Brain Teasers
Numberrangements
In Numberrangements, you are given an arrangement of letters. The letters represent all of the whole numbers from 1 to the total number of letters used. Each letter represents a different number. Using the clues given, find which number each letter represents.
ABC
DEF
GHI
1. The sum of the top row is greater than the sum of the middle row, which is greater than the sum of the bottom row.
2. E is a prime factor of G.
3. F is greater than A.
4. The sum of B and G is equal to H.
5. I is not 1.
ABC
DEF
GHI
1. The sum of the top row is greater than the sum of the middle row, which is greater than the sum of the bottom row.
2. E is a prime factor of G.
3. F is greater than A.
4. The sum of B and G is equal to H.
5. I is not 1.
Answer
A=7, B=1, C=9D=6, E=2, F=8
G=4, H=5, I=3
From Clue 2, E must be 2, 3, 5, or 7, but it cannot be 5 or 7 because that would force G to be a greater multiple of 5 or 7, and only the numbers 1 to 9 are used. E must be 2 or 3 and G must be 4, 6, 8, or 9.
Let's try I=2. In that case, E=3 and G=6. H must be greater than 6 because of Clue 4. The most G+H+I can be is 14 because of Clue 1, since the sum of all nine numbers is only 45. So, I cannot be 2, and it therefore must be at least 3 because of Clue 5.
If I=4, then G cannot be 4, and must be 6, 8, or 9. Again, since H must be greater than G, the bottom row's sum will be too high. If I = 5, then the minimums for G and H would be 4 and 6, respectively -- a sum of 15. If I = 6, then the minimum sum again is 15.
This means I MUST be 3, which forces E=2 and G=4, 6, or 8. If G is 6 or 8, the sum of the bottom row will be too great, so G=4. The greatest that H can be is 7, which also means that B can only be 1, 2, or 3, from Clue 4. But 2 and 3 are already used, so B=1 and H=5.
This leaves A, C, D, and F, to be paired with 6, 7, 8, and 9, in some order. We know from Clue 1 that A+B+C > D+E+F, but E is already 1 greater than B, and from Clue 3, we know that F > A. This means that C must be at least 3 greater than D to make up for the top row trailing by at least 2. So, C must be 9, and D must be 6. This leaves 7 and 8 to be A and F, so of course, F=8 and A=7.
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Comments
Another difficult one (for me anyway)! Good though I like it
Thanks glad you liked it and yes it's quite difficult.
Very fun! Would love to see more like this
Thank you casteil! I will try to come up with more
castile* sorry!
LOLOL. Let's try again. c-a-s-t-i-e-l.
I came up with 8-5-4/6-1-9/2-7-3, forgetting that people don't consider 1 to be prime. Silly me.
Good try anyway EoG; I'm sure you'd have gotten it had you remembered the weirdness of 1 not being prime. It's debatably prime, really, but convention is to consider it non-prime -- mostly because it keeps the fundamental theorem of arithmetic simple to state.
I think I found alternative solution.
A=5; B=7; C=6; D=4; E=2; F=9; G=1; H=8; I=3
A=5; B=7; C=6; D=4; E=2; F=9; G=1; H=8; I=3
The only problem is, 2 is not a prime factor of 1.
I was smart enough to not even try this one. Besides that, I was never a math person. Got by in school with a passing grade and that was it for math. I did excellent in English and other subjects. Just not math! UGH!
Terrific puzzle!
My initial reaction was that there is not enough info to sort it out. It is an interesting mix of limiting possibilities by deduction, then switching to a bit of trial and error. I don't see a direct deductive solution.
This is one of my favorites.
My initial reaction was that there is not enough info to sort it out. It is an interesting mix of limiting possibilities by deduction, then switching to a bit of trial and error. I don't see a direct deductive solution.
This is one of my favorites.
Thanks, Snowdog! Very good to hear that you enjoyed it.
This was one of the best I've seen. There wasn't any extra information, but it was solvable with the limited amount you gave. It was one of those that seemed nearly impossible at first, but then so satisfying to finally solve. Bravo!
Nice one, but you totally threw me at first with the prime-factor( I thought it had to be a prime number )?
I did reach your solution eventually by ignoring the term: prime!
Thanks, 4 the fun teaser!
I did reach your solution eventually by ignoring the term: prime!
Thanks, 4 the fun teaser!
Yep, still love this puzzle. Can you deduce from the start that E=2 and G=4? If G=6, 8 or 9, then H must be at least 7, and I>=2, so G+H+I > 14.
This is an optimization problem that can be solved with scip.
The model I used can be found at
https://gist.github.com/saska-gist/
4293c3c7e4efd3808a68971ffa7d97eb
The model I used can be found at
https://gist.github.com/saska-gist/
4293c3c7e4efd3808a68971ffa7d97eb
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