I need to create a mathematical solution or algorithm for the following real life problem:
F E D C B A Output
T1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T3 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T5 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
T6 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
.
.
.
T is a clock ticking at 1 sec intervals and the underlines flow continuously from left to right. Every tick, I need to drop ONE letter on the underlines. Few rules must be followed for dropping the letters: 1) I can't drop/overlap letters on top of each other 2) the output needs to have a continuous (no gaps) flow of letters. Example,
F E D C B A Output
T1 F _ _ _ _ _ _
T2 _ F _ _ _ _ _
T3 _ E F _ _ _ _
T4 _ _ E F _ _ _
T5 _ _ D E F _ _
T6 _ _ _ D E F _
T7 _ _ _ C D E F
T8 _ _ D _ C D E (Problem Here! A gap is created!)
T9 _ _ _ D _ C D
T10 _ _ _ _ D _ C
T11 _ _ _ _ _ D _ (Gap. Not acceptable.)
How do I approach in solving this problem?
EDIT 1: There will always be 6 letter. There is no specific pattern of letters. I just need a continuous output.
EDIT 2: I also need an equal or close to equal effort of letter distribution. Lets say, each letter is dropped 1/6th of the time. An optimum distribution of letters at the output.
EDIT 3: You can drop the same letter twice in a row if you wish, but that won't give me a nice letter distribution.. Also, at every T time, a letter can be dropped.
EDIT 4: The action is: Every T, shift to the right, then drop a letter.
I figured out a solution (not sure if this is an optimum solution) by trial and error:
Now, I need a way to represent this mathematically so I am able to solve similar problem with different number of columns (letters from A to Z for example). Thanks!
Note: with even number of columns, two letters are dropped at the same time (T1, T7, T12) and a single drop is skipped (T4, T10). With Odd number of columns, I don't think these two things occur.