Word War: Newsletter Challenge (March 2020)

Max (most) dim (unclear) has the most unclear meaning, so (pause see out) side, and we have (cat dog has tag) = pause see out side = pawscout = pet GPS collar.

Word Pawscout.

(each a piece of paper with one letter from one of the words.)

Pawscout = Answer tag.

At the end of the question there is an emphasis on the time taken, the emphasis being that they took time, (paused) to (see out) the answer.

The letter was possibly "a", so they had to pause and think logically.

Logical thinking? “a”. Cat (max = and most likely) has tag. Answer dog.

Logical thinking? “a”. Cat (max = and most likely) has tag.

most likely with "a" is the tag given to the students? Answer cat.

PS.

Donald knows that the teacher has a cat named max?

Cat has max tag = name tag? therefore cat has name tag "a". Answer cat.

Bravo, and in only three hours.

Using the number of times a letter appears, You just used a procedure for cryptologist use to break code... kudos...

Congratulations, you responded before I was able to highlight the error in post 2 about there being 2 x "d" (Dog and Dim), but there was no way that I would have got the solution that you suggest. Maybe I need to go back to school.

Though I believe that some interpretation of the question as posed would eliminate "dog" since from your reply that would have two letters from the word distributed among the three students.

Good thinking - GA. You made some English errors though:

"which appear only ones once in the new list. So, this shortens the list to the first to two words ("cat" or "dog")."

You're right.

Good catch, good analysis, good answer!

Catdog...

Who's eliminating the words? None of the students know what the other student has guessed, except the third student, who by deductive reasoning has concluded that for the first two students to say they knew the word, the letter they received would be used only once, in one word....They are all guessing at the same word....That word would have to be has, as it is the only word with two single use letters...there can't be two possibilities for the third student to say he knows the word...

Do you think a teacher would give a letter that is only used once, or do you think she would be requiring logical thinking? Sorry just realised a letter surrounded by once used letters? Do you think she logically selected the order she ask the students, has that anything to do with the answer you think?

Only so far as the student with 'a' used in more than one word, would not yield a definitive answer without the first two students answering in the affirmative...so the 'h' and 's' are interchangeable as long as they are in the first two slots...In order for each of the three students to know the word, there has to be only one possibility...Given the words allocated there can only be one possibility of all three students knowing the word....

Rumpelstiltskin...

An even shorter sentence using all 26 letters is "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs."

If there are 3 students, I guess the word "my" is out...

The answer came immediately to Donald because as an agnostic dyslexic insomniac he often lies awake at night wondering if there is a dog.

Donald "replies yes without hesitating"

Nobody knows what single letter each student got. The OP doesn't state that the three letters were from the same word.

The word is YES. It is the answer provided by all 3 students, and the only answer some teachers accept.

DOG

There is only one unique letter that stands out so strongly that Donald can guess the word "without hesitation." That is letter X. Other letters like C may be unique but would take a few seconds to make sure. Elizabeth only has to verify that her letter is compatible with X, and found in "max," to know what the word is. Her letter doesn't even have to be unique. Same with Fred.

The word is max.

The question is for a one word answer . It doesn’t want an explanation .

You're right that the answer is one word. I prefer to show my work because that is the only way to be understood and believed. When you posted your answer, "dog", did you choose it logically, pick it at random, have a voice in your head pick it for you, find the answer somewhere on the net, or follow the lead of the other person who chose that word? Since I don't know how how you got to "dog", I neither understand nor believe you.

There would have to be two single use letters for the first two students to answer that they knew the word, and the third was based on the first two knowing...

has.. h or s were the first two letters, and a was the third....

S.E.'s answer is the simplest and is based on straight forward logic. I would have given it 2 "Good" votes if it would have let me. The word is has.

No matter what 3 letters you get, you can make one of 5 words! except 'has'...

The first reply came quick so he no doubt had a 'h' or 's' he had letters that were only in one word, with the first reply so quick the others would just be confirming they has one of the other 2 letters in the word, the person with the 'a' would have taken the longest if they were the second in line!

There are unstated conditions in this poser for us to ascertain which of the six words the teacher wants the students to select. What if the letters given to the students are not unique? The poser does not stipulate that duplicate letters were not given to students. It still fits the given conditions that the same letter was given to all three students. The teacher was actually testing for the intellect of the students. Only Donald was sharp as a tack. We only know that "tag" was not the word anyone selected.

There is also the possibility the teacher was testing for peer pressure susceptibility in Elizabeth and Fred by giving only Donald a word identifying letter and those two failed the test.

The conditions to exclude my two propositions are reasonable to assume but they conditions are still an assumption.

Answer is the word "has".

Some great discussion on this one -- answer is now posted.

Sorry to appear argumentative, but is the answer provided an apparent self fulfilling prophesy? There seem to be other unique solutions that are suggested and supported by similar logic that would also become self fulfilling.

In other words, are there multiple correct answers dependant on the start condition that is presented to Donald?

cat dog has max dim tag

142 212 141 241 212 242

The only word that anyone could determine/know for sure is ‘has’

It’s the only word that 2 of the 3 people could definitely know because they had one of the letters that there is only 1 of and thereby the only word it could be.