EISENHOWER
WASHINGTON
JEFFERSON
CLEVELAND
ROOSEVELT
VANBUREN
HARRISON
FILLMORE
BUCHANAN
GARFIELD
MCKINLEY
COOLIDGE
MADISON
JACKSON
LINCOLN
JOHNSON
HARDING
KENNEDY
CLINTON
MONROE
TAYLOR
PIERCE
ARTHUR
WILSON
HOOVER
TRUMAN
CARTER
REAGAN
TYLER
ADAMS
GRANT
HAYES
NIXON
OBAMA
POLK
TAFT
FORD
BUSH
[/code]
Of all the letters in all these names,
only two letters are not used, Q and Z.
So, the grid we will use is a 6 by 4
grid filled with the other 24 letters,
a different one for each cell of the
grid, like so:
[code]
-------------------------
| A | B | C | D | E | F |
-------------------------
| G | H | I | J | K | L |
-------------------------
| M | N | O | P | R | S |
-------------------------
| T | U | V | W | X | Y |
-------------------------
What makes this a torus is that the
upper edge is considered to be the same
as the lower edge, and the left edge is
identified with the right edge. In the
above example, the adjacent letters
to A are T, U, B, H, G, L, F, and Y
(clockwise from the letter directly
above A), just as the adjacent letters
to H are B, C, I, O, N, M, G, and A.
A president's name can be considered
to be in the grid if the letters in his
name, in order, form a chain of adjacent
letters in the torus grid.
So, for example, if my grid were chosen
to be
-------------------------
| X | Y | L | E | V | S |
-------------------------
| T | A | N | C | I | H |
-------------------------
| J | D | F | M | G | B |
-------------------------
| U | K | R | O | P | W |
-------------------------
[/code]
the following presidential names (and no
others) can be placed in this grid:
Question
superprismatic
Have you ever played Boggle on a torus?
I'd wager you hadn't. That is what this
puzzle is all about. In this case,
however, we will use only a limited
number of words -- the 38 distinct
surnames of all of the U.S. presidents:
What makes this a torus is that the upper edge is considered to be the same as the lower edge, and the left edge is identified with the right edge. In the above example, the adjacent letters to A are T, U, B, H, G, L, F, and Y (clockwise from the letter directly above A), just as the adjacent letters to H are B, C, I, O, N, M, G, and A. A president's name can be considered to be in the grid if the letters in his name, in order, form a chain of adjacent letters in the torus grid. So, for example, if my grid were chosen to beYour task is to place these 24 letters
(A through Y, without Q) in the torus
grid so that the sum of the letters in
all the presidential surnames which
could be placed in the grid is as large
as possible. In the above example,
this number would be 32. Ties will be
broken in favor of the largest number
of presidential names (6 in this case).
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