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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<title>Day 14 - Advent of Code 2021</title>
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<article class="day-desc"><h2>--- Day 14: Extended Polymerization ---</h2><p>The incredible pressures at this depth are starting to put a strain on your submarine. The submarine has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerization" target="_blank">polymerization</a> equipment that would produce suitable materials to reinforce the submarine, and the nearby volcanically-active caves should even have the necessary input elements in sufficient quantities.</p>
<p>The submarine manual contains <span title="HO

HO -> OH">instructions</span> for finding the optimal polymer formula; specifically, it offers a <em>polymer template</em> and a list of <em>pair insertion</em> rules (your puzzle input). You just need to work out what polymer would result after repeating the pair insertion process a few times.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><code>NNCB
CH -> B
HH -> N
CB -> H
NH -> C
HB -> C
HC -> B
HN -> C
NN -> C
BH -> H
NC -> B
NB -> B
BN -> B
BB -> N
BC -> B
CC -> N
CN -> C
</code></pre>
<p>The first line is the <em>polymer template</em> - this is the starting point of the process.</p>
<p>The following section defines the <em>pair insertion</em> rules. A rule like <code>AB -> C</code> means that when elements <code>A</code> and <code>B</code> are immediately adjacent, element <code>C</code> should be inserted between them. These insertions all happen simultaneously.</p>
<p>So, starting with the polymer template <code>NNCB</code>, the first step simultaneously considers all three pairs:</p>
<ul>
<li>The first pair (<code>NN</code>) matches the rule <code>NN -> C</code>, so element <code><em>C</em></code> is inserted between the first <code>N</code> and the second <code>N</code>.</li>
<li>The second pair (<code>NC</code>) matches the rule <code>NC -> B</code>, so element <code><em>B</em></code> is inserted between the <code>N</code> and the <code>C</code>.</li>
<li>The third pair (<code>CB</code>) matches the rule <code>CB -> H</code>, so element <code><em>H</em></code> is inserted between the <code>C</code> and the <code>B</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Note that these pairs overlap: the second element of one pair is the first element of the next pair. Also, because all pairs are considered simultaneously, inserted elements are not considered to be part of a pair until the next step.</p>
<p>After the first step of this process, the polymer becomes <code>N<em>C</em>N<em>B</em>C<em>H</em>B</code>.</p>
<p>Here are the results of a few steps using the above rules:</p>
<pre><code>Template: NNCB
After step 1: NCNBCHB
After step 2: NBCCNBBBCBHCB
After step 3: NBBBCNCCNBBNBNBBCHBHHBCHB
After step 4: NBBNBNBBCCNBCNCCNBBNBBNBBBNBBNBBCBHCBHHNHCBBCBHCB
</code></pre>
<p>This polymer grows quickly. After step 5, it has length 97; After step 10, it has length 3073. After step 10, <code>B</code> occurs 1749 times, <code>C</code> occurs 298 times, <code>H</code> occurs 161 times, and <code>N</code> occurs 865 times; taking the quantity of the most common element (<code>B</code>, 1749) and subtracting the quantity of the least common element (<code>H</code>, 161) produces <code>1749 - 161 = <em>1588</em></code>.</p>
<p>Apply 10 steps of pair insertion to the polymer template and find the most and least common elements in the result. <em>What do you get if you take the quantity of the most common element and subtract the quantity of the least common element?</em></p>
</article>
<p>Your puzzle answer was <code>2375</code>.</p><article class="day-desc"><h2 id="part2">--- Part Two ---</h2><p>The resulting polymer isn't nearly strong enough to reinforce the submarine. You'll need to run more steps of the pair insertion process; a total of <em>40 steps</em> should do it.</p>
<p>In the above example, the most common element is <code>B</code> (occurring <code>2192039569602</code> times) and the least common element is <code>H</code> (occurring <code>3849876073</code> times); subtracting these produces <code><em>2188189693529</em></code>.</p>
<p>Apply <em>40</em> steps of pair insertion to the polymer template and find the most and least common elements in the result. <em>What do you get if you take the quantity of the most common element and subtract the quantity of the least common element?</em></p>
</article>
<p>Your puzzle answer was <code>1976896901756</code>.</p><p class="day-success">Both parts of this puzzle are complete! They provide two gold stars: **</p>
<p>At this point, you should <a href="/2021">return to your Advent calendar</a> and try another puzzle.</p>
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