5 October 2019 | New Scientist | 53The back pages Feedback
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[email protected]Letters of note Twisteddoodles for New Scientist
Pleased by the, errrm, feedback
about our coverage of research
on the comparative mortality
rates of chess pieces (17 August),
we turn to what over-engineered
computer modelling can tell us
about Scrabble, the game that
has been both delighting players
and igniting lexicographical
arguments since 1938.
Feedback can’t be alone in
finding that one of the joys of
the game lies in making up words
and swearing blind they are in the
dictionary, just not that dictionary.
Also contentious, however, is
whether the values given to
individual Scrabble letters are fair.
In the English version of the
game, these values were set by
Scrabble’s creator, Alfred Butts,
based on the average frequency
with which letters appeared on the
front page of The New York Times.
But a 2013 study by computer
scientist Joshua Lewis found that
certain tiles were overpowered,
unfairly boosting the chances of
players who have them in their
selection. Z is easier to play than Q,
for example, but both score 10
points. Lewis’s calculations showed
a Z should only be worth 6 points.
However, software engineer
Kevin McElwee writes in Nautilus
that Lewis’s proposed values
actually make the game slightly less
fair. In his AI program, which oversaw
hundreds of matches between two
equally skilled computer players,
the new values increased the overall
spread in final scores, suggesting
a greater element of luck. Bizarrely,
though, McElwee found that if
Scrabble’s tile values were assigned
to letters randomly, the spread of
final scores in the game remained
unchanged – possibly because
people strive to play high-value
letters, counteracting the
“difficulty” of playing them.
Where the luck of the draw really
does seem to count is in whether
someone manages to play all seven
of their tiles at once, earning an
extra 50 points. Remove the ability
to score these “bingos” and the
average difference in final score
between two equally skilled players
was significantly reduced. So there
you have it: stop debating whether
Hoover is a real word and hold out
for the tile you need to score big
with overhot. It’s in the dictionary.Rook-y error (again)
Speaking of chess, Frank
Warnock wades into the almost
metaphysical debate raised by
our throwaway assertion that
non-drawn chess games end
with a king’s demise. “The word
‘checkmate’ came to English
through Old French and Arabic,
from the original Persian phrase
šāh māt, ‘the king is dead’, ” he
writes. To which we may only
add, long live the king.Rave to the grave
Rest in peace? Think again. Forensic
scientists at the Australian Facility
for Taphonomic Experimental
Research – now there’s a job to
die for – have documented the
surprisingly active afterlives of
human corpses. ABC News reports
findings by Alyson Wilson and her
colleagues, who used time-lapse
cameras to film the slow dance
of the dead over the course of
17 months. “What we found was
that the arms were significantly
moving, so that arms that started
off down beside the body ended
up out to the side of the body,”
Wilson told reporters.
The findings will be used
to inform police investigations,
which had previously assumed
that a body lay in the same position
once a person died. The rest of us
can live happily in the knowledge
that once we die, we might finally
catch up on our exercise.Drafting error
Adding to our list of
extraordinarily expensive
mistakes, we note with our all-
seeing eye the archived example
that appears on page 27 of this
issue. Meanwhile, Peter Jacobsen
draws our attention to the Diablo
Canyon nuclear power plant inCalifornia. Shortly after
construction began in 1968,
geologists discovered a fault line
running under the sea nearby.
To insure against the increased
earthquake risk, a design for
additional supports to the cooling
systems was drawn up and built
accordingly. Unfortunately,
somebody misplaced the note
instructing engineers to flip the
transparent blueprint over when
using it to build supports for the
second reactor, a mirror image
of the first. Consequently, the
earthquake proofing was built
in the wrong place. A well-known
online reference tool notes that
despite the design errors, the
plant was approved to open.
“I suspect this one typo won’t
be the worst,” says Peter, “but it’s
legendary among engineers.”
We’re sure everything is going
to be just fine.A case of booze
Feedback is pleased to note that
hangovers are a medical illness.
That, at least, is the ruling of a court
in Frankfurt, and we are counting on
Teutonic exactitude in reaching it.
The decision came after a company
was accused of making unverified
health claims about its powdered
supplements and liquid shots,
which were sold as hangover cures.
Under German law, food
and drinks can’t be marketed as
preventing or treating illnesses.
This includes the after-effects of
alcohol, the court declared, noting
that the condition even has a
medical term: veisalgia.
Good news for the thousands
of tender heads currently attending
Munich’s beer-fuelled Oktoberfest.
File under useful phrases: Herr
Doktor, ich brauche einen
Krankenschein. ❚