c4countdown

BRAINS + U = BANSURI
BRAINS + M = MINBARS

BANSURI + M = MINBARS + U = URBANISM. Which is pretty neat.

But also, BANSURI + E = URBANISE, and URBANISE+M = URBANISM+E = SUBMARINE!

Cool, a lattice! You can recognise a lattice as a pattern that fits together with a start (BRAINS), an end (SUBMARINE) and has no other dead ends.

Obvious question: what's the biggest lattice? You're entitled to use solvers or any other tricks you like in this game.

Obviously David O'Donnell can't find lattices so he's not allowed to enter this game.

That's pretty cool. Bastard hard work to find one manually though.

Do you know the answer?

Jon Corby wrote:Do you know the answer?

Nope. I found the initial one manually by messing about with the Stemmer, and I noticed you could add SUBMARINE when I was sitting back smuggly with URBANISE/URBANISM and Innis hit me with SUBMARINE

Interesting. Are we only considering complete lattices (every possible link exists) or are we allowed to leave links out as long as what's left is still a lattice?

Clearly we need a reverse stemmer - although maybe that takes the fun out of it (these are quite neat, although I'm still debating strategies).

Michael Wallace wrote:Clearly we need a reverse stemmer

There we go, at least someone agrees with me, even if it's Raccoon Boy.

Kai Laddiman wrote:There we go, at least someone agrees with me, even if it's Raccoon Boy.

Raccoon Boy?

I don't know if this counts because at least one of the words (AMOSITE) has alternative anagrams (ATOMIES and ATOMISE):

That's pretty good.

Charlie Reams wrote:That's pretty good.

Thank you

There's got be at least one lattice for a 4-letter word and even a 3-letter word, but haven't found one yet.

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:That's pretty good.

Thank you

There's got be at least one lattice for a 4-letter word and even a 3-letter word, but haven't found one yet.

Srsly? Took me about 5 seconds to come up with DOG -> DONG/DOGS -> DONGS. And mine even has a synonym for penis.

Charlie Reams wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:There's got be at least one lattice for a 4-letter word and even a 3-letter word, but haven't found one yet.

Srsly? Took me about 5 seconds to come up with DOG -> DONG/DOGS -> DONGS. And mine even has a synonym for penis.

Or even SIN -> SINE/PINS -> PENIS. No synonym required.

A AS/AT SAT SEAT/STAR STARE ASTERN/SATIRE RETSINA PAINTERS/ANGRIEST TRAPESING

Just read this properly. Thought it was too easy! Back to the drawing board!

Charlie Reams wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:That's pretty good.

Thank you

There's got be at least one lattice for a 4-letter word and even a 3-letter word, but haven't found one yet.

Srsly? Took me about 5 seconds to come up with DOG -> DONG/DOGS -> DONGS. And mine even has a synonym for penis.

I always start with a 9-letter word and see how far back I can get the lattice to (it makes it more challenging )

What I actually meant was that there has to be at least one 3 to 9-letter word lattice and one 4 to 9-letter word lattice

David Williams wrote:A AS/AT SAT SEAT/STAR STARE ASTERN/SATIRE RETSINA PAINTERS/ANGRIEST TRAPESING

Just read this properly. Thought it was too easy! Back to the drawing board!

Works for me. It's pretty easy to come up with long ones, it's the wide ones that are harder.

*eagerly awaits reply from Phil Reynolds*

Charlie Reams wrote: Obviously David O'Donnell can't find lattices so he's not allowed to enter this game.

You bastard, you're never going to let that lie ... are you?

David Williams wrote:A AS/AT SAT SEAT/STAR STARE ASTERN/SATIRE RETSINA PAINTERS/ANGRIEST TRAPESING

Just read this properly. Thought it was too easy! Back to the drawing board!

This doesn't break the rules; I thought TRAPESING might be a misspelling but it turns out it's an acceptable alternative.

Charlie Reams wrote:Works for me. It's pretty easy to come up with long ones, it's the wide ones that are harder.

*eagerly awaits reply from Phil Reynolds*

Credit me with some sophistication, please.

This is my my best effort. Entirely hand-constructed, although working through a lattice of that size gave me some ideas on how it could be done automatically with some efficiency. I think the most satisfying bit was finding the line A/AN/SAN/ANUS/MANUS/ANIMUS/SURAMIN/URBANISM, because it looked for a while like I wouldn't be able to hook all that back into the main lattice.

Notice that I didn't bother to pursue the other four branches from A because my paper was running out and my brain was about to explode, but there's no doubt some other good stuff to be found in those regions if anyone else cares to explore. Oh, and if you're willing to go up to 10 then adding SUBMARINES to the end probably introduces a lot more possibilities too.

Wow Charlie exploded

*awaits response from Phil Reynolds

How about this (although I have probably made a mistake somewhere ):

Joseph Bolas wrote:How about this (although I have porbably made a mistake somewhere ):

There.

Kai Laddiman wrote:

Joseph Bolas wrote:How about this (although I have porbably made a mistake somewhere ):

There.

I did mean the (now redesigned) lattice

A
AS AT
SEA SAT ANT
SEAR SEAT ANTS ANTI
RAGES STARE ANTES STAIN PAINT
GRATES ASTERN TISANE PAINTS
STRANGE RETSINA PANTIES
ANGRIEST PAINTERS
TRAPESING

Quite poetic!

Damn. That doesn't work.

(tries again)
I think that one works.