What's math got to do with it? lol

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THORTHELABRADOR

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Ok I have this really cool math teacher and he gave us a puzzle of sorts to play with...but I don't see what math has to do with it. We are to try to find 6 letter words that add up to 116 or more points. A=1 B=2 C=3....etc...
I found some weird words just by googling but still have no clue what he is trying to teach me....I feel like Tom Hanks in BIG when he raises his hand and says "I don't get it" .I found 3 words and he says he has a list of 27 words...the only rule is they must be English words, and must be exactly 6 letters. Do you know what he is trying to teach us?
Thanks...
 
THORTHELABRADOR said:
I don't see what math has to do with it

add up to 116 or more points. A=1 B=2 C=3....etc

Adding numbers together is called arithmetic. Arithmetic is one of the basic forms that mathematics takes Your exercise is clearly mathematical, in nature.


Do you know what he is trying to teach us?

I can make several educated guesses, but, no, I do not know his exact motivation.

Mathematics concerns so much more than just numbers, and STUDYING mathematics improves your brain. I mean, working through "brain teasers", whether they be word problems or puzzles or patterns or concepts, actually changes the physical circuits in your brain, for the better.

The more inter-associated neural networks that you create in your brain, the better the odds that you'll come up with good ideas when facing future problems.

Maybe your teacher is trying to foster skills, in hopes that you don't grow up to be yet another stupid adult.

One such skill is "critical thinking". Another such skill is "linear thinking".

Here are some examples of these kinds of thoughts.


"I wonder which letters of the English alphabet appear most commonly in words"

"If I knew a few very common letters, I could form some sets from these"

"There is a good chance that a little research at Google would answer this question"

"Since the word needs six letters, I could form sets of two or three common letters"

"The letters in those sets would probably appear in many English words"

"I could add up the associated point values, for each of these sets that I might form"

"Once I knew the sum of those letter values, I could determine the difference needed to reach 116"

"Once I knew the difference, I could break it into pieces, to see what possible letters I could use, to form a six-letter word that totals 116 points"

"If I knew six specific letters, I could go to one of those Internet sites that accomodates crossword-puzzle solvers, and type in the six letters, and the site would respond with a list of English words containing those six specific letters"

"I think I'll try this approach, and see what happens"

"If it doesn't go well, I bet there are other possible approaches"

"I feel like applying some more critical thinking, to this exercise"

"Mmmmm, my brain is feeling more efficient, already"

"Ya know, maybe Google would yield huge lists of six-letter words, and I would not need to know about common letters or form sets. I could cut-and-paste text of six-letter words into a spreadsheet, and program for the associated point-total of each word. It's probably easy to flag all of the 116-point words."


Well, maybe those are not all examples of such thoughts, but I hope that you're closer to the big picture, now.

Take care of your brain.

Cheers ~ Mark
Click to expand...
 
Denis said:
WHISKEY = 23+8+9+19+11+5+25 = 100
Click to expand...

:idea: Denis demonstrates that whiskey is clearly not an answer, boys and girls, for a number of reasons.

 
I understood that adding the value of the letters to get 116 or more was math .I mean I GET that part. It was the reasoning behind it that I was trying to figure out...being in pre-algebra I thought I was missing some incredible mathmatical equation or something. I get the whole expand your brain thing...my mom is a trivia nut and has tons of things in her head like Yak milk is pink...I have learned to pick up some strange, seemingly useless information but I know it keeps my brain active and like you said hopefully I don't grow up to be another stupid adult....
This is a fun puzzle and I was just trying to see if I was missing something...but I guess sometimes the answer is just that simple.
thanks
ps Denis....uhhh you got the idea but it is not enough points....lol...and YES I know that was just an example of the point values of the letters added together. I have found 3 words on my own that seriously I never heard of... and I am still working on it. I still find it amazing that my teacher has a list of 27 words....WOW

thanks again....
 
Reason I showed that one was to demonstrate a "century word".
There are people actually searching for these!!

What you need (of course) for 116 or more with 6letter words is 4 or 5 letters in range s to z.
TWISTY = 116
 
Hello, THORTHELABRADOR!

Ok I have this really cool math teacher and he gave us a puzzle of sorts to play with,
but I don't see what math has to do with it.
We are to try to find 6 letter words that add up to 116 or more points. A=1, B=2, C=3, etc.

I found some weird words just by googling but still have no clue what he is trying to teach me.
I feel like Tom Hanks in BIG when he raises his hand and says "I don't get it".
Do you know what he is trying to teach us?
Click to expand...

I suppose it is an exercise in Imagination.

First, we must create a Game Plan:
. . a "logical" approach to the problem.

The most obvious approach (and possibly the worst) might be:
. . Go through a dictionary and translate each word into its numerical value.
. . Then select those words which have a value of 116.


A slightly better approach:

Find six numbers (not necessarily distinct) with a sum of 116. **
. . For example: .\(\displaystyle 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 25\)
. . Convert them to letters: .\(\displaystyle O, P, S, T, U, Y\)
. . Then try to anagram them into a legitimate word.


I'd like to know how your teacher found those 27 words.
(I suspect he wrote a program to find them.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

**
Be sure to include at least one vowel:
. . \(\displaystyle A = 1,\;E = 5,\;I = 9,\;\text{etc.}\)

 
I am waiting with baited breath for the teacher to let us know how he found 27 English words that are 116 or more points....I will post when he gives up the secret
I have 2 words at 116 1 at 117, 1 at 118 ,1 at 127, and 1 at 128 points....3 words that I have heard of and 3 that I have never heard of...
He is a cool teacher and I think the whole class is really enjoying this exercise.
Thanks for all the imput....
 
This is ridiculous. I have a script I made here: http://46.4.208.198/test1.php
It has an array of 1 to 26 then finds 6 random numbers which add to 116 and converts them back to letters. You can keep refreshing it to get more results, though some that you get when you refresh might be repeated. It takes 128,000 iterations to get this small amount of answers.

Code: 
q, r, y, s, n, w Sum: 116
q, m, p, v, y, w Sum: 116
v, h, u, y, q, w Sum: 116
w, k, v, t, y, o Sum: 116
t, o, y, l, u, w Sum: 116
k, w, s, q, y, u Sum: 116
y, w, s, u, v, f Sum: 116
k, s, t, u, v, w Sum: 116
u, v, t, m, y, o Sum: 116
t, y, s, u, v, i Sum: 116
y, n, u, r, o, w Sum: 116
o, p, s, u, v, w Sum: 116
w, n, u, o, r, y Sum: 116
r, y, u, q, t, o Sum: 116
k, y, w, p, s, v Sum: 116
v, q, h, y, u, w Sum: 116
o, p, s, u, v, w Sum: 116
w, u, y, v, o, j Sum: 116
u, q, s, v, y, l Sum: 116
s, l, w, o, v, y Sum: 116
o, t, r, v, y, p Sum: 116
k, s, t, u, v, w Sum: 116
p, r, s, y, o, w Sum: 116
k, s, t, u, v, w Sum: 116
y, u, t, e, w, v Sum: 116
n, o, s, w, y, t Sum: 116
s, y, v, n, m, w Sum: 116
w, y, o, m, u, s Sum: 116
u, p, v, y, r, n Sum: 116
r, y, v, u, k, s Sum: 116
s, v, j, w, y, q Sum: 116
v, h, y, t, r, w Sum: 116
v, u, w, q, y, h Sum: 116
t, l, y, w, n, v Sum: 116
n, t, u, q, y, s Sum: 116
s, r, u, j, w, y Sum: 116
m, y, w, u, s, o Sum: 116
y, o, q, s, v, r Sum: 116
u, v, t, e, w, y Sum: 116
r, y, p, q, s, u Sum: 116
r, l, y, v, p, w Sum: 116
w, p, y, m, t, s Sum: 116
s, w, k, p, v, y Sum: 116
m, s, t, y, v, q Sum: 116
w, p, u, k, y, t Sum: 116
r, q, k, y, v, w Sum: 116
r, y, v, o, p, t Sum: 116
o, y, s, p, u, t Sum: 116
y, i, u, v, p, w Sum: 116


Edit: I changed the script so it doesn't output combinations of letters that have 'x' in them. Because really, how many letters in the english language have 'x'?

Edit: Put 'x' back in. Here's a version without it: http://46.4.208.198/x-removed.php
 
for said:
how many letters in the english language have 'x' ?

One, if you consider x and X to be the same letter.
Click to expand...

If we consider English words of any length (like "acetoxyacetylaminofluorene"), then there are at least 15,444 words containing the letter x.

I agree, there are probably not many 6-letter words containing x. My cursory search turned up only 615 (eg: "maxixe", a Brazilian dance).

But, is the true number significantly different from the tally of 6-letter words containing z ?

By ignoring x, you might be giving z preferential treatment.

 
Re:

mmm4444bot said:
for said:
how many letters in the english language have 'x' ?

One, if you consider x and X to be the same letter.
Click to expand...

If we consider English words of any length (like "acetoxyacetylaminofluorene"), then there are at least 15,444 words containing the letter x.

I agree, there are probably not many 6-letter words containing x. My cursory search turned up only 615 (eg: "maxixe", a Brazilian dance).

But, is the true number significantly different from the tally of 6-letter words containing z ?

By ignoring x, you might be giving z preferential treatment.
Click to expand...
yeah i figured that out which is why I added x back. There aren't enough vowels. u is the only one that is worth a high point value, o is 15, i is 9, e 5, and a 1, so those will hardly show up - if ever.
 
You are all dealing with flocci­nauci­nihili­pili­fication.......
 
.....zaddik, zaffar, zaffer, zaffir, zaffre, zaftig, zagged, zaikai, zaires, zamias, zander, zanier, zanies, zanily, zanzas, zapped, zapper, zareba, zariba, zayins, zazens, zealot, zeatin, zebeck, zebecs, zebras, zechin, zenana, zenith, zephyr, zeroed, zeroes, zeroth, zested, zester, zeugma, zibeth, zibets, zigged, zigzag, zillah, zinced, zincic, zincky, zinebs, zinged, zinger, zinnia, zipped, zipper, zirams, zircon, zither, zizith, zizzle, zlotys, zoaria, zodiac, zoecia, zoftig, zombie, zombis, zonary, zonate, zoners, zoning, zonked, zonula, zonule, zooids, zoomed, zoonal, zorils, zoster, zouave, zounds, zoysia, zydeco, zygoid, zygoma, zygose, zygote, zymase
14648 words found.

There are close to 15,000 6letter words; above shows these beginning with z.

A simple computer program evaluating these 15,000 words and printing out these >115 should take a minute or so...

Btw, above contains words acceptable in Scrabble!
 
Denis said:
.....zaddik, zaffar, zaffer, zaffir, zaffre, zaftig, zagged, zaikai, zaires, zamias, zander, zanier, zanies, zanily, zanzas, zapped, zapper, zareba, zariba, zayins, zazens, zealot, zeatin, zebeck, zebecs, zebras, zechin, zenana, zenith, zephyr, zeroed, zeroes, zeroth, zested, zester, zeugma, zibeth, zibets, zigged, zigzag, zillah, zinced, zincic, zincky, zinebs, zinged, zinger, zinnia, zipped, zipper, zirams, zircon, zither, zizith, zizzle, zlotys, zoaria, zodiac, zoecia, zoftig, zombie, zombis, zonary, zonate, zoners, zoning, zonked, zonula, zonule, zooids, zoomed, zoonal, zorils, zoster, zouave, zounds, zoysia, zydeco, zygoid, zygoma, zygose, zygote, zymase
14648 words found.

There are close to 15,000 6letter words; above shows these beginning with z.

A simple computer program evaluating these 15,000 words and printing out these >115 should take a minute or so...

Btw, above contains words acceptable in Scrabble!
Click to expand...
The first one, zaddik, is only equal to 26 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 9 + 11 = 55
only 7 letters are worth more than 20 and a lot of the letters have to be >20 in order for the outcome to be 116.

Furthering my point, I made a script to prove it. None of those words even come close to 116 besides zlotys, which goes over by one.
http://46.4.208.198/uhh.php

Code: 
zaddik :55
zaffar :58
zaffer :62
zaffir :66
zaffre :62
zaftig :69
zagged :50
zaikai :57
zaires :78
zamias :69
zanana :57
zander :68
zanier :73
zanies :74
zanily :87
zanzas :87
zapped :68
zapper :82
zareba :53
zariba :57
zayins :94
zazens :91
zealot :79
zeatin :75
zebeck :52
zebecs :60
zebras :71
zechin :65
zenana :61
zenith :82
zephyr :98
zeroed :73
zeroes :88
zeroth :92
zested :79
zeugma :73
zibeth :70
zibets :81
zigged :58
zigzag :76
zillah :68
zinced :61
zincic :64
zincky :88
zinebs :75
zinged :65
zinger :79
zinnia :73
zipped :76
zipper :90
zirams :86
zircon :85
zither :86
zizith :98
zizzle :104
zlotys :117
zoaria :70
zocalo :72
zodiac :58
zoftig :83
zombie :70
zombis :84
zonary :99
zonate :81
zoners :97
zoning :85
zonked :75
zonula :89
zonule :93
zooids :88
zooier :88
zoomed :78
zoonal :83
zooned :79
zorils :99
zoster :103
zouave :90
zounds :99
zoysia :95
zydeco :78
zygoid :86
zygoma :87
zygose :97
zygote :98
zymase :89
 
Denis I like you tag line. lol

I origionally Googled common 6 letter words and the list looks very similar to what was posted....I just started pickiing words that were at the end of the alphabet trying for U or Y as the vowel. I came up with some really strange ones...my mom helped....she is kind of a word freak....lol
XYLYLS=117
XYSTUS=128
SYZYGY=127
STYLUS=116
YUM-YUM=118
ZLOTYS=117
The balance was imput from you guys
TWISTY=116
TRUSTS=117
LUXURY=121
TRYSTS=121
SYRUPY=124

I am like on a quest now...I want to find them all...<looking a bit deranged> Will keep you posted as this developes
 
for said:
The first one, zaddik, is only equal to 26 + 1 + 4 + 4 + 9 + 11 = 55
only 7 letters are worth more than 20 and a lot of the letters have to be >20 in order for the outcome to be 116.
Furthering my point, I made a script to prove it. None of those words even come close to 116 besides zlotys, which goes over by one.
Click to expand...
Ya; so? All I did was print the words beginning with z; didn't want to print the whole 15000!
 
Denis said:
A simple computer program evaluating these 15,000 words and printing out these >115 should take a minute or so
Click to expand...

My program took five seconds or so to tally the points of 15,788 six-letter words and display the four worth 116 points.

stroys
stylus
twisty
yutzes

I want to see the other 23 examples.

 


Here are 81 six-letter "century" words, for Denis.

Some of them give new meaning to names, like "Century Motors", "Century Towers", and "Century Stoves".

arrowy bronzy crusts cutout cutups drossy envoys flurry footsy grouts growly grumpy hysons knouts kousso kuvasz missus motors moults mourns murkly murrey musths myosis mythos outset pistou plummy potzer
pursue putter quarry quints quippu rhyton rosery rosiny rufous savory setout setups slumps slyest sotols sprugs spunks squaws squint status stools stoves straws stress stupes styles surely suttas swirls syrens
tepoys tetryl thirty thorny toasty towers triply troths truism tsktsk tsoris turkey unmown unsunk unwove upgrow upsets vinous whumps worset xylose yarrow

 
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