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A Solution for the Ten Letter Acrostic Puzzle?
rmo101 asks: "A story in the Times reports a solution to the ten letter acrostic square puzzle that has defied solution since the ancient Greeks. An acrostic puzzle comprises a square of letters where the arrangement of letters from words written in rows result in the same words appearing vertically in the same order. The ten letter solution, however, is not accepted by all as one of the words does not appear in a dictionary. Sounds like a puzzle in search of a fiendish algorithm for interrogating a dictionary. The ancient Greeks believed that the solver of the ten letter puzzle would become immortal. Anyone fancy their chances?" Of course, the Times article doesn't report the proposed ten-letter solution (they show a five-letter one), but they do mention the controversial word: "nonesevent". Are any of you interested in trying your hand at a better solution?
It's the same as a 'lifetime guarantee'.
Once it fails, that's the life over, hence no guarantee...
I think you missed the point. The Greeks appreciated and had respect for thought, logic and mental prowess for its own sake. No doubt someone achieving at that level(10x10), sans computer, would have been a formidable mind indeed! No doubt an immortal in his time. Now if only so many cultures today weren't so concerned with shortcut, bottom line driven mindedness.
hm
If I remember correctly, there were about 20,000 words in the ancient Greek language. There are over 300,000 and counting in English. I think it's safe to say we're practically cheating. The problem was probably impossible in their time, but not in ours.
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Wouldn't you have to solve it in ancient greek since any new language could just make up words to fit?
Some English solutions are given How abut a GREEK solution in ancient greek? Just make a list of all 10 letter words and have a program a go at it. The worst that can happen is that it will be proven that there is no solution.
Do the same for all other languages as well.
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This one is also curiously palindromic, with lines of reflectional symmetry at 45 degress and 135 degrees, and rotational symmetry.
However, the word nones is.
a lendars/terms.html
From m-w.com
Main Entry: 4none
Pronunciation: 'nOn
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized
Etymology: Late Latin nona, from Latin, 9th hour of the day from sunrise -- more at NOON
: the fifth of the canonical hours
A google define:nones query results in:
# n the old Roman calendar, the ninth day before Ides. The 7th of March, May, July and October and the 5th of other months. See Calends, Nones & Ides
www.highdown.reading.sch.uk/highdown/pupil/time/c
# the 5th or 7th day of the month, depending on the month, in Roman dating
medievalwriting.50megs.com/glossary2.htm
# ninth day before the ides (hence 5th or 7th of month, since Romans counted both ends of the number series).
www.stockton.edu/~roman/fiction/vocab3.htm
# the fifth of the seven canonical hours; about 3 p.m.
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Looks to me like this isn't a single word, rather a compound word. Perhaps it should be hyphenated, if written out...
Actually, languages like Latin and Greek are more suited to this type of puzzle than English. Because informal Latin and Greek have no enforced word order, you can use whatever words you like as long as they are in the correct cases and still form a sentence. Most languages now have deprecated their noun declinsions, or augmented them with a word order system (like German).
To be a valid solution to the ancient Greeks (and win the immortality prize), shouldn't the solution be using Greek words?
"Given any language resembling English, there must exist a word within that language whose spelling is nonesevent. I have a wonderful proof, which unfortunately cannot fit within the margins..."
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