NPR puzzle

[Charles Hartman]

On Jul 20, 2005, at 6:26 PM, Sarah Reichelt wrote:

> You can either go through the word list and see if any match the  
> elements, or you could go through the element list, making  
> combinations and matching them to the words. I discarded this idea  
> because the maths involved in working out all the permutations &  
> combinations has long since flowed out of my brain, but I wonder if  
> anyone else thought of using this method? Instinctively I feel it  
> would take longer, but there are 3620 words and only 97 elements.

If I remember right, that would be 97! / 5! x (97-5)!. And that -- if  
I'm *also* getting the arithmetic right -- would mean 64,446,024 ten- 
letter words to check. Looks like everyone's instinct to go the other  
way was sound.


Charles Hartman
Professor of English, Poet in Residence
Connecticut College
charles.hartman at conncoll.edu
*the Scandroid* is at cherry.conncoll.edu/cohar/Programs.htm