Okay, you've figured out how to display all of the days of the month using two cubes in "Calendar Cubes". Now here's your next challenge:

Spell the months of the year with a letter on each face of three cubes. Use lowercase three-letter English abbreviations for the names of all twelve months (e.g., "jan", "feb", "mar").

Starting with three patrtial solutions:

1)jan, jun, jul, aug gives us A = j,g; B = a,n/u; C = n/u,l
2)mar, apr, may gives us A' = m,d/p; B' = a; C' = r, y
3)sep, dec gives us A" = d/p; B" = e; C" = c,s

We note that B = B' = a,n/u and A' = A" = m.d/p
We also note that all the A's, B's and C's can't line up that way, because if C = C' = C" = n/u,l,r,y,c,s then cube C is complete, but it has none of the letters in feb

A little more manipulation of the possibilities gives us the following arrangement:
A = j, g, r, y, e, o
B = a, n/u, s, c, f, v
C = n/u, l, m, d/p, b, t
jan = ABC     jul = ABC
feb = BAC     aug = BCA
mar = CBA     sep = BAC
apr = BCA     oct = ABC
may = CBA     nov = CAB
jun = ABC     dec = CAB

Posted by TomM on 2002-09-14 17:06:54