Zendo, play by forum

[Dullstar]

Terrible guess, but I'm going to go for it:

AKHTBN iff the first two letters are vowels
OR
the first letter is a consonant, and the first four letters follow the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel.

[namida]

You're getting very close. It is impossible to provide a black koan that would fit within those rules.

However, I can provide a white koan that does NOT fit within those rules.

White Koans
AA            EARS          NANAN         PIRATE       
AAA           EAT           NANANA        PIRATES       
AE            EE            NANANAN       RATE         
AEI           EEE           OO            RATES         
BANA          FACA          OOO           STRETCHER     
BANANA        FACAD         OOOX          UU           
BANANAB       FACADE        OOOXX         UUU           
BANANANANA    HARE          OOOXXX        XOXO         
BANANAS       IEV           OOXX          XOXOX         
BANO          II            OOXXX         XOXOXO       
CAKE          III           OOXXXX        XOXOXOX       
DANANA        KATE          PINE          XOXOXOXO     
DARE          MELO          PINEAPPLE                   
EA            MELON         PIRA                       
EAR           NANA          PIRAT                       

Black Koans
A             BBB           FA            ORANGE       
ABA           BCDE          FAC           OXOXOXO       
ABBA          BCDF          FISH          OXOXOXOX     
ANANAN        BEAU          ICE           P             
APPLE         BIRD          KA            PI           
B             C             KI            PIN           
BA            CAK           LEMMINGS      PIR           
BAA           CAR           M             R             
BAN           CAT           ME            RAT           
BANB          CLUB          MEL           RATS         
BANDANA       D             MOUSE         RESTAURANT   
BANN          DOG           NA            S             
BAR           DRUG          NAN           STEAM         
BARS          E             O             TRAIN         
BB            EPEE          OPERA         XO           
BBA           F             ORAN          XOX           

[Proxima]

Guess: a koan has the buddha-nature if it contains at least two vowels at positions that are powers of 2.

[namida]

"RESTAURANT" has vowels at the 2nd and 8th letter (powers of 2) and is on the black koans list.

[Simon]

AKHTBN iff the koan is of shape (a)(a)(b), where (a) consists of 0 or more consonants followed by exactly one vovel. (b) may be empty string.

-- Simon

[Dullstar]

AKHTBN iff the koan is of shape (a)(a)(b), where (a) consists of 0 or more consonants followed by exactly one vovel.

-- Simon

This definitely accounts for the fact that adding more letters can't make a white koan black.

[namida]

While the way you worded that doesn't convey the rule exactly, I think what you meant to suggest is correct, so I think we'll accept this as a victory.

For reference, I had two ways in mind of wording it:

a. "AKHTBN if the number of letters before the first vowel is the same as the number of letters between the first and second vowel"
b. "AKHTBN if, in the first (N * 2) letters, the Nth and (N * 2)th letters, and no others, are vowels"

Not that it ever came up, but I was not considering "Y" a vowel for this one.

[Simon]

Awesome.

What other interpretation of my guess do you deem plausible?

I would like to pass hosting to Dullstar. He did an easy round, which was excellent but didn't last long, and Dullstar should be entitled to go again.

Edit 2016-05-25:
[09:52] <SimonN> namida42: re: last zendo round: what other interpretation of "(a)(a)(b) with (a) == (0 or more consonants)(1 vovel)" is possible?
[09:53] <namida42> my first interpretation of it is that the (a)s must be the same string; but they only have to be the same length to fulfill the actual rule
[09:53] <SimonN> smart, and 100 % correct
[09:54] <SimonN> maybe you should have busted the guess >_> not sure. Reasonable decision to let it pass
[09:54] <namida42> so, XYAZZA is fine; if i took your statement literally, it would ahve to be eg. XYAXYA
[09:54] <SimonN> yes, and the first is counterexample to the guess
[09:54] <namida42> but i figured that you meant just hte lenght, since there would be too many counterexamples against the first interpretation

-- Simon

[Dullstar]

White: PINEAPPLE
Black: LOOPING

[Proxima]

PINE
APPLE
LOOP
BANANA

[Dullstar]

White Koans
PINEAPPLE                                           

Black Koans
APPLE        LOOP         PINE                      
BANANA       LOOPING                               

EDIT: Formatting

[namida]

BARBER
NANA
NANNA

[Dullstar]

White Koans
PINEAPPLE                                           

Black Koans
APPLE        BARBER       LOOPING      NANNA       
BANANA       LOOP         NANA         PINE         

[Proxima]

Guess: A koan has the Buddha-nature if it is the string PINEAPPLE.

[grams88]

I like that one Proxima.

(Lets take a guess at the rule)

A koan has the buddha nature if it has four or more vowels.