In a deck of standard playing cards, eleven cards separate the ace and the two of any suit. But by changing one letter at a time (and leaving the others in their original spots), I was able to go from ACE to TWO in only six steps. Can you do better?
T W O
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A C E
HERE is one solution.
Comments (23)
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two
too
ton
ion
ire
ice
ace
posted by John on 10-9-2008 at 7:30 am
Close, John, except the ION-IRE connection doesn’t work. I tried the “ACE-ICE avenue a bit myself and had trouble getting it to work.
posted by Sandy on 10-9-2008 at 8:40 am
Thanks Sandy, I guess thats what happens when I try these too early in the morning
posted by John on 10-9-2008 at 8:57 am
I got stumped at tre – since its not an English word I didn’t think it would work.
two
too
toe
tre*
ore
are
ace
posted by russ! on 10-9-2008 at 8:58 am
I got stumped at tre – since its not an English word
two
too
toe
tre*
ore
are
ace
posted by russ! on 10-9-2008 at 9:00 am
I know it doesn’t work by your rules, but if you allow letters to be added and subtracted, it can be done this way.
two
tao
tar
tare
are
ace
posted by David on 10-9-2008 at 9:03 am
No worries at all, John. I sometimes do the same thing. Sadly, when I do it, people tend to comment with words like “lame” and “fail.”
By contrast, your kind comment made my day!
posted by Sandy on 10-9-2008 at 9:30 am
TWO
TOO
TON
EON
ERN
ERE
IRE
ICE
ACE
I know that this isn’t a particularly clever route, and that “ern” and “ere” are slippery and crossword-ish, but this is the first time I’ve ever finished one of these so I’m posting it. :)
posted by Mary Ann on 10-9-2008 at 10:04 am
I don’t know if my earlier comment posted. But I found an answer following the rules.
two
too
toe
tye
aye
ace
posted by David on 10-9-2008 at 11:11 am
TWO
TOO
TOT
TAT
OAT
ORT (a scrap)
ART
ACT
ACE
posted by Lindsey on 10-9-2008 at 11:22 am
TWO
WET
WEE
AWE
ACE
posted by Sham on 10-9-2008 at 12:29 pm
Try this one.
Eight steps from CAVE to POOP! It’s easy but it’s long.
posted by Gary on 10-9-2008 at 12:31 pm
ACE
ICE
ICO (video game)
IWO (city in Nigeria)
TWO
Feel free to discount two of these as ‘nonwords’ but I still made it!
posted by darkmoofya on 10-9-2008 at 12:50 pm
ACE
AWE
AWO (The name of a town in Nigeria)
TWO
posted by googlehound on 10-9-2008 at 1:42 pm
Beaten with my own cheating technique. *hangs head in shame
posted by darkmoofya on 10-9-2008 at 2:08 pm
Take a deck of cards. Have someone pick two cards. (Just the cards, no suits) Start dealing the deck of cards, face up, and the two cards will appear togeather, or with one card seperating them. It works 99% of the time. I have only see it not work once.
posted by Kevin on 10-9-2008 at 4:08 pm
Kevin,
That will only work 74% of the time. You have to go to “within 9 cards of each other” to make it happen 99% of the time.
posted by Bryan on 10-9-2008 at 7:33 pm
Gary,
Seven steps from CAVE to POOP
CAVE
COVE
CORE
PORE
PORN
POON
POOP
posted by Mika on 10-10-2008 at 8:15 am
TWO
TOO
TOT
TNT
ANT
ACT
ACE
posted by Lars Hoel on 10-11-2008 at 10:45 am
If you could acronyms, you could do:
TWO
TWE (acronym for Test of Written English)
AWE
ACE
posted by Milo on 10-11-2008 at 11:14 am
Sham– Going from TWO straight to WET doesn’t work.
posted by JK on 10-13-2008 at 4:14 pm
TWO
TOO
TOE
SOE
STE.
ATE
ACE
posted by Karen on 10-16-2008 at 12:33 pm
Gary- 6 steps
cave
care
carp
corp (abbreviation ov corporal)
coop
poop
posted by Josh on 11-24-2008 at 4:36 pm