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The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 12:41 am
by Joseph Bolas
Here is another puzzle taken from a PerplexCity card:
It had been a long day, so I decided to play a game with some of my Science students, assigning each of their names a value based on a secret rule. I had just told Catherine that her name had two different values, 223 and... when Sente stopped by to ask for my help with a phase adjustment on the Earth-Perplex City link.
As I left, I called back "You'll have to figure out what Catherine's other value out was by yourselves"
FRANKLIN = 133
BARBARA = 167
LAUREN = 231
LAURA = 237
TIMOTHY = 193
GEOFFREY = 172
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:46 pm
by Jason Larsen
What would be my name's value?
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:00 pm
by Kirk Bevins
Jason Larsen wrote:What would be my name's value?
Don't tell him. He needs to work it out from the values given. Trying to cheat are we, Jason?
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:29 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Kirk Bevins wrote:Jason Larsen wrote:What would be my name's value?
Don't tell him. He needs to work it out from the values given. Trying to cheat are we, Jason?
Don't worry Kirk, I will not be working out names that aren't mentioned above
Also Kirk, I don't think that Jason posted this question, with the intention of actually solving this puzzle.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:12 pm
by Jason Larsen
You're right, Joseph!
I just wanted to show my curiosity!
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:27 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Jason Larsen wrote:You're right, Joseph!
I just wanted to show my curiosity!
If you can wait until the puzzle is solved, then by all means, I can reveal what your number would be. In the meantime though, do try to solve it and you may get it right.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:56 pm
by Jason Larsen
Absolutely, Joseph!
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:34 pm
by Dinos Sfyris
241. I wont reveal my method for anyone still trying to work it out but I was probably the most likely person to get it! I dont think Jason can be a number, nor can anyone with a J in their name for that matter.
Cheers for this puzzle Joseph. I enjoyed it

Re: The Name Game
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:46 pm
by Kirk Bevins
Dinos Sfyris wrote:241. I wont reveal my method for anyone still trying to work it out but I was probably the most likely person to get it! I dont think Jason can be a number, nor can anyone with a J in their name for that matter.
Cheers for this puzzle Joseph. I enjoyed it

Hmm - a J - so I thought it could be something to do with enclosed loops, such as in B or R, or even lines of symmetry or even straight edges. I guess I'm not even close though.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:00 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Dinos Sfyris wrote:241. I wont reveal my method for anyone still trying to work it out but I was probably the most likely person to get it! I dont think Jason can be a number, nor can anyone with a J in their name for that matter.
Cheers for this puzzle Joseph. I enjoyed it

Well done Dinos, 241 is correct
it's a nice little puzzle, isn't it
Kirk Bevins wrote:Hmm - a J - so I thought it could be something to do with enclosed loops, such as in B or R, or even lines of symmetry or even straight edges. I guess I'm not even close though.
Sorry Kirk you are not on the right lines

Re: The Name Game
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:31 pm
by Dinos Sfyris
There is a clue in how Joseph has dressed up the puzzle at the beginning.
Kirk you would be 115 btw.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:41 pm
by Charlie Reams
I don't have a number

But if I did it would probably be more than 28.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:50 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Dinos Sfyris wrote:There is a clue in how Joseph has dressed up the puzzle at the beginning.
Kirk you would be 115 btw.
Just to add to this, BEVINS also works for this puzzle and could be either 92 or 103

Re: The Name Game
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:31 pm
by Gary Male
Ah, I get it now! I'll go and have a sulk because I'm not allowed a number.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:45 am
by Kirk Bevins
Joseph Bolas wrote:Dinos Sfyris wrote:There is a clue in how Joseph has dressed up the puzzle at the beginning.
Kirk you would be 115 btw.
Just to add to this, BEVINS also works for this puzzle and could be either 92 or 103

This is doing my head it - how can it have two values?
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:55 am
by Joseph Bolas
Kirk Bevins wrote:Joseph Bolas wrote:BEVINS also works for this puzzle and can be either 92 or 103

This is doing my head it - how can it have two values?
The same reason that Catherine has 2 numbers
Dinos Sfyris wrote:There is a clue in how Joseph has dressed up the puzzle at the beginning.
This should help you solve the puzzle

Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:12 pm
by Kirk Bevins
Science - is it like their chemical numbers added together and why should BEVINS have two values? Well you could take B for Boron or Be for beryllium. Am I close?
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:32 pm
by Charlie Reams
Kirk Bevins wrote:Science - is it like their chemical numbers added together and why should BEVINS have two values? Well you could take B for Boron or Be for beryllium. Am I close?
That's pretty much it, yes. You can split some names up in various ways, and some (like mine) don't work at all.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:50 pm
by Michael Wallace
It's a nice puzzle, but Dinos sucks:
Dinos Sfyris wrote:I wont reveal my method for anyone still trying to work it out but I was probably the most likely person to get it!
Completely gave it away
edit: actually that's not entirely fair (don't read replies to a puzzle thread if you don't want spoilers) but it was still quite lol to say "I'm not going to say how I did but here's a massive clue"

Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:59 pm
by Joseph Bolas
Kirk Bevins wrote:Science - is it like their chemical numbers added together and why should BEVINS have two values? Well you could take B for Boron or Be for beryllium. Am I close?
Well done Kirk

. It involves splitting up the names into groups of 1 or 2 letters, matching the chemical element symbols and then adding the numbers together

.
You can split up BEVINS like so:
BE - Beryllium = 4
V - Vanadium = 23
IN - Indium = 49
S - Sulphur = 16
Total = 92
BE - Beryllium = 4
V - Vanadium = 23
I - Iodine = 53
N - Nitrogen = 7
S - Sulphur = 16
Total = 103
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:40 pm
by Howard Somerset
Very neat. I was nowhere near.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:18 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
Nice one! On a similar subject, a magazine which was either "Education in Chemistry" or "Journal of Chemical Education" had an interesting game where you made as many words as possible (of four letters or more) from the symbols of the elements. The person who wrote the item said he'd got up to about 1450 different words.....
I spent a while doing it then got bored, however I did manage a 16-letter word and a 100 or so shorter ones. I will return to it..... I did it in a table in "word" so I don't get too confused about which ones I've got.
There are now 111 elements that have been named and if you search for "webelements" on Google you will find an up to date periodic table, unless of course you are lazy fluorine, uranium, carbon, potassium, erbium, sulfur!
Kevin
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:12 pm
by Kirk Bevins
Kevin Thurlow wrote:, unless of course you are lazy fluorine, uranium, carbon, potassium, erbium, sulfur!
Kevin
What??? American spellings?!? Grr...
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:19 pm
by Charlie Reams
Kirk Bevins wrote:What??? American spellings?!? Grr...
Sulfur is the technical spelling too, and Kevin is nothing if not technical. See also FOETUS.
Re: The Name Game
Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:07 pm
by Jon O'Neill
He's also technically a foetus?