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I remember when I got my first “desk” job… My desk had a funky calendar that was really nothing but two cubes and a little stand to place the two cubes side-by-side for the date. I also used a manual typewriter, but that’s just showing my age.
Anyway, this two-cube calendar didn’t indicate the month or the day of the week; just the date. Each of the six sides on the two cubes depicted a single digit. By placing some combination of the two cubes in the slots on the stand, you could indicate any date from 01 to 31. (You had to keep a cube in each slot… you wouldn’t want to hide one of them and lose it.)
Today’s question (and it’s probably a bit trickier than it seems at first glance):
What were the digits on the sides
of the two ‘date’ cubes that allowed
every possible date to appear
using both cubes?
Here’s one SOLUTION.
Comments (7)
Comment
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There’s more than 1 possible solution -
0,1,2,3,7,8
0,1,2,4,5,6
posted by SlackJack on 12-8-2008 at 8:56 am
Also, depending on how the digits were written, a typical digital style 2 turned upside down could be a 5.
posted by mark on 12-8-2008 at 9:16 am
SlackJack’s absolutely correct; the 7/8 and 4/5 can be swapped between the two cubes. But one cube has to have 0, 1, 2, and 3… the other cube has to have 0, 1, 2, and 6 (or 9).
posted by Sandy on 12-8-2008 at 9:48 am
Since you’ll never have a day that is “00″, you only need 1 “0″ side, so another option is
0,1,2,3,4,5
1,2,6,7,8,9
posted by A on 12-8-2008 at 11:11 am
@A – you do need to have a “0″ on both cubes. Otherwise you cannot make have of the digits between the first of the month and the 9th.
Recaptcha – play publish – is my recaptcha trying to tell me something, Hmmmm.
posted by Bill on 12-8-2008 at 11:25 am
There are ten solutions. The only requirement is that both cubes must have 0, 1 and 2.
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
0, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
0, 1, 2, 5, 7, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7
0, 1, 2, 5, 6, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8
0, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7
0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
0, 1, 2, 4, 7, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7
0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8
0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7
0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7
0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8
0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8
0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7
0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8
0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
posted by Henry on 12-8-2008 at 11:36 am
The correct answer should be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on one cube and 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 on the other one. The cubes should be moveable if you can put the 6 upside down to make a 9. Plus 00 doesn’t exist.
posted by Sophy on 12-17-2008 at 3:13 pm