brilliant, it's just a couple of puzzles that are a pain.

[Gym_Leader_Myth]

Originally posted by Jinh:

bolt 1 increases the pressure by 411
bolt 2 increases the pressure by 295
bolt 3 increases the pressure by 161
i just kept trying different combinations that would get me both close and a number ending in 0 and hit it accidentally.
i tried plugging 411x+295y+161z=3200 into an online calculator but it didn't come out right, it tried to solve for x only so y and z were turned into odd fractions

I wrote it out longhand, and checked the values against each other, starting with the first column

Since 1 always increases the tension by 41, 2 always increases by 295, and 3 always increases by 161, i knew that 1 and 3 were the most important values.

also: the maximum value for X,Y, and Z is 10. That should help a lot.

but seriously the puzzle was a bit of a pain. I got it to work, but it was a pain.

[hippofant]

Originally posted by Jinh:

bolt 1 increases the pressure by 411
bolt 2 increases the pressure by 295
bolt 3 increases the pressure by 161
i just kept trying different combinations that would get me both close and a number ending in 0 and hit it accidentally.
i tried plugging 411x+295y+161z=3200 into an online calculator but it didn't come out right, it tried to solve for x only so y and z were turned into odd fractions

It's not a generally solvable system - 3 variables, 1 equation - so online solvers are going to be stymied. The fact that the coefficients must be positive integers means there's only one solution, but most online calculators aren't programmed for that.

[Kaidelong]

Warning, if you run this, you'll spoil the answer.

import Data.List(find)
kleene alphabet = [] : [(x : xs) | xs <- kleene alphabet, x <- alphabet]
main = print $ find (\x -> sum x == 3200) (kleene [411,295,161])

I am pretty sure this is the knapsack problem, which is NP-complete. If a solution exists, this will find it O(3^n) time, where n is the size of the solution.

[Renata]

You can also skip the whole puzzle with the Percussive Maintenance perk