Day 22 Chess Challenge:
As before, you can solve the puzzle by making the right chess moves or by answering the questions. I used a little bit of both skills to solve the questions (the correct answers are highlighted in the images):
The leading member of the Priory of Sion is called:
The Nautonnier
Which of these men was not rumored to be a Priory of Scion member?
Nicolas Poussin
What is the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility?
Isis
Day 21 Curator Challenge:
The picture hanging puzzle seemed only a tiny bit more challenging than previously. Below are several of these I completed for your examination and possible use:
After completing one of the picture-hanging puzzles, you're asked a question like the following, which can be answered using Google Book Search:
In addition to the above question, on subsquent attempts I was asked a number of other questions. The the question with the answer "mystery" was one I received at least 3 times. The questions I received and their correct answers appear below:
Petrarch sent three presents to the Bishop of Cavaillon. What is the first present called?
Torrentona
According to Vol. XXIII of The Eclectic Review, ecclesiastical power of all kinds is an engine of what?
mischief
According to Vol. XXIII of The Eclectic Review, we must confine ourselves to the explication of what?
mystery
Which volume of The Eclectic Review featured Jones's Greek and English Lexicon?
XXI
According to Vol. XXIII of The Eclectic Review, what does John Morison call the Bane of Youth?
Fashionable Amusements
Petrarch sent three presents to the Bishop of Cavaillon. Whose pursuit produced the second present?
dog
It is not less strange that Petrarch never showed this to Boccaccio.
Scipiade
Day 20 Restoration Challenge:
The restoration challenges this time around seem to be no more difficult than earlier ones.
This was the first one I received and completed:
After that, I received the following question:
According to The Numismatic Chronicle, during whose reign were the rare fleur-de-lis groats of Stirling struck?
James II
I answered the above, and the two below, using the Google Book Search link on the contest page.
Several art-critics think this painting in the Royal Uffizi Gallery in Florence to be one of Leonardo's earliest works.
The Annunciation
Decidedly, the Florentine is prepared for what?
emergencies
This question was submitted by one of the visitors to this site:
Leonardo da Vinci's painting of The Adoration of the Magi hangs in the Royal Uffizi Gallery in Florence.What is the catalogue number in the 1890 catalogue of the museum?
1252 (Thanks Brandon!)
Day 19 Symbol Challenge:
Wow! Congrats, Google. You had me stumped for way, way too long there. We're not going to talk about how long I had to fight with the symbol puzzle this time.
(If you're having trouble with these puzzles, you might want to look at my strategy guide for solving symbol puzzles.)
Here are several of the ones I solved:
Afterward I was asked these questions:
During his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells declares the new monument to this explorer to be the weakest possible monument he ever saw.
Columbus
In his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells says this is the most magnificent city he ever saw.
Genoa
During his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells visits the Protestant ragged schools at this city.
Naples
During his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells notes that there are engineers of this nationality on all the Mediterranean steamers.
English
During his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells enjoys a beefsteak and potatoes with a half-bottle of what kind of wine?
Ligurian
During his Italian Journeys, William Dean Howells spends a half-hour at this city.
Herculaneum
Day 18 Geography Challenge:
OK... Looks like Google has turned up the heat. First we're presented with a puzzle:
We're then asked this question:
The city, of course, is London in England.
After this, we're asked to find four Blade symbols hidden in the city. They're here:
We're then asked one final question:
The answer to which is Imperial College.
Day 17 Observation Challenge:
This Da Vinci Code Quest on Google challenge features a video of the character Sir Leigh Teabing, which you are asked to view and answer questions about.
The questions I was asked (and presumably you will be) are:
1. Speaking of fascinating characters, there's only one letter in the entire video that is clearly written in lower-case. What is that letter? f
2. In just one word, the noble Sir Leigh describes the pursuit that both he and you are on. What is that word? quest
3. And to bring this back to the topic of movie spectacles, how many times is Sir Leigh shown wearing his? His spectacles, that is. 7
Day 16 Chess Challenge:
This Chess Challenge plays like the previous ones. You can either watch the moves and use the right moves to select answers to questions you don't know the answer to, or you can answer the questions correctly to get the right chess moves... whatever works for you.
In any case, here are today's questions with the correct answers highlighted:
Question 1: The Louvre's famous pyramid was designed by: I.M. Pei
Question 2: What French kind built the Louvre? Philip II Augustus
Question 3: Which of these people in history never set foot in Notre Dame? Pope Leo IX
The answers and chess moves vary a little each time the puzzle is played, so be sure you select your answer by the TEXT of the answe and not by the NUMBER of the answer.
Day 15 Curator Challenge
As with previous Curator Challenges, this one starts with having your hang a bumch of pictures on existing hooks on the wall. Here are two of the puzzles I got and their solutions:
After you've completed this puzzle, you'll be asked to translate something from English to another language. Probably the easiest way to do this is use the tool Google suggests in the puzzle, which is Google SMS:
Go to the Google SMS web page, enter the phrase they give you , such as "Translate number to Italian" and you'll get back a response in the little cell phone screen. Copy and paste this back into the puzzle window and you'll have it solved.
If you've gotten one of the more common quest words, try my "Da Vinci Code Quest on Google Translation Tool"
Here are three of the questions I got and their solutions:
Translate keystone to French
clef de voute
Translate number to Italian
numero
Translate sketch to French
croquis
Translate light to French
lumiere
Translate flight to Italian
volo
Translate painting to Italian
pittura
Day 14 Restoration Challenge:
This Da Vinci Code Quest on Google challenge begins with a restoration puzzle like the previous ones.
After solving the puzzle, you're given a phrase in the Atbash cipher and asked to translate it.
I thought it might be helpful if there was an instant Atbash translator available, so I created one.
To use it, click here.
On my two goes at the puzzle, my questions were:
Translate elrxvnzro from Atbash
voicemail
Translate kligizrg from Atbash
portrait
I did those by hand, but with my little program you should be able to solve them a lot quicker and easier!
If you've gotten one of the more common quest words, try my "Da Vinci Code Quest on Google Translation Tool which translates between Atbash, French, English, and Italian simultaneously (but only for the most commonly-used words in the challenge so far).
Day 13 Symbol Challenge:
The first step in the challenge is to solve another one of the symbol puzzles. The one I first received was the following (yours will probably be different):
You'll then be asked a "translation" question. In two goes at the puzzle, I was asked the following questions:
Translate arachide from Italian
peanut
Translate renaissance from French
rebirth
A good strategy for dealing with these is to search for an online dictionary or translation tool for the given language and copy/paste the word from the puzzle.
If you've gotten one of the more common quest words, try my "Da Vinci Code Quest on Google Translation Tool which translates between Atbash, French, English, and Italian simultaneously (but only for the most commonly-used words in the challenge so far).
Day 12 Geography Challenge:
This challenge begins with a simple jigsaw puzzle, the solution to which appears below:
You're then asked a question about the picture, which is an aerial view of the city of Rome:
The question "By adding some PIZAZZ to A NOVEL IDEA and rearranging the letters, you'll get the location of a museum in this eternal city. What is the name of the city?" can be answered with simply "Rome".
After answering the question, you're asked to find a Greek Cross hidden in the city. That cross is located where the red area appears on the picture below:
Congratulations! You've solved today's puzzle.
Day 11 Chess Challenge:
This Da Vinci Code Quest on Google challenge consists of 3 questions, the correct answers to which correspond to the chess moves needed to checkmate the black pieces. It appears that Google re-orders the answers to the questions randomly, so be careful you choose the correct ANSWER rather than the specific NUMBER of the answer!
1. A word that can be read the same backwards or forwards is called
3 - A palindrome
2. Jacques Sauniere's body was found in which part of the Louvre?
3 - The Denon Wing
3. The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog is an example of
4 - A pangram
Day 10 Observation Challenge:
This one consists of a video clip introducing the character Silas. During it we see him pull this stone object out of the ground:
The quest then asks us three questions:
1. A seemingly-important stone object is extracted from the ground by Silas. What is its shape?
Octagon
2. An interesting viewpoint is the vantage point from which we last see Silas. What is the last thing we see him touch?
Holy water
3. During the action in the video, we see many things shattered and destroyed, but what is it that will ultimately be broken?
Silence
Day 9 Curator Challenge:
As with previous challenges, this Da Vinci Code Quest challenge is randomly generated. Below are two of the puzzles I got and their solutions. My strategy for solving these Da Vinci code quest challenges is pretty simple. Start with the largest pictures, which are usually the last ones in the set, and place them first. Place the next largest, and so on. If you don't have hooks for the last picture(s), look at moving the large ones. When placing the large pictures, a good rule of thumb is to place it where it fits AND leaves the most hooks open.
After solving the picture challenge, you'll be asked a random question. Here are four that I was asked and their correct answers:
What month did Isaac Newton die?
March
What month was Mont Blanc's first ascent?
August
What, in square kilometers, is the area of France ?
547,030
In what month was Leonardo Da Vinci born?
April
Day 8 Restoration Challenge:
I see that some of you are having trouble solving the puzzle part of the Restoration Challenges, based on your Google search queries to my site. Since the puzzle is randomly generated each time, I can't give you a step by step solution that works every time. The best I can do is show you how I solved one I got, so that you can replicate that thinking on your own puzzle and perhaps solve it.
Below are 3 images of the puzzle I received from the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google. The first is the initial puzzle before I made any moves. The second is after my first move. I moved the two upper-left smudges so that they combined into one over the "59" in the image. I did this to get the smudge closer to the others so that I could merge it with them later. In the third image, you see that I merged the reddish-looking smudge at the bottom of the picture with the one to its right. That placed the rightmost smudge closer to the others where I could eliminate it later.
Solving the Restoration Challenge, Step 1-3
Below are the next 3 steps. First, I merged the dark brown smudge on the left with the orange-ish one at the top. This moved the orange-ish smudge closer to the "59" in the image, where I could remove it later. Next, I swapped the reddish smudge at the bottom with the one to its right. Then I merged the two bottom-right smudges.
Solving the Restoration Challenge, Step 4-6
Now the final 3 steps. I merged the two bottom smudges again, so that they'd be 1 space away from the top smudge, and could therefore be removed in the next step. This left me with 2 smudges, 1 space apart. I merged those into the final smudge and completed the puzzle for today's Da Vinci Code Quest on Google (I tend to say this a lot so search engines understand that this site is about the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google solutions).
Solving the Restoration Challenge, Step 7-9
If you've ever eaten in a "Cracker Barrel" restaurant, you probably saw a puzzle at your table which consisted of a piece of wood in a triangle shape with a bunch of plastic golf tees inserted into it. The object of that puzzle game was to jump over the a golf tee like a checker on a checkerboard to remove it. The more tees you removed, the higher your score. This Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzle is very similar to that game, and is played much the same way. Instead of moving golf tees around, you're moving smudges, and instead of jumping smudges/tees, you're merging them.
In any case, after the puzzle you're asked a question, which appears to nearly always be in the form of a question with an ISBN number in it. If you notice, the letters "ISBN" and the number are bold text. If you copy those and paste them into a Google search, you'll get your answer. Here's what I got when I re-did this Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzle a few times:
ISBN 9004123628 debates the origin of what trait? Genius
Forget the DA's, the S's are really in charge in ISBN 0226051714. Who are they? Secretaries
What is the marvel of ISBN 0300107277? Maps
Day 7 Symbol Challenge:
The initial puzzle is a randomly generated symbol puzzle like the one on Day 1. Here are a few of the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzles I got and their solutions:
Symbol Puzzle Solution for Day 7
Symbol Puzzle Solution for Day 7
Symbol Puzzle Solution for Day 7
The question asked by the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google after the puzzle also seems to be randomly generated, but very easy to answer. My advice is that if you get a question not in the list below, open up another browser window/tab and copy/paste the question into it. The questions I got were all "unit conversion" questions and Google will provide those answers instantly if you paste them in (something I didn't know before today). In any case, here's what I got:
What is pi percent of the speed of sound at sea level in miles per hour (rounded up to the nearest mile)?
24
What is 1500 arcminutes in degrees?
25 (an arcminute is 1/60th of a degree, so 1500/60=25)
What are 10,879 fortnights in years (to the nearest whole number)?
417 (A fortnight is 14 days, so 10879 fortnights are 152306,152306/365=417.)
What are four score scottish ells in hands?
740
Which is longer, a TeX point or an ATA Pica point?
1 TeX point = 0.351459804 millimeters
1 ATA point = 0.3514598 millimeters
TeX point
How many nails in 138 nautical miles?
4472021
Day 6 Geography Challenge:
This Da Vinci Code Quest puzzle begins with a simple jigsaw puzzle that looks like the image below when almost solved:
Day 6 Puzzle Almost Solved
After you solve the jigsaw, you're asked the question "This city contains a three-dimensional version of Leonardo's The Last Supper created by the Venezuelan sculptor Marisol. What is the name of the city?".
The answer to that question is "New York".
Day 5 Chess Puzzle:
"What is the spiked belt that Silas wears called?"
(1) A cilice
"What are the second, third, and fourth leading members of the Priory of Sion called?"
(2) Senechaux
"The engraved tablet that is supposed to reveal the hiding place of the Holy Grail is called the"
(1) Keystone
Day 4 Curator Challenge:
For this Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzle, you need to figure out how to hang all the pictures in the gallery on the available hooks. I recommend starting with the largest pictures first (use the arrows below the pictures on the left to scroll through and pick out the biggest) and then hang the smaller ones.
A Gallery Challenge Solution
Once you've done it, you'll then be asked the question: "The symbol shown on Sophie Neveu (pictured at left) is called what?" The answer to that question is "Chalice".
Day 3 Observation Challenge:
1. In the video for this Da Vinci Code Quest on Google challenge, we see Robert Langon dusting off a classical symbol, one associated with a character we only see a brief glimpse of in the video. What is the name of that oft-gilded symbol? The answer: "Fleur-de-lis"
2. Symbols, and symmetry, can be seen in the most unlikely of places. One such example is the position of the body at the crime scene, which resembles a drawing also depicted on the obverse of the Italian one-euro coin. What is the name of that famous Leonardo Da Vinci drawing? The answer: "Vitruvian Man"
3. One of the most iconic symbols of the movie is the cryptex, a small cylinder of stacked marble disks, embossed with letters and sealed with brass caps at either end. The twenty-six letters allow for almost twelve million possible password combinations -- 11,881,376; to be exact. Armed with that knowledge, can you tell us how many dials it has? The answer: "5" (5^26 = 11,881,276).
Day 2 Restoration Challenge:
I can't really give you a hard and fast solution here because this Da Vinci Code Quest on Google puzzle appears to be randomly generated. What you basically need to do is click one of the "smudges", then click another that's separated from it by one space. One of the smudges will disappear. Do this until you are down to one final smudge and you'll get the secret question, which is: "Name the symbol on Manuel Aringarosa, pictured at left." The answer to that question is "Greek Cross".
Restoration Puzzle
Day 1 Symbol Challenge:
Place the symbols so that in every vertical or horizontal row there is one of each. For example:
Symbol Puzzle Solution
You will then be asked the name of the symbol on Robert Langdon's face. It's "Blade".
Thank you for visiting my web site and accessing these solutions to the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google. I appreciate all of the players of the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google getting their puzzle solutions here. Please feel free to come back every day to get the answers to today's Da Vinci Code Quest on Google questions and puzzles. I apologize for this page seeming very redundant and uninformative, but the point of it isn't to drive you nuts but to give certain web arachnids a good idea that on this page are Google Da Vinci Code Quest solutions, Google Code Quest answers, Google puzzle solutions, Da Vinci Code Quest challenge answers, etc. All this redundancy helps the bots understand what this page is really about... something they might not get from just reading the answer text above this. Please feel free to ignore this paragraph. Thank you.
