Week 1 Pitch Drop Experiment
PITCH DROP EXPERIMENT
by Kazyan
METRIC
(Period/Rate) > Period > Cost
> is used as an arrow and indicates tiebreaker order.
REAGENTS
Pitch
PRODUCTS
Pitch drop
NOTES
--!! THESE NOTES HAVE BEEN CHANGED SINCE RELEASE TO INCREASE CLARITY !!--
(Last edited 2024 June 15 18:00 UTC)
The metric essentially translates to "maximize the number of tape loops between each product on average" or "minimize the amount of products per tape loop on average".
Rate is defined as the average number of cycles per outputted product ad infinitum. That is to say, your solution needs to loop. For example, if your solution outputs once every four cycles, it has a rate of four. If it outputs twice every four cycles, it has a rate of two.
To adhere to the spirit of the puzzle, your solve must have a finite rate and produce products ad infinitum.
Period is defined as the length of the tape loop, in other words the tape length of the arm with the longest distance between its first and last instruction.
Deep in a corner of a basement in the Hall of Fire of the Imperial University, a faded, yellowed slip of paper holds times and dates. Five filled lines await a sixth from a pen, with ink long dried out. Behind it, inside a glass box growing dust like moss, a reagent vial is suspended from iron rods, pointed downwards.
🜄 🜄
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ASPHALTUM
A liquid allowed to flow freely may, with the right temperament, decline to do so. Asphaltum is as viscous as the stone beneath the alchemist's feet, and the sixth drop to fall yet awaits.
download: OM2024Weeklies_PitchDropExperiment.puzzle (where do i put this?)