Talk:Jumble

Not an Anagram

An anagram consists of an actual word, does it not? Jumble, on the other hand, frequently uses randomly scrambled letters that don't actually form words. For example, "BMLEUJ" is not a word, but you might find it nonetheless (the answer, of course, is "JUMBLE").

What is it called if something is like an anagram except that the scrambled string of letters doesn't constitute another word? 173.10.123.113 (talk) 20:54, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

A ramagan? You could call it "a permutation of the same letters." I actually think the OED definition, restricting the term to "a word, phrase, or sentence," does not reflect current usage. As I recall, 50 years ago, the rearrangement of letters into different strings mostly comprised word games. But nowadays, it's handy to have a term describing the relationship between different permutations of the same letters, and "anagram" is etymologically accurate, so its range of use just naturally extended. (On the other hand, in some technical uses, "word" refers to any string of letters, so in that context the original definition would apply.)Jackaroodave (talk) 09:43, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Sum algorithm accurate?

The algorithm that sums letter values to find anagrams seems inaccurate and is unsourced, but I'm not read to delete it yet. Wouldn't, for example, AAAABB and AAAAAC have the same sum (8) even though they're not anagrams? It seems that you need an additional unmentioned step of verifying the words in W that are indeed anagrams. Do we have a source for this algorithm? Oren0 (talk) 03:08, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree. If "the sum" in that algorithm means the sum in the usual sense, then it wouldn't work. A simple way that will surely solve the puzzle (but may not be efficient) is to let A = 2, B = 3, C = 5, … , Z = 26th prime = 101. For each word assigns its value as the product of the values of its alphabets like CAT = 5 x 2 x 71 = 710. Then any word with value that can divide the product value of a given set of alphabets can form from a subset of alphabets of that set. A simple improvement to this algorithm is to assign the value of each alphabet according to its frequency in the dictionary: the more frequent, the less its value. This will reduce the product values for most words. Warut (talk) 12:03, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Redirection from TextTwist

TextTwist (and variations thereof) should not redirect to this page. Papilgee4evaeva (talk) 18:33, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Martin Who?

Toonopedia spells his name “Martin Naydel” and mentions that his brother, Larry Nadle, spelled it differently. See for example McSnurtle the Turtle. Other comic-book sources also give his name as Naydel. I've seen Naydel's book of collected Jumbles and I think it was spelled “Naydel” on the cover. If no one demurs, I'll revise the page accordingly. By the way, the official Jumble site's history page About Jumble fails to mention Naydel. It claims that Jumble was created by Bob Lee and Henri Arnold!

Has anybody a copy of one of Naydel's puzzles? They were far better than the contemporary ones. Sicherman (talk) 03:42, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

I've updated the article. Can anybody verify the date 1954? Jumble.com gives June 1954, but it also gives Lee and Arnold as the creators. For all I know, 1954 was the date of the first Lee-Arnold Jumble, not the date of the first Jumble! Jumble.com is not to be relied on. Sicherman (talk) 17:43, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Thomas and Anderson's All-Star Companion, Volume 1, mentions that Naydel spelled his name “Nadle” when he drew The Adventures of Ace King in 1933. It also mentions that he drew Jumble from 1954 to around 1960. The Companion is available in Google Books. The Library of Congress Online Catalog has Naydel's Jumble collection, published by Barnes in 1955. The entry gives no information about Naydel! Sicherman (talk) 03:52, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

A 1993 interview with Arnold, in a Hendersonville, NC paper, says Arnold and Lee took over Jumble in 1962. I've just added that to the main text. However, there's a clear format change between the Apr/20/1961 and Apr/21/1961 puzzles. These can be seen in the Toledo Blade news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8_tS2Vw13FcC&dat=19610420 (scroll to image 24) and news.google.com/newspapers?nid=8_tS2Vw13FcC&dat=19610421 (image 23). The puzzles up to Apr/20 are signed by "Martin" and "DELL", I'm not sure whether Dell is (a) half the team, (b) a shortening of Nydel, or (3) a publishing syndicate. The syndicate is plausible since there is a Dell that's a longtime pulp puzzle magazine publisher.DiffuseGoose (talk) 03:34, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

As for 1954, I can verify that, and have added links in the main text. The first I have found under the name Jumble is Dec/6/1954. See the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19541206 image 32 or Spokane Chronicle news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19541206 image 27. The name "martin NAYDEL" is fairly clear in the diagram (capitalized that way). Well the A isn't clear, but the rest is. Prior to this, we see the same feature but with the name Scramble. The Dec/4/1954 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19541204 image 11 clearly shows the name "martin NAYDEL". The Dec/4 drawing contains a sign that says "Jumble Arrives Monday" (which would be Dec/6).DiffuseGoose (talk) 03:34, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

The earliest that I have found, called Scramble, is Jun/7/1954 St. Petersburg Times http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=feST4K8J0scC&dat=19540607 image 17 (bottom page on that image). In this image the signature is not really legible but it's consistent with the other Naydel sigs. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picks it up on Jun/28, google has this mixed in on the Jun/25 page here: news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19540625 image 52. Signature still not clear but looks like "martin NAYDEL" when compared to the other sigs. I don't know if Jun/7 is the earliest date, but those two papers are the earliest that I find. The Spokane Chronicle started on Dec/6, and has "Jumble is the new name for Scramble" in the drawing news.google.com/newspapers?nid=ddB7do2jUx8C&dat=19541206 image 27. I don't think the Chronicle had it earlier. The Toledo Blade has it by Jan/5/1955 but doesn't have it on Dec/6.DiffuseGoose (talk) 03:34, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Suspicious edit

The most recent edit looks fishy: 21:38, 30 April 2012‎ 1t2m3s4j5 (4,316 bytes) (-414)‎ (Added creator names & updated where you can find Jumble).

The inline references look like linkspam. The author's knowledge of the subject suggests a professional connection. The user has a contribution history that consists of a single edit, this one. Zyxwv99 (talk) 22:25, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Jumble algorithm

This article (Jumble algorithm) just talks about the algorithm of the game, not really necessary for its own article. And in the In other media section, it talks about the game as a whole.  Seagull123  Φ  11:54, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

This content was removed in this edit. I have no objection to merging, as long as I can link to the content. JMatthews (talk) 12:09, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

I agree, these are two small articles and this main one is needed to understand what the algorithms are. I'll merge the two. --Lord Belbury (talk) 15:05, 16 August 2022 (UTC)

Solution to the example

Crayon, Minds, Tinny, Breach, No Chemistry — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jonathonbarton (talk • contribs) 14:05, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

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