In the game of Letter Cubes, a different letter of the alphabet is on each face of each of the 4 cubes so that 24 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, including J, occur. Words are formed by rearranging and turning the cubes so that the top letters spell a common 4-letter word. The 14 words below have been made using the cubes.

CAVE
CLEF
DUPE
FARE
FLUB
GREW
HAZY
KITH
LOIN
POEM
RASP
SMUG
TIRE
VARY

Can you recover the 6 letters on each?

(puzzle originally from www.allstarpuzzles.com)

My method of working it out was as follows. Start with C,A,V & E on cubes 1 to 4 respectively. Then you find another word, like CLEF. We know the position of the C & E, but not the L and F, which are either on the A cube or V cube. Now we need to find a word with either a V or A and either a L or F. The word FARE contains a F and an A, so they cannot be on the same cube. So we have C on cube 1, A & L on cube 2, V and F on cube 3 and E on cube 4.

Repeating this method we get: S,G ON 3,4

Cube 1:C,U,R,H,O,X
Cube 2:A,L,D,T,M,W
Cube 3:V,F,P,I,Z,G
Cube 4:E,B,Y,K,N,S

Letters that aren't used are X and Q.

Posted by Lewis on 2003-08-04 08:35:26