Intergalactic Adventure - Solutions

Ready for a mathematical space adventure? Complete your Intergalactic Passport Application Form and prepare for a journey to the Planet Turasmara.

Created by Scottish Mathematical Council

An image of a galaxy with red and black colour nuances, and white shining stars.

Congratulations, you have made it to the end of your intergalactic space mission! Here are the answers to the six challenges:

Challenge 1

You had to fit all the cargo pieces on to the deck. Bonus points for not having any pieces with the same colour touching. Here's one solution:

Challenge 2

You had to work out the code on the keypad, to unlock to door to the spacecraft. The finger prints told you that the numbers were 2, 4, 6 & 9, but what order did they go in? The The clue above the keypad said:

"To unlock this door, you'll need 4 digits. If you start with the first, then 2/3 of it follows. Then a quarter of the first two still remain."

Let's break that down...

  • Start with the number 9.
  • 2/3 (two thirds) of 9 is 6, so the next number is 6.
  • You now have 96.
  • A quarter of 96 is 24, so the order of the last two digits is 2 - 4.
  • Put it all together, and you get 9624!

Challenge 3

For this challenge, you had to multiply two smaller numbers to make one bigger number, and if all three numbers were on the grid you could remove them. Some numbers appear only once, some numbers appear more than once, so there are multiple solutions here. For example, 2x6=12 or 2x12=24, BUT there is only one 12 on the grid so here it can only be used once. To clear the whole grid, you'll need the following multiplications.

  • 2x6=12
  • 2x8=16
  • 3x8=24
  • 4x5=20
  • 5x9=45
  • 6x8=48
  • 7x9=63
  • 10x11=110

Challenge 4

This was a tangram challenge, where you had to fit the pieces together to make the Phoenix bird logo.

(Please note: if you have an earlier download of this puzzle, one of the green pieces was incorrect)

Challenge 5

In this challenge, you had to ferry three alien species safely across a river, without eating each other. This was a vacation on the classic 'wolf, goat & cabbage' puzzle. Here's one solution for the aliens:

  1. Take Nwen over
  2. Return to the other side
  3. Take Flig over
  4. Return with Nwen
  5. Take Mlunka over
  6. Return to the other side
  7. Take Nwen over

(If you are arriving at the Intergalactic Adventure on this page, you can go back to the Introduction and Challenge 1 to start you off)

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