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Joined: Mar 2009
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 2 |
Hello, Someone asked me the following, and I couldn't find it anywhere--so thought I would check the collective knowledge:
"Palindromes are the word and sentences that are the same forwards and backwards--mom,dad, bob,etc. Is there a word for words that when flipped upside down turn into another word? For example: WOW/MOM, PIP/bib "
Any thoughts?
Mike
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,773 |
If there is such a word you might find it here
http://onelook.com/?w=*&loc=revfp2&clue=word+upside+down
...if you're determined and patient
dalehileman
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
dale, why do you continue to do this when you know, by now, you have a better chance at OneLook by limiting your search string. in this case, you'd be better off with 'upside down' because of all the useless hits you'll generate with 'word'.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
mrbaldwin, Scott Kim used to do a lot of these for Discover Magazine. He called them "inversions." Douglas Hofstadter also had a column in Scientific American where he posted some of Scott's work. He called them ambigrams. http://www.scottkim.com/inversions/index.html
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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there are many types of ambigrams, link ; those which form different words when turned upside-down are called rotational ambigrams. e.g., the abbrev. for down, dn, yields up.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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whitney this one is quite interesting. You can stop the movement at the intersection of the diagonals when it drives you crazy. (it quickly does)
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Joined: Jan 2002
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veteran
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veteran
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Mike, I used to really love admiring these things. I mentioned that you might find some examples in old issues of Discovery Magazine. Also, you can find a few in Hofstadter's old columns in Sci Am titled "Metamagical Themas" (an anagram of his predecessor, Martin Gardner's column "Mathematical Games"). Also DH had a few books, "Goedel, Escher, Bach," for example, that has some, IIRC. This one also contains other kinds of related ideas. I actually read it, but I think it would be nice to browse as a coffee table book.
Last edited by TheFallibleFiend; 04/02/09 01:27 PM.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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speaking of coffee table books, "Metamagical Themas" were collected in an 800-page tome, which I picked up a few years back at a used book store (I'm still wading through these). here's a link to what we're on about: ambigrams by Hofstadter
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veteran
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veteran
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Would go well with a book of Escher prints.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've been trying to get through I Am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter, but the math in just puts me to sleep. great concepts(not all of which I agree with), but.
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