Did you solve it? Irresistibly small and intolerably cute

Photograph: Picture Partners/Alamy Stock Photo

Earlier today I set you 12 micro puzzles. (There’s an extra one at the bottom of this article.)

The first six were ‘equatum’ puzzles:

Replace each letter in the word CLEVER with one of the symbols: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 + - x ÷ =, so that the word becomes a balanced equation. Within the word, the same letter becomes the same symbol and different letters become different symbols. Once you have solved that one, do the same with each of these other words:

• LOLLIPOP

• SEASHELL

• DELETED

• ESCAPEES

• REFERRAL

Solutions

• CLEVER… 9 + 1 = 10

• LOLLIPOP…1 + 11 = 6 + 6

• SEASHELL… 91 + 9 = 100

• DELETED… 89 + 9 = 98

• ESCAPEES… 25 x 9 = 225

• REFERRAL… 43 = 344 ÷ 8

The next six were mini-crosswords.

Each of these crosswords uses the 3x3 grid. But as well as the four clues, there is a fifth word to be discovered, using the 8 letters of the final grid, that is spelled out using a knight’s tour. (The knights tour is a a journey around the grid in which every move is a knight’s move, i.e. two squares along and one across each time. You cannot land on the same square twice.)

To read the clues again click here.

The solutions are below. (I’m giving only the knight’s tour word, since the other words can be deduced from it.)

• 1. UNOPENED

• 2. MEGABYTE

• 3. PAGANINI

• 4. OUTREACH

• 5. OPERATED

• 6. ISOTOPES

I asked for readers to try to come up with their own knight’s move mini-crosswords. Peter Gray sent me one that took the concept to the next level by providing both quick and cryptic clues. Bravo Peter – a copy of The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book on its way to you. Here it is:

Quick version

Across 1. Padre. 3. Track across.

Down 1. Music style. 2. Lead.

Knight’s Tour Anti-mine device

Cryptic version

Across 1. Short cleric in rare vision. 3. Dish sieve piper.

Down 1. Well-spoken keeps a reprimand. 2. Little truck’s up north with the mean.

Knight’s Tour Royal academician in stately dance makes protective with teeth.

Please keep on emailing me in mini-crosswords, I’ll try to use them in future columns.

Thanks to Justin Roughley and Thane Plambeck for today’s puzzles.

Justin is a mathematician in Bristol and last year produced a book of similar equatum puzzles. You can find out more on his website here.

Thane lives in Palo Alto and works at Counterwave.

I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.

I’m the author of several books of puzzles, most recently the Language Lover’s Puzzle Book.