Solution to Balancing Act
Solvers are presented with several paragraphs describing lab directions, except the reagents and products are all crossword-style definitions embedded into the sentences, and labelled A-V. At the bottom is a large chemical reaction that uses the letters A-V as well as a mystery ingredient: A PERFECT MATCH!
The first step is to identify the words or phrases labelled A-V.
Let us start with something simple. Add the place where spokes meet (HUB, A) to a piece of granola (OAT, B), then heat the mixture to get a cape-wearing figure (HERO, C).
Empty the container, and while it is still hot, pour the tasty and sour neurally-advanced mollusks (CEPHALOPODS, D) into it to get a note exchangeable for currency in London (CHEQUE, E), after fuming out the cable whose conductive components are separated by a dielectric (COAX, F).
Still keeping the heat on, allow a solid having the cadence of hypochondriac, apothecary, or serendipity (PENTASYLLABIC, G) to interact with an observer of ESP and apparitional sightings (PARAPSYCHOLOGIST, H), and wait until their interactions convert sunlight into ATP (PHOTOSYNTHESIZE, I).
Transport an aural navigation system (SONAR, J) to high altitudes, where it is exposed to the wet and slippery author known for a kyphotic protagonist (HUGO, K) to become a liquid which should not be drunk, no matter the means (HOWSOEVER, L).
Blow a magical curse (HEX, M) onto a Brazilian meat dish featuring beans (FEIJOADA, N) to get someone who might spread frightening news (FEARMONGER, O), who will be surrounded by a circle associated with Powers and Dominions (HALO, P).
Mix a symbol resembling 3 but with a curved-back tail in Tokyo (RU, Q) with an antiquated communication method (FAX, R) - carefully handling the latter so that it does not touch anything else by accident - to find a Federalist who lost the presidential race to James Monroe (RUFUS KING, S).
Lastly, add the MIT term subsuming the Mystery Hunt (IAP, T) to the exclamation of sailors approaching terra firma (HO, U) to obtain a yellowish substance that raises a weighted load using a pulley system (HOISTS, V).
The paragraphs also contain pieces of information that are not relevant to the crossword-style definitions, and instead describe the chemical properties of reagents or products. For example, COAX can be "fumed out" so it should be a gas, HUGO is "wet and slippery" so it should be a liquid, and FAX is a substance that should not touch other things. From here, the crucial realization is that the words can be transformed into chemical compounds by replacing N letters by the number N; this procedure is common in, for example, writing "internationalization" and "accessibility" as "i18n" and "a11y", respectively. The word reaction described in each paragraph thus becomes a valid chemical reaction, albeit without specified coefficients. The full list of reactions is as follows:
| Word Reaction | Chemical Reaction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HUB + OAT → HERO | 2H2 + O2 → H2O | The first reaction is the simple synthesis of water. |
| CEPHALOPODS → CHEQUE + COAX | C2H4O2 → CH4 + CO2 | Acetic acid (C2H4O2) is also known as vinegar, hence the sour and tasty addendum. |
| PENTASYLLABIC + PARAPSYCHOLOGIST → PHOTOSYNTHESIZE | P4S7 + 2P4S10 → 3P4S9 | Phosphorus sulfides form a large family of compounds, most of which can be obtained from other phosphorus sulfides by heating in the correct molar ratio. |
| SONAR + HUGO → HOWSOEVER | SO3 + H2O → H2SO4 |
Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) should not be drunk, as
cautioned by the rhyme: Johnny was a chemist, Johnny is no more, for what he thought was H2O was H2SO4. |
| HEX + FEIJOADA → FEARMONGER + HALO | H2 + 3Fe2O3 → 2Fe3O4 + H2O | H2O appears in three different reactions in this puzzle, which explains the prevalence of words with the pattern H??O. |
| RU + FAX → RUFUS KING | Ru + 3F2 → RuF6 | Fluorine is extremely volatile and requires careful handling. |
| IAP + HO → HOISTS | 3I2 + 2Ho → 2HoI3 | Holmium (III) iodide is a dark yellowish flaky solid. |
The last step is to plug every compound into the large reaction. To balance it, we need A PERFECT MATCH! to cancel out the extra elements on the left-hand side, which are: 2P, 2S, H, O, Ho, Ru. The unique "word compound", i.e., anagram, that can be formed with these elements is PHoSPHORuS (or PHOSPHoRuS). The element PHOSPHORUS is both the key ingredient in making matches and the answer to this puzzle.