Please help me wish my son, Michael, and his
soon-to-be-bride, Kristine, much wedded bliss by
solving the following problem:
M I K E + K R I S ----------- B L I S S
Each distinct letter represents a different digit in the addition problem.
They will be married on March 9, 2002!
Solution to the Problem:
Two of the 16 correct answers are:
3 7 8 0 8 7 6 0 + 8 9 7 5 + 6 9 7 3 ---------- or ---------- 1 2 7 5 5 1 5 7 3 3
B must be 1 since that is the most that can be carried from adding two
single digit numbers.
E must be 0 since S + E = S.
R must be 9 because you can only carry a 1 from the
previous column and R cannot equal 0
(since E = 0).
After Richard Johnson sent in 16 solutions to the problem, I wrote a computer program in C++ to determine if there were any more answers. But the computer yielded only the same 16 solutions. James Alarie also came up with the same 16 solutions. David and Judy Dixon sent in 15 of the solutions.
B E I K L M R S - - - - - - - - 1 0 4 8 5 6 9 2 1 0 4 8 6 7 9 2 1 0 5 7 4 6 9 2 1 0 5 7 6 8 9 2 1 0 5 8 6 7 9 3 1 0 6 7 2 4 9 3 1 0 6 8 2 3 9 4 1 0 7 5 4 8 9 2 1 0 7 6 2 5 9 3 1 0 7 6 5 8 9 3 1 0 7 8 2 3 9 5 1 0 7 8 3 4 9 5 1 0 8 5 2 6 9 3 1 0 8 6 2 5 9 4 1 0 8 7 2 4 9 5 1 0 8 7 4 6 9 5
The bride, the groom, and the mother of the groom all solved this week's problem:
Correctly solved by:
| 1. Kristine Kohlroser | Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia |
| 2. Michael Pleacher | Portland, Maine |
| 3. Richard K. Johnson * | La Jolla, California |
| 4. Rick Jones * | Kennett Square, Pennsylvania |
| 5. Walt Arrison | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| 6. Wobbly Bells | Rockford, Michigan |
| 7. Tori Eads | Winchester, Virginia |
| 8. Izzy Kushner * | Closter, New Jersey |
| 9. ---------- | United Kingdom |
| 10. Carol Pleacher | Stephens City, Virginia |
| 11. Jessica Gates | Rockford, Michigan |
| 12. Angela Wolf | ---------- |
| 13. Elizabeth Emmart | Winchester, Virginia |
| 14. Nick von Keller | Winchester, Virginia |
| 15. Ben Huizenga | ---------- |
| 16. Matt McMurtry | Arlington, Virginia |
| 17. Brendan Jones | Winchester, Virginia |
| 18. Ellen Sankovich | Winchester, Virginia |
| 19. James Alarie * | University of Michigan -- Flint, Michigan |
| 20. Kelsey Dufendach | Rockford, Michigan |
| 21. George Gaither | Winchester, Virginia |
| 22. Jill Schlueter | Winchester, Virginia |
| 23. Amy Lamport | Rockford, Michigan |
| 24. Adam Peck | ---------- |
| 25. Jaime Garcia * | Winchester, Virginia |
| 26. Dwyer | ---------- |
| 27. Luay Almassalha | ---------- |
| 28. Griffin | ---------- |
| 29. David and Judy Dixon * | Bennettsville, South Carolina |