Given a list of words where the letters were variables with specific products, could you find the value of SANTA + CLAUS?
You had to find the individual letters first.
ACT=60 and CAST=120. The difference is a factor of S, so S = 120 / 60 = 2.
ACT=60 and TALC=540. By the same reasoning, L = 540 / 60 = 9.
Now that we know L and S, we can find A in LASS=108. If L=9 and S=2 then A = 108 / 36 = 3.
SALT=270 and S=2, A=3, L=9, so T = 270 / 54 = 5.
ACT=60 and A=3, T=5 then C = 60 / 15 = 4.
CLAN=864 and C=4, L=9, A=3, then N = 864 / 108 = 8.
TUNA=720 and T=5, N=8, A=3 then U = 720 / 120 = 6.
So SANTA + CLAUS = (2)(3)(8)(5)(3) + (4)(9)(3)(6)(2) = 720 + 1296 = 2016! Happy New Year!
That was the closest I could get to 2015 without sitting with a spreadsheet for an hour, so I decided to just wait a week to give the answer. Voila!
Thanks for playing. I had guesses here (not really), on Google Plus, on Facebook and on Instagram. I had retweets on Twitter, but no actual guesses.
Branching out into social media. Cool!
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