33. Eight Is Enough

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We had a couple of challenging metas last week - one of the best I've ever seen here and then my newfangled mathematical offering. Let's see how it treated you!!

1. Puzzle #32 recap

Puzzle #32 answer: DIVIDEND

Correct entries: 24 - Still a toughie, but several persevered!

Here was the plan of attack. It is a Week 5, so keep that in mind!

a) The four starred entries each contain a key word toward the end of them: FLAGS, CATCH, STEPS, AREA.

b) In line with the title, each of these words is linked to another item (place or title) that contains a number:

6 Flags

Catch-22

The 39 Steps (arguably the hardest of the four, hence the Hitchcock clue elsewhere in the grid; in retrospect, I should've placed one for all four of these)

Area 51

c) The title itself doesn't clue us into the number, but it does use the phrase "two-factor." Each of these numbers contains two main factors, other than 1 and itself. (Sometimes, we math nerds refer to these as "pseudoprimes")

6 = 2 x 3

22 = 2 x 11

39 = 3 x 13

51 = 3 x 17

d) We then need to go to the grid that contains that number and read off the letter. I desperately wanted all of these to be in the same order (either smaller first or larger first), but due to the 3 being the higher factor in one and the lower factor in two, it was not to be.

Once we spell out the letters in the right order, we get DIVIDEND, our meta answer; note that in each of these situations, the larger number (i.e., 51) would be the dividend, 3 might be the divisor, and 17 would be the quotient. So the final answer does relate, as it should!

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2. It's now time for a much-deserved Week 1 meta to kick off the 8th month of the year! You've got this!

Good luck!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is 8 letters long.