I acquired the picket puzzle beneath for Christmas. After taking part in with it for some time I made a decision I wanted to really write one thing down if I used to be going to resolve it. Eventually I simply wrote an algorithm that went by way of the 20736 doable positions of the 4 dials and located the one reply. The downside is I really feel like I cheated/missed one thing.

Could I’ve performed higher than brute drive?

Here is the puzzle.

On the rear is the textual content:

Solving the Greek Computer. Turn the dials till every of the 12 columns add as much as 42

And listed here are the tables I created of the puzzle so you’ve gotten all of the numbers (0 all the time represents a gap in that dial):

3   0   6   0   10  0   7   0   15  0   8   0
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0    Dial 1 (prime)
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
                                            
                                            
6   17  7   3   0   6   0   11  11  6   11  0
12  0   4   0   7   15  0   0   14  0   9   0    Dial 2
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
                                            
                                            
9   13  9   7   13  21  17  4   5   0   7   8
21  6   15  4   9   18  11  26  14  1   12  0    Dial 3
5   0   10  0   8   0   22  0   16  0   9   0
0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
                                            
                                            
11  0   8   0   16  2   7   0   9   0   7   14
14  12  3   8   9   0   9   20  12  3   6   0    Dial 4
9   0   17  19  3   12  3   26  6   0   2   13
6   0   10  0   10  0   1   0   9   0   12  0
                                            
                                            
11  11  14  11  14  11  14  14  11  14  11  14
4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13  14  15   Base (backside)
4   4   6   6   3   3   14  14  21  21  7   9
8   3   4   12  2   5   10  7   16  8   9   8

And the answer:

(word I marked the reply so I can get to it simply)