I come in the form of a question. If you don’t know the answers, you will think a lot, but when you know or you are being told the answer it sounds simple that you will think everybody can easily know.
1. Each letter represents a different digit from 1 to 9 2. The total of each row is 17. 3. (B × B) + B + F = A 4. C × F = EF (a 2-digit number, not their product)
A + B + C = 17 D + E + F = 17 B2 + B + F = A C × F = EF
To begin with, B has to be a 1 or 2 or else A wouldn’t be a single digit. Plug in B = 2, gives you 6 + F = A, meaning F and A can only be (1,7) or (3,9). To get 17, C would have to be 8 or 6, but those values don’t work for C × F = EF. So B must be 1.
2 + F = A means F and A can be (2,4), (3,5), (4,6), (5,7), (6,8) or (7,9). To get 17 on the top row, the only option that leaves C as a single digit is F = 5 and A = 7.
C × F = EF 9 × 5 = 45, so E = 4 and D = 8 to make the second row equal to 17.
Fred brings home 100 pounds of potatoes, which (being purely mathematical potatoes) consist of 99 percent water. He then leaves them outside overnight so that they consist of 98 percent water. What is their new weight?
100 lb of potatoes with 99% water weight means there’s 99 lb of water and 1 lb of solids, a 1:99 ratio.
If the water decreases to 98%, then the solids account for 2% of the weight. The 2:98 ratio reduces to 1:49. Since the solids still weigh 1 lb, the water must weigh 49 lb for a total of 50 lbs for the answer.