Sandy Wood
Brain Game: The Brain Game with a Heart
by Sandy Wood - December 9, 2008 - 7:30 AM

bloghead_braingames.jpg

A brain without a heart? That would take… well, some courage. And a broom.

By changing one letter at a time to create new words – and leaving the other letters in their original spots – I was able to convert BRAIN into HEART in seven steps. Can you do better?

B R A I N
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
H E A R T

Here’s one SOLUTION.

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Comments (4)

  1. Sandy, how long do you usually work on these change one word into the other riddles? They regularly kick my butt, so I am curious how long it takes you to come up with them.

    posted by Chris on 12-9-2008 at 10:01 am

  2. Chris, it depends. I do have some old software (from the early 1990s, I think) that does rudimentary “word ladders” of up to six letters, but that’s often of little help because the dictionary is very limited. But, admittedly, it sometimes gives me a starting place. From there, I’m maybe able to shave a word off here or there.

    Most of it, though, is years of enjoying word games and playing Boggle and Scrabble and such. I just enjoy “fooling around” with words and seeing what happens. (Yes, I’m a lonely old man. Thank God for my wife, Kara.)

    posted by Sandy on 12-9-2008 at 11:17 am

  3. This is the same solution I came up with, but I’m still uncertain about “BRANS”. Can bran be plural?

    posted by Kevin on 12-9-2008 at 2:41 pm

  4. BRAIN
    BRAUN
    BRAUS*
    BRADS
    BEADS
    BEARS
    HEARS
    HEART

    * Once I figure out what “braus” means, I’ll come back and let you know…

    posted by Ryan on 12-9-2008 at 7:00 pm

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