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riddles >> hard >> Naming Sons
(Message started by: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Oct 20th, 2006, 8:18pm)

Title: Naming Sons
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Oct 20th, 2006, 8:18pm
A father and his eleven unnamed sons live on a farm by themselves.  One day, the father decides to name his sons.  He chooses to use numbers formed from the letters of his name to produce his childrens' names.  His name can be found in a common English dictionary.  He has eleven sons and each will be given a different name.

When all is done, his sons are named: 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 30, 39, 80, 89, 90, 98.

What is the father's name?

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by jollytall on Oct 20th, 2006, 11:42pm
I can imagine many names:

Maybe his name is also a number, so the letters of his name are numbers. If he can use them in any permutations, then the smallest "name" is 13890.
If he wanted to use them as substrings of his name, then he had a long name.
If he really uses the letters of his name and can use them multiple times, then his name is at least 166. If for one son he cannot use the same letter twice then his name does not exist.

But maybe he is simply the 10th civil lived in that old empire.

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Oct 21st, 2006, 7:36am
Clarifications, then:
His name is constructed with letters, not numbers.
Each of his son's names can only use a single letter from their father's names to produce a single letter in their names.

I won't give an example (at least for now) as the first step of the problem is by far the hardest part.

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by sofeffi on Oct 21st, 2006, 9:03am
so, the letters needed are:

threeignntyi

if I understand correctly, that is.

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by sofeffi on Oct 21st, 2006, 10:51am
Is the fathers name a number or a real name I wonder. If its a real name, are surnames included?

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by chicken on Oct 21st, 2006, 10:56am
i bet his name  is just like edward or something

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by sofeffi on Oct 21st, 2006, 11:24am
probably

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Oct 21st, 2006, 2:17pm

on 10/21/06 at 10:51:16, sofeffi wrote:
Is the fathers name a number or a real name I wonder. If its a real name, are surnames included?

There are no surnames included, but the father's name might not be a name, so to speak.  That is, it may be a word, instead.  I should probably have been more clear on this point and will edit the riddle accordingly.  Thanks.


on 10/21/06 at 10:56:27, chicken wrote:
i bet his name  is just like edward or something

How much?

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by Grimbal on Oct 21st, 2006, 3:13pm
I wouldn't call him extremely smart.

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by TimMann on Oct 21st, 2006, 8:43pm

on 10/21/06 at 07:36:16, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Each of his son's names can only use a single letter from their father's names to produce a single letter in their names.


Your clarification is confusing me. Are you saying that a son's name can't use the same letter from the father's name twice?  If you *don't* mean that, this answer looks nice:

[hide]Nightery[/hide]

p.s. I found this by hand. Checking with grep over the /usr/share/dict/words file on my system, it seems to be the only solution with no repeated or extraneous letters.


Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by TimMann on Oct 21st, 2006, 9:18pm
OK, maybe you do mean that a son can't use the same letter twice. That explains Grimbal's remark, as with a lot of help from grep I found these possibilities in the copy of /usr/dict/words on my system:

[hide]
hyperintelligent
hyperpigmentation
interchangeability
pharyngoepiglottidean
resynthetizing
[/hide]

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on Oct 21st, 2006, 11:16pm
Correct!  TimMann you get full marks!  Although Grimbal, you get first prize for finding the initial solution.  Sorry for not catching it immediately, but it's Saturday night and you know....

P.S.  I can't believe I spell-checked this so thoroughly.

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by revenge on Nov 14th, 2006, 6:49am

on 10/21/06 at 21:18:36, TimMann wrote:
OK, maybe you do mean that a son can't use the same letter twice. That explains Grimbal's remark, as with a lot of help from grep I found these possibilities in the copy of /usr/dict/words on my system:

[hide]
hyperintelligent
hyperpigmentation
interchangeability
pharyngoepiglottidean
resynthetizing
[/hide]
So how do these names translate themselves into the 11 numbers  ???

Title: Re: Naming Sons
Post by Grimbal on Nov 14th, 2006, 12:49pm

on 11/14/06 at 06:49:11, revenge wrote:
So how do these names translate themselves into the 11 numbers  ???

Well, [hide]Three[/hide], [hide]Eight[/hide], [hide]Nine[/hide], [hide]Ten[/hide], [hide]Thirteen[/hide], [hide]...[/hide]



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