Trackword(s) for you to solve

[Mike Lewis]

OK, I've gone as far as I can with my Trackword-solving program. (And thanks to all those who came up with their own programs or contributed ideas.) So now I thought I would give you a trackword or two to actually solve.

The aim here is not to discuss automated ways of solving it. It is simply to solve the puzzle.

The rules: Starting from any cell in the 3 x 3 grid, you can and move through the grid one cell at a time, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, visiting each cell only once. Your job is:
[ul][li]To find the nine-letter word.[/li]
[li]To find as many words as possible of three or more letters. Abbreviations, proper nouns and foreign words not nornmally used in English are all disallowed.[/li][/ul]

I found 23 words, all of which are in Chambers Dictionary (2003 edition).

Hint: The nine-letter word is one that will be familiar to everyone in this forum.

Have fun,

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[strongm]

My program solved it. Does that count?

 

[Mike Lewis]

My program solved it. Does that count?

Definitely. How many words did you get?

Mike

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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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[strongm]

52 altogether BUT that's becasue I am still using the english3 wordlist which, as we know, contains abbreviations and proper nouns.

 

[strongm]

And with a 2019 copy of SOWPODS (essentially the Collins dictionary), I get 50

 

[Rick C. Hodgin]

The rules: Starting from any cell in the 3 x 3 grid, you can and move through the grid one cell at a time, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, visiting each cell only once. Your job is:
[li]To find the nine-letter word.
To find as many words as possible of three or more letters. Abbreviations, proper nouns and foreign words not nornmally used in English[/li] are all disallowed.

[pre]MTI
HGR
LAO[/pre]

I'm not sure I understand the rules. Is it: Starting from M, I could theoretically go to T, then I, R, G, H, L, A, O. Or again from M, I could instead go to H, G, T, I, R, O, A, L, etc. And from G, I could go to M, T, I, R, O, A, L, H, etc. And likewise from every cell to any paths that can be taken which reach all letters, or even paths that terminate before reaching all letters?

Is that correct? Basically to exhaust every possible path from every cell in the 3x3 grid? And am I seeing how many words I can find like "MTHLAGIRO" I could see "LAG" in there? Or is it just words counted beginning from the starting point?

--
Rick C. Hodgin

 

[strongm]

Rick you'll find a longer discussion about the origins of this in thread1551-1811770

 

[Mike Lewis]

Rick,

I hope the thread that Strongm referenced will answer your question.

But just to pick up your point 'And am I seeing how many words I can find like "MTHLAGIRO"'. Well, no, because MTHLAGIRO is not a word. But LAG and perhaps GIRO would be allowed.

And remember, you can start from any cell. So, for example, you could start from H and get HAG and HART. But you wouldn't get any words starting from M, because there are no words that begin with MH, or MG or MT (as far as I know).

I hope this makes sense. What's interesting about this kind of puzzle is that there are usually far more valid words than appears at first glance.

Mike

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Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

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