English Chess Forum

I don't think I have mentioned this before. Some years ago an educational chemical journal suggested a word game, where you use the 118 (at present) one and two-letter element symbols to form words. So, chess could be "carbon helium sulfur sulfur" [C He S S] (or carbon hydrogen einsteinium sulfur [C H Es S]). The author of the brief article said his students had got up to 2000 words from memory. I quickly got bored of trying to exceed that, (although I still have a word file which I add to occasionally) so started going for long words. The best I managed was "tintinnabulations" (17 letters),but I'm sure that's beatable.

Anyway, if Lockdown II is more disappointing than Lockdown I, this is a way to waste half an hour... Over to word game fanatics. To save non-chemists having to look up the symbols, here they are:

Ac Al Am Ag Ar As At Au
B Ba Be Bh Bi Bk Br
C Ca Cd Ce Cf Cl Cm Cn Co Cr Cs Cu
Db Ds Dy
Er Es Eu
F Fe Fl Fm Fr
Ga Gd Ge
H He Hf Hg Ho Hs
I In Ir
K Kr
La Li Lr Lu Lv
Mc Md Mg Mn Mo Mt
N Na Nb Nd Ne Nh Ni No Np
O Og Os
P Pa Pb Pd Pm Po Pr Pt Pu
Ra Rb Re Rf Rg Rh Rn Ru
S Sb Sc Se Sg Si Sm Sn Sr
Ta Tb Tc Te Th Ti Tl Tm Ts
U
V
W
Xe
Y Yb
Zn Zr

Good luck using some of those (like Zr in a word).

I think floccinaucinihilipilification works, or even floccinaucinihilipilifications if it can have a plural.

"I think floccinaucinihilipilification works, or even floccinaucinihilipilifications if it can have a plural."

Yes, you're right - well spotted. I'm not sure it can be pluralised. One dictionary says "no", others don't comment...

I would have looked at that f-word when I started but, "flerovium" (Fl - element 114) had not been named, so I would have quickly ruled it out. Symbols for 101 - 118 are mainly not very useful...

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:42 am

Good luck using some of those (like Zr in a word).

How about Arzrunite (Ar, Zr, U, Ni, Te). It's a mineral which seems appropriate for a chemistry-based word game, although, sadly, not containing any of those elements.

Fm could be challenging.

Kevin Williamson wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 1:31 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:42 am

Good luck using some of those (like Zr in a word).

Fm could be challenging.

Selfmate?

Oops, don't think it works elementally.

HAlFmOON?

Elementally, my dear Watson.

"Arzrunite"

Wow - that's good, never heard of it!

100 - Fm, 101 - Md, 102- No, 103 - Lr, 104 - Rf, 105 - Db, 106 - Sg, 107 - Bh, 108 - Hs, 109 - Mt, 110 - Ds, 111 - Rg, 112 - Cn, 113 - Nh, 114 - Fl, 115 - Mc, 116 - Lv, 117 - Ts, 118 - Og, are mostly unhelpful!

NigelDonovan wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 2:04 pm

HAlFmOON?

Arbiter ruling needed. My dictionary only has "half-moon".

I had a class-mate at school who was also a near-namesake, spelling his last name without the final "e". Look at the periodic table, and you'll see it appears there from elements 17-19, so maybe it's no surprise that he went on to Oxford and an eventual MA in chemistry.

crescent moon?

Kevin Williamson wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 1:31 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 10:42 am

Good luck using some of those (like Zr in a word).

How about Arzrunite (Ar, Zr, U, Ni, Te). It's a mineral which seems appropriate for a chemistry-based word game, although, sadly, not containing any of those elements.

...

Yes, they could have named it Cupboshclosh.

Whoever named tellurobismuthite missed an opportunity. They could have just called it Tebite.

I think Kevin T will enjoy the Chemistry World December cryptic crossword. Other than taking up a whole page it looks like a regular crossword. Full of enthusiasm after tackling some of the cryptic clues on this forum I decided to give it a go. But then I read the instructions: "Each crossword square can have one or two letters, which must be letters of an elemental symbol, or the letters D or T (for deuterium or tritium). For example, Dalton could be written D(Al)TON"

To use an example from the puzzle (and one of the few I have solved so far) : Element synthesised by sages around noon? (9)

But there are only seven squares for the answer.

I think this crossword will keep me going for the rest of the year at least.

Wow! Thanks Kevin W

https://www.chemistryworld.com/download?ac=509842

gives a free download...

I recall a chemistry magazine (maybe Education in Chemistry?) which had a sudoku, where there were element symbols instead of numbers. This was slightly confusing as you asked yourself, "Where does the sodium go in box 5?"

"Element synthesised by sages around noon? (9)" requires solvers to know the more recent elements...

And presumably the "checked" letters will be one letter ( they are in that case for 46 across, but are they always). It reminds me of the Listener crosswords where the setter solemnly informed you that each answer had a misprint or a letter omitted in the grid, which made a very difficult crossword, er, extremely difficult.