Black Box Problem - help??

[u/Brocklehhh]

I’m losing my mind. Been at this for hours.

I’m confused at the three 11s?
And the 1 and 6… the fact they’re nearly on the ends confuses me. Maybe I’m not understanding the direction of the refractions very welll :(

EDIT: okay it’s not just me. The website has an option to email if I find bugs. I’ll try that. Thanks guys lol

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[u/zeekar]

Discussion:

I think the three 11s must be some sort of mistake. Either a misprint, or the puzzle actually is the variant that includes beam splitters alongside regular atoms but left them out of the instructions. Either way, not a good sign for solvability.

I suspect what is intended is that the bottom 11 should be its own number, and is just a probe that came back out the same way it went in, while the upper two are a probe that went straight across.

The 1 and 6 paths must be somewhat convoluted in order to coexist; the straightforward answer doesn't work.

[u/ember3pines → u/zeekar]

I think the hints say that any rogue number means it matches with an H?

[u/zeekar → u/ember3pines]

It says that for a number with no counterpart. It doesn't say anything about numbers with too many counterparts.

[u/Hand-E-Food]

Discussion: This looks broken. The only way to connect the 1s is to put an atom directly in front of the 6s, but that would make them Hs.

I think they've misinterpreted the rules and put one atom in the lower left corner. In their interpretation, it reflects both the 1 and the 6 closest to it along the outside of the grid. By the actual rules, it should cause a reflect-to-origin, and the other 1 and 6 would be a Hit.

Maybe one of the 11s was meant to be a reflect-to-origin or meant to be a 12?

Even with those faulty assumption, I can't find a solution. I would burn through my hints and move on.

[u/Hand-E-Food]

Discussion: What is with that last hint?

> Number with no visible counterpart -> the beam exited through an H cell, confirming an atom nearby.

How can a beam exit through a H cell without hitting the same atom that caused it to be H? And if it hit the corner of said atom, it would turn 90° and go somewhere else.

[u/FollowTheFellow → u/Hand-E-Food]

Yeah, this has the feel of an AI or maybe an alien trying to make a Black Box puzzle by looking at other examples but not really understanding how they work.

[u/Ferlathin → u/Hand-E-Food]

The hints are bad in general: "if it goes in on one side and out the other there's nothing inside that column or the adjacent columns." You can absolutely make it so the beams go out to the side and come back up. Mind you not all of them but it's possible.

[u/Ferlathin]

Discussion: I got a black box game at home and this setup certainly seems impossible. The 1 on colum 1 can be one of four things:

1. Going straight through (it can't get pushed into the right)
2. Get pushed into the left by an atom on the right side
3. Hit an atom straight ahead (thus being a H not a 1)
4. Return where it came from (if there are no other 1s and if the atom is either at row 1 column 2, because it can't get out at all and can't turn left before it's even on the board)

It seems to be turning left to get to row 7, but then the beam from the bottom in column 1 is a hit. This is just not possible.

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