perplexus.info :: Word Problems : Word Meld 4

Word Meld 4 (Posted on 2003-08-13)

Usually, a word meld requires changing one common English word into another, using steps that change any single letter and yield another common word.

In this word meld, your task is to change the word "PASSER" into the word "SPARSE." However, for this problem, each step consists of switching the position of any two adjacent letters (without regard, obviously, for whether they form a word or not).

P A S S E R
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
S P A R S E

How can you do this in five moves?

(Not less than five)

Submitted by DJ

Rating: 3.9091 (11 votes)

Solution: (Hide)

P A S S E R P A S S E R P A S S E R P A S S R E P A S S R E P A S S R E P A S R S E P A S R S E P S A R S E P S A R S E S P A R S E S P A R S E
The trick here is that the first (or second) move must be to switch the two Ss. The juxtaposition in the problem is an even permutation that must be completed in an odd number of steps (five).
If you do not switch the Ss at some point, it is impossible to make the change in any odd number of moves.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)

Subject	Author	Date
solution	K Sengupta	2007-03-05 04:03:30
Vague	Lawrence	2003-08-24 08:05:00
re: could it be	Charlie	2003-08-16 11:59:26
could it be	Gert	2003-08-16 09:35:06
idk	Aaron	2003-08-14 08:11:11
re: Solution	gregada	2003-08-13 15:38:50
Solution	Crystal	2003-08-13 12:55:18
Solution	Scott	2003-08-13 09:32:54
re: I'm not sure I get the rules	Charlie	2003-08-13 08:39:39
I'm not sure I get the rules	FatBoy	2003-08-13 08:23:24

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