What's The Longest Word You Can Write With Seven-Segment Displays? 

Bonus question: what's the longest word you can spell just by turning a calculator upside-down?

I would like it if the display said "Aarrgh" instead of "Error".

How you gonna do this video and not show "supertranscendentness" on a seven-segment display?!

I was hoping Tom would show us the word displayed in Seven-Segment Displays.

I ran through the linuxwords list and I'm happy to include g - my result was "electroencephalography" which is quite a satisfying answer!

Tom: I and O are numbers with aspirations S: *sweats nervously*

I love how "a", "aa", and "aaa" are all official English language words

Tom: "It doesn't matter that the 4 isn't the way most people write it" Me: "They don't?? I do..."

G is not allowed because it looks like a 9, but S is totally fine even though it's exactly the same as a 5. arbitrary rules are arbitrary.

And you blue-ball us by not showing the word written out using a seven-segment displays...

>not how most people write a four *Aggressive confusion*

0:29 Actually, in 1908 when the 7-segmented display was invented, cursive was by far the most common way of writing, and in cursive, the top of the four is separated just like in the 7-segmented display. You can actually look up notes from 1904 and you will all see them in cursive, and every time the year is written by hand (not by a stamp) the 4 is separated at the top. So we haven't "gotten used to it" but instead we have drifted away from using cursive. The more you know! And in case you were wondering, I write the top of my fours separated, and that's what got me down this rabbit hole.

Ahh, the classic "leave it to the reader as an exercise".

Supertranscendentness seems like a perfectly satisfying answer to the question though

q is out cause it looks like a 9. **five seconds later** S is alright.

Just shouting into the void as this is years on since the video was posted: I was playing with some 7-segment displays recently and had this exact problem as I needed to output words that used the forbidden characters. Technically we could print every character (upper and lowercase and a fair bit of punctuation) if we were "flexible" in how the letters looked. Map each bit to a segment and we could represent every character from 1-128. So if you're ever in a position where you needed to communicate with someone using only 7-segment displays but needed to write "wax kumquat in gauze" then it's perhaps a workable solution.

“What’s the longest word you can write on a 7 digit display?” Me an intellectual: hehe boobies hehe

2:08 as a software developer i can confirm that. The most important skill you need is finding the right stackoverflow post that describes your problem the best.

"Programming is not remembering exact words or syntax: it is breaking down a problem, working out how to solve it, and then fixing all the inevitable bugs in your solution." - Tom Scott Sorry, i am amazed by this explanation of what programming is and i think it deserves to be quoted in the future too.

Fun fact: AARGH is a valid word in Wordle. Go ahead, try it out.

I’ve only just found this channel and Tom answers questions I was never gonna have but will always be happy as hell to have learned

I love how he's constantly trying to justify and shield himself from elitist programers

"Did I know all that code off my heart? No, of course not - I Googled..." Giving away our dirty secrets, I see.

Thought your thing about making the code readable was interesting so I tried to make the shortest versions of the code possible in python! Here it is at 105 bytes: print(max((A for A in open('a').read().split()if not{*A.lower()}&{*'gkmqvwxzio'}),key=len,default=None)) Racked my brain for awhile but couldn't think of a decent way to make it shorter if any of you want to try I wish you luck! PS: I renamed the words.txt file "a" as python will still open it as a str.

S is a 5 so you should put it in the variable “badLetters”

By far the most important part of programming is remembering not to delete that one little bit of code you've left untouched for three years because it somehow manages to remain integral to the entire program despite not being referenced by anything.

In case if you don't know, "Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane" is shortly called DDT. The stuff we used to eliminate ants.

Never knew Tom would be more approachable for beginners than Stack Overflow 👍

I want to learn computer science and my knowledge for programming is really low, but it makes me so happy that I immediately understood how the code worked and the purpose of each line, if course with extra help of the explanation. Really cool!

Me: Wants to know what is the longest word with seven-segment display You: Teaching me how to program

I actually write my fours the way that seven segment displays show them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. You made me remember why I studied programming more than 30 years ago ... even though I never used my knowledge, it still gives me a thrill. Thanks

My guess is that a good way to handle multiple words of the same length, is throw any words of equal length (that satisfy the test) into a list, and clear the list if you've found a longer acceptable word

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane was just fine. "i" and "o" should count: remember your classic "Error"? There's and "o" there no one had ever problems with

I and o should count. Written as half height they are not mistaken as 1 and 0

I love how you explain programming! It explains why I have trouble with the abstract tasks!

2:10 thank you for this little tid bit of advice. It genuinely changed how I feel about myself and my progress and made me feel better tbh. Thank you

I think the "C with aspirations" makes a solid G, and if I and O are removed then S has to be too.

I loved that you mentioned that programming is not knowing all the syntax for every library and framework by heart, it's all about problem solving. I often see people being ashamed of looking up the documentation all the time to execute some basic methods but it's not abot memorizing, it's about using the right tools and comign up with good solutions

Thank you Tom, i really loved what you said about being a programmer and still looking things up, i think it's important to tell people that, you don't have to be able to do everything perfectly out of memory. Thank you for this video!

Good note on Big O notation. What I use as a rule of thumb, if your dataset is smaller than 1000-ish or run less than once every minute, you can probably ignore performance. And if you can't, your prototype will be slow enough that you can find it out before deployment.

0:56 You display the word "Error" which contains the letter "o". It has it's own unique set of segments that differentiates it from the number "0"; therefore, you incorrectly included "o" in var badLetter.

Gotta say... I'm deeply disappointed that you didn't display the solution in 7-segment characters... Nethertheless, gr8 work

I love these videos where you explain pieces of code, step by step. Especially where you reassure coding noobs like myself, that it's more about knowing how to solve problems, than how to memorise actually coding techniques.

Tom taught me more about programming in this one video than my IT teacher has in 3 years

Those "aarrgh"s are valid in Scrabble, for what it's worth.

You _could_ write any English word on a 7-segment display if you wanted to. You'd just need to create a cohesive alphabet. Some letters might not look like their normal written counterparts, but that's fine. As for Q, a lowercase Q in 7-segment wouldn't be ambiguous with a 9 since a 9 in 7-segment has its full tail. I could be made unambiguous by making it lowercase, while S and Z could by simply taking the top and bottom segments away and leaving zig-zags in opposite directions from each other. O just needs to stay lowercase.

Actually, you can display two "I"s in one block.

"It's not a G, it's a C with aspirations"

3:47 Seven Segment Display: *displays goal* People: Oh, 6OAL!

Thanks for making me feel a bit better today, i was crying an hour before i watched your video and i subbed

2:30 I write in java almost daily, and a common thing near the start of a program is "public static void main(String []args)" and I constantly mess up the order of the last 3 things

@7:05 "but I reckon for things like this it's fine" All of software development in a nutshell.

0:30 what do you mean most people don't write 4 like that? I've always written 4 like that.

After seeing the green screen video I'm still 🤯 about how well they figured out the lighting n his positioning...bravo 👏

Your explaination is brilliant. Please do make the video about Big O notation. Thanks for this video.

I wanted to see that word on a 7 segment display.

I think the logic for ruling out "G" (because the number 6 already uses it) should also rule out "S" (because the number 5 already uses it).

I appreciate that this is secretly a tutorial on how to get started writing a computer program.

As a Python programmer, I was impressed when I was thinking of how to manufacture words with loops, and you just check if the “no” letters are in it.

The question: "What is the longest word you can write on a seven-segment display"? The answer: A You only gave me a single seven-segment display.

Eh. A lowercase "o" should be fine, it's not duplicating the 0 in shape.

The G was fine. So are I and O! I simulated a 7-seg display in a program I made ages ago. I sat and thought out how to do as many letters as possible on it since some words would be helpful to display. It was a bit of a time-sink to figure out, really... one wouldn't have expected it to be so complicated.

I know it's old but I'm loving this series.

*"OH LOOK IT'S SIX OAL"*

"Can I borrow your Mega Processor?" "Ha, noooo." *"I'm Tom Scott."* [notices red shirt] "Ok, but be sure and mention us a few times in your video."

this vidoe tought me a little bit about programming and a weird and extremely trivial nerdfact i can use and even demonstrate with this video.

7-segment displays are so delightfully 80s, and I love that.

Just did this as an exercise in PYTHON using the GERMAN dictionary and adding ä, ü and ö to the badLetters. The longest german word to write on a SEVEN-SEGMENT DISPLAY is "Schnittstellendefinitionssprachen" which translates to interface description languages. Or, if we exclude i and o as well, it would be "Altersstufenentsprechenden".

Such a missed opportunity to show the final words using 7-segmwnts displays. That why I was watching the whole video for. Im gutted!

As old as this video is the “don’t be afraid to look stuff up” still stands true. From doctors to engineers to students doing homework, if you’re not sure don’t be afraid to ask or look it up.

Very interesting video. Thank you.

Tom: What is the longest word you can make in 7 segments? Me: Boobies?

> teach programming concepts so beginners understand > regular expressions choose one

Thanks, Tom!

As someone who learned to program (it wasn't called coding back then) in 1976 in BASIC I found this fascinating.

Maybe you could show us how it looks like on a seven segment display

Wait, why does the “n” have to be full height?

Thanks for the reassurance in the coding section :)

I think i like your content so i will subscribe. It seems very interesting

The bonus upside down calculator question gives a much more satisfying answer: bibliologies glossologies 531607055016 531607017818

Here's the longest hundred words that you can write with seven-segment displays: (note, supertranscendentness is actually the only one of that length.) supertranscendentness supersuperabundantly superrespectableness unapprehendableness supertranscendently supersuperabundance untranslatableness untranscendentally unsupernaturalness ultrabrachycephaly hyperbrachycephaly phenylacetaldehyde supersuperabundant understandableness superadaptableness subtransparentness unattractableness unadulteratedness preternaturalness unrepresentedness characterlessness unpreternaturally unpresentableness unprecedentedness unpersuadableness leadenheartedness hypertranscendent feebleheartedness pentadecahydrated hyperbrachycephal hyperaccurateness blunderheadedness tenderheartedness supertranscendent untransparentness structurelessness superaccurateness superabstractness unsurpassableness unassessableness unascendableness schlauraffenland unrebuttableness unappeasableness unappealableness unacceptableness unabstractedness unpreferableness unparalleledness beetleheadedness hypersensualness transplacentally hypernaturalness translatableness transferableness transcendentness transcendentally platystencephaly archpresbyterate falseheartedness hypercarburetted pentadecahydrate pentaphylacaceae ununderstandably ununderstandable untranscendental untenantableness unsuspectfulness unsupernaturally naphthanthracene undetestableness unsufferableness unsuccessfulness underspurleather underrepresented bulletheadedness undependableness undepartableness undefendableness undefeatableness supersulphureted superrespectably superrespectable supernaturalness preterpluperfect dunderheadedness stucturelessness subbrachycephaly unsearchableness supercapableness superblessedness sunnyheartedness uncensurableness uncalculatedness uncalculableness unbreathableness unbreachableness unreturnableness unrespectfulness subtransparently

Tom is a heck of a presenter!

This is actually a good interview question.

If you are dropping ‘i’ and ‘o’ as they are numbers 1 and 0 also need to drop ‘s’ as it is 5

Tom Scott: the unofficial Vsause 4

Does anyone remember the 1979 Buck Rogers TV series? The alphabet was all written as 7-segment. The K was particularly creative: like the A but without the upper right vertical line. No words with M or W or V were shown if I remember right.

Gotta say, I loved that bit with the flashy 'K' at around 4:00. Thanks for always making videos worth watching, Scott!

I saw you in Dublin Airport today getting stuck in security. I wanted to say hi but airports are stressful enough. Hi!

8:02 "I'm gonna rule out I and O, they're just numbers with aspirations...." but, the S looks exactly like a 5, why didn't you rule that out too?

I remember doing circuits with 7 segment displays when I was in high school, it was a nightmare, but despite all the pain and sleepovers, that’s how I effectively learned Boolean Algebra and binary code

I learn more in these videos than ive learned in the last 11 years ive been in school

something is missing, you didn't show us that "supertranscendentness" in seven segment types

So I and O are "numbers with aspirations", but S (just a 5) is fine? I think G, l, O, Q, Z should be allowed as well

I was actually able to understand most of the code even though my knowledge is limited to what they taught me in high school

programming is not just understanding whatever language you learnt, the most important skill you can have as a programmer is understanding things, like the 7-segment display, but those 7 lines can create so much.

But that is how I write a 4

“No ones gonna look at it and see 6OAL” Me, whos been half listening and just glanced at it: 6oal???

M is actually in the sorta-kinda category. It’s often represented as a lowercase N with a bar over it. In the same way, W is a lowercase u, with a bar underneath. There are actually only a few letters that don’t work on 7-segments.

0:30 It's same like with number "1" in most of the Europe... We write it as "1", but for example US people write it as "I" as on seven-segment displays.