osman@sprite.DEC (Eric Osman, dtn 283-7484) (03/09/85)
Many of us are familiar with the word-shift puzzle associated with the
movie 2001. Namely, add 1 to each letter of the "HAL", the name of
the computer in the movie, and you get "IBM".
In a mathematical sense, we can represent this fact like this:
IBM = HAL + 1
I ran a procedure on our computer to search the on-line dictionary for examples
of sets of English words that are related by shifting letters. The longest
words that work are:
SULPHUR = PRIMERO + 3
Here are others I liked.
KNEE = FIZZ + 5
GNARL = XERIC + 9 (I haven't looked up XERIC, but assuming it's
a word, I like this one because it has my name
in it.)
SATIN = MUNCH + 6
IRON = FOLK + 3
TEAR = PAWN + 4
GROG = WHEW + 10
GROW = DOLT + 3 ("All DOLTS ought to GROW up 3 years !")
SHALE = LATEX + 7
LAYOUT = FUSION + 6
APTLY = TIMER + 7
ARENA = RIVER + 9
NEST = HYMN + 6
ASS = WOO + 4 (I better not say anything about this one)
BUNNY = SLEEP + 9 (Nor this one)
PIES = HAWK + 8
BURY = SLIP + 9
HAZER = BUTYL + 6
KEG = ICE + 1 (nice association: icy cold keg of beer)
FAGOT = TOUCH + 12 (hmmm)
NOON = DEED + 10
RUT = ILK + 9 = BED + 16
LOO = ILL + 3 = BEE + 8 = ADD + 11
ILLY = BEER + 7
LOX = FIR + 6
FIX = BET + 4 (Something about fixing a race ?)
FROG = COLD + 3
HUSH = BOMB + 6 (Sort of a gruesome association)
ONYX = BALK + 13
SPUR = LINK + 7 (Isn't there some mountain in New England
containing two trails with these respective
names ?)
ROUT = LION + 6
HERO = DANK + 4
OWL = GOD + 8 (Hey Topher, Toby, you read me ?)
STOP = HIDE + 11
JERK = FANG + 4
LOOP = BEEF + 10
INGOT = CHAIN + 6
PEPPER = LALLAN + 4 (I hope LALLAN is a word. I don't know what
it means)
SEX = OAT + 4 (I liked this because of the "sow your
wild oats" loose connection between the words)
TIGER = PECAN + 4
JOLLY = CHEER + 7 (My favorite)
VEX = RAT + 4
WET = SAP + 4
SURE = PROB + 3 (Kind of cute, given the meaning of
"probably" vs "definitely")
SUING = MOCHA + 6
TIE = PEA + 4
PET = LAP + 4 (Something about a lap dog ?)
TWIN = LOAF + 8
STIR = OPEN + 4 (two words from a recipe ?)
ZOO = PEE + 10 = ADD + 25 (wrap around from Z to A again)
SHOW = PELT + 3
TWO = RUM + 2 = LOG + 8
p.s.
Col. G.L. Sicherman motivated me to make the study. He pointed
out the SULPHUR/PRIMERO "rot3" relationship.
p.p.s.
In case you're wondering how my computer procedure worked, the
main steps were:
1) Run a program that takes every word in the dictionary, subtracts
whatever it needs from every letter such that the first letter
becomes "A", then outputs both versions as a record. So JOLLY
and CHEER will appear in the list as
AFCCP CHEER
. . .
AFCCP JOLLY
2) Use the dcl SORT command to sort the records. This causes all the
". . ." lines to move elsewhere, bringing the "CHEER" and "JOLLY" records
together in the file.
3) Run a program that scans the sorted file and prints out all sets
of consecutive records that have the same left-hand column. Hence
since "CHEER" and "JOLLY" both have "AFCCP" in their left-hand
column, they get printed out.