CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011 - Solutions

1A. Big Question

The first step for this puzzle is to identify the shapes. The first part in the top row consists of: circle, hexagon, rectangle, isosceles triangle, square. Taking the first letters of these shape names spells out CHRIS, which has potential as a name or word fragment.

Continuing along the top row, the shapes are: trapezium (or trapezoid in America), octagon, pentagon; hexagon, equilateral triangle, rectangle. Thus the top line spells out CHRISTOPHER and we are definitely on the right track.

Going around the question mark, the shapes are: octagon, nonagon, square, circle, equilateral triangle, ellipse, trapezium, lens, and another circle. This spells out "ONSCEETLC", which doesn't look like much at all. We expect the result might be a surname, so usual word stems and anagram solvers may not help.

It's possible to do the anagram with suitable inspiration or luck, but the insight that allows progress is that there is a reasonable way to order the shapes: Consider their area. You may notice that the shapes in each of the three small groups forming CHRIS-TOP-HER at the top are ordered in increasing area of the shapes within each group. An eyeball measurement is good enough for most cases, and ordering the question mark shapes from smallest to largest area produces ECCLESTON. You may also get most of the way by ordering the shapes by number of sides (though you will still need to observe that the ellipse is smaller than either of the circles, and that the trapezium is larger than the square).

This leads us to the actor Christopher Eccleston, although that is not the answer. So what links him with a question?

The answer lies in the question posed by the arrangement of the shapes on the page: The shapes at the top are arranged in three groups, the first group making the rough shape of a letter "W", the second an "H", and the third group an "O". The largest group of shapes of course makes a question mark. We want to know "WHO?" the puzzle is referring to.

Christopher Eccleston has most recently been well-known for his role as the title character in the rebooted series of Doctor Who. The fact that the puzzle ends with a nonagon is also not coincidental, as Christopher Eccleston was the ninth Doctor.

The answer is DOCTOR WHO. Accepted variants were DR WHO, THE DOCTOR, NINTH DOCTOR, and THE NINTH DOCTOR.