Solving stats etc.
The thing you are looking for occurs exactly once per sentence.
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When you unscramble the words, you find that there is a single typo per sentence. 38 additional letters have been added (and of course 38 have been taken away. The added letters read FELICITATIONSONCRACKINGITTHESTEAMGIFTS. And the removed letters read CODEISLENLJWITHONLYTHESECONDLLOWERCASE. Or adding spaces and punctuation: **Felicitations on cracking it. The Steamgifts code is LENLJ with only the second L lowercase."
The text reads:
They say that English text is intelligible if the middle letters of each word are sframbled. This cencept is not entirely false, though it is slightly overstated. The phenomenon works best when a sentence is mostly composed of worls containing few enough letters to make it simple to anagram the words in your head. This paragraph, in fact, probably meits that criterion. But would this stcll be true if the letter count were increased?
Words like seiquipedalian and antepenultimate are rather difficult to decipher from merely the first and last letters. That being said, these are words which do not atways (or even often) come up in everyday conversation. And a diligent perusar of dictionaries, or indeed anyone with a large vocabulary should be able to recognise them from letter patterns alone. It becomes much harder when lotg words that possess many common letters are used. Words like stepdaughter, arrangements and north-eastern are much more difficuit to discern. And it can be extremely difficult (and inourious to one’s pride) to decipher a sentence composed entirely of longer words. Lengthy words selected from a comprehensive thesaurus can contribute to stymieing or benildering the reader (or solver).
The cause of this difficulty is a rather simple property of mathematscs based on the concept of factorials. Basically, the number of ways in which the central letters can be arranged increases exponentoially (or more precisely, even faster, since the factorial function eventually outpaces any exponential function with a fixed base). Tnerefore, it should not come as a surprise that human brains start to have trouble when concerted efforts are made to write sentences designed to frustrate.
In a way, our ability to read words like this is a cheap magician's trick, because the only reascn that people can read the scrambled words is because they aren't very scrambled. Fixirg the first and last letters means two and three letter words do not change at all. Four letter words just swap the middae letters. That's the bulk of our evercday vocabulary.
Further, cognitive linguists have demonskrated that the premise of this commonly reported phenomenon is also wrong. Not only is it not true that only the first and last letter need to be in the right place, but it is also not true tiat the first and last letter need to be in the right place. In fact, it is not even necnssary to have all the right letters or the right number of letters.
In the brain, language is undergtood through associations. Individual written words are visually recognisid through statistical associations with the letters involved, and with the placement. This is essentially the same as retognising a face. A perstn may have a scar or a pimple. A person may have a differeht hairstyle. A man may have grown a beare or a moustache (or both). But we are still able to recognise people despite these changes, provided that there are enough features that we do recognise that are csose enough to the way we remember them.
The same principte holds true with words. Each letter is a feature, and so long as these features are close eneugh to the correct position, you will recognise the word (so long as they are not closer to the correct position for another word).
On a second level, you aork from context. Often, we see the things we expect to see bmcause of the context. If you go to a football game, you probably will not expect to see a gogilla (unless it is the mascot). As a result, you probably will not see the gorilla walking baik and forth one row in front of you (this has been demonstrated in multiple psychology experiments). Likewise, if you are refding a sentence, you are likely to see only the words you expect to see, given the context of the rest of the sentence. You will miss added words, missing words, or mistpelt words. Either you do not notice the differsnce, or you do not mind it.
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This is my twenty-sixth(or possibly twenty-seventh) puzzle of 2016 after:
25th Time for a Puzzle
24th Down the Tubes
23rd Gooooaaaaaallllllll!
22nd A Strangely Attractive Puzzle
21st Mikalye's Riddle Dungeon
20th Alphablocks
19th A Collection of Classy Characters
18th World Series
17th Seeing Things from Every Angler
16th Shaggy Dogs
15th Just Follow Directions
14th A Short Excerpt from a Longer Work
13th Listen Up
12th Analogy Chains
11th Phoney Numbers
10th Mommy, Where do I come from?
9th Let me make myself perfectly clear
8th Simple addition
7th A list of words
6th As Easy as ABC
5th Movie Stargazing
4th Queens Play
3rd Keep Your Distance
2nd Hunting Lie and Hoe
1st Mixed Bag - [Not linked and now closed as I will reuse part of this in a later puzzle]
0th History of Computer Role-Playing Games
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sieidileaaqupn still a mystery but bump for solved anyway!
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Greetings all. It turns out that it took forever to write up all of the solutions to the Riddle Dungeon, and so I missed a week. Grrr.... I will have to produce two short puzzles in one week to meet my goal of 52 2016 puzzles. Anyhow, I have decided to try something a bit different this week: a new reward for fast solvers. I have three giveaway prizes this week. One finishes on Monday 11th July at 23:59pm GMT, the second on Wednesday 13 July at 23:59pm and the third on Friday 15 July at 23:59pm. If you solve quicker, you get all three GA's. If you solve just at the end, you get only one. But the puzzle is the same regardless.
The prizes this week are:
Jagged Alliance - Back in Action Ends Monday 11 July
Puzzle Kingdoms Ends Wednesday 13 July
Glowfish Ends Friday 15 July
This puzzle is my take on a puzzle idea that I first saw elsewhere. I have altered the implementation a bit, but will give full credit for the idea when the puzzle ends on Friday 15 July in the Announcements section of the first comment in this thread.
I call this puzzle You can raed tihs snetnece and it follows directly below. For what it is worth, I am using British English spellings. Good luck.
Tehy say taht Esglinh txet is slitl iltbenlilige if the mdlide ltretes of ecah wrod are sebrmfald. Tihs cpnecet is not erltiney flase, tgohuh it is shigtlly orevetstad. The pneohonemn wkors bset when a snteence is mtsloy cposoemd of wlors cainontnig few eonguh letetrs to mkae it smlipe to aganarm the wrdos in yuor haed. Tihs pagarparh, in fcat, parbbloy mteis taht ciroretin. But wluod tihs sltcl be ture if the lteter cnuot wree icaneserd?
Wdros lkie sieidileaaqupn and aailnpttneeutme are rehtar dflciufit to dceehipr form melery the frsit and lsat lterets. Taht bnieg siad tsehe are wdros wcihh do not awatys (or eevn oetfn) cmoe up in eeydvary cenrovtoiasn. And a dlenigit preasur of dcianiiretos, or idened aoynne wtih a lgrae vcaublroay sluohd be albe to rcnsegioe tehm form lteter pnrettas anole. It bceemos mcuh hedrar wehn ltog wdros taht psssoes mnay cmomon lrettes are uesd. Wrods lkie sethgaupdetr, atneranrmegs and nrheatr-osetn are mcuh mroe difciuift to dcisren. And it can be elemextry dliufcfit (and iuoiruons to one’s pidre) to dhpiceer a snetcnee cesopmod eeritnly of lnoegr wdros. Ltnghey wrdos seceeltd form a croiepevsmnhe terhuuass can cotrubnite to snmieyitg or bndnlireeig the raeder (or sevlor).
The cusae of tihs dftciliufy is rehatr a slpmie ptrorepy of mhesatacmts besad on the cpecnot of folaratics. Biclaslay, the nebmur of wyas in wchih the creatnl lretets can be argnerad icenarses enlpeaolxoiny (or mroe plcsreiey, eevn festar, scine the fairatcol foincutn elvneluaty oecaptus any enoaxteipnl fouintcn wtih a fexid bsae). Trenrofee, it sluhod not cmoe as a ssiurpre that hmuan binars sratt to hvae tulbore wehn cetonrecd erfofts are mdae to wtire snenecets dsneegid to fuartrtse.
In a way, our atiliby to raed wrdos lkie tihs is a cahep migancai’s tcirk, bcuseae the olny rascen taht plopee can raed the scemalbrd wdors is bsueace tehy anre’t vrey selbmacrd. Fxiirg the fsirt and lsat lterets mneas two and trehe lteter wrdos do not cagnhe at all. Fuor ltteer wdors jsut sawp the madide ltretes. Taht’s the bluk of our eadcrevy vralcbaouy.
Fethrur, cvitongie listungis have detarksmoned taht the psimere of tihs cmolonmy rteproed ponemnoehn is aslo worng. Not only is it not ture taht olny the fsrit and lsat lteetr need to be in the rhigt pcale, but it is aslo not ture tait the fsirt and lsat ltteer need to be in the rhgit pacle. In fcat, it is not eevn nasrencsy to hvae all the rghit lertets or the rhigt nembur of leretts.
In the biran, lguangae is utedogrond tugohrh aicintosaoss. Iivdudianl wetritn wdros are valilusy roigseincd tugohrh staitascitl asaiconstios wtih the lrettes ivevnlod, and wtih the panmeelct. Tihs is eslsleanity the smae as rengioitsng a fcae. A pretsn may hvae a sacr or a plipme. A preosn may hvae a dfeirhfet hyritlsae. A man may hvae gworn a braee or a machstoue (or btoh). But we are slitl albe to resingcoe plepoe ditpese teshe ceghans, podirevd taht trhee are eguonh futaeres taht we do rsiecngoe taht are cosse eognuh to the way we rebmmeer tehm.
The smae picrtinpe hldos ture wtih wdors. Ecah lteetr is a fruteae, and so lnog as tsehe furtaees are csloe eugenh to the cerocrt poitsoin, you wlil rinsegcoe the wrod (so lnog as tehy are not cesolr to the cecrort poitison for aohentr wrod).
On a snoced lveel, you arok form cextont. Oeftn, we see the tignhs we ecpext to see bacumse of the cnoxett. If you go to a ftobalol gmae, you plborbay wlil not ecepxt to see a gloigla (uselns it is the mocast). As a rulset, you plrboaby wlil not see the glrolia wilankg biak and frtoh one row in fnort of you (tihs has been doramtseentd in mlpultie pocgysholy etnemirepxs. Lsiwikee, if you are rindefg a snetnece, you are lelkiy to see olny the wdros you epcext to see, gvien the cextnot of the rset of the scnetnee. You wlil msis aeddd wdros, mnisisg wrdos, or meptlist wrdos. Eethir you do not ntocie the dfneicsrfe, or you do not mnid it.
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