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I'm sure you've all heard of the famed Green Glass Door:

  • A butterfly can go through the door, but a moth can't.

  • A sheep can go through the door, but a horse can't.

etc.

However, I have found a door of a different color!

  • A wasp can go through the door, but a bee can't.

  • An orange can go through the door, but an apple can't.

  • A soldier can go through the door, but a sailor can't.

  • A ninja can go through the door, but a gladiator can't.

  • Silver can go through the door, but gold can't.

What is the obvious choice for the color of this door? Why?

Any colors directly mentioned in this puzzle are not eligible to be the color of the door.

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    $\begingroup$ Whoops, deleted my comment by accident. Haha $\endgroup$
    – Cloudy7
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 17:37

2 Answers 2

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Not sure if this is the answer, but the example words that can go through the door...

have no common words that rhyme:

- wasp only rhymes with the rare knosp, while bee rhymes with see, tee, fee...
- orange rhymes with "door hinge", I guess, but that's two words anyways. Apple rhymes with the way more common grapple and chapel.
- soldier rhymes with unusual surnames such as Folger. Sailor and tailor, however, are both perfectly normal words.
- ninja almost rhymes with ginger, but not quite. Gladiator has countless rhyming words, like dictator.
- silver rhymes with chilver, a female lamb, and also a word you won't encounter ever. Gold of course rhymes with old, or sold.

Hence, the door could be...

Purple, or maybe beige.

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    $\begingroup$ Very nice! I'll let this one get a few more views before handing out the green v. $\endgroup$
    – Brandon_J
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ One of those two colors is a little more well-known for its word-property. That's the one I'm looking for. $\endgroup$
    – Brandon_J
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 18:29
  • $\begingroup$ The relevant Wikipedia page claims that neither of those is quite an example. And of course "door" no longer works so well. Perhaps you want a rot13(oebamrq byvir sblre) or something of the sort. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Sep 7, 2019 at 15:12
  • $\begingroup$ But... Rot13(avawn qbrf eulzr cresrpgyl jvgu tvatre. Naq tynqvngbe qbrfa'g eulzr jvgu qvpgngbe. N erny eulzr erdhverf "-nqvngbe" gb fbhaq vqragvpny. "Fcnqvngbe" (vs vg jrer n jbeq" jbhyq eulzr. Qvpgngbe qbrfa'g (nyfb gur rzcunfvf vf jebat, nf qvpgngbe vf rzcunfvfrq ba gur frpbaq flyynoyr).) $\endgroup$
    – Chris Melville
    Commented Sep 8, 2019 at 15:08
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I realize NudgeNudge got the expected answer, but another pattern also exists:

If A = 1, B = 2, etc, then the first 2 letters of the words that go through the door have a sum greater than 22, while the words that don't, don't.

Edit

A door color which actually fits this pattern is

Red. The two first letters sum to $23$ and any word with this sum or higher passes through the door.

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    $\begingroup$ This is a nice observation, but it doesn't answer the question: what is the color of the door, then? (honest question here, I mean just because @NudgeNudge got the expected answer doesn't mean that there isn't another answer that is consistent with your observation). $\endgroup$
    – Arnaud Mortier
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 19:46
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    $\begingroup$ @Arnaud Mortier Well, there is a color which actually fits...red. The first two letters have a sum of $23$ and any word with this sum or more, goes through. :-) $\endgroup$
    – Jens
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 20:21
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    $\begingroup$ Sure, but it should be in your answer, not in a comment :) $\endgroup$
    – Arnaud Mortier
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 20:26

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