Answer to June 7, 1999 Problem

Together Forever

The last problem of the week for this school year is in honor of the wedding of my daughter Sarah and her fiance Eric in July.

Transpose the letters to digits in the following addition problem. Each letter represents a different digit: 

                  B R I D E
               +  G R O O M
               ------------
                  B L I S S

Answer to Problem:

In the ten-thousands column, where B + G = B,
it follows that G = 0 (zero) and there can be nothing carried over from the previous column.
In the thousands column, where R + R = L,
it means that R = 1, 2, 3, or 4.
In the hundreds column, where I + O = I,
the letter O can not be equal to 0 (zero) since it has already been assigned to G. Therefore, something must be carried over from the tens column, and the only way that that may occur is if O = 9.

There are at least five possible answers:

letter Answer
#1 		  Answer
#2 		  Answer
#3 		  Answer
#4 		  Answer
#5
B = 6   6   2   4   8
D = 8   8   6   8   6
E = 3   4   4   6   1
G = 0   0   0   0   0
I = 1   1   8   3   2
L = 5   5   7   5   7
M = 4   3   1   1   4
O = 9   9   9   9   9
R = 2   2   3   2   3
S = 7   7   5   7   5 

       

       Answer #1:  62183
                 + 02994
                 -------
                   65177   


       Answer #2:  62184
                 + 02993
                 -------
                   65177   


       Answer #3:  23864
                 + 03991
                 -------
                   27855

   
       Answer #4:  42386
                 + 02991
                 -------
                   45377   
   
       Answer #5:  83261
                 + 03994
                 -------
                   87255

Correctly solved by:

1. Jon Pence Winchester, VA