Cube Puzzler - Spoiler

#1

Is this show a rerun?









Not each cube needs each digit.







012347

012865

#2

Why do you need two zeros? Why not add a 9 instead?

012347
125689

– Retraction: You need two zeros for 01 - 09

#3

So you understand why you don’t need a 9?

#4

I got these, they seem to work as well:
012378
012456

#5

Once you have the 012 on each cube, the rest don’t matter. There are 1440 solutions when you type it out, but some of them will be identical when you write the digits on the cube.

#6

Please help me out, why exactly do you need two zeros?

#7

After seeing a desk calendar designed exactly this way some years ago, I decided to see how few cubes I could get away with for the month. Figured on using three-letter abbreviations (“Sep” instead of “Sept” or “September”), and quickly discovered I was better off using all lowercase letters.

Managed to do it with three cubes, but had to fudge a little, using the same symbol for “U” (as in “aUg”), “N” (upside-down, as in “jaN”) and even “C” (sideways, as in “oCt”). I don’t remember if the “d” in “Dec” doubled as the “p” in “seP” or not.

#8

I thought the cubes only showed the day of the month 1-30 (or 31 or 28 or once every four years 29) so only one 0 is needed. By using only one zero, you can use roman Numerals or words (zero, one, two, etc.)

#9

What you thought is not what they said. Single digit dates are represented as 01, 02, 03, 04,05,06,07,08,09 so yes you need two zeros.

Another place where you might have missed something is the stipulation that you have to used base-10, therefore Roman numerals (see how I capitalized it properly?) and words are OUT. Okay, words would work but it would look silly. Roman numerals have no zero and are not base-10.

Also, there are months with 29 days in them quite a bit more often than every four years…this one, for instance, and the next one, and the one after that, and so on.

#10

How does an upside down “U” look like and “N”?

Here’s how to do it with 2 cubes:

JFRAMN

LUSOVD

Of course, you’d only use one cube at a time.

#11

If only one cube has a zero, wouldn’t that require that the other cube be capable of representing every digit 1-9? I’m open to suggestions; how do you do that with one other six-sided cube?

#12

How does an upside down “U” look like and “N”?

Lowercase, like I said: un. The logo for the Phoenix Suns used to exploit the resemblance.

Now I have a question for you. With your two cubes, used only one at a time, how do you know whether you’re supposed to read “J” as “January”, “June” or “July”? (Ditto “March” and “May”, ditto-ditto “April” and “August”.)

#13

I get it now thank you.

#14

I missed what you said about lower case. D’oh.

As to your question, it’s called a “convention”. The first month to begin with a letter gets that letter, subsequent months beginning with that letter get a letter that only occurs in the name of that month, although I kind of blew it by using N for June. Should have been:

JFMAYU

LGSOND

Thank you for the correction. Yes, you could say I fudged September, could have used “P”.