Solvers are initially presented with a series of points on campus and associated distances. Solvers need to draw circles around these points using the distances as radii. The circles are tangent to each other at six locations on campus (shown by the stars on the image below).
The ruler at the bottom of the puzzle is a representation of these six locations on an east-west axis. The associated ordinal is the floor of the location at the tangent.
Visiting each location, solvers will find a folder with a compass and straightedge symbol on it.
From this they retrieve a transparency that is mostly blank, with some black pixels printed on parts of the sheet.
Solvers can take these transparencies and overlay them to produce the following image of words.
Or, equivalently, the following sequence in a pretty fun 3×3 font:
The words (as text) are:
- ACHIEVEDWISDOM
- ALCHEMY
- AMERICA
- ASIA
- AUTHORITY
- AUTUMN
- CHASTITY
- COURAGE
- CRAFT
- DAY
- DISOBEDIENCE
- ENTERPRISE
- EUROPE
- FAME
- FERTILITY
- FIDELITY
- FIRMNESS
- GRACE
- HELPLESSNESS
- HIERARCHY
- HOPE
- INNOCENCE
- LEARNING
- LIGHT
- LUST
- MARRIAGE
- MATHEMATICS
- MEASUREMENT
- MECHANICALWORK
- MESSENGER
- MOTHERHOOD
- NATURE
- NOURISHMENT
- OBEDIENCE
- PATIENCE
- PERSEVERANCE
- POLITICS
- PREVENTION
- PROCESS
- PRODUCTIVEWORK
- RAPACITY
- RESURRECTION
- SCIENCE
- SHELTER
- SOVEREIGNTY
- SPRING
- SUBMISSION
- SUCCOR
- SUMMER
- SWEETNESS
- THEFUTURE
- THESOUL
- TREASURE
- TRUTH
- WATCHFULNESS
- WATER
- WEALTH
- WILDMAN
- WINTER
Solvers can then discover, via some Googling, that each of these words or phrases is a “level” on an alethiometer. Where phrases have two words (e.g. ACHIEVED WISDOM), the absence of spacing within phrases ensures the distinction between alethiometer entries. The alethiometer is the eponymous “golden compass” in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. This device has 36 symbols, each of which has an infinite sequence of (differentiated) meanings.
The symbols have an established ordering based on book cover artwork which is easily accessible via images such as this one. Further, all of the pixelated words are an established meaning of one the first three levels for one of the 36 alethiometer symbols.
Solvers can now array these words based on their alethiometer position. Each word corresponds to a unique position on a 3 by 36 grid, where columns indicate successive alethiometer symbols and rows indicate successive levels of meaning. For instance, ACHIEVED WISDOM is the 3rd layer of meaning for the “cauldron” symbol on the alethiometer. Treating the hourglass symbol as the beginning of the grid, this means solvers should color in the cell (3,6). Treating words that are present above as a black square, and absent words as a white square, solvers can read the final answer, HOLLYWOOD, in the same 3×3 font.
| Word | Position | Level |
|---|---|---|
| ACHIEVEDWISDOM | 6 | 3 |
| ALCHEMY | 6 | 1 |
| AMERICA | 30 | 1 |
| ASIA | 28 | 1 |
| AUTHORITY | 2 | 2 |
| AUTUMN | 19 | 2 |
| CHASTITY | 11 | 1 |
| COURAGE | 26 | 3 |
| CRAFT | 6 | 2 |
| DAY | 2 | 1 |
| DISOBEDIENCE | 8 | 3 |
| ENTERPRISE | 30 | 3 |
| EUROPE | 27 | 1 |
| FAME | 24 | 3 |
| FERTILITY | 34 | 3 |
| FIDELITY | 27 | 2 |
| FIRMNESS | 34 | 1 |
| GRACE | 4 | 3 |
| HELPLESSNESS | 31 | 3 |
| HIERARCHY | 8 | 2 |
| HOPE | 7 | 1 |
| INNOCENCE | 23 | 2 |
| LEARNING | 18 | 3 |
| LIGHT | 10 | 3 |
| LUST | 35 | 3 |
| MARRIAGE | 14 | 3 |
| MATHEMATICS | 32 | 2 |
| MEASUREMENT | 32 | 1 |
| MECHANICALWORK | 16 | 1 |
| MESSENGER | 8 | 1 |
| MOTHERHOOD | 12 | 1 |
| NATURE | 23 | 1 |
| NOURISHMENT | 15 | 1 |
| OBEDIENCE | 4 | 1 |
| PATIENCE | 20 | 3 |
| PERSEVERANCE | 28 | 3 |
| POLITICS | 24 | 1 |
| PREVENTION | 7 | 3 |
| PROCESS | 3 | 2 |
| PRODUCTIVEWORK | 10 | 1 |
| RAPACITY | 30 | 2 |
| RESURRECTION | 22 | 2 |
| SCIENCE | 32 | 3 |
| SHELTER | 34 | 2 |
| SOVEREIGNTY | 24 | 2 |
| SPRING | 14 | 2 |
| SUBMISSION | 4 | 2 |
| SUCCOR | 22 | 3 |
| SUMMER | 28 | 2 |
| SWEETNESS | 10 | 2 |
| THEFUTURE | 31 | 1 |
| THESOUL | 14 | 1 |
| TREASURE | 26 | 1 |
| TRUTH | 2 | 3 |
| WATCHFULNESS | 26 | 2 |
| WATER | 22 | 1 |
| WEALTH | 19 | 1 |
| WILDMAN | 35 | 1 |
| WINTER | 36 | 2 |
| Word | Position | Level |
|---|---|---|
| DAY | 2 | 1 |
| AUTHORITY | 2 | 2 |
| TRUTH | 2 | 3 |
| PROCESS | 3 | 2 |
| OBEDIENCE | 4 | 1 |
| SUBMISSION | 4 | 2 |
| GRACE | 4 | 3 |
| ALCHEMY | 6 | 1 |
| CRAFT | 6 | 2 |
| ACHIEVEDWISDOM | 6 | 3 |
| HOPE | 7 | 1 |
| PREVENTION | 7 | 3 |
| MESSENGER | 8 | 1 |
| HIERARCHY | 8 | 2 |
| DISOBEDIENCE | 8 | 3 |
| PRODUCTIVEWORK | 10 | 1 |
| SWEETNESS | 10 | 2 |
| LIGHT | 10 | 3 |
| CHASTITY | 11 | 1 |
| MOTHERHOOD | 12 | 1 |
| THESOUL | 14 | 1 |
| SPRING | 14 | 2 |
| MARRIAGE | 14 | 3 |
| NOURISHMENT | 15 | 1 |
| MECHANICALWORK | 16 | 1 |
| LEARNING | 18 | 3 |
| WEALTH | 19 | 1 |
| AUTUMN | 19 | 2 |
| PATIENCE | 20 | 3 |
| WATER | 22 | 1 |
| RESURRECTION | 22 | 2 |
| SUCCOR | 22 | 3 |
| NATURE | 23 | 1 |
| INNOCENCE | 23 | 2 |
| POLITICS | 24 | 1 |
| SOVEREIGNTY | 24 | 2 |
| FAME | 24 | 3 |
| TREASURE | 26 | 1 |
| WATCHFULNESS | 26 | 2 |
| COURAGE | 26 | 3 |
| EUROPE | 27 | 1 |
| FIDELITY | 27 | 2 |
| ASIA | 28 | 1 |
| SUMMER | 28 | 2 |
| PERSEVERANCE | 28 | 3 |
| AMERICA | 30 | 1 |
| RAPACITY | 30 | 2 |
| ENTERPRISE | 30 | 3 |
| THEFUTURE | 31 | 1 |
| HELPLESSNESS | 31 | 3 |
| MEASUREMENT | 32 | 1 |
| MATHEMATICS | 32 | 2 |
| SCIENCE | 32 | 3 |
| FIRMNESS | 34 | 1 |
| SHELTER | 34 | 2 |
| FERTILITY | 34 | 3 |
| WILDMAN | 35 | 1 |
| LUST | 35 | 3 |
| WINTER | 36 | 2 |
There is no canonical starting point on the alethiometer. However, we expect most solvers to assign the hourglass (as the due north symbol in most representations) to be the initial symbol. However, since this grid is really a loop rather than a line segment, this starting point is not relevant. If solvers use a different starting point, they will simply need to close the loop by appending or prepending a part of their grid as necessary.