h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For a start I meant seven-and-a-half (dunno why I added an extra five) and even that was twice as long as necessary. Well done Marjin.

*kicks self*

And now for something completely different.

What is the longest word which can also be a hexadecimal numeral (consisting only of A, B, C, D, E, and F)?

FACE is one, but it can be much longer.

umm....
computergeeks? i shall have 2 call in extra help then.

a non-compie-geek anser could b DECADE (can we repeate letters? )... or DECAF !

Of course duplicates are allowed, otherwise the maximum would have been six by definition.

I never expected such a deafening silence when I had to leave for a day and a half after posting the question.
As a hint is difficult here, I will grant more time.

How about EFFACED?
I know its a bit of a con on EFFACE, and I don't know if its a real word. Other than that, I could only get 6 letter words - EFFACE, DECADE, FACADE.

Sorry, been busy.

BEADED
BEEFED (as in up)
DABBED
DEFACED
(yes! got seven)

Another 7er:
ACCEDED

But how's about:
DECABBED

Pushing it.

Don't know about "hexadecimal numerals" but I bet there's a milktoast bar for 'Sweet Nothing' types out there somewheres called the 'DEADFABCAFE' that serves the world's most innocuous coffee and they call it 'ABBA-FACED-DECAF'.
~j~

I knew there was one word of eight letters:
FABACEAE (a family of beans in some classifications)

With seven:
ACCEDED, BEDFACE (a word used in the building industry), DEFACED, and EFFACED.

I think I will ignore jwf's constructs. Good try though.

DECABBED is new for me, but I can imagine it as someone kicked out of a taxicab.

So congratulations, Belshazzar, you're next.

Perhaps we should have tried the longest intelligible sentence using A,B,C,D,E and F.

A BEE FACED A DEAD FAB CAFE.

Oh dear, I was afraid that might happen.

For this one we're going to need a time limit. Would 24 hours be OK, or is that too long/short?

You have to list all the English words containing all five vowels a, e, i, o and u. Not necessarily in that order, of course, and repetitions of vowels within the word are allowed. The winner is the last person within the time-frame to come up with a correct word that hasn't already appeared. The time now is 22:00 GMT

The tactic here would be to hold some over in reserve until just before this time tomorrow. I won't, though.

abstemious
facetious
(those are the two that have them in order)
gregarious
nefarious
questionable
cushionable (is that a word?)
unfashionable (that is)
un- everything I mention that can have un- stuck on the beginning.
devaluation, revaluation

24 hours should do fine for me.

To give a start:

The shortest words with the five vowels in any order are SEQUOIA, EULOGIA, MIAOUED, ADOULIE, EUCOSIA, EUNOMIA, EUTOPIA, MOINEAU, and DOULEIA. DOULEIA is an alternate spelling of DULIA (a form of veneration of saints)

The shortest word with the vowels in alphabetical order is CAESIOUS (light blue), with eight letters. Some other such words are ACHEILOUS, ACHEIROUS, AEROBIOUS, ARSENIOUS, ARTERIOUS, AUTECIOUS, ABSTEMIOUS, ANNELIDOUS, PARECIOUS, and FACETIOUS.

There are more of course, but this may give an idea of the problems or possibilities.

I thought of that tactic, but it also carries the risk that someone else will come up with your word first.

A DEBEADED BEE BEDDED A DECABBED .. huh, say wot?
Oh, sorry.

Ay,ee! I owe you.

peace
~j~

So Marjin wins.

I jotted down:
education
euphoria
precarious
pneumonia
ambidextrous
adventitious (correct order but blemished by repetition)
unequivocal
sacrilegious

- and of course there are lots more.

Me again?

That breakdown of the server yesterday around the deadline must have frustrated those who wanted to wait until the last second.

Ok, I will start looking for a question.

Ok, here we go.

There is a circular jail with 100 cells numbered 1-100. Each cell has an inmate and the door is locked. One night the jailor gets drunk and starts running around the jail in circles. In his first round he opens each door. In his second round he visits every 2nd door (2,4,6---) and shuts the door. In the 3rd round he visits every 3rd door (3,6,9---) and if the door is shut he opens it, if it is open he shuts it. This continues for 100 rounds (i.e. 4,8,12 ---; 5,10,15 ---; ---; 49,98 etc.) and exhausted the jailor falls down.
The prisoners in which cells found their doors open after 100 rounds?

After doing the first few numbers I thinked I've worked this out - if not I'm sure you'll let me know :

Open door numbers will be 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100.

That is only the square numbers as all other numbers will have only equal 'pairs' of factors resulting in the door opening and closing. Because these are square numbers the square root of the number will open the door but the other factor is the same number and so won't close it again...