I want to inscribe letters on to nine cubical wooden blocks to be able to spell all the months of the year. For good appearance, I do not want to use the end grain of any block. That leaves four sides of the blocks to use, which is plenty. I also want one blank face (not end grain) on each block.
Is it possible to assign three letters to each block to spell out all twelve months, without resorting to tricks like inverting an 'n' to make a 'u'?

You may want to check out this puzzle for inspiration.

You need 3 Es, 2 of each U,A, O, and R, and 1 each of J, F, N, Y, B, M, C, H, P, I, L, G, S, T, V, and D. That is twenty seven letters so yes it is possible.

Although figuring out the letters was more difficult then I figured it would be. I came up with:

R E P T E M B E S

C J F A N U A Y R

U H O D L O I G V

Not sure yet im it matches someone elses.

Good problem.

Posted by jduval on 2007-08-25 04:52:56