Nine letter word challenge...

[Blinky]

This is top secret research for my daughter's homework... I'm not 100% sure if the instructions are right but here goes...

What nine letter word remains a word as you take letters away one at a time until you get down to one letter? I assume you can rearrange the letters each time you remove one. It would have to have 'a' or 'i' in it because it would have to be one of those when you get down to one letter.

Put yer noodles to work and get back to me.

 

[No_Bivy]

I too dumb

 

[Blinky]

Me too.
Thas why I'm acksing.

 

[No_Bivy]

Doh...

 

[lumberjack]

Oooh I know!

 

[Blinky]

Oooh I know!

Well? Give it up, girl's gotta finish her homework!

 

[lumberjack]

Oh, I thought you knew and were testing us?


Highlight below for the answer.
Startling

 

[Blinky]

YOU ROCK!

Thank you.


...did you uh... just like, know that already, or did you look it up?

 

[Newfie]

http://www.snopes.com/language/puzzlers/9letters.asp


The solution.

 

[lumberjack]

I knew it already, although I didn't derive the answer the first time either.

 

[Che]

Your daughter should be the one googling. No offense meant.

 

[Che]

• startling
• remove the l, and the word becomes: starting
• remove one t, and the word becomes: staring
• remove the a, and the word becomes: string
• remove the r, and the word becomes: sting
• remove the other t, and the word becomes: sing
• remove the g, and the word becomes: sin
• remove the s, and the word becomes: in
• remove the n, and the word becomes: I

 

[Blinky]

Your daughter should be the one googling. No offense meant.

That's why I was doing it... she wasn't allowed... but yeah, she generally has to do her own hunting. This one had us stumped so I decided to try the house first... There's some smarticle people here.

 

[Che]

She wasn't allowed? She was supposed to figure it out on her own (no internet searches)???

Glad I'm out of school now. I'd flunk.

 

[MasterBlaster]

THat's silly.

 

[Newfie]

I'm curious as to what the point of such an assignment would be? In the greater scheme of things it seems pointless and time consuming.

 

[NeTree]

Just like everything else in schools today.

 

[Newfie]

Probably part of "no child left behind". If they all come out ignorant then no one gets left behind. Right?

 

[NeTree]

Yup.

Shame, ain't it?

 

[Blinky]

Don't get me started on schools and homework... it will make my ranting about Palestinians look trivial.

It is routine at this school for the science and math teachers to assign puzzles as weekend homework. The idea is they are brain teasers so using the net to suss them out isn't allowed. I don't even know if they get credit for it.

But look at it this way, we wind up with a bunch of smart, practically savant kids like say... Lumberjack!

 

[lumberjack]

If it was for extra credit, and was in an advanced class* that is an advanced course, I could see it's purpose, but that's stretching a bit.


*: I was in MERIT, a class with no single accademic focus like Math/Science/English. We did alot of problem solving, playing in the stock market, computer programing (BASIC when we were in 3-5th grade), went on trips to DC, Gatlin Burg, NY, Texas/Mexico ect). Basically a think tank type class.

 

[Mr. Sir]

I'm curious as to what the point of such an assignment would be? In the greater scheme of things it seems pointless and time consuming.

Maybe the teacher wants the students to actually THINK, rather than pointing, clicking, copying, and pasting? What a concept, huh? :roll:

 

[Blinky]

If it was for extra credit, and was in an advanced class* that is an advanced course, I could see it's purpose, but that's stretching a bit.


*: I was in MERIT, a class with no single accademic focus like Math/Science/English. We did alot of problem solving, playing in the stock market, computer programing (BASIC when we were in 3-5th grade), went on trips to DC, Gatlin Burg, NY, Texas/Mexico ect). Basically a think tank type class.

She's in an academically gifted program and this particular puzzle was given by an AG math teacher. Whatever they're doing there, it's better than what I had... but I hate how much homework they dump on my kids. They hardly have time to just be kids anymore. I'm on the fence about AG programs, I like the way they challenge kids to reach higher but the VOLUME of work is way over the top.

We had to stop my daughter from diving for the first 6 weeks of sixth grade because she couldn't do all her homework. When I looked at her grade sheets in math and reading she was getting either 98-100 or a zero on every assignment. In other words, she knew the material but she couldn't keep up with the volume.

 

[Newfie]

Maybe the teacher wants the students to actually THINK, rather than pointing, clicking, copying, and pasting? What a concept, huh? :roll:

I have no problem with thinking. I think kids are not taught to do enough of it. This isn't so much a "puzzle" or an exercise in thinking, but rather an exercise in repeated trial and error with millions of possible letter combinations before stumbling across the correct answer.

How would you solve this puzzle, using a logical thought process? I guess when you need the correct size bolt for a project you just keep trying one until it fits or would you (think) and measure?

I'm truly interested in what sort of "concept" you have in mind.

 

[TC3]

My son was invited to be in a 'gifted' program and said, "Hell no! Why would I want to double my homework load ?"
Schools change their teaching strategies based on past blunders and tell parents, "We've started a new program and we're all very excited about it !" Total bs.

A bookkeeper was bored with numbers and started scouring the dictionary for an English word that has three sets of double letters back-to-back.
He only found 1.......
Know what it is ?

I sucked at story problems in school. Too many details to keep track of. Ugh !!! LOL