ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast) (04/16/85)
Here's a different sort I puzzle I just made up (though I wouldn't be surprised if others have considered it long before): What is the fewest number of regular English words are needed to contain all the letters of the alphabet in order? Example: aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ does it in 10. Surely we can do better. Bonus: What's the shortest if the words must form a sentence? -- ". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch." Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95b!ran) AT&T-Bell Labs
eklhad@ihnet.UUCP (K. A. Dahlke) (04/17/85)
<> > What is the fewest number of regular English > words are needed to contain all the letters of the > alphabet in order? With the help of a small C program, and /usr/src/cmd/spell/list, I have produced the following alphabet-containing word list: ambuscade fighting jackel monopoly queerest curve waxy zoo Minimizing letters (as opposed to words) is also interesting. The above is 8 words, 51 letters. The original article said "regular" words, so I don't know if things like queer"est" or fight"ing" are allowed. I assume suffixes and prefixes are acceptable. Can anyone offer a shorter list? -- Karl Dahlke ihnp4!ihnet!eklhad
gjerawlins@watdaisy.UUCP (Gregory J.E. Rawlins) (04/17/85)
In article <372@ho95b.UUCP> ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast) writes: >What is the fewest number of regular English >words are needed to contain all the letters of the >alphabet in order? >Example: >aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. >^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ >does it in 10. Here's one in 9. cambric deafening hijack limned opaque rest purview waxy zoo ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ -- Gregory J.E. Rawlins, Department of Computer Science, U. Waterloo {allegra|clyde|linus|inhp4|decvax}!watmath!watdaisy!gjerawlins
prakash@alberta.UUCP (PRAKASH B.K.) (04/18/85)
> alphabet in order? > > Example: > aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. > ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ > does it in 10. > Surely we can do better. > > Bonus: What's the shortest if the words must form a sentence? > -- > How about the following examples? We used it to test our TELEX machines when we were testing a TELEX exchange that was being designed. Hope they make sense. (1) HOT QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER A LAZY DOG. . . ..... ..... . . . ... .. .... . . (2) PACK MY BOX WITH FIVE DOZEN LIQOUR JUGS .... .. ... .... . . . ... . . .. . .. They use all the alphabets (but some, more than once.) Dots (.) indicate the alphabets that count. __ ihnp4!alberta!prakash
nunes@utai.UUCP (Joe Nunes) (04/19/85)
>What is the fewest number of regular English >words are needed to contain all the letters of the >alphabet in order? >Example: >aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. >^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ >does it in 10. Here's one in 4. acknowledgements quadrophonic reflexivity jezebel ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
presley@mhuxj.UUCP (Joe Presley) (04/22/85)
> From: nunes@utai.UUCP (Joe Nunes) > Message-ID: <432@utai.UUCP> > >What is the fewest number of regular English > >words are needed to contain all the letters of the > >alphabet in order? > Here's one in 4. > acknowledgements quadrophonic reflexivity jezebel > ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ You must have a peculiar sense of alphabetical order if you consider the letters you've marked to be in order. -- Joe Presley (mhuxm!presley)
nunes@utcsri.UUCP (Joe Nunes) (04/22/85)
> > From: nunes@utai.UUCP (Joe Nunes) > > Message-ID: <432@utai.UUCP> > > >What is the fewest number of regular English > > >words are needed to contain all the letters of the > > >alphabet in order? > > Here's one in 4. > > acknowledgements quadrophonic reflexivity jezebel > > ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ > > You must have a peculiar sense of alphabetical order if you consider > the letters you've marked to be in order. > -- > Joe Presley (mhuxm!presley) It's amazing. I must have read the initial response a half dozen times and I never noticed the "in order". Sorry about that. I am now going to leave this newsgroup and hide in a cave in shame for the rest of my years.
albert@harvard.ARPA (David Albert) (04/23/85)
> >What is the fewest number of regular English > >words are needed to contain all the letters of the > >alphabet in order? > >Example: > >aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. > >^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ > >does it in 10. > > Here's one in 4. > > acknowledgements quadrophonic reflexivity jezebel > ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ But the letters have to appear IN ORDER! Here's a slight improvement on the first: ambuscade fighting jackal menopause quarks turvy waxy zebra ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ which does it in 8. I got this one using egrep on /usr/dict/words, and believe it is optimal. -- David Albert ihnp4!seismo!harvard!albert (albert@harvard.ARPA)
guy@cmu-cs-theory.ARPA (Guy Jacobson) (04/23/85)
Here is a little program I wrote to determine the shortest list
of words which includes the alphabet (in order) as a subsequence.
Try "a.out < /usr/dict/words" for enlightenment.
-- Guy
/* Alphabet subsequence program by Guy Jacobson, April 22 1985 */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define ALPHA ('z' - 'a' + 1)
#define MAXLEN 32
char bonus[ALPHA];
char bonusword[ALPHA][MAXLEN];
main ()
{
char word[MAXLEN];
int i;
while (gets (word))
addword (word);
for (i = 0; i < ALPHA; i += bonus[i])
printf ("%s ", bonusword[i]);
printf ("\n");
exit (0);
}
addword (word) char *word;
{
static char boon[ALPHA + 1];
char nonzerobonusletters[ALPHA];
register char *nz = nonzerobonusletters;
register char *p;
register char ch;
for (p = word + strlen (word) - 1; p >= word; --p) {
ch = *p;
if (isalpha (ch)) {
if (isupper (ch))
ch = tolower (ch);
ch -= 'a';
if (boon[ch] == 0)
*nz++ = ch;
boon[ch] = boon[ch + 1] + 1;
}
}
while (--nz >= nonzerobonusletters) {
char letter = *nz;
char thisbonus = boon[letter];
if (thisbonus > bonus[letter]) {
bonus[letter] = thisbonus;
strcpy (bonusword[letter], word);
}
boon[letter] = 0;
}
}twb@mhuxh.UUCP (twb) (04/23/85)
> >What is the fewest number of regular English > >words are needed to contain all the letters of the > >alphabet in order? > >Example: > >aback deafening hijack lime nope quark stun vow foxy zed. > >^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ > >does it in 10. > > Here's one in 4. > > acknowledgements quadrophonic reflexivity jezebel > ^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ The question asks for all the letters of the alphabet IN ORDER. Let's try to pay attention.
colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (05/02/85)
[she's so pubvexingfjordschmaltzy] > But the letters have to appear IN ORDER! Here's a slight improvement > on the first: > ambuscade fighting jackal menopause quarks turvy waxy zebra > ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ > which does it in 8. I got this one using egrep on /usr/dict/words, > and believe it is optimal. > > David Albert Don't look now, but you can replace the last four words by queerest purview oxygenize ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ "One brain is worth two computers." --Dr. Who Cares -- Col. G. L. Sicherman ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel