Einstein at Home Book Competition

Ok code meisters! This is the

Einstein at Home Book Competition #1

Depending upon how enthusiastic you lot get then there may be others. Let us see .... :-)

The idea is to offer a real prize for entrants in this competition to vie for. It is a book, delivered to the winner with postage paid to the postal address they nominate from Amazon.com and paid for by me. Don't worry on my account as it won't cost alot! :-)

Specific Terms, Instructions & Conditions :

- these conditions must be read and agreed to in their totality for an entry to be valid.

- this is a purely private effort on my part. No obligation, liability or assumptions of any nature what-so-ever should be made as regards the Einstein at Home project, LIGO, LSC or any associated body or person at all. If you have a problem then I am the first, last and only party to be a target of your unhappiness. You agree to not ask for, nor receive any compensation to discharge your unhappiness. If you don't like that, or any other condition, then you agree to not proceed any further in this competition. Re-read this to be sure!!

- download the GRID WITH CLUES

- download the PRESCRIBED ANSWER FORM

- at least 75% of the clues must be successfully answered in order to enter the prize draw.

- for this quiz there are 42 across clues and 46 down clues for a total of 88. Thus 66 successful answers, or better, of any mix of across or down clues is the threshold.

- a successful answer is one that has all letters, and no less, in the word matching the solution I hold. However as the answers must be in English or an accepted dialect, I will be tolerant of known variants on words eg. polarise, polarize.

- each answer is a single word, or can be deemed so by common usage. It contains only alphabetic ( a - z, case not important ) and/or numeric characters ( 0 - 9 ). There are no hyphenations or other punctuation.

- all entries must be in the format provided, by submission of the above given prescribed answer form.

- you must include your name and E@H user ID in the prescribed answer form.

- you must type in the solution word on the same line and to the right of each across or down position listed in the prescribed answer form. Multiple words are not accepted, if so provided then that answer will not be marked at all.

- you are free to use any method at all to research answers. Indeed that is the point of the exercise! :-)

- incorrect answers do not engage a penalty. That is, a wrong answer does not deduct from the number of correct answers that you give. Thus it does not hurt to try all that you can.

- maximum of one entry per E@H participant, even if you have multiple user IDs. Your recent average credit, as calculated by E@H, must be NON-ZERO at the time of entry. This is the only credit related aspect of this competition, used purely to assess your current involvement. I can and will check all of this, and any attempt to subvert this will result in disqualification of all entry attempts by such persons.

- BUT moderators, staff, scientists etc of E@H are excluded from the prize draw.

- the prescribed answer form must be sent as an attachment to an email, preferably entitled E@H Xword Comp 1, to my email address

- a single winner will be selected by random lot from all entrants who achieve a place in the draw. Thus all entrants who qualify ( greater than or equal to 75 % correct answers ) are on an equal footing.

- the winner will be notified by email, and announced in this thread. Upon email reply from the winner specifying acceptance and only then indicating their chosen address to post to, the prize will be given out. That address will not be revealed to anyone bar myself and Amazon.

- if I don't get an address then I can't send it to you. If it's wrong then you definitely won't get it. I take no action, nor should you expect any, beyond myself once requesting and paying for Amazon.com to dispatch the item to you via surface mail to the address you specify. Delivery will entail some delay. Any or all imposts or issues what-so-ever relating to the import/export of the book to/from any country will not be born by me. I promise to pay for the purchase of the book and postage only as offered by Amazon.com.

- judge's ( that is, me ) decision is final and precisely no correspondence/discussion/conversation will be entered into.

- the date and time beyond which no submissions will be accepted is the First day of July this year of 2009 at UTC 00:00, as evidenced by the time stamp upon reception by my ISP.

- the announcement and notification of the winner will be two weeks after the close of entries. The solution will also be revealed, along with a ranked/ordered list of successful entrants.

- the prize is one (1) softback copy of Relativity : The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein, as described at Amazon.com. If Amazon don't have it, then you won't get it. They do have back order, but that may not yield a result. However I will try another edition of the same title if so available at comparable price, preferably brand new.

My Review Of The Book Itself

A terrific thin book written by the master himself. Targeted for the general audience, it assumes virtually no pre-existing knowledge, and carefully steps through his approach to helping you understand his relativity theories. Original edition published ~ 1915. Each chapter is a brief essay to explain and illustrate key concepts and reasoning. But beware, as the author notes, as he will lead you to perhaps uncomfortable territory - and the conclusions will sneak up on you. Mathematics is kept to a minimum and in the appendices at that.

Cheers, Mike.