A few months ago I wrote about my favorite puzzles from the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt, where I called the Mystery Hunt “one of my favorite things”. Another one of my favorite things is actually writing these kinds of puzzles. I intend to occasionally post puzzles on this blog, and this is the first one!
I’ll be assigning my puzzles difficulties out of 10. This one’s about an 8: it’s quite challenging (probably typical for a Mystery Hunt puzzle). If you’ve never participated in a puzzle hunt before, this might not be the best introduction to these kinds of puzzles; try one of these instead.
[EDIT: offer has expired] I’m offering prizes! I’ll give $20 to the first person to email me the correct answer (which is an English word or phrase) and $10 to the next three people. You’re allowed (in fact encouraged) to work with others, but your group will be eligible for only one prize. You are also allowed (and encouraged) to use the internet. I’m tentatively planning to end the contest a month from now, on June 7th, in the event that not all prizes are claimed. See here for further details, disclaimers, etc.
Finally, thank you to Adam Hesterberg and Eric Wofsey for helping to test-solve the puzzle!
Without further ado, click here for the puzzle! (And below is a picture of the puzzle in case you can’t download PDFs or something.)
Good luck and have fun!
(Edit 2020/08/20: unfortunately none of the prizes were claimed! See here for hints and a solution.)
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Unexpected Values 
Stumped! Been waiting to hear the answer for a while, could you post???
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Hope you had fun trying! See here for a hints and a solution: https://ericneyman.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/puzzle-solution-hints-a-choral-arrangement/
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