Problem 42. Find the alphabetic word product

Created by Cody Team

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Last Solution submitted on Nov 30, 2022

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Jason Friedman on 27 Jan 2012

For the bonus question (on OSX):

words= textread('/usr/share/dict/words','%s');

for k=1:numel(words)
wordprod(k) = word_product(words{k});
end
[~,i] = min(abs(wordprod-1000000));
words{i}
wordprod(i)

% curing with word product of 1000188

Everett Rubel on 14 Oct 2012

For the bonus question, we can rule out any number that has a prime factor greater than 26 (z). The product found by Jason Friedman is the first number greater than 10^6 that does not have such a prime factor. The product 999856 is the largest number less than 10^6 to be part of a possible solution.

Krzysztof on 5 Jun 2013

I like playing with strings and ASCII table ;)

Jon on 4 Dec 2013

Everett appears to miss the fact that 1000000 has no prime factors above 26, and Jason's dictionary doesn't seem to include obsolete words. 'tetty' scores a perfect 1000000.

John D'Errico on 20 Aug 2016

Well, if you happen to know someone named 'BettyJ', thus a first name of Betty, last initial J, this works: word_product('BettyJ').

arda ertuna on 20 May 2019

Could you send me the answer?
I had benn worked for 1 week but Icouldnt find answer. İf anyone solves Please send answer. Really I need it.

Maryam HCTRAK Yousef on 29 Aug 2020

Nice problem

A C on 15 Dec 2020

Can you give me a hint on how to program the bonus question? I used factor but that is not a good way.

Joel Hottinger on 8 Jul 2021

If we can include multiple words in our bonus answer, the word "tea" 3 times scores perfect. n = 'teateatea'

Solution Comments

Solution 1373572

1 Comment

1 Comment

Toolman Thoolen on 8 Dec 2017

easy ;)

Solution 1144176

2 Comments

2 Comments

Stephen Cook on 23 Mar 2017

'curing' returns 1000188.

Stephen Cook on 23 Mar 2017

Closest 10 words are 'curing', 'Nicaragua', 'comers', 'Moors', 'rooms', 'banquet', 'Arkansas', 'sulks', 'alkaline' and 'Canaveral'.

Solution 1027630

1 Comment

1 Comment

Ian Harrison on 22 Oct 2016

Words that make 1000,000, tetty and typey apparently, :)

Solution 966242

1 Comment

1 Comment

David Browne on 5 Oct 2016

Very clever way of converting to a number

Solution 961055

1 Comment

1 Comment

Jim Myers on 6 Sep 2016

closest I can get is 'curing', 188 away.

Solution 586326

1 Comment

1 Comment

Sandy Rogers on 22 Feb 2015

'god' equals 420.

Solution 253343

1 Comment

1 Comment

Martin on 3 Jun 2013

large but working ;-)

Solution 181405

2 Comments

2 Comments

Youssef Khmou on 24 Dec 2012

'j' corresponds to 10 according to the code above so, the word that gives exaclty 1E+6 is 'jjjjjj'
% word_product('jjjjjj')=1E+6

Sylvain on 13 Mar 2013

I don't think that 'jjjjjj' is really a word...

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Problem 42. Find the alphabetic word product

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