The first 26 primes (2, 3, 5, ...) can be put in correspondence with the letters A through Z, so the common English word CAB would be the product 5 * 2 * 3 = 30. Using this code, what´s your guess to a common English word that comes closest to a million ? I found one very, very close. Can you beat mine ?

To help you, here are the 26 first primes and their correspondence to the alphabet :

 2 - A      3 - B      5 - C      7 - D     11 - E
13 - F     17 - G     19 - H     23 - I     29 - J
31 - K     37 - L     41 - M     43 - N     47 - O
53 - P     59 - Q     61 - R     67 - S     71 - T
73 - U     79 - V     83 - W     89 - X     97 - Y     101 - Z

(In reply to computer soln -- spoiler by Charlie)

The best 16 common English words, in order, found by my program, are: 

colic 999925  (colic is the champ even if the words don't have to be common ones)

june 1001341
buoy 998421
modal 998186
labral 1002108
scum 1002655
panacea 1002760
anarch 996740
slabs 996558
accord 1003450
parade 995764
don't 1004437
fogy 1007539
pasta 1008484
sell 1008953
waved 1009778

 

 

 

 

 

Edited on July 18, 2005, 6:06 am

Posted by Penny on 2005-07-18 06:03:09