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改变的状态

Altered States

专题
Discrete Math / 离散数学
难度
L6

题目详情

Enter letters into the 5×5 grid above to achieve the highest score you can. You earn points for each of the 50 U.S. states present in your grid.

  • States can be spelled by making King’s moves from square to square (see example).
  • The score for a state is its length; e.g. OREGON scores 6 points, RHODEISLAND scores 11, etc. The example above scores 13 points1 (for IDAHO, IOWA, and OHIO).
  • If a state appears multiple times in your grid, it only scores once.
  • Please submit your total score, your grid rows reading across, and a list of the states present in your grid (along with any comments you’d like to provide).

  1. Note that HAWAII is not scored, as ‘staying put’ is not a legal King’s move. (We would need to add an I to one of the neighboring empty squares.) ↩

解析

Original Explanation

For a long while the best grid we knew of scored 95 points. In early 2024, puzzler Laura reached out to us with an improved grid (above left), which scores 98 points. Her grid contains these states:

  • ARKANSAS (8)
  • COLORADO (8)
  • INDIANA (7)
  • KANSAS (6)
  • LOUISIANA (9)
  • NEBRASKA (8)
  • NORTHCAROLINA (13)
  • NORTHDAKOTA (11)
  • SOUTHCAROLINA (13)
  • SOUTHDAKOTA (11)
  • UTAH (4)

After reviving the theme in 2024, we received a handful of grids that scored even higher. The best one we have received so far comes courtesy of Luke Yang, whose grid (above right) scores a whopping 123 points. It contains the following states:

  • ARKANSAS (8)
  • HAWAII (6)
  • IDAHO (5)
  • ILLINOIS (8)
  • INDIANA (7)
  • IOWA (4)
  • KANSAS (6)
  • LOUISIANA (9)
  • NORTHCAROLINA (13)
  • NORTHDAKOTA (11)
  • OHIO (4)
  • OKLAHOMA (8)
  • SOUTHCAROLINA (13)
  • SOUTHDAKOTA (11)
  • UTAH (4)

If you can do better, feel free to send us your grid!