This phrase has thirty letters

1986/10/01 Goñi, Jesus Mari | Etxeberria, J. Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Matematika

Finalize the holidays of Alicia. As we arrived home our muse we felt renewed and the inspiration we needed to resume the subject we had left has awakened us.

This phrase consists of thirty letters that ended with the article of Mathematical Games before summer. This phrase is presented as a rare and terrible beast before summer. As a beast we believed in your choice to become the summer serpent, but it has not been so. It has not been for lack of reason. However, hidden and unavoidable interests have avoided with all merit the place of honor that this phrase should occupy. Anyway, it's better not to follow that path any longer...

This phrase consists of thirty letters, thirty letters. This is where the rarity and fear referred to in this phrase are hidden. What the phrase says is something of itself and also faithfully fulfills what it says of itself.

Let's compare these three sentences:

Yesterday it rained in Donostia. This phrase has two a.
• This phrase has four a.

These three sentences can be divided into two groups: on the one hand, the criterion we have used in this classification by letters a) has been that of those who speak of themselves and not. Sentence a) says something about what is happening in the world. The phrases b) and c) tell us about themselves. In the second classification we can distinguish the phrases b) and c) depending on what is said or not. b) fulfills what he says about himself. Phrase c) does not meet what it says.

This phrase has two a, it has two a.

This phrase consists of four a, it has no four letters a, but three.

The game we propose in this article is as follows: to see if you are able to devise more phrases of type b).

This game can be carried out in two ways. In the following two: in a totally free way, inventing the phrases that everyone wants, or in a guided way. In this way, the unfinished phrases created by others are requested to be properly completed. For example: In this phrase there is ... e . Here it is requested to enter the name of a number. Once the name of this number is entered, the phrase must fulfill what it says about itself.

The solution in this case is to replace in that gap the name four of number 4. In this sentence there are four e, since it meets the required requirements. This second form of game is more difficult and interesting than the other. As we like naughty and complicated things, we propose you to go deeper into this path.

In the next step we propose a phrase with two gaps.

This phrase consists of ... and ... u.

Or this other

In this phrase are a and

The path we have opened in this way offers many possibilities to propose new games, so, we have passed from a single letter, better said of a single vowel, to a vowel.

There is no reason not to raise this number, and the difficulty that appears as it rises will be increasing.

As a competition we propose two games:

Invent a phrase of this type that includes the five vowels.
• Invent a phrase of this type that includes the largest number of letters possible.

A request. Please write us with some solution, because we do not know the solutions of those games we propose, and when we arrive at the time of completing the following number, we will find ourselves in a critical situation. Those who publish the magazine Elhuyar are very strict and if they realize what we have acted quickly (propose problems without knowing the resolution), they are able to memorize the whole magazine. In addition, every day they will force us to go to their office so that every day we can recite a memory page, if we want to get the sosos that pay us.

Please write us by sending us a solution. If not, we will be dismissed from this trade, and you will be the ones who will lose the most in this matter, because we are sure that the following will be much worse than us.