Sandy Wood
Brain Game: Fool Wars
by Sandy Wood - April 1, 2009 - 7:30 AM

bloghead_braingames.jpg

Fool WarsHere’s a screen capture from the opening of Fool Wars. (It’s the imported region-free widescreen version, too; cost me a bundle.) My apologies that the image isn’t more exciting, but the studio has been relentless about removing all traces of images and audio from the film from online sources.

But that doesn’t stop me from turning it into a Brain Game! By changing one letter at a time to create new words – and leaving all other letters in their original positions – how many steps will it take you to convert the word FOOL into the word WARS? I was able to do it in five steps:

F O O L
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
W A R S

Here is one SOLUTION.

Pages: 1 2
« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (18)

  1. fool
    foot
    fort
    fart
    wart
    wars

    posted by John on 4-1-2009 at 8:03 am

  2. A slightly less mature solution.

    FOOL > FOOT > FORT > FART > WART > WARS

    posted by Travis on 4-1-2009 at 8:04 am

  3. fool > foot > fort > fart > wart > wars
    T

    posted by Phill on 4-1-2009 at 8:06 am

  4. fool
    wool
    woos
    wops
    waps
    wars

    posted by Dan on 4-1-2009 at 8:11 am

  5. FOOL

    WOOL

    WOOD

    WORD

    WARD

    WARS

    posted by Welmoed on 4-1-2009 at 8:41 am

  6. fool Wool wooS woGs wAgs waRs

    (I have no idea what wogs are, but I know it’s a real word, because Boggle on Facebook totally accepts it ;)

    posted by Jacquilynne on 4-1-2009 at 8:47 am

  7. Fool

    Food

    Wood

    Word

    Ward

    Wars

    posted by DubC on 4-1-2009 at 8:54 am

  8. fool – foot – fort – fart – wart – wars

    posted by Vik on 4-1-2009 at 9:15 am

  9. FOOL
    FOOT
    FORT
    WORT
    WART
    WARS

    posted by BabyBot on 4-1-2009 at 9:28 am

  10. fool
    foot
    fort
    wort
    wart
    wars

    posted by David on 4-1-2009 at 9:30 am

  11. I also got there with

    FOOL
    FOOT
    FORT
    FART
    WART
    WARS

    I won’t even try to hide it–I was excited to use “fart” in a brain game.

    posted by Andy on 4-1-2009 at 9:35 am

  12. FOOL
    WOOL
    WOOS
    WONS (KOREAN MONETARY UNIT)
    WANS
    WARS

    posted by Annie on 4-1-2009 at 10:22 am

  13. Fool
    Food
    Ford
    Word
    Ward
    Wars

    posted by Amy on 4-1-2009 at 11:00 am

  14. fool
    foot
    fort
    fart
    wart
    wars

    I like how the majority of people found this solution. I assume the word fart just jumps out and then we fill in the rest…

    posted by george on 4-1-2009 at 12:44 pm

  15. Except I went David’s way and did “WORT” in the “FART” position — but “living history” stuff does funny things to your vocabulary…
    By the by, Jacquilynne, “wogs” is old derogatory British slang for foreigners, usually Asians.

    posted by VM on 4-1-2009 at 2:56 pm

  16. fool
    cool
    coos
    cors
    cars
    wars

    posted by Valerie on 4-1-2009 at 3:21 pm

  17. Fool – Food – Ford – Word – Ward – Wars

    posted by SM on 4-1-2009 at 5:16 pm

  18. FOOL
    FOOD
    WOOD
    WORD
    WARD
    WARS

    posted by Francisco on 4-1-2009 at 5:33 pm

Comment

commenting policy