How to enter:
This contest consists of a four-part logic puzzle (below). To participate in the contest, solve the puzzle, obtain the final answer from part iv, and e-mail the answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Only one entry is allowed per person; however, if you believe your answer is wrong, you may change it at any time before the deadline. The deadline is two weeks from the time the contest started (that is, October 20, 2009).
How to win:
After the deadline has passed, the winner will be randomly selected from all of the entrants with the correct answer. Therefore, to win, you must both be skilled enough to solve the puzzles before the deadline, and lucky enough to be picked. (But even if you're not lucky, hopefully you'll have had fun solving the puzzles, right? :) )
Prize:
The winner will receive his or her choice of either 3 of Nikoli's Pencil Puzzle Books, or any 1 or 2 Nikoli books whose prices total at most 2100 yen (see this link for a list of all of the books Nikoli has available). Each Pencil Puzzle Book contains about 96 puzzles of one particular type, which is great if there's a certain puzzle type you particularly want to focus on; if you'd rather have a wider variety of puzzles available, books like the Penpas Mix series, the Puzzle Box series, and the Puzzle the Giants series will satisfy your needs perfectly. Either way, you win! :) When you win, provide me with your mailing address and which books you'd like; I'll pay Nikoli to have the books shipped directly to you.
Terms:
By entering the contest, you agree to the following terms:
a) You are prepared and willing to provide me with a mailing address in the event that you win. (In return, I agree not to use your mailing address for any malicious purposes, such as sending junk mail or other undesired things.)
b) You are prepared and willing to wait several weeks for the books to arrive from Japan (this contest is mostly for fun, anyhow -- and high-quality puzzles are worth the wait, right? :) ).
Now that you're done reading all that, here is the four-part contest puzzle. Good luck! :)
Part i. Polyominous
Solve the Polyominous puzzle below (rules of Polyominous), and then answer Question i:
Question i: How many 1's are there in the solution (including the ones given at the outset)?
Part ii. Straight and Arrow
Solve the Straight and Arrow puzzle below (rules of Straight and Arrow), and then answer Question ii:
Question ii: What is the total number of black cells in the two indicated columns?
Part iii. Process of Illumination
Solve the Process of Illumination puzzle below (rules of Process of Illumination), and then answer Question iii:
Question iii: How many light bulbs are there in the solution?
Part iv. Seek and Spell
The numerical answer to each of the above questions is an integer between 1 and 26, inclusive. For each answer, find the corresponding word in the list below:
1 ALPHA
2 BRAVO
3 CHARLIE
4 DELTA
5 ECHO
6 FOXTROT
7 GOLF
8 HOTEL
9 INDIA
10 JULIET
11 KILO
12 LIMA
13 MIKE
14 NOVEMBER
15 OSCAR
16 PAPA
17 QUEBEC
18 ROMEO
19 SIERRA
20 TANGO
21 UNIFORM
22 VICTOR
23 WHISKEY
24 XRAY
25 YANKEE
26 ZULU
Solve the Seek and Spell puzzle below (rules of Seek and Spell), replacing i, ii, and iii with the words corresponding with the numerical answers to Question i, Question ii, and Question iii, respectively.
The seven letters in the shaded cells, taken in reading order (a, b, c, d, e, f, g), form the final answer. (These letters may or may not spell anything.) Send this final answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com to enter the Attack of the Four Puzzles! contest.
