If just one of these ten subject words could turn into an element, you would dismiss it as a coincidence. Was „Poetic Justice” a breeze for you? It`s great if it was, but don`t worry if it wasn`t! You`ll understand, so let`s try tackling a slightly more difficult crossword puzzle competition now and see if it clicks. www.wsj.com/articles/chemical-change-friday-crossword-february-26-11614023222 This must be true! It is no coincidence that these ten words can turn a letter into an element. But what happens now? The WSJ Muggles community, named after the one-person-per-week Crossword Champion Cup, is a lively group of people from the United States who support each other in learning the ins and outs of the weekly crossword puzzle contest. Here are some additional ideas of some experienced puzzles. A common idea in competition crossword puzzles is to write down all the „new” letters you`ve pulled out of the puzzle and see if they spell something interesting. Tip: The answer to this week`s crossword puzzle is a famous chemist. And now? Let`s move on to what`s called „observation mode” for a few minutes, which is a great way to solve a crossword puzzle of a competition. We already have chemistry in mind because of the title and instructions, and if you observe these answers to the subject a little, you may notice something: some of these words are terribly close to being chemical elements! Some crossword puzzles in the contest don`t have obvious answers to topics, but if they do, like here, we`ll want to focus on them right away. .

In this case, the identity of the five answers to the subject is clear for two reasons: you may have noticed that CRANIUM is one letter away from URANIUM, or that ARSENIO becomes ARSENIC when you change the last letter, or that SOLVER really wants to be SILVER. My joy in this puzzle is greatly enhanced by the Muggle Forum. The group is a treasure. There are some really creative people who make the simple process of solving a puzzle so much fun! At first, many meta-responses seemed too esoteric to be understood, but like any other skill, they are easier to solve over time. I find it helpful to walk away when I`m stuck and come back later. Often, the „aha” moment comes to a new beginning. The meta that got me hooked was „Eagle Scout.” I had tried to do them a few weeks before and I had had some and I had missed some. I also play golf. When I had dinner, I noticed that an eagle was two under par and the letters „p-a-r” appeared several times in the grid. When I went back to the belt and looked at the letters two under „By,” they wrote „Arnold Palmer.” The most useful advice for me is to put down the puzzle if I can`t make it work and come back later. It turns out that there are five answers from crazy topics in the grid, and they will probably be the key here.

And here they actually do! If we highlight the new letter we`ve changed in every word, look at what`s going on: it takes you a while to practice seeing the puzzle in countless ways. I used an Excel file a few times when it was useful to graphically represent different scenarios. The great thing about meta is that finding (or not finding) is NOT a measure of intelligence. For me, filling in the grid is more about the extent of knowledge than the interpretation of clues and reading between the lines. These new letters spell, in the order of the grid, our response to the competition, MARIE CURIE. And indeed, all ten can turn into one element. But once you follow this track and realize that there are 3 or 4 or even more following this pattern, you become more and more confident that you are on the right track. As always, we will first look at the title and instructions, and we will see that we are looking for a famous chemist and that our title „Chemical Change” corresponds exactly to this idea. So let`s get into a scientific mindset and start solving. ©Copyright 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8. . . .