Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Friday puzzler -- letters and numbers
Alex Y
This one may be too hard--when I saw the answer, I said "how would anyone see that?" Obviously, I had not seen the answer! But someone else did, in rather short order, so maybe one of you will see it.
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A co-worker wrote the following sum on a whiteboard, with no explanation.
Can you explain what he was doing?
E = 14
O = 9
A = 7
I = 6
L = 4
R = 3
H = 2
D = 1
K = 1
N = 1
T = 1
Y = 1
+______
50
Hint
Alex Y
I presented this the way I saw it. But I think the "=" marks are misleading. If I were doing what the person here was doing, I would just put a space after the letter, or maybe a colon or close parenthesis.
If you do what you hint, you isolate
Gary Smyth
the 50. The only thing I get out of letters and number 50 is the number of states. I can't make an interchange though as there are not 14 states starting with "e", much less upper case or lower case. If it is the states, could it be state trees, animals, or flowers? Not a whole lot to go on. If 50 is anything else I have to wait for hint 2 (3,4,5,...).
Hint 2
Alex Y
The only thing I get out of letters and number 50 is the number of states. I can't make an interchange though as there are not 14 states starting with "e", much less upper case or lower case.
You're on the right track. Lower case may have been a better way to list them.
OK. Sticking with states.
Gary Smyth
Making letters all lower case. Not numbers of letters in the states and not the occurance of letters in the states. Not a formula I can find transposing letters and numbers. You got me. I don't know what else to check -- out of ideas.
Final hint
Alex Y
Making letters all lower case.
Yes, and your first attempt was as close as you can get without getting the right answer.
Lower case letters, check
Gary Smyth
If i equals 6 then with Mississippi, California, Florida, Illinois alone I've exceeded the number of "i"s. It's not the first letter of the state. So if it's not the number of times the letters appear, by my guess and your hint, by elimination, it should be some form of transposition that makes a formula or word that I just don't see. It's doesn't work with Pythagoras or Pi or any other geometry formula I can remember. Maybe electrical? If I made a list (your hint) of the 50 states (takes too much time) perhaps something would gel. Your letters/numbers data + 50 states + lower case + listing them (does direction, alphabetic order matter ?) I can feel it but can't get there. If this was a hostage situation, I'd be too late. Tell us please.
Answer
Alex Y
It is the number of times that letter appears as the SECOND letter in a state's name.
You got much closer than I did (I never got unstuck from the "=" concept), but thanks to you and those who didn't even put forth an idea for making me feel better about my total fail on this one. I wonder how the fellow's mind works who got this almost right away.