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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it an Explosive Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

EXPLOSIVE UNEXPLOSIVE
GOOD NEW
FIRST LAST
LONG OWN
GREAT OTHER
LITTLE RIGHT
OLD BIG
DIFFERENT HIGH
SMALL YOUNG
LARGE FEW
NEXT ABLE
EARLY GET
IMPORTANT GO
PUBLIC WANT
BAD FEEL
SAME CALL
BE DAY
HAVE MAN
DO WORLD
SAY POINT
MAKE FACT
KNOW BOMB

CSV version:

EXPLOSIVE WORD, NON EXPLOSIVE WORD
GOOD, NEW
FIRST, LAST
LONG, OWN
GREAT, OTHER
LITTLE, RIGHT
OLD, BIG
DIFFERENT, HIGH
SMALL, YOUNG
LARGE, FEW
NEXT, ABLE
EARLY, GET
IMPORTANT, GO
PUBLIC, WANT
BAD, FEEL
SAME, CALL
BE, DAY
HAVE, MAN
DO, WORLD
SAY, POINT
MAKE, FACT
KNOW, BOMB

Hint #1:

Hello -> Hlo, el

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    $\begingroup$ LOL. "Bomb" is not an explosive word. $\endgroup$
    – Marius
    Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 13:34
  • $\begingroup$ Something to do with ASCII code? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 17:05
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor Yes $\endgroup$
    – TuxCrafting
    Commented Sep 26, 2016 at 17:08
  • $\begingroup$ im having trouble but perhaps something where the ascii codes count down to 0 or osmething liek that $\endgroup$
    – Avik Mohan
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 7:54
  • $\begingroup$ You probably need to provide some hints.. $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 5:50

2 Answers 2

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An Unexplosive Word™ is one where ...

... the sums of the ASCII codes of both the even letters and the odd letters of the word are odd. This also explains Peregrine Rook's finding that the total sum of ASCII codes of such words is always even. For example:

OTHER:     (O:79) + (H:72) + (R:82) = 233;     (T:84) + (E:69) = 153

Because only evenness is important, the sum can be made over the alphabet position (A=1, B=2, etc.) instead.

An Explosive Word™ is a word that isn't Unexplosie™.

As for the name:

I can only assume that it has to do with "exploding" the word into odd and even parts, just like parts are separated in an explosive view.

I really wouldn't have gotten this without the last hint.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yep, it's that (filler) $\endgroup$
    – TuxCrafting
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 9:15
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I haven't checked all of them yet, but could it be that:

ASCII of explosive adds up to an odd number, and ASCII of non-explosive adds to an even number

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  • $\begingroup$ well, other than IMPORTANT, but it happens surprisingly often to be just a coincidence... $\endgroup$
    – mr23ceec
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ Well, other than IMPORTANT, FIRST, LONG, LITTLE, SAME, HAVE and MAKE. Also, why would such a word be called Explosive? $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 15:03
  • $\begingroup$ It's just a name, I guess "foobar" was taken that day. ;) $\endgroup$
    – mr23ceec
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 15:05
  • $\begingroup$ With this, MAKE and FACT are equal. I think we need a different operation. $\endgroup$
    – Phlarx
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 16:16
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    $\begingroup$ (1) $2/3$ ($66.\bar6\%$) of the Explosive Words have an odd total; $100\%$ of the Unexplosive (or Non⋅Explosive) Words have an even total.  This is way too often to be just a coincidence.  (2) Also, FIRST = WORLD.  (3) If you take the character values “modulo” 64 (i.e., you map A → 1, B → 2, etc.), then you get some words of different lengths with the same total; e.g., BE = BAD and GET = HIGH. $\endgroup$
    – Peregrine Rook
    Commented Sep 27, 2016 at 18:43

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