inteGIRLS Puzzle Hunt

Solutions
inteGIRLS Puzzle Hunt Solutions

EASY — 100 points 1

Compound Interest Solution 2
Frogmented Solution 3
Galaxy Positioning System Solution 5
Locations United Solution 8
Lost & Found Solution 9
Monopoly: inteGIRLS Edition Solution 10
Prima Solution 11
Variables Solution 12

MEDIUM — 200 points 14

Don't Think Outside the Box Solution 15
Four-rest Solution 16
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Solution 17
Hidden Figures Solution 18
Interview with an Electron Solution 22
Rainbow Solution 23
Similar Similes Solution 24
The User's Handbook to Mathematics Solution 25
Think Fast Solution 26

HARD — 500 points 27

Contagion Solution 28
Grocery Shopping Solution 29
Star Sailor Solution 30
EASY — 100 points

1
 Compound Interest Solution

The first step of the puzzle is to solve the crossword:

Next, solvers should notice that the clues are arranged in an unusual order with blanks between
them. Replacing the clues with their answers creates the following four expressions:

ABS + _ _ _ + DING

BUR + _ _ _ + SOME

_ _ _ + IS + FACTION

OBJECT + _ _ _ + ABLE

The title of the puzzle clues solvers to use compound words. Normally, compound words are
created from two smaller ones (for example, butter + fly = butterfly), but by filling in the blanks,
solvers can create words from three smaller ones:

ABS + CON + DING = ABSCONDING

BUR + DEN + SOME = BURDENSOME

SAT + IS + FACTION = SATISFACTION

OBJECT + ION + ABLE = OBJECTIONABLE

The four words that go in the blanks create a new compound word: CON + DEN + SAT + ION =
CONDENSATION​. This is an answer to the question at the bottom, so it is the answer to the
puzzle.

2
 Frogmented Solution

1. Each rectangular image in the puzzle is a part of the same picture of computer scientist
Grace Hopper! Each section of the puzzle corresponds to a section of the grid.

2. The next step is to draw lines from the ends of the frogs’ tongues with the sections of the
picture to the numbers for the corresponding sections of the grid in the frog and fly image.

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 3. Each line goes through exactly one of the letters in the grid, and if you order the letters by
the number that they are on the line of you end up with:
● 1-D
● 2-E
● 3-B
● 4-U
● 5-G
● 6-G
● 7-I
● 8-N
● 9-G

The answer to this puzzle is ​DEBUGGING​, a hobby of many frogs and a term coined by Grace
Hopper referring to the process of fixing computer code!

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 Galaxy Positioning System Solution

Follow the directions, starting out on A, and covering every square that is passed over to find the
squares indicated by the green markers in the diagram below.
Find the five different planet names in the square of letters (word search). The green path
intersects the planet names at the blue spots, and skips the red spots.

When anagrammed, the blue squares spell out ‘NASA’, and the red squares spell out ‘MOON
MISSION’. When combined, they spell ‘NASA MOON MISSION’.
Based on the fact that the arrival time is ​11​ PM, the solver can determine the answer is ​APOLLO
after the famous moon mission Apollo 11.

5
 Jumping Gene Solution

The first step is to solve the crossword-like ring. The solution is:

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FERRET - Draco Malfoy, after Moody’s done HOLA - "How ya doin, señor!"
with him ASKOUT - Request on a date
ROMCOM - Like ​Crazy Rich Asians OUTRAN - Beat in a 5K, perhaps
COMBAT - Fight ANSWER -"Forty-two" for "six times seven"
MBA - What They Give You at Harvard SWERVE - Turn abruptly
Business School VERSE - It can be blank or free
RANSOM - A type of note with many SECRET - Two can keep one
different fonts ROBE - Something black, if you're RBG
OMEN - Halley’s Comet, to the Normans BEGIN - You could do it with this clue
NAPKIN - Adult bib INVERT - Flip on its head
KINSHIP - Familial tie VERTEX - Pointy point
HIPPOS - River horses, minus the river EXPOS - Dry erase markers
SONIC - He who has gotta go fast ONLY - Two, among even primes
ICON - Element of a home screen LYRE - An instrument that isn’t telling the
CONIC - A set of points whose coordinates truth?
satisfy a quadratic equation REFER - Point towards
NICHOLAS - Santa Claus, sans the Saint

FER​RETRO​MCOMBA​TRANS​OMENAPKINSHIP​POSON​ICONICHOLASKOU​TRANS​WERVERSE
C​RETRO​BEGINVERTEX​POSON​LYRE

When the red, green, and blue regions are combined, you get the answer ​RETROTRANSPOSON​,
which is a type of transposable element or jumping gene.

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 Locations United Solution

You would first find the nations that match up with the country shape:
Dominican Republic, Portugal, Kenya, Singapore, United States
Then, testing out various rotations of the carpet:
1, 5, 3, 9, 7
Indexing based off these numbers would get you:
D, U, N, E, S
Hence, the answer is ​DUNES​.

8
 Lost & Found Solution

The flavor text clues that we need to match the discoveries with each of their discoverers.
Doing so reveals a number associated with each pair.

Indexing each number into the associated scientists (the 2nd letter of Bishop, the 5th letter
of Jones, etc.) gives ‘ISLNAHPGO’, which doesn’t mean anything. From the flavor text, one idea
might be to order the letters based on the year when each scientist made their discovery. Doing so
yields ‘SIGNALHOP’, a much more promising answer. However, the flavor text asks for a
scientist’s name. If solvers search for the inventor of the signal hop, they’ll find it’s better known
name, frequency hopping, which was discovered by actress/scientist ​HEDY LAMARR​, the solution
for this puzzle.

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 Monopoly: inteGIRLS Edition Solution

The pairs of numbers on the side represent dice rolls as two six- faced dice are typically used. The
flavor text provides clues to use the FIRST letter of each PROPERTY that you land on. So for the
first move: 3 + 2 = 5 and moving forward 5 spaces from the start at GO we get to ​R​eading Railroad.
Keep doing this and you'll get to the following:
● E​lectric Company
● I​llinois Avenue
● N​orth Carolina Avenue
In the next move, you will hit GO. GO is not a property, so you do not record it.
● V​ermont Avenue
● E​lectric Company
● S​t. James Place
● T​ennessee Avenue
Now, by taking the first letters of each of these properties, you get ​REINVEST​, which is the final
answer.

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 Prima Solution

1. The flavor texts italicized words that have to do with starting, which indicates that a solver
should look at the first letters of the words surrounded by dashes. The first letters of the
words in each of the lines next to a girl spell out the names of famous ballets. Also, the title,
“Prima,” is a bit of a pun, because prima means first in Italian.

● “​C​hin​ i​n ​n​ow! ​Do​ n’t ​ev

​ er ​r​elax ​e​lbow l​ ​ocks, ​L​illiane ​A​nna” => Cinderella
● “​S​pine ​l​engthened. ​E​xtend ​ev ​ er ​po​ ised ​i​mportance. ​N​eck g ​ ​racefully ​b​owed.
E​leanor, ​a​void ​u​ttering ​t​remulous y ​ ​awns.” => Sleeping Beauty
● “​N​eatly ​u​nder ​th ​ e ​c​enter ​r​otational ​a​xis ​C​larice. ​K​athleen,​ e​liminate ​r​igidity.” =>
Nutcracker
● “​S​way ​w​istfully, ​A​nnabelle. ​N​ew ​l​eads ​a​lways ​k​eel ​e​xcessively.” => Swan Lake

2. Anyone who has taken dance has probably recognized the positions that the girl in the
pictures is in as some of the basic positions of ballet. Going from top to bottom, the girl is
in...
● First Position
● Third Position
● Fifth Position
● Fourth Position

3. The first letters of the line at the top spell out the word INDEX, which is the final step of
this puzzle. To finish the puzzle, indexing into the names of each of the ballets using the
position next to the line.
● Cinderella (1) => C
● Sleeping Beauty (3) => E
● Nutcracker (5) => R
● Swan Lake (4) => N

The answer to this puzzle is ​CERN​, the European Organization for Nuclear Research! The current
head of CERN, Fabiola Gianotti, studied ballet and music before becoming a physicist.

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 Variables Solution

1. The video clip referenced in the flavor text is of the Pixar short, La Luna, about how a
grandfather, a father, and a son change the phases of the moon. I highly recommend
watching it! They get there using a ladder, which is how you solve this puzzle.
2. The puzzle is a word ladder, which is a common quiz format on Sporcle. This means that
each word is one letter different from the word before and the word after. Each word is
four letters long, as denoted by the four underscores. If you fill out the chart, this is what
you get.

A young lady (one might be doing this puzzle!) GIRL

Aquatic respiratory organ GILL
Window ledge SILL
Moth derived fiber SILK
Mammal derived fluid MILK
Spicy specification MILD
Feral, savage, untamed WILD
To droop, as a plant WILT
Shift askew TILT
Bathroom flooring TILE
Gallbladder substance, or vomit BILE
Hay storage unit BALE
50% off on select items SALE
Lightly hued PALE
Pour down concrete PAVE
Trim around the edges (not a fruit!) PARE
Cheese paired with chicken PARM
Textural treatment PERM
Semester, trimester, or quarter TERM
To be full of TEEM
Appear as if SEEM
Sci, Tech, Eng, Math STEM

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 3. Looking at the changed letter from the previous word in the answers to the bolded clues
gets you the final answer.
● Gill => ​S​ill: S
● Wild => Wil​t​: T
● Bile => B​a​le: A
● Pave => Pa​r​e: R
● Teem => ​S​eem: S

The answer to this puzzle is ​STARS​! Stars are what the surface of La Luna is covered in according
to the Pixar short.

This puzzle was inspired by astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered cepheid variables, a
kind of star that has a regular brightness. These are used to measure the distance between the
Earth and other celestial bodies.

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MEDIUM — 200 points

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 Don't Think Outside the Box Solution

If you follow the flavor text literally and actually spin the puzzle and read the letters, you will find
that it is (almost) the exact same arrangement of letters. This arrangement of letters is entirely
rotationally symmetric, except in exactly eight places. You can break the square up into eight rings
that surround the center, and you will find that the symmetry is broken once in each ring:

If you take the letters in each ring that break the symmetry and arrange them from the outside in,
you should get the answer, ​SYMMETRY​.

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 Four-rest Solution

Arrange the leaves alphabetically using reverse image search:

1. Ash
2. Beech
3. Maple
4. Oak
5. Sycamore
Then, once all the photos are in order, sound out the small pictures on top to get:
Out thor / dove / in vine ron mint ale / sigh Ns / boo Kay / psi lent / spy ring
This sounds like ​‘Author of environmental science book silent spring​’ — who is Rachel ​CARSON​,
the answer to this puzzle.

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 He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not Solution

The puzzle is a list of 25 daisies with a certain number of petals, with botanical terms underneath
each one. As the flavor text suggests, these daisies must be split up into two groups in order to
extract the answer.

The title of the puzzle is a reference to the well-known game where someone picks petals off of a
daisy and alternates between saying “he loves me” and “he loves me not” for each petal. If there
are an odd number of petals on the daisy, the game will end with the person saying “he loves me”
and if there are an even number of petals, the game will end with “he loves me not.” Solvers should
divide the daisies in the puzzle into two groups, based on whether the number of petals is odd or
even. Then, they should use the number of petals to index into the botanical terms.

Odd number of petals ​Even number of petals

Word Number of Petals Letter Word Number of Petals Letter

rachis 3 C stem 4 M
deciduous 7 O pedicel 4 I
cotyledon 7 D evergreen 8 E
pollen 5 E tree 4 E
germination 11 N haustorium 8 I
cultivar 7 A glabrous 8 S
herbarium 9 M thyrse 6 E
photosynthesis 11 E stamen 6 N
taproot 5 O chlorophyll 8 H
rainforest 5 F dicot 4 O
isidium 7 M flower 4 W
leaf 3 A raceme 6 E

The resulting message when the two groups are combined is “CODE NAME OF MAMIE
EISENHOWER.” The answer is former first lady Mamie Eisenhower’s Secret Service code name,
which is ​SPRINGTIME​.

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 Hidden Figures Solution

1) The first step is to solve each of the mini-crosswords of the puzzle.

2) The italicized clues indicate that you should look at the corresponding answer. The words
are Look Into The Title Again, hinting that the title “Hidden Figures” is a clue to getting the
solution.
3) After you solve all of the puzzles, look back at the flavor text. The bolded and colored
letters correspond to the answers in the puzzle, with 1 to 3 letters from the answer that
matches that clue.
● In the first crossword, M​o​uth delive​r​ed or t​a​ken clues the word ORAL. The three
colored letters in the clue, O, R, and A, appear in that order in the word.
4) If you color in the squares that have the colored letters from the corresponding clue, you
end up with letters. These letters are the title “Hidden Figures.” All of the crosswords with
their solutions and gridded letters are on the next page.
● 1: O
● 2: R
● 3: B
● 4: I
● 5: T
The final answer to this puzzle is ​ORBIT​. Katherine Johnson, the mathematician who inspired this
puzzle worked as a computer at NASA to put John Glenn into orbit!

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21
 Interview with an Electron Solution

Chien-Shiung Wu found that electrons given off in beta decay were always given off in a direction
opposite the spin. This puzzle does the same thing. Let’s look at an example:

Question 1: Mx. Electron, if you could only watch one Star Trek show in your life, which show
would it be?

Star Trek: Deep ​Sp​ace N​in​e OR Star Trek: The Original Series

The “spin” in this question is the letters s-p-i-n, which appears in Deep Space Nine but not in The
Original Series, so The Original Series is the answer. Looking at the rest of the questions in the
same way, the answers turn out to be the following:

Star Trek: The Original Series

Lake Ontario
Ten Things I Hate About You
Movie Theater
Pyromaniac
Motionless in White

The next step is to look at the last sentence in the flavor text. The last bit of information in the last
letter in each phrase, which when combined gives the string “e-source.” This should be interpreted
as e-, or electron, source, which, as mentioned in the flavor text to this puzzle, is ​COBALT​.

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 Rainbow Solution

Each name and emoji pair represents a year. If the name is followed by a skull, it should be replaced
by that person’s death; if it’s a medal, it should be replaced with the year that person received a
particular award (specifically a Nobel prize); if it’s a book, it should be replaced with the year that
person published a particularly well-known book; if there is no emoji following the name, then it
should be substituted with the year that person was born. Those substitutions give the following
numbers:

[415​ + ​1962 - 1672][1404][1825 - 1307]

[1615][1209][2009][1863 - 1561 + 2014 - 2013]12
[2001​ ​+ 404][1185 - 1292 + 1916]19
[121][2009][1913]
[1689 ​+ ​935]
[1801][2018 -1609]15

When the math is done, the solver gets the following numbers:
[0705][1404][0518]
[1615][1209][2009][0301]12
[2405][1809]19
[0121][2009][1913]
[2624]
[1801][0409]15

If these numbers are split into pairs and associated with letters (01 is replaced with A, 02 with B,
etc.), one gets the following words:

07 05 14 04 05 18 Gender
16 15 12 09 20 09 03 01 12 Political
24 05 18 09 19 Xeris
01 21 20 09 19 13 Autism
26 24 ZX
18 01 04 09 15 Radio

What do these words have in common? They are all followed by the word ​SPECTRUM​, which is
the answer for the puzzle.

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 Similar Similes Solution

Each line contains a simile, which compares two different things for dramatic effect. Each simile is
very similar to a commonly used simile (as plain as day, as white as snow, etc.) — except one word
in the simile has been replaced with a synonym of a word that is very similar, but is just one letter
off. For example, in the first line, “flock’d as nails” becomes “herd as nails”, which, when the E is
replaced with an A, becomes “hard as nails”. When the solver takes each of the letters substituted
from the original similes, they get the following results:

Line From Puzzle Simile With Synonym Original

Replaced Letter
Substituted

Your heart is as flock’d as nails. H​E​RD AS NAILS A

With the moon as white as unhurried WHITE AS S​L​OW N
And the stars as plain as withered, PLAIN AS D​R​Y A
Your mouth remains as stubborn as a completely silent person; STUBBORN AS A MU​T​E L
Yet, your mind is as broken as a bee, BUS​T​ AS A BEE Y
With wit is as sharp as a burlap bag. SHARP AS A ​S​ACK T
The time passes as slow as a toothy growl SLOW AS SNA​R​L I
With the night as black as a young horse BLACK AS ​F​OAL C
And the clouds as long-stick’d as death, P​O​LE AS DEATH A
The world as achievement’d as a pancake. F​EA
​ T AS A PANCAKE L

Your heart is as slippery as a jelly AS SLIPPERY AS AN ​G​EL E

But with determination as hard as postage AS HARD AS ​M​AILS N
Our love is as snug as a bug in a ditch AS SNUG AS A BUG IN A RU​T G
Though they say it is as uninteresting as a bat, BL​A​ND AS A BAT I
It is as checkered as day AS PLAI​D​ AS DAY N
that you are as desire’d as an owl. WIS​H​ AS AN OWL E

When combined, the final answer is ​ANALYTICAL ENGINE​ — the ‘mechanical device’ for which
Ada Lovelace wrote the first program.

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 The User's Handbook to Mathematics Solution

This is a puzzle based around math theorems, clued by the flavor text. Each paragraph clues a
name of a math theorem.

● “With the help of some tree roots, Alice, Bob, and Carl were able to catch the four rats fair
and ​square​.” ​QU​A​DRATIC (extract A) - clued by A(lice), B(ob), and C(arl), four (quad) rats,
square (roots)
● “Alice, Bob, and Carl are on vacation in Greece. The amount of square pasta that Alice and
Bob have altogether ends up being equal to the amount that Carl has. ” ​PYTHA​G​OREAN
(extract G) - clued by A(lice), B(ob), and C(arl), Greece, “square” pasta
● “George is buying new shoes, but needs Jordans that fit the exact curve of his feet. Before
leaving, he checks the temperature.” ​KELVI​N​-STOKES (extract N) - clued by Jordans
curving (Jordan curve), temperature (George Kelvin)
● “Before my death, I would like to say that my children Alice, Bob, and Carl will not get any
of my money, no matter how many times they try. - Pierre” ​F​E​RMAT’S LAST (extract E) -
A(lice), B(ob), C(arl), Pierre Fermat, “no matter how many times” - the theorem proves
that a^n + b^n = c^n does not work for any exponents (“how many times”)
● “Gordon is trying to organize his pantry by color, but he wants to see how many ways he
can order red and blue items. “ ​RAM​S​EY’S (extract S) - clued by Gordon (Ramsey),
organize by color, red and blue
● “At a certain magical clinic, a hallway appears that seems to go forever. Investigations on
the origin of this hallway come up indeterminate.” ​L’HOP​I​TAL’S RULE (extract I) - clued
by clinic (ho(s)pital), go on forever (infinity), indeterminate (theorem is used when
original limit is indeterminate)

The red letters make ​AGNESI​ as the solution, who wrote the “handbook” that the title references.

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 Think Fast Solution

In order to solve this puzzle, one must first inspect the flavor text to see the mention of cranial
nerves. What could be given to our cranial nerves to reach the solution of the puzzle? You can
start with the numbers given.

Our twelve cranial nerves are as follows: the olfactory nerve (I), the optic nerve (II), oculomotor
nerve (III), trochlear nerve (IV), trigeminal nerve (V), abducens nerve (VI), facial nerve (VII),
auditory nerve (VIII), glossopharyngeal nerve (IX), vagus nerve (X), accessory nerve (XI), and the
hypoglossal nerve (XII), or abbreviated OOOTTAFAGVAH.

We cannot add numbers to letters as they are, but we can by making A=1 and Z=26.

The string OOOTTAFAGVAH becomes 15-15-15-20-20-1-6-1-7-22-1-8. Adding our given list of

numbers 12-14-14-11-18-4-12-0-13-13-14-6, we get 27-29-29-31-38-5-18-1-20-35-15-14.

This list of numbers has a few that are greater than 26, but notice that we have to keep some
things in “​mode
​ ration.” Taking each number modulo 26, we get 1-3-3-5-12-5-18-1-20-9-15-14.
With the same A1Z26, that spells out ​ACCELERATION​.

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HARD — 500 points

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 Contagion Solution

1. The flavor text in this puzzle doesn’t actually give you any clues about how to solve the
puzzle, it’s all in the message. The flavor text just sets the scene.
2. The real first step of this puzzle is to determine the method of contagion, which you can do
by looking at the red region/East Asia example. The virus only spreads to hubs that are
connected to the origin hub by a yellow line and are alphabetically after the origin hub.
Here’s how it works.

● On the first day, Seoul is infected. It’s connected to Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
● Since Beijing is alphabetically before Seoul, it does not get infected. Shanghai and
Tokyo do get infected.
● The virus cannot cross between different colored regions.

3. Beginning with the spontaneous outbreak hubs, follow the virus through each of the
regions from the map on the second page using the rules from the last step.
4. The message indicates that there are some of the hubs that do not become infected. Those
hubs are:

● Red:
○ Beijing, China
○ Bangkok, Thailand
● Black:
○ Cairo, Egypt
○ Moscow, Russia
○ Baghdad, Iraq
○ Muscat, Oman
○ Salalah, Oman
● Blue:
○ Atlanta, USA
○ St. Petersburg, Russia
● Yellow:
○ Lima, Peru

5. The last sentence before the P.S. says to look at the beginnings of the countries, which
clues the first letters. Those letters are C, T, E, R, I, O, O, U, R, and P.
6. The words “mixed up” are bolded at the end of the puzzle to clue that the last step of the
puzzle is to anagram all of these letters. This gets you your final answer.

The answer to this puzzle is ​PUERTO RICO​, the birthplace of Dr. Antonia Novello, the first female
and the first person of color Surgeon General of the United States.

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 Grocery Shopping Solution

1) 6.62 lb = 3 kg Tomatoes (m)

2) 8.82 lb = 4 kg Anchovies (h)
3) 22.05 lb = 10 kg Romaine lettuce (t)
4) 21.14 cups = 5 L Soy Sauce (a)
5) 2.21 lb = 1 kg Croutons (c)
6) 4.41 lb = 2 kg Arugula (r)
7) 2.21 lb = 1 kg Parmesan cheese (p)
8) 8.82 lb = 4 kg Cumin (i)
9) 2.21 lb = 1 kg Egg yolk (e)
10) 8.82 lb = 4 kg Avocado (c)
11) 8.46 cups = 2 L Lemon juice (e)
12) 4.41 lb = 2 kg Duck (u)
13) 11.03 lb = 5 kg Black Pepper (k)
14) 13.23 lb = 6 kg Ginger (r)
15) 4.41 lb = 2 kg Pickle (i)
16) 13.23 lb = 6 kg Chicken (e)
17) 4.23 cups = 1 L Worcestershire sauce (w)
18) 4.41 lb = 2 kg Rice (i)
19) 25.37 cups = 6 L Olive oil (o)
20) 8.82 lb = 4 kg Potatoes (a)

First, eliminate all the non-prime ingredients — that is, the ingredients whose number in the list is
not a prime number (#1,4,6,8,9, … ), leaving only the ‘prime ingredients’ (#2,3,5,7, … )

The phrase “scientific standards” in the flavor text hints at using liters and kg instead of lbs and
cups, as these units are more common in scientific study. Convert all the amounts to liters and kg,
as shown above. The resulting numbers are all integers. Use these numbers to index into every
ingredient to find a letter, also shown in parentheses above. Doing this results in the letters
‘htcpekwo’.

If the solver searches up all the prime ingredients (clued by the phrase “what Mme Curie could be
making”), they’ll find they are the ingredients for ​Caesar​ salad. Using the ​Caesar c​ ipher, shift the
letters ‘htcpekwo’ backwards by 2 (clued by the phrase “making for ​2”​) to get​ ​FRANCIUM​, which is
the answer.

Bonus: if you index into all the non-prime ingredients you would get ‘marie curie ia’.

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 Star Sailor Solution

Each group of squares with a certain number represent the differently-colored parts of an
international maritime signal flag. The color of the square indicates the color of that part of the
flag, and the way that the light reflects off of the interior of the box indicates its shape. These are
the components:

When recombined, the squares represent maritime flags, which, when reassembled and put in
order, spell:

R: O: M: A: N:
Hence, the answer is ​ROMAN​ — the last name of ​Nancy Roman​, widely considered to be the
‘Mother of Hubble’ for her role in planning the Hubble Space Telescope.

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