Consider a valid English word without hyphens or spaces, which is not a proper noun. Assign the values a=0, b=1, c=2, d=3, e=4, f=5, g=6, h=7, i=8 and j=9.

A date corresponding to a valid English word in consonance with the above assignment in mm/dd/yy format is called a "spell date". For example,the word "deface" generates 34/50/24 which is not a valid date in the mm/dd/yy format, and consequently not a spell date.

(A) Determine the respective first and last spell dates in the period covering January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2100 inclusively.

(B) What would have been the respective answers to (A) if the definition of a spell date involved a dd/mm/yy format instead?

The list of words I found were:

ACEDIA

BACHED

BEHEAD

BIFACE

CHAFED

DEFACE

FACADE

Of these words, BACHED is the only one that gives a spell date in the mm/dd/yy format on 10/27/43.

Considering the dd/mm/yy format, CHAFED is the only one that gives a spell date on 27/05/43.

So, 2043 will be the year for spell date celebrations.

Edited on September 4, 2012, 6:51 am

Posted by Chris, PhD on 2012-09-03 12:51:41