Puzzles

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
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MJMcCready
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Puzzles

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:45 am

Which word becomes shorter if you add two letters to it?

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:25 am

owl

add et and you get owlet, which is a shorter owl.

Neil Graham
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Neil Graham » Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:08 am

MJMcCready wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:45 am
Which word becomes shorter if you add two letters to it?
Short

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MJMcCready
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Re: Puzzles

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:55 am

Yes, both correct.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:56 am

Can I have arbitrage then? :)

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MJMcCready
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Re: Puzzles

Post by MJMcCready » Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:58 am

Not sure what that means.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:10 pm

Sorry, it was my attempt at humour.
An arbitrageur is someone who takes up opposing positions on a financial instrument and benefits from the spread. They are both 'long' and 'short' so I guess they could be described as a 'shorter', but I am slightly worried we are going to get transferred to the pedantics' thread.

What is the longest word in the English language? and I think we really need two answers here.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:12 pm

p.s. You cannot have language

Paul Habershon
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Paul Habershon » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:21 pm

Matthew Turner wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:10 pm

What is the longest word in the English language? and I think we really need two answers here.
In my school days it was antidisestablishmentarianism. Then there was something beginning 'flocci....'

I think now there may be a lengthy scientific compound word, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a wordplay answer too.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:23 pm

No points at all there Paul, sorry

Edit: probably being a bit harsh there, I guess there is something in the 'wordplay' comment
Last edited by Matthew Turner on Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Puzzles

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:26 pm

Matthew Turner wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:10 pm
What is the longest word in the English language? and I think we really need two answers here.
In my schooldays, it was "smiles", as there is a mile between the first and the last letter.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:27 pm

Brilliant, and it still is. I don't think skilometres is a word.

Ian Thompson
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Ian Thompson » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:47 pm

Paul Habershon wrote:
Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:21 pm
In my school days it was antidisestablishmentarianism. Then there was something beginning 'flocci....'
floccinaucinihilipilification. If I've counted, and spelt, right it's one letter longer than antidisestablishmentarianism.

Matthew Turner
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Matthew Turner » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:48 pm

Nowhere near long enough though.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Puzzles

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Wed Mar 10, 2021 12:52 pm

pneumonovolcanoultramicroscopicsilicoconiosis (from memory)

like most scientific words, you split it up to say it...

pneumono-volcano-ultra-micro-scopic-silico-coniosis

And the earlier long one was floccinaucinihilipilification (the art of considering something as worthless) - hence the "nihili" in the middle.

I did have an example of a very long chemical name (most of which have numbers and hyphens), but this was split by brackets only, and that was much longer than that "p" word.

The "international nonproprietary name" abamectin is a bit easier than its IUPAC names - see http://www.alanwood.net/pesticides/index_cn_frame.html

When I started getting good at IUPAC names, my trainer gave me that to name to shut me up for a day or so.

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