Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Each letter in the equation below represents a digit that is less than or equal to 2. What four-digit number does TUVW represent?

(T * 3^3) + (U * 3^2) + (V * 3) + (W) = 50

the answer is 1212, but how does one come about getting this answer, without using trial and error?

By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 02:53 pm: Edit

27T + 9U + 3V + W = 50

T-1
V-1
2-U
2-W

TUVW = 1212

You need to add things that 10 can go into to make it easier. 27 (T) and 3 (V) go together to make 30. Now, we need 20 more. Well, we know that 9 (U) and 1 (W) go together to make 10. So...if we need 20 more, we just use one extra of U and W.

So we have 1 T (which is 27) plus 1 V (which is 3) to make 30. Then we add 2 Us (9+9=18) and 2 Ws (1=1=2) to get the extra 20 that we need (18+2=20).
30+20=50

By Willie (Willie) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 02:55 pm: Edit

no, that only adds up to 49...how would one go about doing this mathematically though?

By Mattymatt (Mattymatt) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 03:06 pm: Edit

umm thats 50.. and why worry about mathematically when it will jsut be a long and drawn out method.. save time and do as incognito says

By Willie (Willie) on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 03:34 pm: Edit

thanks incognito