I'm obviously better at words than maths too - yeah 24, not 16. You're right, it's a factorial progression.

I agree, even 16 is not likely, let alone 24.

How about a three letter word?
You would only need six for that:

123
132
213
231
312
321

For five letters you would need:

6x1-2s 6x2-1s 6x3-1s 6x4-1s 6x5-1s
6x1-3s 6x2-3s 6x3-2s 6x4-2s 6x5-2s
6x1-4s 6x2-4s 6x3-4s 6x4-3s 6x5-3s
6x1-5s 6x2-5s 6x3-5s 6x4-5s 6x5-4s

which equals 120 words!

Interesting mathematical progression then:
letters=words
2=2
3=6
4=24
5=120

and then I guess
6=120x6=720
7=720x7=5040
...and so on


Last edited by The Pook; 02/21/2008 1:42 PM.