As mnay of you wlil be aarwe, to raed a txet the oedrr in wihch the lrtetes of ecah idniadiuvl wrod aepapr is not ipmotanrt, so lnog as the fsrit and lsat ltetres are crorect. Tihs is ovboisuly not the csae wtih nmuebrs beacsue if one slcarbmes the iretnnal ditgis of a nmbeur, it is not pissolbe to wrok out waht the ogirianl nemubr was. Go fugrie.
Tehre are, hwoveer, cirtaen cesas in wchih tehre is sufuficnet inmoartfion to fnid out the onriiagl neumbrs, scuh as in the sum bolew. The itenarnl diigts of ecah of the nmbeurs hvae been srcmalbed but the fsrit and lsat dgitis rmaein the smae.
Can you rseotre the oigrianl atdiiodn and its sum?
The above problem was devised by Bernardo Recamán, a Colombian maths teacher, and his students. It features in his lovely new book, The Bogotá Puzzles. Bernardo is probably best known in recreational maths circles as the inventor of the (slightly spooky) Recamán sequence.
Bernardo’s scrambled number puzzle got me wondering about ‘unscrambleable text’, that is, text consisting of words that are unchanged when scrambled in the above way. (Keeping the first and last letter in the same place but scrambling any intermediate letters.) All one-, two- and three-letter words are thus permissable, as are four letter words in which letters 2 and 3 are the same, such as moon, ammo, and deep.
Here’s an unscrambleable sentence I came up with:
Good old Joe won by a lot.
I will give a copy of my new book, The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book, to the person who sends me the best piece of unscrambleable writing before 4.30pm today. You can email me or post it on Twitter. I’m looking for sentences that say something meaningful in an unstilted way: the longer (and funnier) the better!
PELSAE NO SOLPIERS
UPDATE: The solution and results of the writing competition are now up here.
I’ll be bcak at 5pm with the awnesr to the pluzze and the wnnier of the bset unscrambleable txet.
I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
I’m the author of several puzzle books, most recently The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book, which was out earlier this month. It includes puzzles about wordplay, languages, alphabets, numerals, animal noises and silent monks. David Crystal described it as “A cornucopia of ingenious and insightful challenges, each with a bonus commentary about the fascinating diversity of the world’s languages, all presented in a friendly and engaging style. The title is exactly right. It’s the perfect companion for anyone who loves puzzles and languages.” To buy a copy at the Guardian Bookshop click here.
