Category: Just 4 fun


What’s in a Word?

28th June 2000

The word Ocarina is a favourite with crossword compilers. They like the word because it’s familiar to many people, but few know what it actually means. Ocarina also contains a lot of vowels for its size, which is apparently really useful in the world of crossword creation.

So, what’s in a name? I came across the following and thought you might be as amused as I was by the unexpected rearrangement of letters in the following pairs of words… Read more

Words

Playing by numbers

21st June 2000

Do you remember painting by numbers? Well we’re going to play music by numbers. So first of all, look at your 4-hole Oc. If it’s not handy, just look at the picture below and see if you can identify…

How many finger-holes does it have? How many different notes can it play?

Okay. We have a 4-hole Ocarina. It plays 11 notes by covering different combinations of holes. Read more

Playing by numbers