question and answer thread.

Couldn't you just say "momolomomolomomolo...(etc.)", meaning it is an infinite number? And also, do the people have anything to do with this?

There are no infinite words as the engravings are finite and they would not have been able to analyze them otherwise (for example, a count of words is mentioned, and they could not count words if there were infinte info on the engravings -- well without a convenient black hole around for the Church-Turing trick :)). The names are meant to add color to an otherwise interesting problem :D.

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Originally posted by galathaea
There are no infinite words as the engravings are finite and they would not have been able to analyze them otherwise (for example, a count of words is mentioned, and they could not count words if there were infinte info on the engravings -- well without a convenient black hole around for the Church-Turing trick :)).

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Well yes I realize that, but if the following are in fact words:
momolo
momolomomolo
momolomomolomomolo
momolomomolomomolomomolo
momolomomolomomolomomolomomolo
...
Then how would you know when to stop? Or is there some information that I have missed that would prevent this impossibility?

But molomolmolo is the same word as ni. They are both meaning-neutral (as the Discordians discovered).

Quote:

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Originally posted by galathaea
But molomolmolo is the same word as ni. They are both meaning-neutral (as the Discordians discovered).

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But nowhere in the words listed above is "molomolomolo". Does this mean that those syllables need not be consecutive to be neutral?

Sorry for the misread... you are correct that sequence counts. But if you start applying the rules, you will notice that some of the words you listed are equivalent to words of a smaller size. The rules are the trick in this problem.

Now, to make it clear. I have checked this problem out several times while I was making it up to make sure that the rules were complete (unlike the farokabarwonhul problem -- I have that word forever etched my psyche), so I think everything is in order. If something is not, I will eat crow as soon as possible, but for the examples you listed, I know of some equivalent words, so that is not a problem here.

Good Luck!

As an addition on how to apply the rules, note the following which I should definitely have clarified. Syllable sequences define the meaning of words. In other words, since "momo" and "me" have equivalent meanings to each other, then "momolo" has equivalent meaning to "melo" (but not necessarily equivalent meaning to "momo"). And similarly, if "blah-blah-bloo" (made up here) is equivalent to "blah-bloo-blech-bloo", then "blah-blah" is equivalent to "blah-bloo-blech" (ie. you can remove appended syllables from a sequence on equivalence, but you cannot remove from inside a sequence except if the subsequence is meaning-neutral -- sequence is what matters here). I had tried to make that implicit, but I see that I may have done a poor job with that one. I'll add that to the accomplishments of Hermes...

Oh I get it... the appending thing helped,.
So now
lolo=molomolomolo
<=>
lo=molomolomo

So
momolo=momomolomolomo=lomolomo.

momolomomolo=momomolomolomomomomolomolomo
=lomolomolomolomo=lomo.

momolomomolomomolo=momomolomolomomomomolomolomomomomolomolomo=ni.

which makes a huge difference.

One final question, is "ni" a word?

Yes, ni counts as a word. It is meaning-neutral, but there is a meaning-neutral word. Good question, though...

you are asking
|{x,y: x^3=e, y^2=e, (xy)^3=e}|=?

Well, if you want to remove all of the great storyline and everything...

Oh, sorry. The story line was great. :D

uuuhhh... Hi guys sorry for being away such a long time but I was really sick... seems that I've missed a lot... What's been up! who's asking? what's the question?

If you haven't seen it yet, the last question was asked by me (its title is "a new one") just a few posts above. You should read the clarifications below it (as always, its one of those questions that needed some clarification) and souldog has distilled all the math out of it (well, along the group theoretical formulation, but there are of course others). I'll give it another day or two before I post a solution, since it is a pretty fun problem (in my opinion).

Too tired, can't think. Don't feel like counting either. G'night.