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Topic: Geographical endings. (Read 966 times) |
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Noke Lieu
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Geographical endings.
« on: May 6th, 2007, 7:19pm » |
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My Neighbours kids are really nice. Yesterday, over a cup of tea in the garden, we played a word game that most of you would have played. Someone says a word, the last letter of which is the first letter of the next word. First person to repeat a word loses.
We played it with animals, but I learnt it many years ago with countries.
What's the longest game of geographical ending one can play (using current countries {in English})?
What's the shortest?
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jollytall
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #1 on: May 6th, 2007, 11:32pm » |
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I used the Windows phone location country list in English.
The shortest.
I - Australia
You - Australia (failed).
The shortest forced (I found).
I - Hungary
You - Yemen
I - Norway
You - Yemen again (failed)
If it is not a Me and You game, but in a larger round, and the first two help each other then it can be shorter:
First - Yemen
Second - Norway
Third - Yemen again (failed)
I don't think a shorter is possible:
For all letters of the English alphabet has a country starting with, except X. There is no country ending with X, so this way the one step kill is impossible.
There are four countries strating with a unique letter (Oman, Quatar, Wallis and Futuna and Yemen). All end with a common letter, nothing can be self repeated and there are plenty to continue after.
There are few where a unique letter name can get to a common one that can take you back to the same unique. So three is the shortest (or four if you do not want to kill yourself).
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Noke Lieu
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #2 on: May 7th, 2007, 12:07am » |
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Yep, the Yn-Ny-Yn was the one I thought of (using Wiki-list-of-countries)
Wallis and Futuna, sure.
And Wales.
(and Wake Island).
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jollytall
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #3 on: May 7th, 2007, 12:30am » |
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Wales is still part of the United Kingdom 
Anyway, I used the windows phone list and there is only Wallis and Futuna in it.
YemeN is the only country that can be used. The other three unique letter countries all end with a letter, where there is no way back to the same country again. From N the only country is NorwaY to go back to Y. So not only no shorter exists, but even the same length is not possible otherwise.
(Of course in the two people game, the first country can be many to force the opponent into YemeN).
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azalia
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #4 on: May 7th, 2007, 7:55am » |
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It really depends on what list you use and what you call each country, but I came up with 64 for a long list.
I did this manually, and made a couple mistakes along the way, so longer is probably very doable.
BANGLADESH : HAITI : ISRAEL : LUXEMBOURG: GIBRALTAR : RWANDA : AFGHANISTAN : NAURU : UKRAINE : ECUADOR : RÉUNION : NEPAL : LAOS : SENEGAL : LEBANON : NETHERLANDS : SINGAPORE : EGYPT : TUVALU : UNITED KINGDOM : MONTSERRAT : TOGO : OMAN : NETHERLANDS ANTILLES : SOMALIA: ALBANIA: ALGERIA: AMERICAN SAMOA: ANDORRA : ANGOLA : ANGUILLA : ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA : ARGENTINA : ARMENIA : ARUBA : AUSTRALIA : AUSTRIA : ALAND ISLANDS: SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES : SEYCHELLES : SOLOMON ISLANDS : SOUTH GEORGIA AND THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS : SPAIN : NIGER : RUSSIAN FEDERATION : NEW ZEALAND : DJIBOUTI: ICELAND : DENMARK : KUWAIT : TURKMENISTAN: NORWAY : YEMEN : NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS : SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC : CZECH REPUBLIC : COMOROS : SWITZERLAND : DOMINICAN REPUBLIC : CYPRUS : SURINAME : EL SALVADOR : ROMANIA
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azalia
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #5 on: May 7th, 2007, 8:08pm » |
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Unfortunately, that list has quite a few countries that are actually just territories. I tried coming up with a list of just countries, and that shortened my final list to 55 (plus one for whatever loser country is added)
Bangladesh, Haiti, Israel, Laos, Spain, Niger, Romania, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Nauru, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Lesotho, Oman, New Zealand, Djibouti, Ireland, Denmark, Kiribati, Iceland, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, Central African Republic, Comoros, Senegal, Luxembourg, Guinea-Bissau, United Arab Emirates, Solomon Islands, Syrian Arab Republic, Cyprus, Seychelles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Ecuador, Russian Federation, Norway, Yemen, Netherlands, Suriname, Egypt, Timor-Leste, El Salvador, Rwanda
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Noke Lieu
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pen... paper... let's go! (and bit of plastic)
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Re: Geographical endings.
« Reply #6 on: May 9th, 2007, 5:56pm » |
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nice work. 55 out of 200... (although I had little issue with the previous 64)
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