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Möbius-Strip Crosswords

57 pointsby ibobevyesterday at 3:10 PM7 commentsview on HN

Comments

unholinessyesterday at 11:51 PM

> if it actually wrapped around on itself with a half-twist, wouldn’t the letters wind up backwards too? Then 6-Down wouldn’t be MESSENGER but rather MESSENGER, and so on.

This premise is assuming the Mobius strip is transparent, which the header image clearly isn't. No letter-reversals or any symmetry is needed. On normal, opaque paper, you can just make a crossword as a normal long loop. (proof: Write GGGGGGG on one side of a paper, and write it upside-down on the other side. With a twist, you'll get one long GGGGGGGGGGGGGG... looping as if it were one boring single-sided loop).

wglassyesterday at 6:28 PM

Interesting article. Note that many of the clues in the article are mis numbered.

Not sure why. Refer to the original puzzles linked for the correct clues.

sreanyesterday at 6:13 PM

A long long time ago I had a fun time making Mobius strip structure out of link list(s).

Each edge of the ribbon was a linked list, connected to each other by rungs. It looped back on itself but connected crosswise .

Then if you nuked all the rungs it was clear you still got a connected piece that you could traverse over.

zemyesterday at 11:00 PM

qxw [https://www.quinapalus.com/qxw.html] is a wonderful open source app that lets you make crosswords with interesting topologies, complete with grid filler support, if anyone wants to experiment with them.

wxwyesterday at 5:58 PM

My partner publishes crosswords and it's always fun to see how much artistry goes into authoring a puzzle. You can play with the structure/grid, the theme of course, every minute detail of the fill, etc.

Never would have thought of a Mobius-strip though, insane.

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edwcrossyesterday at 10:55 PM

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