I recently ran across a word problem, which I vaguely remember from years ago, and which (evidently) has the solution S T A R T L I N G S T A R L I N G S T A R I N G S T R I N G S T I N G S I N G S I N I N I Does anyone know of similar (longer?) examples? R.
Perhaps S H O W E R I N G S S H O W E R I N G S H O W R I N G S H O W I N G S O W I N G O W I N G W I N I N I --ms Richard Guy wrote:
I recently ran across a word problem, which I vaguely remember from years ago, and which (evidently) has the solution
S T A R T L I N G S T A R L I N G S T A R I N G S T R I N G S T I N G S I N G S I N I N I
Does anyone know of similar (longer?) examples? R.
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
On Monday, August 11, 2003, at 10:34 am, Richard Guy wrote:
I recently ran across a word problem, which I vaguely remember from years ago, and which (evidently) has the solution
S T A R T L I N G S T A R L I N G S T A R I N G S T R I N G S T I N G S I N G S I N I N I
The best source I know for such games is Ross Eckler's outstanding book _Making the Alphabet Dance_ (St. Martin's Press; paperback $14.95). Eckler is the editor of _Word Ways_, a quarterly publication dedicated to this sort of stuff, and MtAD is the highlights of decades of collecting. The first section of Chapter 4, "Transforming one word into another", is on the above question. The book reports various length-record-holding sequences (depend on the dictionary you're using, of course): M-W unabridged initially looks close to yours above, but goes off in a different direction with, shall we say, less familiar words: strangelings-strangeling-strangling-stranging-stanging-staging- saging-aging-aging-ging-gin-in-i. Definitions available at m-w.com, I suppose. Pocket M-W, it claims, gives you: sheathed-sheathe-sheath-heath-heat-eat-at-a. Yours is length 9 and this is only 8, and I can't think of what word you used that wouldn't be in there, but I don't have a copy to check. The OED has a length 14 chain starting with "strengthenings", but it passes through some pretty funny-looking territory (strenghing, streing) along the way. The chapter goes on to describe the large connected component of the insertion-deletion graph for pocket M-W boldfaced main-entry words: it contains around 2800 words, including such 8-letter outliers as heathery, splutter, and wrangler; its diameter seems to be 34, the best known distance from DUD to MISERLY, and there is a length 14 path from LEATHERY to SOWING which is optimal (in that it could not be shorter even if we added extra words, since the words have no letters in common and their lengths total to 14 -- SNOWING makes this 15, but it's not a main entry word, only listed under SNOW). That should give you a feel of what the book is like; really a pleasure... --Michael Kleber kleber@brandeis.edu
Eckler is also a frequent contrbutor to www.wordways.com, which has some good web accessible articles I like this observation, also due to Eckler apparently, that the 26 neighbors of a lattice point in Z3 invite a person to assign letters to the directions and then start looking for knotted words. http://www.wordways.com/knotted.htm Thane Plambeck 650 321 4884 office 650 323 4928 fax http://www.qxmail.com/ehome.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Kleber" <kleber@brandeis.edu> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "Andrew Bremner" <bremner@tulwar.la.asu.edu>; <bremner@asu.edu> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 8:30 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Words
On Monday, August 11, 2003, at 10:34 am, Richard Guy wrote:
I recently ran across a word problem, which I vaguely remember from years ago, and which (evidently) has the solution
S T A R T L I N G S T A R L I N G S T A R I N G S T R I N G S T I N G S I N G S I N I N I
The best source I know for such games is Ross Eckler's outstanding book _Making the Alphabet Dance_ (St. Martin's Press; paperback $14.95). Eckler is the editor of _Word Ways_, a quarterly publication dedicated to this sort of stuff, and MtAD is the highlights of decades of collecting.
The first section of Chapter 4, "Transforming one word into another", is on the above question. The book reports various length-record-holding sequences (depend on the dictionary you're using, of course):
M-W unabridged initially looks close to yours above, but goes off in a different direction with, shall we say, less familiar words: strangelings-strangeling-strangling-stranging-stanging-staging- saging-aging-aging-ging-gin-in-i. Definitions available at m-w.com, I suppose.
Pocket M-W, it claims, gives you: sheathed-sheathe-sheath-heath-heat-eat-at-a. Yours is length 9 and this is only 8, and I can't think of what word you used that wouldn't be in there, but I don't have a copy to check.
The OED has a length 14 chain starting with "strengthenings", but it passes through some pretty funny-looking territory (strenghing, streing) along the way.
The chapter goes on to describe the large connected component of the insertion-deletion graph for pocket M-W boldfaced main-entry words: it contains around 2800 words, including such 8-letter outliers as heathery, splutter, and wrangler; its diameter seems to be 34, the best known distance from DUD to MISERLY, and there is a length 14 path from LEATHERY to SOWING which is optimal (in that it could not be shorter even if we added extra words, since the words have no letters in common and their lengths total to 14 -- SNOWING makes this 15, but it's not a main entry word, only listed under SNOW).
That should give you a feel of what the book is like; really a pleasure...
--Michael Kleber kleber@brandeis.edu
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Since Jeff Shallit tightened the rules, I'll generalize the other direction and loosen them: at each step delete one letter, then anagram what remains. I do this only to have a chance to reporoduce the following "transdeletion pyramid" from Eckler's book: A N T I C E R E M O N I A L I S T N O N M A T E R I A L I S T I C R E C I T A T I O N A L I S M R E C L A M A T I O N I S T R E M A S T I C A T I O N C R E M A T I O N I S T C R E A T I O N I S M R E M I C A T I O N M A N T I C O R E R E A C T I O N C E R T A I N R E T A I N T R A I N R A N T T A N A N A I don't know what REMICATION is, sadly; Eckler indicates that it's an inferred word based on M-W Unabridged. --Michael Kleber kleber@brandeis.edu
Since Jeff Shallit tightened the rules, I'll generalize the other direction and loosen them: at each step delete one letter, then anagram what remains.
In my opinion, all of these sorts of problems become more interesting when the computer program to solve them is harder to write. For example, I'd like a sentence in which each word of the sentence has one additional letter. David
In my opinion, all of these sorts of problems become more interesting when the computer program to solve them is harder to write.
For example, I'd like a sentence in which each word of the sentence has one additional letter.
David
I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness. (from a March 2003 mailing from <http://www.thedailytease.com> ) - Scott
i in p in p ing o p ing co p ing comp ing comp ting comp e ting comple ting complecting Some of those words are rare. "Oping" comes from "ope", a literary form of "open". "Comping" comes from "comp", a jazz term. (It has other, informal uses.) "Compting" comes from "compt", an archaic form of "count". ----
I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness.
Martin Gardner mentioned that in one of his columns. (See "The Oulipo", in _Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers_.) He attributes it to Dmitiri Borgmann, _Language on Vacation_. -- Don Reble djr@nk.ca
Along a different line, for those who haven't seen it, this can't be beat. I can't imagine finding it without a computer, but I think someone did. Doc, note I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Reble" <djr@nk.ca> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:29 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Words
i in p in p ing o p ing co p ing comp ing comp ting comp e ting comple ting complecting
Some of those words are rare. "Oping" comes from "ope", a literary form of "open". "Comping" comes from "comp", a jazz term. (It has other, informal uses.) "Compting" comes from "compt", an archaic form of "count".
----
I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness.
Martin Gardner mentioned that in one of his columns. (See "The Oulipo", in _Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers_.) He attributes it to Dmitiri Borgmann, _Language on Vacation_.
-- Don Reble djr@nk.ca
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
At 03:38 PM 8/11/03 -0700, you wrote:
Along a different line, for those who haven't seen it, this can't be beat. I can't imagine finding it without a computer, but I think someone did.
Doc, note I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.
My favorite makes slightly less sense, but ... I don't know, it always cracks me up. T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: grat dirt upset on drab pot toilet. -A
At 07:40 PM 8/11/03 -0400, you wrote:
At 03:38 PM 8/11/03 -0700, you wrote:
Along a different line, for those who haven't seen it, this can't be beat. I can't imagine finding it without a computer, but I think someone did.
Doc, note I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.
My favorite makes slightly less sense, but ... I don't know, it always cracks me up.
T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: grat dirt upset on drab pot toilet.
Sorry ... obviously should be "gnat dirt". -A
The Eliot one rates nothing less than an "OMIGOD!" Farfetched is hardly the word for it! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allan C. Wechsler" <acw@alum.mit.edu> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 4:47 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Words
At 07:40 PM 8/11/03 -0400, you wrote:
At 03:38 PM 8/11/03 -0700, you wrote:
Along a different line, for those who haven't seen it, this can't be beat. I can't imagine finding it without a computer, but I think someone did.
Doc, note I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.
My favorite makes slightly less sense, but ... I don't know, it always cracks me up.
T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad. I'd assign it a name: grat dirt upset on drab pot toilet.
Sorry ... obviously should be "gnat dirt". -A
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (9)
-
Allan C. Wechsler -
David Wolfe -
Don Reble -
Michael Kleber -
Mike Speciner -
Richard Guy -
Scott Huddleston -
Steve Gray -
Thane Plambeck