Find Oscar is an intriguing game of strategy.
Available now through iTunes for only $1.99

Oscar is hiding at one of the grid points and your task is to find him in the fewest number of tries. Once you select a point, you will see how far you are away from Oscar. What does a distance of 4.5 mean? By your second or third selection you should have a pretty good idea of Oscar's hiding place. If you are really good, you can average less than three tries a game! To get a low average, you will need to use all the information available along with clever reasoning.

For those just starting the game, there is a Hints Button that highlights Oscar's possible hiding places.

There is a Leader Board so you can post your name and score. The top ten scorers at any time are displayed so you can compete with others or yourself.In order to make the Leader Board, you must not use the Hints Button. See your name at the top of the Leader Board! The game is addictive. No matter how long youplay the game, it is still possible to develop new strategies that will improve your score. There is also a degree of luck involved since some reported distances narrow your choices more than others. You don't have to know much to Find Oscar but the more you know, the better you will do. Find Oscar will test your wits and challenge your mind while improving your reasoning. This game will greatly improve your math! Can you average less than three tries?Less than 2.5? Use your spatial reasoning to score well! You must coordinate several bits of information to find Oscar in a few tries.

Features:

• Leader Board
• Easy touch inputs
• Sound effects
• A hints button
• Graphic display
• You can challenge others by posting your name and score

Distance on a Diagonal

When a grid point is chosen, the distance away is provided. This distance is a straight line distance but is usually along a slanted line, A distance of 5.7 is a little more than half-way between 5 and 6.

Consider the following situation. We know that the point (1,2) is 5.7 units away from where Oscar is happens. As it turns out in this case, Oscar is hiding at (5,6), which is 5.7 units away from (1,2).

An advanced strategy for finding Oscar

When you have chosen a point, say (5,6), and see the distance away, what you want to know is the possible x and y values as a location for Oscar. Consider the Pythagorean Theorem: In a right triangle, x² + y² = d². You are given d. Find the square of d to the nearest whole number. Then think how you can decompose d² into two numbers, each perfect squares, whose sum is d². You then know the possible x and y values for the chosen point. For example, if d is 4.5, d² is 20. Now 20 only can be decomposed into 4 and 16, each of which are perfect squares. Thus, Oscar is at a point that is x = 2 and y = 4 or x = 4 and y = 2 from the point you last chose. For (5,6), Oscar must be at (3,2), (1,4)), (1,8), or (7,2). Once you have chosen one of these points, you will know where Oscar is. Using this strategy, it will rarely require more than three tries to find Oscar.

There are a few cases in which the square of d can be decomposed in more than one way! For example, suppose d = 7.1. The square of d is 50. 50 = 49 + 1 OR 50 = 25 + 25. Thus, Oscar is (7,1), (1,7) or (5,5) from your chosen point. There are a few other values for d where two decompositions are possible.