josephrjustice

This is my answer to the OKC question "STALE is to STEAL as 89475 is to..." The possible answers are: (1) 89457; (2) 98547; (3) 89754; (4) 89547.

To me, this question is about the relative ordering and reordering of the letters in STALE vs STEAL, and then figuring out the analogous reordering for 89475. E.g. S began in position 1, and ended up still in position 1, while A started in position 3 but ended up moved to position 4, etc.

Pictorially, we could look at it in the following way (it lines up better with a monospace font):

STALE -} STEAL
12345 -} 12534

Then, we just do the same sort of thing for the sequence of #s 89475:

12345 -} 12534
89475 -} 89547

So, assuming my beliefs about the question are right, the correct answer to the question is 89547, and that's what I'll say. And, I am going to say that only 89547 is an acceptable answer to me by others for this question, and that it is ... I'll say somewhat important to me. (I suppose that might be too high, that it is only a little important, but I'll put somewhat for now.)

PS: Boy, it'd be embarrassing if I screwed this one up, esp. after writing all of that... *cough*