eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) (07/17/85)
since word/letter puzzles seem popular, here is one. Allow me to impose a distance metric on the words in the english language. Two words differing by N letters are N units apart. Examples: D(dog, dog) = 0, D(horse, house) = 1, D(drugs, irate) = 4. Words are left justified, blank filled, so D(horse, horsefly) = 3. My question concerns islands, that is, words that are not close to any other words. What is the shortest word that has no neighbors (words one unit distance away). Most nouns and verbs are disqualified quickly, since appending an 's' makes valid plurals and conjugations. Words like "quiz" look promising, but then there is "quit" and "quip". After some thought, there are startlingly few islands, and I haven't found a reasonably short one yet. What about 2-islands, words that have no neighboring words 1 or 2 units away. Generalize as far as you wish. Any thoughts welcome. -- I never know what to put in these damn .signature files. Everybody expects me to be clever, or profound, or cute, or funny. I just can't take the pressure any more. They're out to get ... Doctor? ... Hey, where are you going? My session isn't over yet!!! Karl Dahlke ihnp4!ihnet!eklhad
warack@aero.ARPA (Chris Warack ) (07/24/85)
In article <258@ihnet.UUCP> eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) writes: >since word/letter puzzles seem popular, here is one. >Allow me to impose a distance metric on the words in the english language. >Two words differing by N letters are N units apart. >Examples: D(dog, dog) = 0, D(horse, house) = 1, > D(drugs, irate) = 4. >Words are left justified, blank filled, so D(horse, horsefly) = 3. >My question concerns islands, that is, words that >are not close to any other words. What is the shortest word >that has no neighbors (words one unit distance away). > Karl Dahlke ihnp4!ihnet!eklhad How about "ivy." The plural is also ivy. Replacing the first letter [vowel] yields 'avy, evy, ovy, uvy and yvy,' none of which I recognize as words. The second letter --> 'iay,iby,icy,idy,iey,ify,igy,ihy,iiy,ijy,iky, ily,imy,iny,ioy,ipy,iqy,iry,isy,ity,iuy,iwy,ixy,iyy,izy.' And, the last letter [vowel] --> 'iva,ive,ivi,ivo,ivu.' I can't thing of a single letter to add to the end. Thus, this seems to be an island by the above definition. If I'm wrong, please respond by mail. If you noticed it, so did a 1000 others. I promise to notify the net myself. -- _______ |/-----\| Chris Warack (213) 648-6617 ||hello|| || || warack@aerospace.ARPA |-------| warack@aero.UUCP |@ ___ | seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest! |_______| sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!aero!warack || || \ Aerospace Corporation, M1-117, El Segundo, CA 90245 ^^^ ^^^ `---------(|=
steve@siemens.UUCP (07/29/85)
>>Allow me to impose a distance metric on the words in the english language. >>... > >How about "ivy." The plural is also ivy. Replacing the first letter >[vowel] yields 'avy, evy, ovy, uvy and yvy,' none of which I recognize as >words. The second letter --> 'iay,iby,icy,idy,iey,ify,igy,ihy,iiy,ijy,iky, ^^^ > _______ >|/-----\| Chris Warack (213) 648-6617 >||hello|| >|| || warack@aerospace.ARPA >|-------| warack@aero.UUCP >|@ ___ | seismo!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest! >|_______| sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwrba!aero!warack > || || \ Aerospace Corporation, M1-117, El Segundo, CA 90245 > ^^^ ^^^ `---------(|= No wonder. You're from California, you've never seen REAL weather. (The type that only REAL men can handle.)
peter@kitty.UUCP (Peter DaSilva) (07/31/85)
> >My question concerns islands, that is, words that > >are not close to any other words. What is the shortest word > >that has no neighbors (words one unit distance away). > > Karl Dahlke ihnp4!ihnet!eklhad > > How about "ivy." ... Icy is a word. As in "the roads are icy today, so drive carefully".
dsr@uvacs.UUCP (Dana S. Richards) (07/31/85)
> > > >>Allow me to impose a distance metric on the words in the english language. > >>... > > I missed the original posting. Could someone repost it?
mjb@utah-gr.UUCP (Mark Bradakis) (08/05/85)
In article <300@aero.ARPA> warack@aero.UUCP (Chris Warack (5734)) writes: >In article <258@ihnet.UUCP> eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) writes: >... >How about "ivy." The plural is also ivy. Replacing the first letter Too bad Chris isn't a climber: he'd remember some god-awful icy bivy. -- No matter where I go, I get there late or come too soon! ... !utah-cs!mjb