Ape to Man doublet

bothyhead · 23-08-2008 4:26pm #1

The doublet is supposed to have been invented by Lewis Carroll - the objective is to change one word into another by just changing one letter at a time. One famous example he gave was to change 'Ape' into 'Man'.

This is exactly the same as what's happening in the 'Change a letter game' thread; except, here the aim is for all steps to be shown in a single post.

The winner is the person who can do it in the least number of steps.

Enjoy!

one-angry-dwarf · 23-08-2008 8:20pm

here goes

APE
are
arm
aim
rim
ram
ran
MAN

7 steps. so far i'm the winner by default. yeeeeaaaa!

Dizzyblonde · 23-08-2008 9:10pm

ape
are
mar
man

That's 3 moves

Teg Veece · 25-08-2008 9:30am

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

ape
are
mar
man

That's 3 moves

I think when the op said that you can only change one letter, he also implied that you can't shift the other letters.
So "are" to "mar" would be changing 3 letters.

Otherwise you could just go
ape
map
man

Dizzyblonde · 25-08-2008 11:18am

25-08-2008 12:01pm

Ape
Apt
Opt
Oat
Mat
Man

5 steps :cool:

bothyhead · 25-08-2008 2:29pm

Davion Hot Bulldog wrote: »

Ape
Apt
Opt
Oat
Mat
Man

5 steps :cool:

Yeah, that's the accepted answer, I think. (Google)

Spike440 · 25-08-2008 2:33pm

I like this:

Try "lead" to "gold".

I can do it in 3.

The Thinker · 25-08-2008 2:50pm

lead
load
goad
gold

The Thinker · 25-08-2008 2:52pm

warm to cold in 4??

Spike440 · 25-08-2008 3:15pm

WARM
WORM
WORD
CORD
COLD

25-08-2008 3:35pm

The Thinker wrote: »

warm to cold in 4??

Alternatively.....

Warm
Ward
Card
Cord
Cold

25-08-2008 3:37pm

bothyhead wrote: »

Yeah, that's the accepted answer, I think. (Google)

Whats the point in Googling the answer to something like that when it's much more fun to try and do it yourself?

bothyhead · 25-08-2008 3:53pm

I agree whole-heartedly. I used a well-known example just to get the ball rolling.

KnifeWRENCH · 25-08-2008 4:49pm

Try HAND to FOOT in 5 steps or less.

Spike440 · 25-08-2008 5:05pm

HAND
HIND
FIND
FOND
FOOD
FOOT

Spike440 · 25-08-2008 5:12pm

PRINCE TO PAUPER

I can do it in 7 if we're allowing dropping/adding a letter as a step (e.g. please to lease).

KnifeWRENCH · 25-08-2008 5:45pm

Spike440 wrote: »

HAND
HIND
FIND
FOND
FOOD
FOOT

Nicely done!

My way was slightly different.

HAND
BAND
BOND
FOND
FOOD
FOOT

rgiller · 26-08-2008 11:04am

square_igloo wrote: »

Nicely done! My way was slightly different.
HAND
BAND
BOND
FOND
FOOD
FOOT

How about this:

Hand
Hard
Hart
Fart
Fort
Foot

bothyhead · 26-08-2008 11:41am

Spike440 wrote: »

PRINCE TO PAUPER

I can do it in 7 if we're allowing dropping/adding a letter as a step (e.g. please to lease).

No, deletions or insertions are not allowed.

Mellor · 04-09-2008 11:52pm

The short ones are generall esy, like lead to gold
since we know that lea must change, its min of 3 moves and all moves are given, l-g-, e-o, a-l
just get the order, longer ones like that ape to man are better as its less obvious

bothyhead · 05-09-2008 9:44am

Martin Gardner has done an interesting study on this.

(I'm assuming he's the same guy who wrote the mathematical puzzles for Scientific American)

http://books.google.ie/books?id=I9oVP8TlyqIC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=martin+gardner+doublet&source=web&ots=JMKmy9yDN_&sig=EcofzVjduJv39C6H8EI7qt3Zans&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Ape to Man doublet

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